ORLANDO, Fla. – Two members of a writing team that produced a theology document that's part of the constitution of the new denomination created by the Fellowship of Presbyterians said Jan. 19 that they expect changes to be made in their handiwork in the years to come.
ORLANDO, Fla. – All through the day on Jan. 19, John Ortberg and others at the Fellowship of Presbyterians Covenanting Conference cast a vision.
It was of a bold church unafraid to take risks; one that makes disciples; one that takes the best of Presbyterian history and tradition and points it in new directions.
ORLANDO – Instead of just requiring congregations to submit annual statistical reports, the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians would ask for annual narrative reports, as Presbyterian congregations routinely did in the years before 1925.
ORLANDO – The Fellowship of Presbyterians has given a name to its new Reformed body. The new denomination will be known as the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians.
John Ortberg, a well-known author and the pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in California, kicked off the second day of the Fellowship’s Covenanting Conference Jan. 19 by preaching at morning worship. As that ended, the Fellowship distributed revised copies of its theology and polity documents – the cornerstones of the new denomination’s constitution.
ORLANDO, Fla. – Most of the young evangelical church leaders attending a Fellowship of Presbyterians event this week are from congregations that either plan to stay in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) or are still deciding whether to leave.
At the Fellowship of Presbyterians gathering this this week in Orlando, Fla., it's unlikely that participants will vote on the spot to create a new denomination, or that a huge number of congregations will decide to leave the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) en masse.
Eight Presbyterians, including Cynthia Bolbach and Landon Whitsitt, the moderator and vice-moderator of the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), have issued a letter and video expressing their hope in the future of the denomination.
The quaint expression, “essential tenets,” comes from the 18th century-bred subscription vow for Presbyterian officers: “Do you sincerely receive and adopt the essential tenets of the Reformed faith as expressed in the confessions of our church as authentic and reliable expositions of what Scripture leads us to believe and do, and will you be instructed and led by those confessions as you lead the people of God?”
For mainline Protestant denominations, it is not good news.
Louisville, KY.
Doing ministry in a time of “shifting sands” has become the reality of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A).
WASHINGTON (Ekklesia)
The number of organizations engaged in religious lobbying or religion-related advocacy in Washington, D.C., has increased fivefold in the past four decades, from fewer than 40 in 1970 to more than 200 today.
This is an update written by the Special Committee on the Nature of the Church for the 21st Century, after its meeting in late November, and provided by the committee's moderator, Carol Howard Merritt. The committee will meet again in Louisville Feb. 1-3 and will report to the General Assembly in July.
LOUISVILLE, KY.
Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary (LPTS) is hoping to make student indebtedness for theological education a thing of the past.
A fourth candidate has been endorsed to stand for moderator of the 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). All four announced so far are teaching elders.
Thomas W. Gillespie, retired president of Princeton Theological Seminary and for decades a key figure in Presbyterian theological education, died Nov. 5 of complications from surgery at the University Medical Center in Princeton. He was 83.
Samuel Shamba Warlick, who was accused of sexually abusing the children of Presbyterian missionaries in Africa in the 1980s, has been sentenced to 12 years and six months in federal prison for distributing child pornography.
The Fellowship of Presbyterians has released two new draft documents – one on theology including the presentation of proposed essential tenets for a new Reformed body and another on polity.
WHAT HAPPENED at the Covenanting
Conference of the Fellowship of Presbyterians meeting in Orlando?
Your fellow church members will be wondering.
The national newspapers may or may not provide sketchy reports.
WASHINGTON, Iowa (Special to Presbyterian News Service) Effective elders are humble elders, the Revs. Mark Martin and Gary Burnett told elders attending Elder 102 training, sponsored by the Presbytery of East Iowa, at United Presbyterian Church in October.
The Fellowship of Presbyterians has revised the options it will present as possible courses of action for congregations to consider at the Fellowship’s next meeting, in Orlando Jan. 18-20.
HARARE, Zimbabwe (RNS/ENInews)
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has asked Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe to intervene to stop attacks on Anglicans by allies of an excommunicated bishop who has seized church property and intimidated clergy and worshippers.
It was Jill Brown’s experience as a church youth worker and volunteer that led her to start paying attention to how teenagers use Facebook, text messaging and other social media tools. Because she wasn’t their parent, teenagers would sometimes talk to her about their online experiences.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – What is the most common type of job at which young adults are working? Retail – including, for many, Sunday morning shifts.
The Fellowship of Presbyterians has named a chief operating officer, Brenda Smith.
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