SAN JOSE — For Melva Costen the year leading up to the 1983 reunion was busy, demanding and deeply personal. Her husband, the Rev. James Costen, was the 1982 moderator of the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (UPCUSA).
On the 25th anniversary of the reunion of the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (northern stream) and the Presbyterian Church in the United States (southern stream), people who were there look back.
SAN JOSE – If Presbyterians want to speak of the common ground in the faith of Christians, Muslims and Jews — perhaps as a way to build a bridge to deeper conversation — what’s the best way to do that?
“Let the needs of the world and not the failings of the church set our agenda,” said Mary Hunt, Catholic feminist theologian, to those gathered for the Voices of Sophia breakfast Tuesday (June24).
A Church Growth and Christian Education Committee recommendation to produce human development resources for adolescents was approved by the 218th General Assembly Wednesday (June 25) after deliberations that included passionate, personal arguments for and against the creation of what was expected to take form as a new curriculum.
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, at this week’s meeting of the 218th General Assembly, slid messily out into public view.
SAN JOSE – Leadership is a big deal at this year’s General Assembly – with the election June 21 of Bruce Reyes-Chow, http://www.mod.reyes-chow.com/ the young, tech-savvy pastor of a multicultural church, as moderator, and with the assembly scheduled to pick a new stated clerk on June 27.
SAN JOSE -- The General Assembly Youth Committee meeting June 24, using an interactive visioning process to address Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) concerns about the nature of adolescents, youth ministry, and resources for faith development, hammered out a series of recommendations for the Assembly's consideration later this week.
SAN JOSE -- Using his own church as an example, the Rev. Jin Kim, pastor of the Church of All Nations in Minneapolis, Minn., called for Christians to “lay down their sword of power and privilege and to walk humbly with God.”
