WASHINGTON, D.C. (RNS) — First Lady Michelle Obama has expanded her “Let’s Move” initiative to reduce childhood obesity to include working with religious and community organizations.
(RNS) — Slightly more than half of Americans (53 percent) rate the moral values of priests, ministers, and other clerics as “very high” or “high.” That percentage is a slight bump from 2009, when only 50 percent of Americans said men and women of the cloth are ethical paragons, the lowest number in Gallup’s 32 years of measuring professional reputations.
VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Pope Benedict XVI, while still a cardinal, sought in vain to expedite the process for defrocking priests guilty of grave crimes, according to a 1988 letter published in the official Vatican newspaper.
MANILA (ENI) — Asian Christian leaders have challenged what they describe as a distorted interpretation of the Bible's Genesis story about God telling Adam and Eve to "subdue" the earth and to "have dominion" over other living species and non-living resources on the planet.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (RNS) — The Southern Poverty Law Center is adding the Family Research Council and four other conservative religious organizations to its list of hate groups because of “falsehoods” in their anti-gay statements.
BANGALORE (ENInews) — A Presbyterian theologian, the Rev. Roger Gaikwad, has been installed as the new general secretary of the National Council of Churches in India, which groups 30 Orthodox and Protestant churches.
NAIROBI (ENInews) — The head of the Sudan Council of Churches has been calling for close scrutiny of out-of-country referendum registration processes in Kenya, Uganda, and Egypt, while also reporting that police recently stormed the council offices breaking down doors, and conducted a search.
GENEVA/ROME (ENInews) — The head of UNAIDS, Michel Sidibé, says a statement by Pope Benedict XVI that the use of condoms is justified when intended to reduce "the risk of HIV infection" will make it easier for international organizations to cooperate with faith-based organizations in the fight against HIV and Aids.
HONG KONG (ENI) — Hong Kong Christian leaders have urged the government in Beijing to release 2010 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Liu Xiaobo, who was honored for his "long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China."
What does the future hold for the institutional church in the United States, particularly “mainline Protestant” churches that once dominated the country’s cultural landscape?
BANGALORE (ENI) — The International Assistance Mission, a Christian development agency, has rejected Taliban claims that 10 of its staff killed in an attack in Afghanistan had been trying to convert Muslims.
TOKYO (ENI) — A Japanese pastor who became a Christian after surviving the atomic bombing of Hiroshima says his decades-long pursuit of peace has involved a resistance to "nuclear weapons in the human mind."
(ENI) — The Lutheran World Federation has chosen Palestinian Bishop Munib A. Younan, a campaigner for peace, justice and inter-faith dialogue, as its next president.
(ENI) — The recently retired senior Vatican official responsible for ecumenical affairs has said his biggest regret during his tenure in Rome is that he did not achieve an agreement on a common communion with Protestants.
(ENI)- — The head of the Sudan Council of Churches has called for the urgent resolution of the conflict in Darfur after two German aid workers became the latest victims of abduction in the region.
EDINBURGH (ENI) -- The international director of the 2010 World Missionary Conference, South African-born Daryl Balia, says he has been suspended from his job, two days before the start of the gathering here to commemorate a conference of the same name held 100 years ago.
The seminaries affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) planned a variety of events in spring 2007 honoring graduates and awarding degrees. These included:
Austin Theological Seminary, Austin, Texas
The Reverend Dr. Robert M. Shelton, former president and Jean Brown Professor Emeritus of Homiletics and Liturgics of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary addressed graduates at the APTS commencement on May 20. Sixty-seven students were expected to receive degrees: fifty-two, the Master of Divinity; ten, the Master of Arts in Theological Studies; and five, the Doctor of Ministry. Among this year's graduates is Shelton's wife, the Reverend Frances Tilton Shelton, receiving the D.Min. degree.
Robert Shelton joined the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary faculty in 1971 and was named the Jean Brown Professor of Homiletics and Liturgics in1982. He served as academic dean for fourteen years before becoming president in 1996. Shelton served as interim senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Dallas from October 2005 until November 2006. Shelton served as moderator of the 163rd General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 1993, and has served on numerous committees and boards of that denomination and of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
