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The Presbyterian Outlook

Creating and curating trustworthy resources for the church, the Presbyterian Outlook connects disciples of Jesus Christ through compelling and committed conversation for the proclamation of the Gospel.

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Margaret Flory: An Appreciation

Margaret Flory is "one of the most outstanding leaders of the ecumenical movement of the 20th Century," Rubem Alves, Brazilian theologian and poet, wrote, "because her eyes had the power to see trees when they were only seeds."

More than 150 people from around the world — not a few of them trees that first encountered Flory when they were seeds — gathered at New York's Riverside Church May 14-15 to honor Margaret Flory on the occasion of her 90th birthday.

Boycott of Taco Bell is working say Presbyterian Hunger Program officials

LOUISVILLE The boycott by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) of Taco Bell hasn’t closed any Taco Bell stores or caused any layoffs. That wasn’t the point, a denominational official who works with the campaign said Friday.

But the boycott has drawn some ecumenical support.

GAC Executive Committee approves budget, job cuts

LOUISVILLE — They winced, but they did it.

The executive committee of the General Assembly Council has approved a two-year mission budget for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) that will cut $4.6 million from its budget for next year and eliminate 37 more jobs at the denomination’s national headquarters in Louisville. Nine of those positions are currently vacant and 28 people will be laid off as of May 14.

Possible closing of Montreat history office raises impassioned response

Montreat, with its clear air and its streams making music day and night, with its clusters of cottages and stone lodges riding the mountains of North Carolina, is a place where some Presbyterians have been coming all their lives, where their parents and grandparents came before them, where the porches and pathways are full of memories.

For Southern Presbyterians, "it’s the closest thing to Mecca that we have," said Frederick J. Heuser Jr., president of the Presbyterian Historical Society and Department of History. "It’s a place that resonates with people’s souls."

Synod court reverses Van Kuiken decision; controversial minister says he’s leaving PC(USA)

A Presbyterian minister cannot be brought up on disciplinary charges for performing a same-sex "marriage" ceremony, because the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has not yet spoken definitively enough about whether such ceremonies are absolutely prohibited, a church court has ruled.

In order to create such a prohibition, either the denomination’s Constitution would have to be changed or a General Assembly would have to issue an authoritative interpretation to state that ministers are prohibited from performing such ceremonies, the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of the Covenant has ruled in a closely divided decision.

Healing

These thoughts on the church’s ministry of healing are inspired by the willingness of Lawton Posey and Richard Ray to reflect theologically on their experiences of suffering and recovery for the sake of the church. I had a brush with mortality over Palm Sunday weekend, minor indeed compared with theirs. In the quiet of a two-day unexpected hospital stay, I remembered the Divine Healing Service on the Island of Iona in 1965, and words that introduced the laying on of hands following prayers for the sick and dying.

Special Providence?

It began with a small twinge in her mid section. It was enough to cause Bridget to cancel a couple of appointments for March 8 and decide to stay home. I got her the usual white chalky stuff one takes for such twinges and things seemed to be just fine.

Until the headache hit.

PC(USA) cuts 37 jobs as church trims $4.6 million from 2005 budget

LOUISVILLE — Needing to cut $4.6 million from its budget for next year, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has announced that 37 more jobs will be cut at the denomination’s national headquarters in Louisville. Nine of those positions are currently vacant, but 28 people will be laid off.

This is the third consecutive year that positions have been cut at the denomination’s national offices because of budgetary pressures, and programs and services are being cut as well as jobs.

Spiritual Surgery

I walk over to the bookcase. The top shelf is crammed full of 49 volumes of a series with similar spines. The authors date from the third through the 17th century and include some of the most arcane and least-read material on earth. I have purchased them over the years, and I have had to fork over at least a thousand dollars for them.

The Cross in Our Context: Jesus and the Suffering World

By Douglas John Hall
Augsburg Fortress. 2003. 2243 pp. Pb. $17.

— Review by Edwin W. Stock, Raleigh, N.C.

The author is a Canadian Lutheran scholar whose book was first delivered in 2002 as 10 lectures at Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, Ohio. It is easy to read because it has an oral style. Yet, it is scholarly as it addresses Martin Luther's "thin tradition," a theology of the cross (theologia crucis) not well known or appreciated in Reformed Calvinistic branches, whose theology begins with the foundational pillar of the Sovereignty of God.

216th GA will consider overtures on Jewish-Presbyterian relations

The question of how the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) should relate to people of other faiths — how to be Christian in a pluralistic world — will definitely be before this year’s General Assembly in Richmond.

In part, that’s fallout from the controversial new Messianic congregation in Philadelphia — Avodat Yisrael, started with $145,000 in financial support from Philadelphia Presbytery, plus $40,000 from Trinity Synod and $75,000 from a General Assembly Council committee.

Pastor Dean Thompson named president of Louisville Seminary

LOUISVILLE – Emphasizing his new role as a "pastor-president," a minister from West Virginia — Dean K. Thompson, pastor of First church, Charleston — has been named the eighth president of Louisville Seminary.

With Dorothy Ridings, chair of the seminary’s board of trustees, saying that the seminary needs pastoral leadership at a difficult time, Thompson told a crowd gathered Thursday in the seminary’s chapel that he and his wife, Rebecca, feel led by the Holy Spirit to come to Louisville. "We’ve been nurtured by the Spirit, comforted, taught and guided towards you," Thompson told the crowd.

Outlook Reporting

Outlook reporter, art director honored by Associated Church Press

TORONTO — Leslie Scanlon, The Outlook's national reporter, and Stann Bailey, its art director, received honors from the Associated Church Press during the organization’s annual meeting here April 18-21.

Scanlon, who has been with The Outlook for four years, received a second-place award in magazine newswriting for her coverage of the Cincinnati Presbytery meeting at which minister Stephen Van Kuiken lost his ordination last summer. (That decision was later overturned by the Covenant Synod PJC.)

Princeton Seminary names Iain Torrance as its sixth president

Princeton Seminary's board of trustees has named Iain R. Torrance as the institution’s sixth president. Torrance is moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Divinity at the University of Aberdeen, and master of Christ’s College, Aberdeen, where he is professor in patristics and Christian ethics.

In assuming the presidency on July 1, Torrance will succeed Thomas W. Gillespie, who served from 1983 to 2004.

Stop gun violence

Nothing could be more timely, or more in the spirit of an Easter faith than the Moderator’s and Stated Clerk’s March 24th letter to the denomination. They deplore the gun violence in this country and its tragic toll in human lives (28,000-35,000 deaths per year since the 1960s). They call attention to the federal ban on assault weapons that will expire this September on the watch of an apathetic, fearful Congress. Since Congress is not expected to act, those million moms, bless their hearts, are on the march again, on Mother’s Day in our nation’s capital.

Presbytery cannot base financial support for churches on per capita participation, says synod PJC

Heartland Presbytery cannot require congregations to make per capita payments and mission pledges to be considered for loans or other financial support from the presbytery, the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Mid-America Synod has ruled.

The synod judicial commission ruled April 3 that the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) provides "that the session (of a congregation) has sole responsibility to distribute the gifts of the people" and that Heartland’s policy, adopted in June 2003, had a "coercive force" that was not acceptable.

Trusting that which we don’t control

In previous years this magazine has sponsored what I thought was a wearying debate between those who took a rather relaxed view of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and those who insisted that belief in the resurrection of the body was essential. Without it we were all doomed to the theological and moral wasteland of Christian thought.

Outlook Features

Ammerman identifies eight ‘major streams’ of religious leanings in the U.S.

The United States has always been a religiously pluralistic place — now, more so than ever, said Nancy Ammerman, a sociologist of religion.

In a recent lecture series, Ammerman described how she sees things lining up — saying the United Stattes now has eight major streams of religious leanings, what she referred to as eight points on the compass.

To be vital, congregations need to make a difference, says researcher

Nancy Ammerman recognizes Lake Wobegon Lutheran Church when she sees it — the congregation where the families have all been there for generations, where everybody knows everybody and there’s no question at all about which hymns will be sung or what food will show up at the potluck: tuna noodle casserole and Jell-O with fruit. Every time.

Metherell announces candidacy for GA Stated Clerk

Alex Metherell, the elder and physician/engineer from Laguna Beach, Calif., who tried to get the 214th General Assembly recalled last year to address the issue of constitutional defiance, has announced that he will be a candidate for General Assembly stated clerk.

Neither a right nor a convenience

I am new at this business, unaccustomed to writing each week for the whole church. A valued friend reacted quickly to last week’s editorial. He thought it was a little too far on the wild side; he was especially critical of my sweeping, dogmatic claims about validated ministries. Yet he admitted that the editorial opened up an ongoing discussion. Thus doth provocation produce dialogue.

Synod reopens review of Baltimore Presbytery

RICHMOND — The Mid-Atlantic Synod, meeting here in special session Saturday, voted 19-15 to review the policies, procedures and actions of Baltimore Presbytery with regard to admitting new minister members and the validation of ministries and oversight of ministers.

Overtures to remove ‘fidelity and chastity’ or authoritative interpretations coming to GA

You probably won’t get a crowd up on their feet screaming if you shout out, "Authoritative interpretation!" On the other hand, those two words have the power to get some Presbyterians mighty riled up.

This year’s General Assembly will be asked, once again, to consider removing from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Constitution the requirement that those being ordained practice fidelity if they’re married or chastity if they are single — language that some contend follows centuries of Christian teaching, and that some others say unfairly excludes gays and lesbians in committed partnerships from serving in leadership in the church.

Stroud heresy case evolves into special synod meeting about process and validated ministry

The question of what to do about Donald Stroud — the Presbyterian minister from Baltimore who has said publicly he cannot comply with the part of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Constitution that limits ordination to those who practice fidelity if they’re married or chastity if they are single — is taking yet another twist.

Letter from the GA Moderator and Stated Clerk

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We have been at war in Iraq for a year now. Close to 11,000 Iraqis have been killed. Nearly 600 United States servicemen and women have died in the hostilities; another 3,000 have been injured. We ask you to join us in continued prayers for those who are impacted by war, those who are serving in the military, and those in positions of authority.

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