Albany reflection group: Spirited transformation

The theological reflection group, in Albany presbytery in upstate New York, has been meeting for several years now -- formed in part out of a sense of dissatisfaction among both conservatives and liberals about the history of conflict and confrontation in the presbytery and more broadly in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

It's called, on paper, the Albany Invitation, but is basically known as the "Bialy group". "We're named for a bagel," said Bill Hoffmann, who's pastor of the East and West Hebron churches and is moderator of Albany presbytery. That's because Barbara Wheeler, the president of Auburn Theological Seminary in New York and a member of the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the PC(USA), brings bagels from Bialy's in the city for each meeting.

Common Ground: Task Force, small groups seeking way forward for PC(USA)

The Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is set to make its final report in September, and to some folks, that report will tell all -- whatever the task force recommends is what they will weigh as its contribution.

But others in the church are taking a different path. They want to know what the task force will say, of course, but they're also involved in their own communities in trying to model the kind of conversation across theological lines that the task force represents. For some of those people, that will be part of the task force's legacy too -- the example it has set for the broader church of bringing together Presbyterians who might vote against each other on some of the most contentious issues, but who through listening and prayer and hard work have come to understand and respect one another.

PC(USA) churches challenged to meet educational needs, choose curricula

In a world of suicide bombings, text messaging and living wills, Christian education is complicated stuff.

The kindergarteners and some of the adults need to learn the basics. In many Presbyterian congregations, new member classes are full of former Baptists and Catholics and Methodists and people who haven't gone to any church in many, many years.

Many congregations want a Sunday school curriculum that's straightforward and easy to use. They have to choose between material produced by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and what's available from other sources -- on the Internet and in catalogs and Christian bookstores. Some have trained Christian educators; others rely on volunteers and a gut instinct for what will work.

New Wineskins meeting June 15-18 faces questions, plans for future of PC(USA) in existing “disunity”

It's almost like standing in a nursery looking at a plant that's getting ready to bud. You have some idea what it might look like, but you're not exactly sure what color it will be, how big it will get, whether it will thrive or struggle when it's planted in the soil.

From June 15-18, a meeting will be held in Minneapolis of a group called New Wineskins, which is looking for ways to transform the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) These evangelical Christians are ready and willing to think outside the box -- they want a new way of being Presbyterian and figure it will take lots of change to get there.

Thompson inaugurated at Louisville Seminary

LOUISVILLE -- Dean K. Thompson, a longtime pastor, was inaugurated and installed as the eighth president of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary on April 23 and stressed, in his inaugural address, the importance of finding one's vocation in a particular context.

Migrant situation: The border crosses us

ALTAR, MEXICO -- This is a place where simple truths -- that migrants should not have to die in the desert in search of a way to feed their families -- and all the complicated nuances of international trade and immigration policy get woven up together.

Talk about immigration policy, and before long you're talking about terrorism and globalization and job supply-and-demand and lawbreaking and justice, and so much more.

Father Daniel Groody, a priest who's director of the Center for Latino Spirituality at Notre Dame University and has spent time along the U.S.- Mexican border interviewing migrants and Border Patrol officers and vigilantes and humanitarian groups, says each group contributes something worth listening to, that this is complicated stuff. But the bits and pieces also begin to add up to understanding -- and a determination, on the part of some Presbyterians, that some things need to change.