10 years ago — January 11, 2010 “The time has come to turn the page from a black and blue magazine … to … a high def, full color … magazine. … When first presented a copy of The Presbyterian Outlook, over 25 years ago, I didn’t contain my immediate impression. ‘Looks boring.’ It was printed entirely in black and white. It showcased zero pictures. My older, wiser ministerial colleague had handed this young, newly ordained upstart a copy of the weekly newsletter with the words, ‘You have a lot to learn about being Presbyterian. This is where you start.’ My reaction didn’t keep me from subscribing. Soon I was devouring it. A similar first impression has stopped many others in their tracks.” So started an editorial that announced the Outlook’s move into the second decade of the 21st century with a new look. The editor used the image of black/blue and full color to express the hope for the future of the PC(USA). His hope for the church was to leave behind the infighting and find a new … [Read more...]

80 years ago – December 20, 1939 There are some days that stand out from the others like Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. But Christmas stands out among all these. In “a day when Christmas has been commercialized, tinseled with empty and gaudy pleasures, cheapened with excesses and turned over to unclean rioting, it is well for us to pause and ask ourselves what Christmas really means. … Christmas came and with it the worth of the child was recognized as never before. Bret Harte has a story of how Christmas came to Roaring Camp. Roaring Camp was a mining camp in the lawless west, with a sinister and unenviable notoriety. But a baby was born into the camp. The camp was subtly changed under the influence of that little child whose helplessness appealed to all that was” noble in people. They “became tender and thoughtful.” It’s an allegory about Christmas. “The world itself was Roaring Camp two thousand years ago. … Then a little child was born in Bethlehem. … Harte’s lovely story is a … [Read more...]

10 years ago — November 30, 2009 “It is estimated that approximately 12 million undocumented people reside in the United States and another estimated 300,000 come each year, according to materials from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Office of Immigration Issues. “By the end of 2009, more than 440,00 immigrants will be incarcerated at a network of county jails and for-profit prisons at a cost of approximately $2 billion annually, according to the Office of Immigration’s website. … “As compelling as the statistics are, Candie Blankman, pastor of First Church in Downey, California, began to research issues of immigration and undocumented workers for a different reason. Her own congregation included folks for whom the ‘issue’ – debated, in sound bites, the media and in government – were real and personal.” A two-day forum on immigration was held at her church. “What we are really hoping is to make it possible for people to have reasonable conversations. … It was designed not … [Read more...]

80 years ago — November 22, 1939 The 18th annual observance of Race Relations Sunday was approaching. The Federal Council of Churches shared a message drafted by Philip Jones, pastor of the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York, “challenging the churches in a time of world conflict, suffering and wreck of war, to be aware of the ‘lack of social justice in our own country,’ and ‘to purify herself of the great modern heresy of racial discrimination within her own walls.’” It called Christians to oppose “cruelty and injustice which greed, bigotry and prejudice create.” But more than this, Christians are called to action in communities to effect change. Christians are called to correct “unequal educational opportunities for minority races, inequitable administration of public benefits of social security and the like, the withholding of civic privileges and rights from citizens of color, and an unbrotherly conduct in the daily life of people of different racial groups. Concrete … [Read more...]

“The Christian college must make its appeal to our more thoughtful men and women. The things that are seen are temporal but the things that are unseen are eternal. The Christian college deals to a large extent with values, which while unseen, are more fundamental than the physical things evident to all. Such a college must depend for support upon those individuals who are concerned with the spiritual. In fact, the very existence of the Christian college is dependent upon thoughtful people. They are the ones who have built and have supported such colleges throughout the history of our nation, and, in doing this, they have labored to bring the Kingdom of God to men and have taken ‘the seats of the builders of cities and the procurers of peace.’” The occasion of such focus on Christian higher education was the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of Austin College, which reaches back to the early beginnings of the state of Texas. “The moving spirit in the founding of … [Read more...]

63 years ago — November 12, 1956 By 1930, the Presbyterian Church of the U.S.A. had opened the door to ordination for women serving as elders. In 1955, the denomination approved women’s ordination to the office of pastor. On October 24, 1956, Syracuse Presbytery ordained 31-year-old, five-foot-two-inch Margaret Towner affirming her call as a minister to First Presbyterian Church in Allentown, Pennsylvania. “She wants people just to keep on calling her Margaret, as they have been doing before … she doesn’t want people to feel differently toward her now.” She “was born in Columbia, Mo., majored in art and music at Carlton College, Northfield, Minn., and then began work on pre-medical courses. Upon graduation she became a professional photographer at the Mayo Clinic, taking pictures of operations and other medical activities. In Syracuse, N.Y., she opened her own photographic studio … . Then she decided to enter church work, taking the full three-year course at Union Seminary in N.Y., … [Read more...]