Synod courts hand down mixed messages on ordination standards

LOUISVILLE -- A church court has concluded that Pittsburgh Presbytery cannot "elevate" language from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Constitution to make compliance with ordination standards "essential" and that it must apply the guidelines to ministerial candidates on an individual basis.

The May 16 ruling by the Permanent Judicial Commission (PJC) of the Synod of the Trinity followed a two-day hearing in Camp Hill, Pa., regarding a resolution that Pittsburgh Presbytery adopted on Oct. 12, 2006.

The presbytery's resolution called compliance with the PC(USA)'s ordination standards from the Book of Order, which require chastity in singleness or fidelity in heterosexual marriage, an "essential of Reformed polity." It stated that no exceptions would be permitted within the jurisdiction of Pittsburgh Presbytery.

This ruling runs contrary to one handed down March 20 by the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of Alaska-Northwest. 

Korean Presbyterians shave their heads to protest school law

SEOUL, South Korea -- At least 365 ministers, elders and missionaries of the Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK) have shaved off their hair to protest a controversial revision to South Korea's law regulating private schools.

Joan S. Gray, moderator of the 217th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), learned of the ongoing outcry surrounding the reform bill during a recent visit here. The PCK and other private school owners have staged campaigns to stop the measure while threatening to close down schools.

The revised law requires private schools from elementary to university level to fill 25 percent of their boards of directors with outsiders who are unrelated to the institutions.

The aim, supporters say, is to produce more transparency in management and reduce corruption among those who control the schools.

LCWE hosts Church leaders to plan 2010 meeting in Capetown

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY -- More than 360 Christian leaders from 60+ countries participated in the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization (LCWE) Bi-Annual International Leadership Meeting, a week-long planning session that ended here June 22. The meeting was an opportunity for leaders to pray, plan, and work together toward Lausanne III: Cape Town 2010, the Third International Congress on World Evangelization to be held October 16-25, 2010.

The Budapest meeting of global Lausanne leadership discussed the potential barriers and opportunities of global evangelization, and how the Church can share the hope of the Gospel to every nation on earth. The Rev. S. Douglas (Doug) Birdsall, LCWE Executive Chair, urged the leaders to work together for the cause of Christ, "Because there is so much at stake. The task is bigger and the urgency more obvious."

MRTI facing ‘legitimate issues’ after 2006 GA divestment action

©2007. Used by permission.

LOUISVILLE -- Conversations are under way with three of the five multinational companies targeted by the denomination's Mission Responsibility Through Investment committee -- three years after a decision by the 216th General Assembly to use shareholder pressure to reform corporate behavior that supports the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"Basically, the Assembly acknowledged there are legitimate issues here," said Bill Somplatsky-Jarman, who staffs MRTI's work, referring to actions taken by the 2006 Assembly that modified language in the original action, calling for investment in "peaceful pursuits" and specifically expanded its mandate to study corporate involvement in Gaza, historically Palestinian East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Israel.

The original language called for a process of phased, selective divestment of companies who profit from Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

Simple Way Community Center destroyed by fire

The Simple Way, an inner city Philadelphia community center, was destroyed by fire early in the morning of June 20. The seven-alarm fire consumed an abandoned warehouse in the Kensington neighborhood, the Simple Way Community Center on Potter Street, as well as at least eight nearby homes. More than 100 people were evacuated.

There were no casualties; all affected residents reached safety.

Eight families are now homeless, many having lost their automobiles as well.  Shane Claiborne, author of The Irresistible Revolution:  Living as an Ordinary Radical, a resident and leader of the community center, lost all his possessions to the fire. 

For further information, as well as information for making donations, go to www.thesimpleway.org.
 
 

Browns recall Ruth, Bell family

National and international tributes to Ruth Bell Graham since her death June 14 include the remembrances of a retired Presbyterian couple in Stone Mountain, Ga., G. Thompson "Tommy" Brown and his wife, Mardia Hooper Brown. "We knew and loved her. She was always cheerful," he says.

African church leader ‘outraged’ at Zimbabwe rights abuses

Cologne, Germany, 13 June (ENI)--The leader of a major grouping of African churches has expressed outrage at human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, and has urged the world to help resolve the political crisis in the southern African country.

'What is happening in Zimbabwe is an embarrassment even to us as Africans,' said the Rev. Mvume Dandala, general secretary of the Nairobi-based All Africa Conference of Churches, during a recent Protestant convention called the Kirchentag, held in Cologne in western Germany.

Future of Christianity under threat in Iraq, church leader warns

Rome, 14 June (ENI)--A Christian leader from Iraq has warned that Christianity may disappear from his country if no action is taken to stem the hardships faced by this minority community in the predominantly Muslim country.

'Members of all religions - including both Islam and Christianity - are suffering now in my country but Christians as a minority are in greater danger of seeing their historic churches disappear,' said Archbishop Jules Mikhael Al-Jamil, the Rome representative of the Syrian Catholic Church.

Christian Reformed Church agrees to women clergy

© Ecumenical News International

New York -- The Christian Reformed Church, one of the North American branches of the Protestant Reformed tradition, has voted to allow the ordination of women after almost four decades of discussion on the issue.

'I've worked and prayed for this moment for years,' said the Rev. George

Vander Weit, an advocate of women's ordination in the denomination. 'I think [this proposal] gives us space.'

The June 12 decision was made at the denomination's annual synod meeting in Grand Rapids, Mich. A day later, the synod voted to allow women as delegates to the denomination's synod.

Jessica Tate of Union-PSCE wins National Preaching Award

RICHMOND -- Union Theological Seminary-PSCE student, Jessica Tate, will receive the 2007 David H.C. Read Preacher/Scholar Award, it was announced today. The..

First ordained woman begins as Church of Scotland moderator

Edinburgh, 21 May (ENI)--Ecclesiastical history has been made in the Scottish capital with the Church of Scotland welcoming leaders of the Free Church of Scotland to its 2007 General Assembly that was officially opened by Prince Andrew, a son of British Queen Elizabeth II.

'I think this is a tremendous thing,' said the new moderator of the Church of Scotland, the Rev. Sheilagh Kesting, who made church unity the theme of her sermon at St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh. 'I don't think that any of us guessed that we would be able to do such a thing but we have been meeting for a couple of years and it became clear that there were areas where we could say we have common ground.'

Is liberalism an endangered species? Lectures seek answers, honor Ottati

RICHMOND -- Is there a future for ministry in the liberal church? That question was on the mind of about a hundred Presbyterians who gathered on May 18 at Union Theological Seminary-Presbyterian School of Christian Education to bid farewell to Douglas Ottati, one of its professors of theology. After 30 years at the school, he is leaving to accept appointment to the faculty of Davidson College in North Carolina. In his honor, the seminary quickly organized a symposium to discuss a topic closely identified with Ottati's teaching.

Liberal theology appears to be on the wane, as acknowledged in the title of Ottati's most recent book, Theology for Liberal Christians and Other Endangered Species.

Lectures on the future of liberal theology were presented by three individuals followed by brief responses by six others.

World church leader urges repentance for violence of Christianity

Cologne, Germany, 7 June (ENI)--Christians need to acknowledge the violence they used in the past in oppressing other faiths, the head of the World Council of Churches has said at Germany's biggest Protestant gathering.

'If we do not own up to this history, turn around and repent, this part of our past will always haunt the relationships among us and with people of other faiths,' WCC general secretary, the Rev. Samuel Kobia, said on 7 June. He was speaking at the Kirchentag, a Protestant church convention taking place in Cologne from 6 to 10 June.

Kobia, a Methodist from Kenya, was giving a keynote lecture on 'Religions living together'.

Memorial Park Church Votes to Request Dismissal from the Presbyterian Church (USA)

Led by the Holy Spirit and guided by a unanimous vote of its ruling elders and deacons, the members of Memorial Park Church of McCandless have voted to ask Pittsburgh Presbytery to dismiss it from the Presbyterian Church (USA) to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.  On Sunday, June 3 at 10 a.m. with over 1,200 people in attendance during the worship service and congregational meeting, 1051 members voted with 951 voting in favor (91.1%); 93 voting not in favor (8.9%); 4 abstained and 3 ballots were disallowed by the members of Pittsburgh Presbytery overseeing the voting process.  With a better than 91% vote the congregation of Memorial Park Presbyterian Church has formally requested the dismissal.