Christianity, Islam Battle for Souls of Iranians

Fereshteh Dibaj and her husband Reza Montazemi, a Christian couple in Iran, were released from an Iranian jail last October after spending 10 days in detention.

The charges against them are still unclear, but it is likely to do with their religious affiliation. They belong to Iran's little-known Christian population, a minority that constitutes less than one percent of the country's 70 million inhabitants.

According to Amnesty, Reza's mother, who owns the house in which they live, was reportedly ordered to sign a document two days before the couple was arrested, promising that no more Christian meetings for worship, prayer or Bible study would be held there.

It should come as no surprise that Tehran's religious authorities are concerned about the Christian community.

MySpace, Facebook: Churches learning new ways of communicating with youth

Here's a whiff of reality.

Half of all the communications that Rhett Smith receives on his cell phone are text messages.

Smith -- who's in charge of the college ministry at Bel Air Church in the Los Angeles area -- no longer posts much information on his church's Web site, because he knows that many young adults won't bother to look there.

Instead, Smith relies heavily on MySpace.com and other social networking sites to communicate with students -- they're already there, so he's created his own MySpace page. But increasingly he's seen folks migrating from MySpace to Facebook.com -- "Facebook has really exploded," Smith said -- so now he's there too. He understands: social networking, at whatever the hot place of the month, is the way to get out the word.

PC(USA) delegation shares thoughts, concerns from the Middle East

LOUISVILLE -- Sharing joys, concerns, hopes, and prayers was the focus of a letter sent January 19 by the members of a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) delegation in the Middle East at that time. General Assembly Council (GAC) Chair Allison Seed, General Assembly Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick and GAC Executive Director Linda Bryant Valentine were visiting Lebanon, Israel, and Palestinian territories in an effort to show their continued support for the region's Christians and to get a first-hand look at the area's dynamics.

Presbyterian pastors establish Institute for Civility in Government

I (Tomas Spath) preached a sermon not too long ago in which I admitted I cannot speak with certain members of my family. When I open my mouth, I get either a loud verbal "NO!!!" or the silent treatment.

To my surprise, as the congregation left that Sunday morning approximately 85% of the congregants admitted that they too had a similar problem with their siblings or parents.

I shared this experience with my retired pastor father who was preaching at an interim post and he decided to do the same. He admitted from the pulpit that he was having difficulty maintaining a conversation with certain members of his family. To his surprise, about 85% of the congregants in his church also admitted the same!

New Wineskins vote to ask EPC for transitional presbytery for churches leaving PC(USA)

ORLANDO -- The New Wineskins Association of Churches https://www.newwineconvo.com/ has voted unanimously to ask the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) https://www.epc.org/ to create a new, non-geographic presbytery to which congregations that want to leave the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) could be dismissed.

The EPC's General Assembly is expected to vote in June to create the presbytery.

Leaving on their minds: New Wineskins to vote Feb. 9

ORLANDO -- Saying the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is close to "utter ruin" and possibly extinction, the New Wineskins Association of Churches https://www.newwineconvo.com/ on February 8 laid the groundwork for a group of congregations to leave the denomination together, probably to join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC). https://www.epc.org

A vote on whether to leave likely will be taken the evening of Feb. 9.

“Party today. Church tomorrow. Oh yeah!”

A church moving into a golf club and conference center?!

That was my reaction when the invitation came to attend the dedication of the new facility of the First Presbyterian Church, Honolulu, Hawaii. It probably is no surprise to anyone that I jumped at the chance to go and check out how the Presbyterians were faring in the fiftieth state. What I found were vibrant, growing churches engaged in creative ministry and witness.

One in Christ … that the World May Believe

I have just returned from the Middle East. While there, we were thrilled to visit with Reformed Christians in Lebanon--the place of the first Presbyterian Church international mission endeavor--and to see the vitality and strength of the ministry there. We celebrated churches alive in worship, children learning the Christian faith, seminarians being trained for ministry, and a church reaching out to all those who suffer in a war-torn country.

Lethal Weapons

[Ramallah] A loud siren wails in the main street of Ramallah as the ambulance races to the nearby hospital. The casualty inside the vehicle is a teenage Palestinian who received two bullets to his chest during clashes among rival armed militia.

In a separate incident, a number of disgruntled armed young men showered the Daraghmeh store with scores of bullets in Ramallah's commercial district. The fire engulfed the store's interior, resulting in losses totaling $450,000.

At the entrance of a well-established restaurant in the city, a big sign reads "No hand guns allowed on the premises."

As ammunition is readily available through black market middlemen, the sounds of bullets are heard frequently across the city. In a Pavlovian response, the citizens of Ramallah run into hiding as soon as the bullets start flying, their daily life controlled by the will of the gunmen.

Advisers resign, rabbis cancel visit over Carter’s book

(RNS) Fourteen members of an advisory group to the Atlanta-based Carter Center have resigned in protest over former President Jimmy Carter's recent book and statements on the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate.

Jamestown — America’s first Puritans

Editor's note: This year marks the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown in Virginia. 

Off the coast of North Carolina lies Roanoke Island, whose Northern tip is the site of England's failed colony in the 1580's. Other than the sound of surf breaking against the shore, all is silence. You feel a palpable sense of loss.

Four hundred years ago, three ships -- the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery -- launched out of the Thames River from London toward the English Channel. The 105 passengers were men and boys; the women would come in later voyages. Five months later, on May 14, 1607, they founded Jamestown, England's first permanent colony. The site was a peninsula 40 miles up the James River in what is now Virginia.

Is Christianity synonymous with America’s public faith?

Two dominant faiths stand side-by-side in our nation. Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson originated a public faith our presidents salute in their speeches, imploring God's blessing on the U.S. Jefferson called this national Deity the "Creator" and "Nature's God" in the Declaration of Independence. Orthodox Christianity ranks as the second popular faith alive nationally. God revealed Himself in Christ Jesus. Jefferson refused to use Christian imagery or language in the Declaration of Independence. He and the majority of Founding Fathers kept separate these two faiths.