MINNEAPOLIS – Opponents of a report aimed at forwarding efforts to forge a peaceful, two-state solution to conflict between Israelis and Palestinians said Sunday (July 4) it instead risks making a bad situation worse.
MINNEAPOLIS— The proposed Form of Government revision that the 219th General Assembly will consider this week might be considered like an architectural plan, some members of the task force which proposed that revision suggested.
MINNEAPOLIS – After four rounds of voting and some worry about technical difficulties with the electronic voting keypads, the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) elected as its moderator Cynthia Bolbach, a lawyer and the only elder in a six-person field.
Bolbach – tall, plain-spoken, with a crisp sense of humor – brings to the office decades of experience in church life, from the congregational to the national levels of the denomination.[caption id="attachment_21910" align="alignright" width="426"]
Cynthia Bolbach, newly elected moderator, addresses the General Assembly in Minneapolis. Photo by Erin Dunigan.[/caption]
She has served as a deacon and clerk of session for her congregation, First Church in Arlington, Va., as well as moderator of National Capital Presbytery, chair of the presbytery’s Committee on Ministry and its interim general presbyter. She also serves as co-moderator of the Form of Government Task Force, that is bringing to this assembly a proposal – four years in the making – to streamline and make more flexible the denomination’s Form of Government.
After the fourth ballot, the candidate with the second-highest number of votes was Julia Leeth, a pastor from California, who earlier in the evening said she guessed she might be among the most conservative of the candidates.
In that final ballot, Bolbach received 325 votes (51 percent) and Leeth 148 votes (23 percent). But Bolbach led from the start, winning 149 votes (30 percent) in the first ballot – with things splitting neatly from there, with four of the other five candidates drawing from 71 to 76 votes apiece that time around.
MINNEAPOLIS — A brief, pointed exchange during a pre-General Assembly workshop July 3 hinted at what could prove an impassioned struggle over the Middle East Study Committee’s report and recommendations to the General Assembly.
Six members of the General Assembly Special Committee on Civil Union and Christian Marriage – two of whom were authors of a minority report from that committee – presented the special committee’s findings and fielded questions from a group of 150 commissioners and advisory delegates on July 3, at one of the Riverside Conversations that preceeded the formal opening of the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Many of those who attended the session were Young Adult Advisory Delegates.
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.— An overview of changes in Christian churches today, and recommendations about changes to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) form of government highlighted the Form of Government Revision committee meeting here today (July 3), a full day in advance of the convening of the 219th General Assembly.
Robert Austell, pastor of Good Shepherd Church in Charlotte, N.C., has set up a Web site called GA HELP — that he’s calling an “unofficial, one-stop help site” for the assembly.
The University of Dubuque has announced it will “step away from the table” on plans to enter a partnership agreement with Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka, Alaska, according to Dubuque President Jeffrey F. Bullock.
(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.
OSH (ENI) -- The worst conflict in Kyrgyzstan since a revolution in April, may currently be confined to an area around the southern city of Osh, but the international ACT Alliance, an emergency aid and development agency, has warned that the fighting could spread.
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.
(ENI) — Vatican critic Hans Küng has warned against "condemning the church and its priests wholesale" for the current spate of sex abuse allegations.
LOUISVILLE — The Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA) is recommending that the 222nd General Assembly (2016) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) be held in Portland, Ore.
Randy Harris, pastor of Highland Church in Winston-Salem, N.C., and book editor for The Presbyterian Outlook since April 2005, concludes his service as book editor with this issue of the magazine.
Editor’s Note: This address was delivered at the January 4, 2009, worship Service of Palma Ceia Church in Tampa, Fla.
LOUISVILLE — The General Assembly Council of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has changed its policy regarding closed meetings to allow it to exclude “corresponding members” from such discussions.
LOUISVILLE – While budget concerns and impending layoffs are on the front burner for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) right now, the General Assembly Council also has other concerns bubbling on the stove.
With the U.S. economic crisis deepening and unemployment soaring, a group of 11 denominational and religious organization leaders are among the inaugural signers of a call to raise the federal minimum wage to $10 in 2010.
The signers include Gradye Parsons, General Assembly stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Nearly 400 faith leaders from all 50 states have already endorsed “$10 in 2010,” a campaign led by “Let Justice Roll;” more are signing on each day.
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SAN JOSE – They had to endure some scolding, but the General Assembly Council (GAC) and the Presbyterian Foundation seem to have found a path for resolving future disputes over the disbursement of funds — disagreements that, during the meeting of the 218th General Assembly, slid messily out into public view.
Near the end of her remarks at the Presbyterian Writers Guild (PWG) luncheon June 26, Marj Carpenter said, “I like to write so much that I feel sorry for people who never get to write.”
SAN JOSE — The 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has urged the denomination’s Board of Pensions [www.pensions.org] to expand its medical coverage for children with congenital developmental disabilities to include occupational, speech, and physical authority.
The expanded benefits would apply to children with such maladies as Down’s syndrome and autism.
SAN JOSE — In a dangerous world, interfaith dialogue is even more important because “a fire next door will consume your own house,” a leading U.S. Muslim told the 218th General Assembly’s Ecumenical Breakfast June 26.
SAN JOSE — Youth groups in New Jersey, Indiana, and southern California have been chosen winners of the inaugural Youth Video Challenge sponsored by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Foundation on its social networking site, ymiLIVE.org [www.ymilive.org].
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