Another candidate – the fourth announced so far – has been endorsed to stand for moderator of the 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). All four candidates are teaching elders.
Two additional candidates have emerged to stand for moderator of the 2012 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
NEW YORK – Presbyterian Welcome, a Manhattan-based ministry that works to promote tolerance, will present its 2011 Faithful Servant Awards to three people who have worked to dismantle barriers based on sexual identity within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
“It is about time,” said participants in gay man’s service
MADISON, WISC (October 8, 2011) - In a service spanning nearly two hours this morning, Scott Anderson was ordained as a teaching elder.
– The General Assembly Middle Governing Bodies Commission has voted not to recommend that the General Assembly change the constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to allow non-geographic presbyteries.
Lisa Larges’ ordination remains on hold.
INDIANAPOLIS – Should the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) allow the creation of non-geographic presbyteries?
Doug Ferguson, head-of-staff pastor of 3,600-member Grace Presbyterian Church in Houston, has announced plans to become pastor of Mountaintop Community Church in Birmingham, Ala. Reformation Sunday, October 30, will be his last in the Houston church.
Editor's note: The following is a sampling of responses to the meeting of the Fellowship of Presbyterians.
The first candidate for moderator of the 2012 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has been announced. The Presbytery of Elizabeth has endorsed Neal D. Presa, a teaching elder and the pastor of Middlesex Presbyterian church in New Jersey since 2003.
Carolyn Gillette has composed a new hymn for use and it’s available free of charge for your congregation’s use.
LOUISVILLE – Heres’s some of what the General Assembly Mission Council of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) wants to be known for:
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The General Assembly Mission Council of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is considering changing its name – something it needs to do to comply with the denomination’s new Form of Government, which reserves the use of the word “council” for actual governing bodies.
LOUISVILLE – The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) continues to feel the international rumblings from its controversial decision earlier this year to allow the ordination of sexually-active gays and lesbians.
The Presbytery of San Francisco did not commit any doctrinal errors when it voted to allow the ordination of Lisa Larges, and it does not need to conduct another examination of her, the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of the Pacific has ruled.
LOUISVILLE – A special committee is poised to recommend restructuring General Assembly meetings in ways intended to allow the assembly to blend worship more fully into its work and to focus more energy on fewer items of business.
The organizers of the NEXT Church group – Presbyterians who are involved in conversations about the future of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) – have written an open letter to the church, in the wake of the Fellowship of Presbyterians recent gathering in Minneapolis on Aug. 25-26.
John Stott, an English evangelical who helped introduce the world to the global scope of the Christian movement and is considered one of the most influential evangelicals of his generation, died July 27 in Lingfield, Surrey, England.
Many small Presbyterian congregations struggle to afford trained pastoral leadership. And many gifted students graduate from seminary, excited to be serving in ministry — and are frustrated by the difficulty of finding a first call to serve a congregation.
A church in Africa may have become be the second Presbyterian denomination outside the United States to end its partnership with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in response to the U.S. church’s decision to allow the ordination of sexually active gays and lesbians.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Office of the General Assembly) Cynthia Bolbach, moderator of the 219th General Assembly (2010), Gradye Parsons, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, and Linda Valentine, Executive Director of the General Assembly Mission Council, have released a call to prayer for all those impacted by Hurricane Irene:
LOUISVILLE, Ky (PNS) Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons has condemned the Aug. 26 terrorist attack on the United Nations compound in Abuja, Nigeria, that killed or injured a number of people.
On Aug. 25-26, about 1,900 people came to Minneapolis to learn more about what the Fellowship of Presbyterians is proposing, and to help sort through their own decisions about whether to stay in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) or to leave.
Those attending included pastors and elders, as well as some presbytery and synod executives and national leaders of the denomination. While no details were released on demographic factors such as age, race, and gender, the crowd included people from all 50 states and 3 countries beyond the U.S., and appeared to be predominantly white and male. The list of speakers was somewhat more diverse.
This was a meeting primarily for discussion of ideas – not for voting on a particular course of action. Here are some of the highlights:
MINNEAPOLIS – Hearty applause greeted biblical scholar Ken Bailey when he was introduced at morning worship at the Fellowship of Presbyterians meeting Aug. 26. 
Bailey recently completed decades of study by publishing his new book, “Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes: Cultural Studies in I Corinthians."
His teaching, writing and biblical interpretation have nurtured many Presbyterians. And his message to participants at this gathering – some of whom are angry with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) – dealt with reprocessing anger into grace.
Bailey pulled together lessons from a number of scriptural passages – stories of fathers and those in power turning aside from an angry response, and instead showing grace. He said he has tried for years to come up with a theological formula – one as significant as Einstein’s E = mc2 has been for scientists. The closest he has come has been to see the grace of God in Christ as a costly demonstration of God’s love.
Many Americans are angry these days, Bailey said – angry at job losses and a sluggish economy, at political gridlock, at a decade of war and its fallout. Presbyterians, he said, are angry at a “diminished sense of belonging in our own spiritual home.”
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