Autumn of discontent: Churches, presbyteries debate property, ordination options

Over and over again, people say this: it will all get sorted out in the courts.

But in the meanwhile, people are laying the foundations now for what's to come -- and this hasn't exactly been a time of peace and happiness in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Reports are popping up all over the country of presbyteries and sessions marking their positions, getting ready, taking first steps.

Some congregations that want to leave the denomination -- most prominently, Kirk of the Hills in Tulsa -- are testing the question of whether churches can leave and take their property with them.

The PC(USA)'s stated clerk, Clifton Kirkpatrick, has sent a letter to presbytery stated clerks raising concerns about some of what he sees happening -- and warning that some proposals being considered could violate either the denomination's constitution or authoritative interpretations of the constitution that the General Assembly has approved.

Peggy Hedden, chairman of the Presbyterian Lay Committee, has responded by accusing the denomination's leadership of being in a "take-no-prisoners attitude" and of trying to threaten and intimidate those who disagree with recent General Assembly actions.

That's not all.

Finding a way together: Scottish pastors visit N.C. churches

© 2006. Used by permission.

CHARLOTTE -- More than 140 Scots are part of a study week focusing on dilemmas facing congregations in both the Church of Scotland and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and celebrating the ties that bind the two denominations as a mother-church and her now-grown offspring.

Under way now in Charlotte, N.C., the week-long event is being financed and hosted by the city's four largest Presbyterian congregations, Myers Park, Covenant, First, and Sardis churches. The goal is to exchange both models for ministry and address common problems such as membership loss.

"Its really individual churches (doing this), rather than the church nationally," said Robin McAlpine, a pastor and a member of a commission within the Church of Scotland that is studying the future. " ... This is more of an informal arrangement to take ideas back into local congregations."

“A New Way in a New Day” as GAC, regional leaders talk

LOUISVILLE -- With the challenge to "invest in the church we have not yet become," leaders of presbyteries and synods are meeting with members of the General Assembly Council to think of ways to bring new life and vitality to a struggling denomination.

In June, the 217^th General Assembly voted that, once a year, the General Assembly Council (representing the national church) and leaders of presbyteries and synods (representing the church at a regional level) should meet for prayer and discussion.

The planners of this first convocation, being held Sept. 26 and 27 in Kentucky, are using the slogan "A New Way for a New Day" -- and in 24 hours of conversation they're searching for a way forward from the difficulties so apparent in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Legendary Presbyterian parliamentarian Marianne Wolfe dies

LOUISVILLE * Marianne Wolfe, a Pittsburgh elder who was the preeminent parliamentarian in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), died Oct. 10 at her home in Cranberry Township, PA. She was 78.

Wolfe, a Professional Registered Parliamentarian from 1970 until her death, literally wrote the book on Presbyterian parliamentary law. Her published works included a teaching curriculum, Members Together (1976); Parliamentary Law for the Presbyterian Church (1983); The Elder (1991); and the chapter on polity in 1992's Encyclopedia of the Reformed Faith.

In 2003, the PC(USA)'s Association of Stated Clerks named her the first winner of the C. Fred Jenkins Award for her contributions to the polity and parliamentary law of the denomination.

New Jersey pastor donates kidney to parishioner

Richard L. "Rick" Oppelt has been pastor of Oak Tree Church in Edison, N.J., for more than 12 years, so he and his parishioners share a depth of knowledge and caring for each other.

However, when Oppelt heard that church member Carol Trapp, a type one diabetic for most of her life, needed a kidney transplant, his knowledge and caring faced a real test.

He already knew they shared the same blood type: O positive. While that is a good blood type for blood donations, it is not "universal" for organ recipients, Oppelt said. He decided to go through the testing to see if he was an organ donor match while others--family, donor banks--were tested and checked as well. Members of Mrs. Trapp's family did not match, but Rick Oppelt did.

While not simple, the decision seemed clear cut, he said. Research assured him that persons could live normally with one kidney. If a kidney donor in subsequent years needs a kidney, he or she is placed at the top of transplant waiting lists, he found. And Mrs. Trapp, with a less than 15 percent kidney function, faced an average five-year wait in New Jersey for a donor kidney, during which time she would be on dialysis.

Sacramento Presbytery acts on property, scruples, per-capita giving issues

Sacramento Presbytery, in a vote that is catching the attention of folks around the country, has passed a resolution that apparently would allow congregations that wanted to leave the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to do so with their property.

It also voted not to grant any exceptions to the PC(USA)'s ordination standards, not to recognize any "scruples" involving individual conscience, and not to allow the presbytery to make up the difference if congregations withhold their per capita payments to protest policies of the national church.

The presbytery met for more than four hours on Sept. 9 in a specially-called meeting requested by three pastors and three elders, who presented four resolutions for the presbytery to consider. All four passed, including one that would allow congregations that want to leave the denomination to do so without forfeiting their property. That resolution -- approved by a 73-65 margin -- states that the presbytery "shall take no action to enforce any general trust interest" involving property of congregations within the presbytery.

What exactly this will mean in practice remains to be seen.

Pastors need ministry, support, too; ways to help

Being a pastor isn't easy.

National studies show that while ministers often feel a sense of satisfaction from their work, they also feel the pressure of having too much to do, too little money, ambiguous expectations placed on them, and conflicted relationships in their congregations.

So some presbyteries, conscious of the difficulties of pastoral work, are trying different models of both providing pastoral support and of challenging ministers to do the best and most ambitious work possible.

In Pittsburgh Presbytery, Jim Mead's title is "pastor to presbytery" -- but that should not be interpreted as primarily a therapeutic or counseling role, Mead said in an interview. Instead, his emphasis is intentionally missional: encouraging pastors to be bold in mission, to take risks, to follow where God is calling them to go.

"The pastor to the presbytery's number one job is walking with pastors while they try to help their congregations walk with God in what God is doing," Mead said, or "asking pastors to do difficult things and to pay the price that comes with change."

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10 Minutes With … Jay Hein

c. 2006 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON -- On Aug. 21, Jay Hein became the third director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives. In his new role, the former think-tank president intends to continue toward President Bush's goal of giving religious groups equal access to federal funding for social services.

Despite the initiative's tendency to be controversial because of its location at the intersection of church and state, Hein is convinced of its purpose and hopes to see it have greater influence on the local and state level.

Hein stepped down as elder of his nondenominational church in an Indianapolis suburb, but he expects to eventually return to the area and resume his work with Sagamore Institute for Policy Research. RNS spoke with Hein, 41, about his plans at the White House.

Gardner Taylor inspires new generation of preachers

c. 2006 Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

RALEIGH, N.C. -- He's 88 years old and technically retired. But the Rev. Gardner C. Taylor still shows the preaching skills that have placed him on virtually every list of America's greatest contemporary preachers.

As a guest preacher in pulpits across the nation, Taylor continues to charm -- and enlighten -- worshippers as he has for more than six decades. But he says preaching is always a tenuous endeavor.

"It is quickly lost," he recently told the PBS show "Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly." "It's uttered, heard, and sometimes lost. But it is the mystery of preaching that it survives, and that it has survived so much of our bad preaching."

By most accounts, little bad preaching can be traced to Taylor, who moved here after retirement.

Global scope, homeland churches: PC(USA) faces immigrant issues

ATLANTA  -- What does it mean for an established church, in which tradition is revered, to see the world changing all around it?

What can a mostly-white church do to be truly welcoming to those of other cultures and other colors -- to share power and faith with those who speak many languages and have their own ways of doing things?

Those are hard questions for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), a denomination that is more than 92 percent white and has been losing both numbers and influence for a long time. But some Presbyterians are exploring exactly those questions -- are excited about what could be and at the same time somewhat apprehensive about the challenges.

"There are all kinds of people from all over the world right here in small-town America, and we don't know how to deal with that," said Tracie Mayes Stewart, director of Christian education at First Church in Statesville, N.C.

Baylor Religion Survey explores Americans’ faith, practices

Used by permission

Conventional wisdom, backed by some research, has suggested that the United States is becoming a more secularized nation - one where the significance of religion is declining. But results released Sept. 11 from the Baylor University Religion Survey paint a different picture.

In 2004, the General Social Survey reported that 14.3 percent of the population had no religion, but by using a more detailed measure in the Baylor survey, researchers determined that only 10.8 percent of the population or approximately 10 million Americans are unaffiliated.

"We believe, and are going to argue, that it [the statistics] has more to do with how you ask about the religious connection than what it says about the commitment of the average American to their faith," said Kevin Dougherty, assistant professor of sociology and one of the Baylor Survey researchers.