Presbyterians need both long-term and short-term mission workers, and I call on Presbyterians to support both. We can afford both, if we renew our commitment and improve our stewardship practices. I also call on Presbyterians to improve what you do in short-term mission, and to update your understandings of what we do together through long-term service.
Last spring, Moderator Rick Ufford-Chase made an extended visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo to visit the churches and peoples of the two Presbyterian partner denominations of the PC(USA). As he traveled, he kept a running journal of his experiences and observations …
CHICAGO -- Tweak here, clarify there, make the sentences crisp and clear.
On Aug. 25, the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will announce its long-awaited recommendations. But today -- the day before the big day -- the task force spent about an hour editing and improving draft sections of the report it had made public in July. The task force went back into closed session after that for more private discussions.
That leaves about a three-hour block of time scheduled for Aug. 25 to make the recommendations, discuss them and vote on the final report.
Many of the editing changes suggested were minor, meant to sharpen a point or clear up cluttered language -- there were certainly no roaring discussions. The task force members have seen these drafts before; any major differences of views, if they existed, apparently have been worked out in private.
So they concentrated today on the fine points.
The organization of the Hanover Presbytery, now Presbytery of the James in Virginia, is a fascinating tale of pious migrants settling the Mid-Atlantic region, of emerging church leaders challenging them to grow and cooperatively come together during the turbulent years before the American Revolution broke out.
Francis Makemie, the father of American Presbyterianism, wrote A Plain and Persuasive to the Inhabitants of Virginia and Maryland (1750). He advised migrants to the New World to move south into Virginia and to build houses, churches, and school, to grow tobacco. Makemie then moved north, won a right to preach and build churches in New York and vicinity. He helped form America's first Presbytery. The body grew, disagreed over matters such as the First Great Awakening, split into Old Side -- New Side, but carried on. Pious people, but without clergy, streamed into Virginia. Some began to form "reading houses," as they were called, because Williamsburg's Anglican establishment would not allow other Protestants to build "churches." A William Morris, for example, joined with his neighbors to meet and study books they had, including Luther's Galatians commentary, John Knox's Scot's Confession, the Westminster Confession and Catechisms, and George Whitefield's sermons. The movement spread. When asked by authorities to which denomination they belonged, they identified themselves as Presbyterians, aided by New Side clergyman from New Castle, William Robinson.
"The mystery of peace is located in the nature and quality of relationship developed with those most feared."
-- John Paul Lederach
The Moral Imagination
Conversations between Christians with diverse theologies and political circumstance have never been easy. Last year, for example, the Southern Baptist Convention decided to quit the Baptist World Alliance because its theologies were "too liberal" and its criticisms of the United States too many.
A different crisis of ecumenical relations occurred last October in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). With help from its world mission headquarters in Louisville and the participation of its Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, it sent a fact-finding delegation to the Middle East. Among other local hosts in visits to six countries were the Middle East Council of Churches and the Synod of Lebanon, Syria. Leaders of the latter asked the delegation to undertake a conversation with representatives of the militant Muslim group Hezbollah. Back in Louisville, denominational executives had advised "caution" about having such a meeting, but they never forbade the delegation to undertake it. The upshot of the event was the firing of two General Assembly staff members for incompetence in permitting that meeting to take place and for failing to protect the church against negative media publicity.
As a longtime student of the ethics of forgiveness and repentance, I have had to ponder the complexity of Jesus' word to disciples that they are to "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:44). That word applies as much to conflicts inside the church as outside. As a Presbyterian, I am proud of its ecumenical and social justice traditions; and I believe that this internal denominational controversy needs to be judged against the background of twentieth century ecumenical history. Many issues in the incident transcend this one denomination.
Books reviewed:
Jean Bethke Elshtain, Just War Against Terror: The Burden of American Power in a Violent World. New York: Basic Books, 2003. 250 pages.
Edward Leroy Long Jr., Facing Terrorism: Responding As Christians. Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 2004. 117 Pages.
Oliver O'Donovan, The Just War Revisited. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Dr. James Smylie’s article in this issue, looking toward the 250th Anniversary of the organization of Hanover Presbytery in 1755, reminds me of one of the losses of the 1983 reunion of the Northern and Southern Presbyterian denominations. “They” took away our name.
DALLAS – What will the world be like in the 21st century – and what will the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) need to be like in order to reach that world?
In other words, what will the future church be like?
They marched together for civil rights in the 1960s, sang the 1980s hit “We Are the World” for famine relief in Africa and held interfaith discussions following the release of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.”
“The mystery of peace is located in the nature and quality of relationship developed with those most feared.”
— John Paul Lederach
The Moral Imagination
Conversations between Christians with diverse theologies and political circumstance have never been easy.
Dr. James Smylie’s article in this issue, looking toward the 250th Anniversary of the organization of Hanover Presbytery in 1755, reminds me of one of the losses of the 1983 reunion of the Northern and Southern Presbyterian denominations. “They” took away our name.
The Pittsburgh Theological Seminary Board of Directors on July 21 named the Rev. Dr. William J. Carl III as its next president. Carl currently serves as pastor of the 1,700-member First Church in Dallas, Texas, a position he has held since 1983.
DALLAS -- The Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) apparently will not take a position on one of the church's most divisive issues: whether gays or lesbians who aren't celibate should be ordained.
While the group's final recommendations won't be released until August, the task force says in a draft report released July 19 that it "was not asked to take a position on human sexuality or ordination and we have not attempted to do so. We did invest considerable time and energy in conversation, seeking to understand each other's points of view. We did not try to convince fellow Task Force members of our own perspectives or to decide whether the church's current position should be changed."
With so many others across the church, I am waiting with curiosity and hope for the report of the Theological Task Force..
The goal of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church is to "lead the PCUSA in spiritual..
by Jonathan Sacks
(New York: Continuum, 2002 with four reprints; ISBN 0 8264 6850 0)
If you are concerned about the world, and wonder if there is any hope for the crises and complexities of our times, and if you care about faith and relationships around the globe, this is a book for you.
The year: 2020. Jonathan Sacks, philosopher and theologian, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth (UK), paints two different pictures of how the world could be.
In one wonderful vision, the year 2020 brings the dawning of "a world of global prosperity and peace." Information technology and high-speed communication have doubled real incomes in the space of 20 years. The dangers of overpopulation have been removed. Genetically modified crops have made starvation a thing of the past. The latest in education curricula reach the most remote African villages via the Internet. Low-cost medical treatments have brought AIDS, TB and malaria under control. International agreements have put an end to the injustices and tensions, the inequity and exploitation that characterized the first years of the 21st century.
Sometimes the path is straight and clear. And sometimes the journeys of the heart twist around through thickets and wilderness and desert and what seem to be dead ends. But they keep walking. Across the church, acting from faith, ordinary people stir concrete and walk into prisons and set up cots. Sometimes people end up in places they never would have imagined, meeting people whose lives seem so different and yet with whom they discover they have so much in common.
And when they get to that unexpected place, they often say: "This is exactly where God wants me to be."
Latest statistics are 'a wake-up call' for the denomination, Kirkpatrick says
Active membership in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) declined by 43,175 in 2004, continuing a trend dating to the mid-1960s.
At the end of last year, PC(USA) membership stood at 2,362,136. The 2004 membership drop was the second largest of the past decade. The church lost 46,658 members last year.
t the time of Presbyterian reunion in 1983, the denomination had 4.2 million members.
I thought about strategies of officer training when confronted by two quite disparate comments this week. Both of them rest upon distinctly "un-Reformed assumptions" about the character and conduct of human life in society -- not only the nation, but also the church. Enshrined in the comments is the inevitable conflict between respecting the right of individual conscience and the upholding the confessions, laws, bill of rights, etc., which, as citizens and disciples, we hold in common and which bind us together. One person, asked on what she based her arguments for intelligent design as scientific principle, said that her "Creator revealed it to me in my heart." The other assertion was quoted from a Supreme Court justice's majority opinion based upon the sovereignty of the individual.
Summer is supposed to be a time when time almost stops, with long slow days spent reading books and picking berries and fishing and hiking and drinking an icy something and yakking with the relatives. You're supposed to be able to eat dinner in your bathing suit or your pajamas if you wish.
Tell that to the ministers.
For ministers, summer is a time when there's still worship every Sunday and people still get sick and die and their marriages still hit the rocks (remember those cold beverages and all the yakking with the relatives?). For a solo pastor serving a small church, taking vacation can mean finding someone else to fill in. For ministers from bigger churches, it can mean shouldering more of the load, taking on more stress, so someone else can fit in a week or two away.
Within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and in other denominations, some are starting to pay attention to the realities of ministers' working lives -- to the sources both of joy and of stress. There has been a lot of conversation about what kinds of people are going into ministry and what happens to them when they do -- if they are well-enough prepared, if they are the right kinds of people for the congregations that need pastors, if they like the work and the pay well enough to stick around.
When the Rev. Mark D. Roberts started his blog, he envisioned a small outreach to his community and parishioners at Irvine Presbyterian Church in Irvine, Calif.
A little more than a year later, the blog reaches far beyond that, drawing 1,500 visitors daily -- 2,000 on weekends.
"I have readers literally all over the world," says Roberts, pastor to a 750- member congregation. His review of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" has drawn more than 25,000 visitors since the film's release, and it continues to draw readers by the hundreds.
It is but one small example of the growing reach of Christian bloggers going online to evangelize, mobilize and occasionally demonize. They marvel at the way blogs give them an opportunity to engage with a lively and diverse audience they could never attract on their own.
The term "blog" is short for "Web log" and refers to the online journals that have given a public voice to anyone with an Internet connection. Evangelicals, for instance, used blogs to get voters to the polls in November, becoming a big part of President George W. Bush's victory.
by Drew Hansen. New York: Ecco, 2003. ISBN 0060084774. $13.95. 293 pp.
It has been 37 years since an assassin's bullet tragically ended the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. A stone marker at the base of that balcony on the grounds of what is now the National Civil Rights Museum has an eerie quotation from the book of Genesis, "Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now therefore, and let us slay him ... and we shall see what will become of his dreams."
Dr. King's "dream" led to monumental changes in American culture and we all share a debt of gratitude for his selfless prophecy and vigilance. But if he were alive today, I am certain Dr. King would remind us that his "dream" has not been fully realized. In our country today, the issues of "residential segregation, inequalities in education and poverty among Americans of all races" threaten the very fabric of our democracy.
By Ronald C. White Jr. (New York: Random House, 2005. Pp. xxiii, 448. $26.95)
Ronald C. White's new book is a thorough and engaging study of the rhetoric of Abraham Lincoln's major speeches and public letters. The focus on language is clear throughout: White argues that Lincoln carefully crafted his words to address specific situations and persuade his immediate audiences. Yet The Eloquent President is not a literary study per se; it avoids technical, theoretically informed analysis in favor of straightforward readings discussed against the background of the day-to-day life and social encounters of the Civil War President. This is a well-written book without a heavy-handed message or strong thesis. It reads easily and yet makes serious points.
by Donald W. Shriver Jr. (New York, Oxford University Press, 2005, 285 pages)
A dishonest patriot believes that his or her country can do no wrong and calls anyone who disagrees a traitor.
A dishonest patriot benefits from prejudicial laws and advocates special interests above public interest.
An honest patriot is acutely aware of both the strengths and weakness of his or her country. He or she works hard to celebrate the good while correcting the bad so that a spirit of humility and gratitude will bless the future.
This book, by the well-respected ethicist, Donald W. Shriver Jr., is a sustained effort to develop in responsible detail a portrait of an honest patriot. It is a sequel to Shriver's 1995 work, An Ethic for Enemies-Forgiveness in Politics. The author is president emeritus of Union Theological Seminary in New York City.
"Dark Water" is one of those creepy/tingly films that you don't think you want to see, then pulls you into its dreary, dank interior until you go home not wanting to turn on a water faucet.
Jennifer Connelly plays Dahlia, a just-separated Mom in the midst of trying to work with mediators about the visitation arrangements. It's wearying business. Each parent is trying to undermine the other, and both firmly believe they're operating in the best interests of the child, but they're too emotionally involved to separate that from their own best interests. The Dad, Kyle (Dougray Scott) is not portrayed as an uncaring monster, but is just frustrated enough to be believable, especially as he loses his temper over the way she remembers a shared past. He thinks she's re-writing history. She thinks that he could not possibly be as good a parent as she is. And so they stalk off to their respective desultory apartments.
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