SAN JOSE — In two separate but related initiatives designed to address the persistent decline in Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) membership as well as the church’s commitment to grow in diversity, the 218th General Assembly wholeheartedly approved June 25 a Strategy for Church Growth for African American Congregations and a resolution to help Christ’s Church Grow Deep and Wide during the report of the Assembly Committee on Church Growth and Christian Education.
SAN JOSE — Equipping seminary students “to go out to equip others” is critical, the Rev. Sara Covin Juengst told a group of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) seminary leaders and others gathered for the Committee on Theological Education [www.pcusa.org/seminaries/cote.htm] (COTE) Breakfast on June 26.
SAN JOSE — Reclaiming the power of the gospel will greatly help with one of the most difficult challenges Presbyterians face— evangelism, according to the Rev. Eric Hoey, director of evangelism and church growth [www.pcusa.org/goodnews], who spoke at the evangelism breakfast June 26 at the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Commissioners and guests arriving at the PC(USA)‚s 218th General Assembly in San Jose, Calif., encountered John Calvin —— lots and lots of John Calvins.
SAN JOSE — When the 218th General Assembly voted to send out a proposed amendment to presbyteries to delete the “fidelity and chastity” ordination standard and replace it with a new version, a handful of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)‚s executive presbyters felt a need to gather for prayer.
Shaking and Moving The 218th General Assembly of the PC(USA)
In San Jose, California, close to the San Andreas fault, the 218th General Assembly, though resting on the solid rock of Jesus Christ, felt tremors of change and shifts in the denominational ground.
SAN JOSE -- “There is hardly any family or congregation that is not touched by serious mental illness,” says the Rev. B. Gordon Edwards, who was instrumental in bringing “Comfort My People: A Policy Statement on Serious Mental Illness” to the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for adoption on June 27.
SAN JOSE -- By a 5-to-1 margin, the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on Friday (June 27) approved “A Social Creed for the 21st Century,” exactly 100 years after the “Social Creed” of 1908 spoke to the harshness of industrial life at the turn of the last century.
SAN JOSE -- After much docket delay, the Church Polity Committee gave its report to the 218thGeneral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) late Friday afternoon (June 27).
SAN JOSE – Just hours after voting to recommend that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) change its rules to make it easier for gays and lesbians to be ordained, the 218th General Assembly turned down a overture that would have changed the definition of marriage in the church’s constitution, to say that marriage is between “two people” rather than a between a man and a woman.
SAN JOSE – An amendment to a resolution on homelessness adopted by the 218th General Assembly on Friday asks PC(USA) members to forgo one meal per week “as an act of worship and humility.”
SAN JOSE, Cal. – “We are called to be involved and engaged in the world that God cares deeply about,” said Rev. Nancy Kahaian, moderator of the Committee on Peacemaking and International Issues. “I believe that Presbyterians can truly lead the way,” she continued in a press conference Friday afternoon.
SAN JOSE -- The 218th General Assembly on Thursday (June 26) rejected by a five-to-one margin a recommendation from its Mission Coordination and Budgets Committee that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) institute a fifth church-wide special offering to support mission personnel.
SAN JOSE --Not everybody gets what they want at General Assembly. But the 17 youth and their six chaperones from Atlanta’s Central Church got a measure of satisfaction knowing that they may have smoothed the way for future youth groups to attend — and help out — at future Assemblies.
SAN JOSE – In a vote reflecting how divided the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) continues to be, the 218th General Assembly recommended by a narrow margin that the denomination change its constitution to remove the impediments that have been disallowing the ordination of sexually-active gays and lesbians.
SAN JOSE — The Revs. Kenneth and Margaret Thomas took their place at the dinner table. The conversation at the table turned to the home churches of those seated around the table.
SAN JOSE — The 218th General Assembly paused before lunch Thursday (June 26) to remember the Rev. Ben Lacy Rose, moderator of the 111th General Assembly (1971) of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. Rose died in Richmond, Va., Nov. 13, 2006.
SAN JOSE, Cal. -- Commissioners to the 218th General Assembly have voted to change the denomination’s constitution to approve the ordination of gay and lesbian persons, a change that will require ratification by a majority of the 173 regional presbyteries over the next year.
SAN JOSE — Two years ago while attending the 217th General Assembly meeting in Birmingham, Ala., I wrote a short piece about living each day with the sobering diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Quite frankly, I didn’t expect to be here in San Jose, nor did I think I’d be writing another epistle about me!
SAN JOSE — In a surprise report June 26 to the 218th General Assembly, the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts and Hands [www.pcusa.org/joiningheartsandhands] (MIJHH) honorary campaign chair, the Rev. Tom Gillespie, announced that the campaign had raised pledges totaling $33 million as it nears the end of the $40 million effort to renew the church for mission.
SAN JOSE, June 26, 2008 — “Why do we continue to do Christian education? Because we want our lives to be something bigger than just our own stories. We want to be part of God’s story,”
