The moderator’s July column
LOUISVILLE (OGA) When I welcomed everyone to the Big Tent in Indianapolis recently, I said that the Big Tent is like a General Assembly in that the halls are teeming with Presbyterians, either connecting for the first time or reconnecting with one another.
I think people are leaving. I know that there are people in my church who are considering it. What bothers them the most is the departure from viewing Scripture as authoritative and instead viewing Scripture as merely guidelines. We might as well replace Scripture with the Pirates’ Code. Remember the movie, “Pirates of the Caribbean”?
LOUISVILLE What will the Presbyterian church of the 21st century look like?
The votes are in. After roughly five years of discussion, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has approved a new Form of Government, intended to be more flexible and to give congregations and presbyteries more latitude in deciding how to do ministry.
Seattle (PNS) Like a massive ocean-liner, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Middle Governing Body Commission has begun the long, slow turn from gathering data to formulating recommendations for the mission and function of presbyteries and synods in a rapidly changing church and world.
College Ministries: The 219th General Assembly in 2010 voted to restore the denomination’s Office of Collegiate Ministries after an era of declining activity. A “strategic and sustainable plan” will be presented at the 220th GA in 2012.
(RNS) Religious leaders are hoping to hit a home run in a campaign to get Major League Baseball players to ban tobacco use on fields and dugouts of the national pastime.
LOUISVILLE (PNS) William P. Lytle, a staunch supporter of Presbyterian reunion who served as moderator of the General Assembly of the former United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (UPCUSA) in 1978 — five years before it combined with the Presbyterian Church in the United States to form the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) — died May 27 in Los Gatos, Calif., after a lengthy illness. He was 87.
RALEIGH, N.C. Presbyterian elder and longtime Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) leader Youngil Cho, 77, died May 22, 2011.
LOUISVILLE Two conservative PC(USA) groups have announced an agreement to share the services of the evangelical leader Paul Detterman. In addition to his duties as executive director of Presbyterians for Renewal (PFR), Detterman will also serve as administrative consultant for Fellowship PC(USA) for at least one year.
LOUISVILLE (PNS) “Watermarked,” an album renowned Presbyterian singer/songwriter David M. Bailey was working on when he died last fall, has been released posthumously.
Nairobi, Kenya (ENI) Christian leaders from around the world
have pledged support for Southern Sudan, which is set to
become an independent state July 9.
Bangalore, India (ENI) Christians and other minority leaders in
Pakistan have spoken out against the government's move to relegate issues
regarding religious minorities to provincial governments in the
Muslim-majority nation, instead of dealing with them on a national level.
Geneva (ENI) United Nations relief agencies launched global emergency appeals today seeking new aid funds to help 10 million people, including 2 million severely malnourished children, in countries in the
Before the lights were barely out from Big Tent 2011, that’s the kind of complex question denominational leaders began digging into – in a quick, less than 24-hour confab held at a particularly delicate time in the denomination’s life.
Indianapolis (PNS) Many of the models of how we organize the church are dying, said the Rev. Susan Andrews, former General Assembly moderator and executive presbyter for Hudson River Presbytery, introducing a panel of innovative church leaders July 1 at the Healthy Ministry Conference opening luncheon here at the Big Tent.
Indianapolis (PNS) When Cynthia Campbell was growing up, she never experienced a woman in a leadership role in the pulpit of her home church in Pasadena, Calif.
Indianapolis (PNS) About five miles away from the excitement of Big Tent on the afternoon of July 1, a small group of Presbyterians worked with picks, shovels and wheelbarrows to dig a hole about six inches deep, eight feet wide, and 20 feet long. The area will eventually serve as the floor of a greenhouse made from an old bus stop shelter.
INDIANAPOLIS (PNS)In a time of slow recovery from the recession and
growing income inequality among American workers, Presbyterians must
not forget that God also has some ideas about economic theory and income
distribution.
INDIANAPOLIS (PNS) Two of the scheduled speakers for World Mission
Matters’ Friday (July 1) plenary at Big Tent here were missing.
Indianapolis (PNS) “Jesus was cross-cultural. In Christ, we should be too.”
Indianapolis (PNS) On July 1, the Big Tent opened its flaps to a wide range of conversations, including a discussion of evangelism and church growth in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
INDIANAPOLIS (PNS) This is a time of remarkable mission work, but it’s
also a time of rapid decentralization, said the Rev. Hunter Farrell, speaking
at a World Mission Matters lunch as part of Big Tent here.
Indianapolis (PNS) The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s National Multicultural Church Conference celebrated a decade of denominational multicultural ministry on July 1 during the conference’s first plenary session at the denomination’s Big Tent event.
INDIANAPOLIS (PNS) Fund-raising can be reduced to “two simple
words, relationships and listening,” Bill Enright told the Presbyterian
Communicators Network at its gathering July at the Big Tent here.
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