The Pittsburgh Theological Seminary Board of Directors on July 21 named the Rev. Dr. William J. Carl III as its next president. Carl currently serves as pastor of the 1,700-member First Church in Dallas, Texas, a position he has held since 1983.
Sometimes the path is straight and clear. And sometimes the journeys of the heart twist around through thickets and wilderness and desert and what seem to be dead ends. But they keep walking. Across the church, acting from faith, ordinary people stir concrete and walk into prisons and set up cots. Sometimes people end up in places they never would have imagined, meeting people whose lives seem so different and yet with whom they discover they have so much in common.
And when they get to that unexpected place, they often say: "This is exactly where God wants me to be."
DALLAS -- The Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) apparently will not take a position on one of the church's most divisive issues: whether gays or lesbians who aren't celibate should be ordained.
While the group's final recommendations won't be released until August, the task force says in a draft report released July 19 that it "was not asked to take a position on human sexuality or ordination and we have not attempted to do so. We did invest considerable time and energy in conversation, seeking to understand each other's points of view. We did not try to convince fellow Task Force members of our own perspectives or to decide whether the church's current position should be changed."
Latest statistics are 'a wake-up call' for the denomination, Kirkpatrick says
Active membership in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) declined by 43,175 in 2004, continuing a trend dating to the mid-1960s.
At the end of last year, PC(USA) membership stood at 2,362,136. The 2004 membership drop was the second largest of the past decade. The church lost 46,658 members last year.
t the time of Presbyterian reunion in 1983, the denomination had 4.2 million members.
DALLAS -- Casting judgment. Sorting through disagreements. Deciding what's worth fighting about and what not to push. The Theological Task Force on..
DALLAS -- The controversies that some think may split the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) apart now aren't unprecedented -- they follow a similar path carved by Presbyterian battles over the years. The pattern typically is this: the church feels pressure to make decisions on matters on which there are a range of views, often involving eligibility for church office; people feel locked into just two positions; they struggle for control of the church.
And "the result is a church both preoccupied with and weary of conflict," according to a draft report of the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) presented during meetings this week.
Searching through history, hoping to provide guidance for the current troubles, the task force looked for ways of dealing with conflict in Presbyterian history that could provide some relief.
DALLAS -- The Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has begun unveiling draft sections of its report -- without yet addressing some of the most controversial issues before it, but by emphasizing the theological convictions underlying its work and by stressing how much its 20 diverse members have learned from one another.
The task force will vote on its final report Aug. 24 and 25 in Chicago. The task force members have been exchanging sections of the draft report privately among themselves for months, revising as they go along, and have had hours of closed door discussions, including at this meeting, which began July 18.
The draft sections of the report are being posted on the PC(USA)'s website as soon as they are handed out to journalists. And so far, the task force members' public comments have been mostly along the lines of suggesting small editorial changes rather than any major revisions.
DALLAS -- What exactly the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will recommend remains to be seen.
But its 20 members do say in draft section of their report, released July 19, that they were intentionally selected to serve on the task force because of their diverse views and have found their faith strengthened by honest, ongoing, heartfelt discussions with those with whom they disagree.
"Repeatedly, we found ourselves moved and impressed by the depth and the truth of statements" made by those from very different backgrounds, the draft report states, and "more surprisingly, our faith was enriched and strengthened by the contributions of those whose views on contested issues we do not share."
Paul Shields Crane, 86, prominent retired missionary-surgeon, died June 12 at his home in Black Mountain, N.C. of congestive heart failure. He was also diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
A renaissance man, Crane was a respected linguist who translated for U.S. presidents on three occasions, helped develop a medical treatment for a debilitating parasite, assisted in establishing universities in Korea and served as both a teacher and a surgeon in Korea for more than 20 years.
The position of elder is the oldest New Testament office next to that of apostle. The apostles were men (and women?) who..
You know the old saying: sometimes the journey is at least as interesting as the destination.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) set sail last summer -- with little warning and a not-very-clear itinerary -- towards the idea of possibly divesting in some companies doing business in Israel, as a way of expressing concern about Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people.
Already, it's been a bumpy, exciting ride, and there's still a long way to go.
Who knows what decisions involving divestiture the 2006 General Assembly might be asked to consider, or what the mood of the church will be, with a bucket of other sizzling issues on the table as well?
And who has a clue what twists and turns politics in the Middle East may take before then?
Presbyterian and Jewish congregants gathered in Shelton Chapel at Austin Seminary on March 30 in an effort to further open the lines of communication between the two communities. The gathering was the President's Colloquium, "A Difficult Friendship: Divestment, Dialogue, and Hope."
Two speakers addressed the challenges and opportunities facing Presbyterians and Jews in the wake of the divestiture vote last summer at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly: the Reverend Joseph D. Small III, associate director for the PC(USA) Congregational Ministries Division and coordinator for the Office of Theology and Worship/Spiritual Formation, and Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor, director of Interfaith Affairs for the Anti-Defamation League.
According to the PC(USA) website, "The 216th General Assembly approved several measures opposing the Israeli occupation of Palestine ... including a call for the corporate witness office of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to begin gathering data to support a selective divestment of holdings in multinational corporations doing business in Israel/Palestine."
Davidson College is an institution of higher learning established in 1837 by Presbyterians of North Carolina. Since its founding, the ties that bind the college to its Presbyterian heritage, including the historic understanding of Christian faith called The Reformed Tradition, have remained close and strong. The college is committed to continuing this vital relationship.
Jesuit educators, known for their dual emphasis on academics and social justice, are gearing up to set a new standard for the way colleges wield clout on Wall Street.
Under a proposal rolled out for chief financial officers recently in Cincinnati, the nation's 28 Jesuit colleges and universities would use their billions of dollars in investments to push a collective, Roman Catholic social agenda. Participating colleges would build endowment wealth and advocate for the poor simultaneously by demanding corporate policies that defend human rights, reduce predatory lending practices and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa.
The endowments of the nation's 28 Jesuit colleges and universities are valued at approximately $6.4 billion in aggregate.
Continuing to explore the question of what it means to be a Presbyterian-related college, a commission at Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina has recommended some changes in policy for the school -- changes that the commission hopes will strike a balance between educating students in the Christian tradition and preparing them to live and work in a multicultural world.
The proposed changes follow a controversy last year about whether Presbyterian College should drop a longstanding requirement that students must take at least two Bible classes -- one in Old Testament and one in New Testament. That prompted a flurry of discussion about what it means to be a distinctively Christian college and one that's related to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). A 30-member commission was created to study the matter further.
It has been just over 50 years since Henry Sloane Coffin died. This milestone offers an occasion to take the measure of this noted pastor, educator, and ecumenist.
Coffin was born into a prominent New York City family, the son of a lawyer and a Scottish mother. He learned the Westminster Shorter Catechism when a youngster and developed a deep respect for the ministry at home and at the Fifth Avenue Church where the family worshipped.
PNS) Five more Presbyterians have been commissioned by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s Colombia Network to accompany Colombian church, union and displaced leaders who are threatened by death squads for their work in human rights.
At its May 9-11 meeting in Chicago, the network set eight different goals for its work, some intended to directly assist churches in Colombia, others targeting U.S. corporations for study. Jo Ella Holman, WMD's liaison to the network, led a group discussion about reported abusive labor practices.
Continuing accompaniment -- and stepped-up recruitment -- were high on the agenda, as well as debate about how to address labor practices in Coca- Cola's bottling facilities in Colombia, where some union organizers reportedly have been intimidated or killed. Sixteen U.S. Christians have completed accompaniment training so far, and a third training program is planned in Washington, DC, in mid-July.
New research shows 50 percent more megachurches in the United States than previously thought.
Initial analysis of a cooperative project to survey all megachurches in the United States by Scott Thumma of Hartford (Conn.) Seminary's Hartford Institute for Religion Research, and Dave Travis and Warren Bird of Leadership Network, uncovered at least 1,200 Protestant churches that claim more than 2,000 weekly worship attendees.
The latest project of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship suggests it's as important to give as to receive.
After receiving renewed funding from Indiana-based Lilly Endowment Inc., the Institute has announced its 2005 recipients of Worship Renewal Grants. It is awarding almost $700,000 to 54 churches and organizations, using the support of its Lilly Endowment grant to give funds to congregations and other Christian organizations for projects they design to enrich and transform worship.
The 2005 graduates of seminaries affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) held a variety of events in spring 2005 related to honoring students and awarding degrees. These included:
Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
Commencement exercise was held at University Church, Austin, Texas, on Sunday, May 22 at 2:30 p.m. The Reverend Dr. David G. McKechnie gave the commencement address. He is pastor of Grace Church in Houston, Texas, an Austin Seminary trustee and former candidate for moderator of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 216th General Assembly.
RNS) Pope Benedict XVI said May 12 that living through the "devastating and inhuman ideologies" of Nazism and communism in his native Germany has made him "particularly sensitive" to the need to seek peace through dialogue.
Benedict made the unusually personal statement in his first address on international relations since his election as pope April 19. He spoke in French at an audience for diplomats accredited to the Vatican.
The address was relatively brief, little more than a page long, but it contained a warm invitation to China, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia to enter into diplomatic relations with the Vatican.
The theological reflection group, in Albany presbytery in upstate New York, has been meeting for several years now -- formed in part out of a sense of dissatisfaction among both conservatives and liberals about the history of conflict and confrontation in the presbytery and more broadly in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
It's called, on paper, the Albany Invitation, but is basically known as the "Bialy group". "We're named for a bagel," said Bill Hoffmann, who's pastor of the East and West Hebron churches and is moderator of Albany presbytery. That's because Barbara Wheeler, the president of Auburn Theological Seminary in New York and a member of the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the PC(USA), brings bagels from Bialy's in the city for each meeting.
The Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is set to make its final report in September, and to some folks, that report will tell all -- whatever the task force recommends is what they will weigh as its contribution.
But others in the church are taking a different path. They want to know what the task force will say, of course, but they're also involved in their own communities in trying to model the kind of conversation across theological lines that the task force represents. For some of those people, that will be part of the task force's legacy too -- the example it has set for the broader church of bringing together Presbyterians who might vote against each other on some of the most contentious issues, but who through listening and prayer and hard work have come to understand and respect one another.
In a world of suicide bombings, text messaging and living wills, Christian education is complicated stuff.
The kindergarteners and some of the adults need to learn the basics. In many Presbyterian congregations, new member classes are full of former Baptists and Catholics and Methodists and people who haven't gone to any church in many, many years.
Many congregations want a Sunday school curriculum that's straightforward and easy to use. They have to choose between material produced by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and what's available from other sources -- on the Internet and in catalogs and Christian bookstores. Some have trained Christian educators; others rely on volunteers and a gut instinct for what will work.
It's almost like standing in a nursery looking at a plant that's getting ready to bud. You have some idea what it might look like, but you're not exactly sure what color it will be, how big it will get, whether it will thrive or struggle when it's planted in the soil.
From June 15-18, a meeting will be held in Minneapolis of a group called New Wineskins, which is looking for ways to transform the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) These evangelical Christians are ready and willing to think outside the box -- they want a new way of being Presbyterian and figure it will take lots of change to get there.
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