LOUISVILLE - Top leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) released a letter Feb. 4 calling for a denomination-wide conversation. That marks the PC(USA)’s response to a letter and “white paper” released Feb. 2 by 45 pastors, most serving large congregations, that has provoked conversation around the church and which raises the possibility of some sort of denominational schism.
A group of 45 mostly large church pastors have published a letter to the whole Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) declaring the denomination to be “deathly ill” and declaring that the church needs to be “radically transformed.” At an early January gathering in Scottsdale, Ariz., the leaders articulated issues that they had been discussing informally over the past year. They spelled out their assessments in a white paper titled, “Time for Something New,” which was published on Feb. 2 along with the letter to the denomination.
WASHINGTON (rNS) — When President Barack Obama lit the National Christmas Tree behind the White House in 2009, he spoke of a “child born far from home” and said “while this story may be a Christian one, its lesson is universal.”
SAN ANSELMO — Carol Weir, former missionary in Lebanon died unexpectedly on Tuesday, Dec. 14, in Oakland after several months of declining health. She was 86 years old.
VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Pope Benedict XVI has called the limits on religious freedom a “threat to security and peace,” and said Christians are persecuted more than any other faith group.
HUNT, TEXAS — A decision by the Mo-Ranch Conference Center in Texas to allow an Islamic group to hold a retreat last month for Muslim teenagers drew a storm of criticism from some local Christians.
WASHINGTON (RNS) — The Southern Poverty Law Center is adding the Family Research Council and four other conservative religious organizations to its list of hate groups because of “falsehoods” in their anti-gay statements.
Leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have spoken out against a proposed immigration bill the Kentucky legislature is considering, sending a letter saying it would not hold national meetings or conventions in Kentucky if the strict Arizona-style legislation were passed.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is asking a Kentucky court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a man who alleges that he was a teenage victim of sexual abuse at a Presbyterian-run hostel in Africa in 1988, contending that the man did not file the lawsuit before the statute of limitations expired.
The More Light Presbyterians (MLP) recently placed an ad in The Presbyterian Outlook summarizing the change of mind experienced by Arlo Duba regarding ordination standards. Duba, Professor of Worship Emeritus, retired Dean of the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, and PC(USA) Minister of Word and Sacrament, used to oppose the ordination of LGBT person, but now supports it.
LOUISVILLE — Cynthia Bolbach, moderator of the 219th General Assembly (2010) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has appointed the members of the last two special committees called for by last summer’s assembly.
Samuel Shamba Warlick, who had been accused of sexually abusing children of Presbyterian missionaries in the Congo in the 1980s, was arrested in suburban Orlando Jan. 14 on federal charges of possessing and distributing child pornography. If convicted, Warlick could face up to 30 years in prison.
BANGALORE (ENInews) — Churches in Pakistan have expressed frustration over the government's refusal to amend a controversial blasphemy law, as urged by Pope Benedict XVI and protesting civil rights activists.
LOUISVILLE – Officials at Ecumenical News International (ENInews) in Geneva have announced the appointment of veteran North American journalist Solange De Santis as interim editor of the news agency while a search is launched for a new editor who will oversee the operation for the remainder of 2011.
LOUISVILLE – The need to minister to the ever-growing population of Spanish-speaking people in the south central United States has resulted in a collaborative lay training program organized by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
LOUISVILLE – Top leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have sent a letter to the denomination’s partner church in Egypt expressing their “anguish” over the New Year’s Day terrorist bombing of a Coptic church in Alexandria.
Presbyterian pastor and hymn writer, Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, has released two hymn texts for congregations wanting to sing an appropriate hymn in worship services following the tragedy in Tucson last weekend (see story in news section of this Web site or by clicking here).
Washington, D.C. (ENInews/RNS) — Tucson Bishop Gerald Kicanas was thousands of miles away from the shooting rampage that rocked his Arizona diocese on January 8 but the emotional shock hit him hard.
