Criss-crossing the country by car the way I do, I've been fortunate to have had few breakdowns. Other than hitting a cement abutment along the Ohio Turnpike and locking my keys in my car while stopping along a deserted stretch on the Pacific Coast Highway, nothing notable has happened.
This is an activist generation. It is reflected in civil life, national politics and the ecclesiastical scene. In a way this is good: many things need to be done, but too often we try to do too many things or even the wrong things -- so long as we're getting something done.
Despite late November spring-like temperatures, the fiery red, golden passion of October's glory has fallen fast. From the mighty oak, maple and ash, the crippled stem and crinkled leaf have tumbled down to the hard, hard ground, where they are crushed like fodder under the hoof of the deer and the boot of the hunter.
Shakespeare's Romeo said, "Here's much to do with hate, but more with love." When love and hate reach a certain intensity they both demand incarnation. The Christmas stories have two incarnations; one of hate and one of love. The difficulty is that neither one touches us until it touches us.
We live in a world without mercy, where more and more people feel trapped. Time and money have established their merciless rule. The secret of their power is scarcity. Time is money, they say. Those who have a lot of money never have time, and the poor perhaps have time but no money. Yet they need money in order to live, so they borrow, and then they find themselves trapped in the relentless grip of debt.
Angelic University Graduates and Faculty:
Thank you, graduates, for allowing this old angel, class of '04, to address you on graduation day. And I thank the president for granting me the degree of Doctor of Celestial Deeds (DCD). Think of it! I, Gabriel, a doctor!
Let me recall some of my big jobs, since I have been asked to share memories of my life with you. I was a Special Cosmic Messenger, delivering the Fear not! master message on at least three big occasions.
The baby grows up into
Mercy
"Jesus" by name -- the Lord saves, or will, as it reads
in the original
His denizens give dozens of titles --
"Lord," "Almighty," "Prince of Peace" even this year,
I head into Greene's Discount Beer, Wine and Liquor. A Salvation Army guy wearing a camouflage cap and jacket over blue dungarees and ringing a bell holds the door open for me. The multiple incongruities slip into my brain. I check; he has a Salvation Army name badge.
Inside, the cashier asks for my I.D., startling me. It's not my age -- 58 -- she wants, but verification of my credit card. I laugh and thank her for checking.
A large majority of elders support rejection of Amendment 01-A -- which would delete the "fidelity and chastity" ordination standard from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Book of Order -- but ministers split evenly between approval and rejection.
A Mankato (Minn.) Presbyterian church has started a fund to help a PC(USA) redevelopment associate recover from a Christmas Eve fire which destroyed his home.
The gospel is intended for all people. The church is to go to all nations. God's will is that every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
As the late Lefferts Loetscher of Princeton Seminary in a book titled The Broadening Church taught us, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has been a broadening church -- an inclusive church -- throughout its history, but becoming the people God wants us to be has not been easy.
This is the gist of what 14 trips to Cuba have taught Bill McAtee, a retired presbytery executive from Kentucky. In Cuba, where for decades the practice of Christianity was discouraged, "they have done so much with so little. And we have done so little with so much."
Are you looking for something special to lift your spirits this Christmas? What about a gift that can't be purchased? Namely, the gift of enthusiasm. The seed of genuine enthusiasm is God-given, lying deep within the soul of everyone. The emergence of enthusiasm depends on the maturity of one's walk and talk with God. The nature of enthusiasm (see your dictionary) is to be God-possessed and infused with new energy.
Recently I watched on television as President Bush signed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, making airport security a direct federal responsibility. A week earlier, Congress seemed to be deadlocked regarding airport security, with neither party willing to compromise on their own strongly held positions. But, within days, the Senate and House had both agreed to a bill which the Senate passed without opposition and the House passed by a vote of 410 to 9.
Before they gathered for their first meeting, the members of the Theological Task force on Peace, Unity and Purity wrote down some of their thoughts about the task force -- what they hoped for, what they were concerned about, what they expected. Here are a few excerpts from those statements, which were distributed without the writers' names attached.
By Anne M. Clifford
Orbis. 2001. 287 pp. Pb. $21. 
ISBN 1-57075-238-9
— reviewed by by Isabel Rogers, Richmond, Va.
The goal of Christian theology, says Anne M. Clifford, "is to bring faith to understanding for a Christian community" (p. 179). That is what she aims to do in this book -- to help the Christian community understand its faith, especially in light of the experience of women.
DALLAS -- A task force charged with leading the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in spiritual discernment was encouraged at its first meeting, Dec. 6-8, to think in terms of managing conflict rather than resolving it -- recognizing that the Christian church has had conflict almost from its beginning -- and to stop equating conflict with combat, in which some other person or idea has to be destroyed.
By Lewis S. Mudge
WCC Publications and University Press of America, Inc. 2000.312 pp. Pb. $27.50 ISBN 2-8254-1332-1
— reviewed by Louis Weeks, president, Union-PSCE, Richmond.
This collection of articles and essays by Lewis Mudge -- which have previously appeared in a variety of publications during the past 30 years -- offers a good summary of his thought. He believes that the whole church needs to think fresh thoughts about its identity as the body of Christ. More, it must develop its identity in the world. Ecclesial life for Mudge is a reality, and social theory can illumine its existence.
Among those efforts that can be undertaken by the denomination to address our current malaise and drift toward fragmentation, none is as important -- or as elusive -- as the need for a major overhaul of the Book of Order.
LOUISVILLE -- Barbara G. Wheeler, the president of Auburn Seminary in New York, calls herself a liberal and strongly believes that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) should not deny ordination to sexually-active gays and lesbians, and shouldn't cite the Bible as its reason for doing so. But here's some of what she has to say about evangelical conservatives, the people she says she disagrees with "strenuously" in the painful and continuing battle over homosexual ordination.
In their proper place, I have long, and roundly, maintained a lowdown admiration for nice, big Presbyterian buts. To close and appreciative observers like me the fundaments of Reformed dogmatics are both ample and shapely with lots of wiggle room. Being generously endowed (and with intelligence, too), Presbyterians are aware that many theological affirmations are so complex the only proper response to them is, "yes, but...."
ATLANTA -- How far must a session go in inquiring into the sexual practice of candidates for elder? If a person has acknowledged that they live in a committed, same-sex relationship, but refuses to answer the direct question if they are sexually active in that relationship, can the session proceed to install them? Or is the examination incomplete?
LAKELAND, Fla. -- Mary Alice Minear Hunt, 82, wife of former Outlook editor George Laird Hunt, died Nov. 26 of kidney failure at the health center of Florida Presbyterian Homes here.
A professional musician, recitalist and church soloist, she studied music under Robert Grooters, Madeline Bartell and David McCormick.
1. A Third Way requires a new mode of thinking. At first glance it is bound to seem implausible.
2. Without a Third Way, our church is in danger of shattering.
You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God (2 Corinthians 9:11-12, NRSV).
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