GENEVA (ENInews) – With one U.S. delegate dissenting, the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee on 21 February criticized the U.S. for its Feb. 18 veto of a UN Security Council resolution condemning continued settlement construction by Israel in the Palestinian Territories.
NAIROBI, Kenya, 23 February (ENInews) – Christian clergy in Libya said they have no intention of leaving the country, where several days of protests and retaliation by government armed forces have left hundreds of people dead.
The Apostle Paul says we hold this treasure – meaning the Gospel – in earthen vessels. The same can be said for our polity. Any polity is an imperfect vessel in which we seek to hold the perfect will of God for the church. However, I firmly believe that the document that is before you is a significant improvement over the current Form of Government.
One stated purpose of the authors of the New Form of Government is to “empower the church to engage effectively in the mission of God in the twenty-first century.”
In many ways I readily concede some of the points Wilson Gunn makes about our letter introducing the Fellowship. Sometimes it’s scary to think how naïve we are about the web of organizations and structures he mentions within the PCUSA, many of which I’ve never heard of before. I appreciate his positive tone and remarkable grasp of leadership, business and management principles in applying them to our denomination.
In Response to the Letters of February 2 and 7 from our brothers in the PCUSA,
We, the Session of Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, Georgia, write in response to your initial and clarification letters of February 2 and 7. We are a Session of male and female, youth, young adult, adult, divorced, single, and married elected leaders of our congregation.
The 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has sent to the presbyteries a host of amendments to ratify or disapprove. This report presents unbiased pro/con summaries that explain
There’s no question: The bread-and-butter of Presbyterian camps and conference centers is, not surprisingly, Presbyterians. In other words, the core usage is for classic church-related programming such as summer youth camps and church retreats, leadership training, and spiritual development.
Representatives of Christian Churches Together (CCT) — a fellowship of 36 denominations and six national organizations representing a large spectrum of Christians — has issued the first known formal clergy response to Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
NEW YORK (CWS) If 2010 was the year of large-scale disasters — including the devastating Haiti earthquake and wide-spread floods in Pakistan — 2011 is likely to be the year when issues of hunger become increasingly significant on the global stage, international humanitarian organization Church World Service (CWS) says in a New Year’s assessment.
VATICAN CITY (RNS) After a lengthy appeals process, the Vatican has ruled that nine Boston-area Catholic parishes should be closed despite protests from parishioners.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (RNS) A coalition of more than 50 Christian, Jewish, and Muslim leaders sent an open letter to Congress urging a “time of soul searching” and national dialogue about “violent and vitriolic political rhetoric.”
BANGALORE, India (ENI) Pakistani churches say they’re frustrated by the government’s refusal to amend a controversial blasphemy law that makes it a capital crime to insult Islam or the Prophet Muhammad.
SAN DIEGO (ABP) A U.S. federal appeals court has ruled that a four-story-tall cross atop an oceanside promontory in the exclusive San Diego suburb of LaJolla is unconstitutional as currently configured.
WARSAW (ENInews) – Poland's largest Roman Catholic publishing house has defended its decision to issue a controversial book, which accuses Poles of profiting from the Holocaust by betraying Jews to the Nazis and stealing their possessions.
GENEVA (ENInews) – U.S. troop withdrawals notwithstanding, Iraqi Christians continue to flee because their safety cannot be guaranteed, and there is little hope their lives will improve soon, six Iraqi church leaders said Feb. 18 during the meeting of the World Council of Churches Central Committee.
GENEVA (ENInews) – The World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee on Feb. 17 took a hard look at whether it can adapt quickly enough to rapidly changing ecumenical and interreligious realities. If it cannot, one delegate noted, fixation on governance and institutional survival may "suck the life out of the ecumenical movement."
Presbyteries are voting on many amendments. I’m writing about Amendment ‘A’ which would delete G-6.0106b from our Book of Order. For almost fifteen years this paragraph has clarified that we Presbyterians believe what the Christian church has always believed, namely, that God’s intention for us humans is “to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman (W-4.9001), or [in] chastity in singleness.”
