Two staffers gone in wake of Hezbollah meeting

LOUISVILLE - Two key Presbyterian Church (USA) staff members were apparently fired November 11 by General Assembly Council (GAC) Executive Director John Detterick - with no clear public explanation for their departures.

Kathy Lueckert, the deputy executive associate director of the GAC, the governing body of the church's mission program agency, and the Rev. Peter Sulyok, coordinator of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP), are no longer employed by the GAC.

Leuckert has served the denomination for five years, Sulyok for nearly twelve.

Lueckert supervised Sulyok and both were members of an ACSWP fact-finding delegation to the Middle East last month that included a televised meeting with Hezbollah, an organization that is on the U.S. government's watch list of terrorist groups.

Sexual questions, few answers at Covenant meeting

CHICAGO -- These progressive Presbyterians came to Chicago to talk about theology and sexuality -- about what it means to be a Christian and to live responsibly and faithfully as a sexual being.

And, like the wind whipping famously down Michigan Avenue, fueled by the torrents of the presidential election and the sting of John Kerry's loss, the conversation at the Covenant Network of Presbyterians' annual gathering quickly swirled into other territories too.

How can the church talk convincingly to young people -- many of them with their feet firmly planted in the secular world -- if it rarely talks about sex at all?

What should the church say about sex outside of marriage -- is it always wrong? What about committed, long-term relationships among unmarried partners, including gays and lesbians, but also church-going senior citizens and huge numbers of heterosexuals who live together or certainly sleep together before they marry?

Taskforce explores core tenets as basis for discussions

CHICAGO -- No votes have been taken.

It's kind of like reading the tea leaves before the kettle has even come to a boil.
But a preliminary, tentative, test-the-waters discussion Oct. 13 indicated that the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) still is searching for consensus on some of the most controversial issues it faces, including homosexuality and ordination.

On the first day of its Oct. 13-15 meeting, the task force considered draft papers on two big issues -- what to say to the church about ordaining gays and lesbians who are sexually active, and whether the denomination ought to spell out what it considers to be essential tenets. Neither of those papers was being formally advanced as reflecting the task force's position nor was up for a vote.

But at its last meeting, in August, the planning team for this October meeting suggested that it might be time to put forth some "affirmations," some suggested statements about ordination standards and essential tenets, just to see how task force members would respond -- basically, to sense where there might be some areas of agreement and where there's still work to be done. Those affirmations were drafted by a working group from the task force consisting of three pastors -- John "Mike" Loudon of Florida, Sarah Sanderson-Doughty and John Wilkinson, both from New York state -- and William Stacy Johnson, who teaches systematic theology at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Taskforce: Facing divisions, strong convictions

CHICAGO -- Immediately after a discussion on global context, a conversation about how the preoccupations and work of Presbyterians in the United States fit into the larger concerns of the world, the members of the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) went into another closed-door session.

They shut the doors on October 15 because they wanted privacy to try to figure out what to say to the PC(USA), particularly on the controversial question of ordaining sexually-active lesbians and gays.

They went from the big view, the international context, to the small: the infighting within the denomination.

Presumably, the conversation had to do in part with theology and in part with politics and power. These 20 people have theological views, convictions, but also in some cases alignments with those in the church involved in the political fight. They are weighing what they want to say in their hearts, what they can afford to say publicly, what the church can accept and what they feel would be prophetic to say. They have developed a deep affection for one another, but they also may want to convince some of their friends to move.

They want to say something that will have the ring of truth.

They want the Holy Spirit to speak.

They want to know how they will know if that has happened.

Criticism, confusion after PC(USA) advisory Comm. meets Hezbollah officials

Presbyterian relations with Jews, already stressed and battered, have taken another blow after a Presbyterian delegation to the Middle East met in Lebanon with representatives of Hezbollah, an Islamic group that the U.S. State Department has placed on a list of foreign terrorist organizations.

Top leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) quickly criticized the meeting, saying they'd tried to prevent the Oct. 17 meeting, describing it as "misguided, at best," and calling the remarks of members of the Presbyterian delegation "reprehensible."

But the incident won't be just wiped away. Jewish groups, already unhappy with the PC(USA), spoke out hotly and quickly. And some Presbyterians say they're also confused about what message their denomination is trying to send -- and concerned that whatever moral authority the church is trying to bring to bear on the Israel-Palestine crisis may have been weakened.

PC(USA) leaders disavow comments made in Lebanon

LOUISVILLE - Three top officials of the Presbyterian Church (USA) have issued a statement disavowing comments made by members of a Presbyterian delegation during an Oct. 17 visit to a former Israeli prison that is now a Hezbollah-run museum and memorial in southern Lebanon.

News that the delegation - comprised mostly of members of the denomination's Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) - had met with a group on the U.S. government's watch list of terrorist organizations has further eroded relations between Jewish groups and the PC(USA).

One ACSWP delegation member - Ronald Stone, a recently retired professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary - was quoted as saying: 'As an elder of our church, I'd like to say that according to my recent experience, relations and conversations with Islamic leaders are a lot easier than dealings and dialogue with Jewish leaders.'

Synod Judicial Comm. announces Williamson decision

The Presbytery of Western North Carolina made mistakes in its handling of a case involving the ministry of Parker T. Williamson, chief executive officer of The Lay Committee and editor of The Layman, and failed to provide "adequate due process and fundamental fairness," a church court has ruled.

The Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of the Mid-Atlantic ruled Sept. 29 that the presbytery had made procedural errors significant enough that its controversial decision last January to make Williamson a "member-at-large" of the presbytery, rather than to validate his call for his work with the Layman, should be set aside.

The judicial commission also ordered Western North Carolina presbytery not to take any action involving the validation of Williamson's ministry for a year from the date of the ruling, and ordered the presbytery and Williamson -- who has been a member of the presbytery for 32 years -- "to jointly formulate a presbytery-wide process of reconciliation concerning this issue."

Disagreeing to agree: PC(USA) divestiture vote leads to anti-semitic charges

It is unlikely that the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) had any idea, when it voted this summer to start the process of considering divestiture in some companies doing business in Israel, that it would set off a fireworks of protest and provoke international denunciations of Presbyterians as anti-Semitic.

But that's exactly what has happened. In recent weeks, stories or opinion pieces about the Presbyterian action have been written in prominent publications from Time magazine and the Wall Street Journal to the Israeli Insider (that article was headlined, "With Friends Like These . . . ").

Relations between Presbyterians and Jews, already battered by a controversy some months ago over the denomination's funding of a Messianic congregation in Philadelphia, are much worse now -- a situation made more painful by the recognition that, until now, the Presbyterian church was considered by many Jews to be among the most understanding and reasoned of the Christian denominations.

International issues at GAC

LOUISVILLE -- It wasn't a big-fireworks meeting -- but the General Assembly Council of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), meeting in Kentucky Sept. 22-25, kept the concerns of the world close at hand.

It approved a resolution calling for support of members of the U.S. military.

It learned that Forman Christian College in Pakistan has received a major $5 million grant from U.S. AID. "We cannot tell you what a big deal this is," said Will Browne of the Worldwide Ministries Division.

And it is trying to find ways for Presbyterians from the U.S. to help protect the life and the human-rights work of Presbyterians in Colombia, who have watched their colleagues in human rights work being assassinated and imprisoned one-by-one.

PC(USA) divestment plan: dealing with “ripples of reaction”

LOUISVILLE -- It wasn't a big-fireworks meeting -- but the General Assembly Council of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), meeting in Kentucky Sept. 22-25, kept the concerns of the world close at hand.

LOUISVILLE -- The first wave has hit hard -- intense criticism of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for considering selective divestment in some companies doing business in Israel, as a way to protest Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people.

But now the PC(USA) is trying to figure out where to go from here, deciding not just when and whether to divest, but also searching for ways to deal with the ripples of reaction.

Church leaders are trying first to explain what the assembly has done so that people really understand -- there has been a boatload of misunderstanding ("So many people are operating on the basis of what they think we did, not what we did," said Manley Olson, a General Assembly Council member from Minnesota.)

But they also want to cultivate support from the ecumenical community in the divestment effort -- there are signs that may be starting to happen -- and to renew discussions with Jewish leaders in a way that acknowledges the deep pain and sense of betrayal the divestment issue has caused the Jewish community, but which also doesn't dilute the Presbyterian commitment to justice for the Palestinians or duck the hard issues embedded in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Church growth: nine myths, no magic bullets

LOUISVILLE -- Here's the bad news. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has lost about 24 percent of its membership in the last 20 years.

Here's some news that's a little better. Some Presbyterian congregations are growing, are taking risks, are taking evangelism seriously. And there's research available on what growing congregations are doing -- research which often shows a gap between what many Presbyterians expect will make a church grow, and what really does.

The General Assembly Council, meeting this week in Louisville, has been talking about how to implement its Mission Work Plan for 2005-2006, and spent part of that time thinking about what the PC(USA) does well, and not so well, in evangelism. Deborah Bruce, of the denomination's Office of Research Services, shared some of the findings that she and colleague Cynthia Woolever have mined from the U.S. Congregational Life Survey -- a study of more than 300,000 people in the U.S. who attended worship one weekend in April 2001, involving more than 2,200 congregations from more than 50 faith groups.

Responses to divestiture decision discussed at GAC

LOUISVILLE -- Not wanting to say too much, but maybe not comfortable with keeping silent either, members of the General Assembly Council are struggling with what to do about the most incendiary issue the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) faces: the intensely controversial vote of the General Assembly a few months ago to begin a process of selective, phased divestment in some companies doing business in Israel.

Church officials now say that no divestiture can take place before 2006, when the next General Assembly meets. There have been questions raised about whether the Presbyterian Foundation or the Board of Pensions are willing to consider divestiture or will feel compelled to act to protect the financial interests of those whose money is invested in their portfolios.

Trying to calm the waters, key PC(USA) leaders have scheduled two meetings with top-level Jewish leaders, one in New York on Sept. 28 and one in October.

But the council, meeting this week in Louisville, is trying to determine whether to have denominational leaders issue some kind of "clarifying statement" about the divestiture action, perhaps one that would be sent to all Presbyterian congregations, acknowledging the anger this action has provoked among many Jews, aware that e-mails and letters and phone calls have been pouring in by the hundreds, and that some Presbyterian congregations are feeling the heat close to home.

Interfaith teams at GAC worship

Over and over, Rick Ufford-Chase talks about the value of international connections, about things the church in the United States can learn from the church around the world.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is just starting its second round of the Interfaith Listening Project, in which teams from 10 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia -- usually made up of one Christian and one Muslim who already know and work with each other at home -- have come to the United States to visit churches and communities, to have conversations with people at the grassroots.

Ufford-Chase, who's moderator of the church's 216th General Assembly, said that in the three months since he was elected he's had the chance to meet with international representatives at the Youth Triennium in Indiana, at the Peacemaking Conference in Seattle, and now at the General Assembly Council meeting this week in Louisville, where the interfaith listening teams made a presentation and participated in opening worship. Ufford-Chase said he's come away from each of these encounters more convinced about the "opportunity they offer our church for transformation."