Aid Groups urge help for refugees caught in web of terrorism rules

c. 2006 Religion News Service

Advocacy groups are pressuring Congress to take broader action to alleviate the plight of refugees who have been caught in a tangle of new regulations designed to keep terrorists from entering the United States.

Refugee Council USA, which includes numerous faith-based organizations, estimates that as many as 20,000 refugees worldwide are being denied asylum in the United States because their activities fall within broad new U.S. definitions of helping terrorist organizations. Many of the refugees, from countries like Myanmar, Colombia, Liberia, and Cuba, are living in refugee camps in other countries.

Controversial book not endorsed by PC(USA)

The Presbyterian Publishing Corp. -- responding to criticisms of a new book it has published that asserts American military and political leaders were involved with planning the 9/11 attacks -- issued a news release Aug. 11 stating that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) does not endorse the claims the book makes.

The controversial book -- Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11: A Call to Reflection and Action -- was written by David Ray Griffin, a retired professor of philosophy and theology at Claremont School of Theology in California.

Since its publication by Westminster John Knox Press earlier this summer, Griffin's book has riled up Presbyterians who have argued that Westminster shouldn't have published the book and that it is bringing more trouble down on an already divided, declining denomination.

Accompaniers in Colombia: Live and worship side-by-side

© 2006. Used by permission.

BARRANQUILLA, Colombia--While accompaniment of Latin Americans by North Americans is generally understood to protect bodies threatened by illegal armed groups and berserk military strategies, people here say it is equally good for the soul.

"We probably won't know what the changes are within ourselves until we look back, but it is impossible to come here and not be changed," says 27-year-old Traci Smith of Batavia, Ill., and a spring graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, who is ending six weeks of accompaniment of threatened church human rights workers this week.

She's sitting in the rain-soaked courtyard of the Presbyterian secondary school here, where a spectacular thunderstorm has abruptly soiled an outdoor dance, one event amidst the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia (PCC). The storm turned the city's concrete streets into gullies and cut the electricity in this middle-class neighborhood, where the school has operated for more than 100 years.

Presbyterians and peacemaking: Levels of understanding, action vary

Sometimes it's hard to look at the news. What's happening in the world, in places like Lebanon and Israel and Iraq and the Sudan, is often so painful.

And Presbyterians who are serious about wanting peace in the world sometimes don't know what to do.

But as complicated as world politics can be, many Presbyterians do feel an obligation, sometimes a calling, to work for peace and for a more loving and just world. In times of turmoil, what does that look like? What can "ordinary" Presbyterians and congregations do to be peacemakers?

The answer, to some extent, depends on the person. Some are comfortable with quieter involvement, with prayer and reading and discussion, trying to understand. Others feel pulled to action and advocacy. For some Presbyterians, the pain of the world is so strong that it demands that they do something to try to make a difference.

Sayings of Muhammad come under scrutiny

c. 2006 Religion News Service

Jihaad Abdul-Majid has often found inspiration in the words and deeds of Islam's prophet Muhammad, from his acts of compassion and charity to his counsel that followers treat women fairly and help the poor.

At the same time, other sayings that implied female inferiority and intolerance toward other religions troubled the 23-year-old student at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.

"These issues have pushed me to seek more knowledge," said Abdul-Majid, who recently enrolled in an online course about the hadith, the collected stories of what Muhammad and his closest companions said and did.

Muslims hold the hadith second only to the Quran as a source of Shariah law and personal guidance. For centuries, Muslims have hotly debated the hadith, often coming to vastly different conclusions about what lessons to draw from Muhammad's life.

Valentine presents plan to reconfigure senior staff

LOUISVILLE -- Linda Valentine, the new executive director of the General Assembly Council, is working to assemble her new administrative team -- and to reconfigure the pared-down national offices of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

A plan that will be presented to the council at the end of September for its approval calls for the top leadership to be structured with three deputy executive directors (an earlier version of the plan had called for just two). They would be:

·         A Deputy Executive Director for Mission.

·         A Deputy Executive Director for Shared Services (responsible for information technology, finance, human resources and distribution).

·         And a Deputy Executive Director for Communication and Development (responsible for development, communication, mission education and promotion).

There also would be an executive administrator, responsible for a range of activities, including General Assembly coordination, relations with General Assembly agencies and with the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, the Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns and the Advocacy Committee for Women's Concerns. 

CTS launches online journal

"Theology After Disaster" is the topic of the inaugural issue of @ this point, an online journal launched last May by the faculty of Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga.

Each issue of @ this point focuses on a particular topic from the perspective of a variety of theological disciplines and includes a lead article, response articles, and teaching resources to guide further discussion. 

Bittersweet borders: Sahiouny family ties span separation, Lebanese catastrophe

LOUISVILLE -- The droning voice of an anonymous news anchor is background noise as 75-year-old Salim Sahiouny talks into a sputtering telephone, with only a tenuous connection to a U.S. line.

 "Today is the worst day we have passed through until now," he says, speaking from his house in western Beirut, his voice tired and low. "The shelling has been extended to places that were not hit before."

Shells from more than 50 Israeli air raids pummeled Lebanon Thursday night and the night before. Five major bridges linking the north to the capital were blown to smithereens. Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets in Beirut's southern suburbs, asking the population to leave, he says, citing the newscast in the background, his voice ricocheting with shock.

The president of the Supreme Council of the Evangelical Church in Syria and Lebanon, Sahiouny, a Presbyterian pastor, isn't leaving the house or the city, no matter what they say. "To me, it is a matter of principle. I feel," he says, pausing to sigh, "that a pastor stays with the congregation."

Hymns as fresh as daily bread

It is good news that the 217th General Assembly approved the production of a new denominational hymnbook by Presbyterian Publishing. Although The Presbyterian Hymnal has been an excellent tool for worship and praise it is sixteen years old and it is time for its retirement. The publication of new hymns and updated arrangements of old favorites will be a welcome complement to the many worship resources already available. The addition of an e-mail version, one that presumably will permit the quick publication of new hymns on a periodic basis, is especially needed. Since many churches now use computers and projectors to display hymns in church, digital versions will be very useful on a weekly basis. 

Although most of us enjoy singing well-known hymns that bring back fond memories and awaken the beginnings of faith, we also need composers and poets who will commit themselves to the systematic writing of hymns that are contemporary, as fresh from the oven as daily bread. Most of our hymns refer to outdated concepts and events that young people today find totally foreign to their own experiences. Seldom do we sing spiritual songs that contain references to recent events or current scientific discoveries, much less images of things we take for granted, like cell phones, DVDs, digital cameras, or explorations of outer space.

The Universe Is God’s

The following hymn accompanies an article by Earl S. Johnson Jr in the August 28, 2006 issue of the Outlook.  (link to Hymns as fresh as daily bread)

Tune: Nun danket alle Gott
6.7.6.7. 6.6.6.6 .
Text: Earl S. Johnson Jr.

The universe is God's, Who framed the whole Creation,

All praises be to God, Who made the constellations.

The distant space reveals, An outline and intent,

Faint blueprint of a plan, Its wonder and extent.

$1.5 million endowment honors Curries

A $1.5 million endowment to establish a faculty chair in Bible will be named in honor of Thomas W. Currie III, dean of Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education at Charlotte, and the four generations of his family who have served as ministers of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church, it was announced recently.

PDA, presbytery hurricane response: Serving now, looking to future

As the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches -- a day that is seared in the nation's memory, and has reconfigured the lives of people from an entire region -- faith-based groups have learned some important lessons.

They understand that the recovery in the Gulf region will take years -- and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is committed to be there.

They have learned the importance of partnership -- of working cooperatively with other faith-based groups and denominations, with government and community groups. They have learned that some groups are better at certain tasks than others -- the PC(USA), for example, is concentrating on the long-term response, on recovery and rebuilding, rather than being first on the scene with food and water.

Katrina drove home that planning and preparation are key, both at the national level and locally -- for this disaster and the next ones to come. One year after Katrina, as a new hurricane season has arrived, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance hopes to teach presbyteries and congregations the importance of having a plan in place for the next hurricane, flood, tornado, or fire.

And Katrina has made it clear that, in tough times, church folk show up. They will drive across the country to sleep in tents or on floors, taking time off from work, bringing tools and Bibles, their pockets stuffed with donations and gift cards for Lowe's or Home Depot. They are retirees and college students. They show up to fix someone's home without caring what race or religion or economic group that person comes from.

Barden is new admissions director at Austin Seminary

Jack Barden joined Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary on September 1 as director of admissions. Barden previously served as pastor of First Church of Fulton, Mo.

Barden received a BA in religion from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn.; an M.div. from Austin Seminary; and a D.min. in preaching from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago.

People of faith build hope, homes on Gulf Coast

Tracking the itineraries of volunteers who have gone to the Gulf Coast is like tracking the progress of the recovery effort itself -- from the earliest days of providing for basic survival to more recent efforts to get people back into their homes.

"One of the greatest blessings we could receive is people from all over the country -- Presbyterians from all over the country -- sending work crews and staying in our building," said Cliff Nunn, pastor of First Church in New Orleans.

Volunteers cleaned the sanctuary, put up sheet rock, painted, drained the elevator shaft, and the basement. And when that was done, they started working on the neighborhood.

"We have collaborative relationships with the neighborhood association that we never had before," Nunn said. "We have an Episcopal church down the street that we barely knew existed, that we now have a very good relationship with. ... My whole ministry has been changed," as work groups venture out to rebuild houses of people living all around the church.