RICHMOND, Va. — Susan Andrews, moderator of the 215th General Assembly of the PC(USA), issued a statement Saturday evening regarding a disciplinary complaint filed by Reston, Va., attorney Paul Rolf Jensen earlier in the day.
Jensen, who has filed several dozen complaints against ministers nationally for either being sexually active homosexuals or allegedly participating in the ordination of homosexuals, says Andrews, pastor of Bradley Hills church, Bethesda, Md., acted in "willful and deliberate violation of her ordination vows" to be governed by the church’s polity and to further the peace, unit and purity of the church.
RICHMOND Some folks see commissioners’ resolutions as a way to get the concerns of ordinary people before the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to see what’s on their hearts. This year, it’s everything from free trade to marriage to The Da Vinci Code.
Nearly 30 resolutions were filed by the Sunday deadline, and not surprisingly, several had to do with marriage and homosexuality.
RICHMOND, Va. — As about 8,000 Presbyterians streamed into the Richmond Coliseum Sunday morning, they passed concession stands advertising drinks, popcorn and hot dogs but found inside a secular space made sacred. Tables draped in red cloth formed the arms of a large cross that dominated the space, echoed by an enormous blue cross on the floor. In the center of the cross, other symbols of our faith — the baptismal font, pulpit and the communion table —were placed.
RICHMOND, Va. — The Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) challenged Presbyterians to think about "doing church in a new way" — and to consider the possibility that unity is what God wants from the church, and that Jesus Christ is the source of that unity, even if the people in the church don’t get along.
RICHMOND — A 40-year-old elder who exhorted Presbyterians to "get in the boat with Jesus, to risk crossing borders and to go out into the world " — to scream with fear and joy as they take risks — was elected moderator of the 216th General Assembly.
Rick Ufford-Chase, the co-founder of the BorderLinks ministry along the United States-Mexican border, defeated two candidates — David McKechnie and K.C. Ptomey, both pastors of tall-steeple churches and more than 20 years his senior — who represented to some the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) as it has been.
Some General Assemblies announce themselves well in advance. One would have to be truly asleep at the wheel not to know what the big headlines would be about in those years.
Other Assemblies, and this may be one, are more shy starting off — they’re not so quick to reveal their passions. There’s much in the news, and the 544 commissioners may show up with much on their minds.
Homecoming: a bittersweet word, connoting remembrance and celebration of things past and strengthening of bonds intended to stretch far into the future.
It is a word that applies in a sense to the 216th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to be held in Richmond on June 26-July 3. For by convening in Virginia’s capital, Presbyterians will be returning to the birthplace of their religious freedom.
LOUISVIILLE — So what does it mean to believe in the one holy catholic and apostolic church, as the Nicene Creed presents it — and what’s involved in trying to be that church?
A new group that’s been put together for theological reflection, with funding from the Lilly Endowment, started off by talking about that famous phrase from the Nicene Creed and about some of its implications for Presbyterians now.
The office of Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is many faceted and seldom understood. Anyone elected to this position must wear many hats and wear them well.
As commissioners prepare for the election of the stated clerk at this year’s General Assembly in Richmond, Va., some historical background on the complexity of this office may be useful.
Two pastors and one elder have been nominated for moderator of the 216th General Assembly, which will meet June 26-July 3 in Richmond, Va. This year's election, on the evening of June 26, will be unique in that because of the switch to biennial General Assemblies, the moderator will serve a two-year term.
As in years past, The Outlook asked each nominee to provide a brief biographical sketch and to answer three questions from the editor. That information and their answers follow in alphabetical order by last name.
Passion, drama and Presbyterian? Those aren’t often words used in the same sentence.
Folks can get right worked up over the sports playoffs, politics and the price of gas, the return of the cicadas (and of Prince), carbs vs. fats.
But the stated clerk’s election in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)? Why get hot and bothered over that?
Trinity Presbytery passed a resolution Tuesday, June 1, expressing concern with the proposed changes in Presbyterian College's educational program.
The resolution — drafted by a minister-member of the presbytery and amended by the presbytery's general council — was amended by the presbytery to include a call for Presbyterian College to “halt the implementation” of the proposed changes and calls for the formation of a consultation at the synod level "concerning what it means, in a practical sense, for Presbyterian College to be ' ... a church-related institution committed to the Christian faith,' and a college 'related to the Christian Church' in the context of the Presbyterian Church (USA)."
Fifty years ago, in 1954, the United States Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision. In Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka the court set aside Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) which established the "separate-but-equal" racial relations policies for the nation. (Associate Justice John Harlan, a Kentucky Presbyterian, cast the only negative vote against the 1896 decision.)
A proposal to change the academic requirements at Presbyterian College in South Carolina — a proposal that, among other things, would eliminate the current requirement that students take courses in both Old and New Testament — has some at the school troubled, and wondering, what exactly does it mean to be a "Presbyterian-related college?"
The proposal is still under discussion and wouldn’t take effect before the fall of 2006.
BLACK MOUNTAIN, N.C. — Albert Eugene Dimmock, 83, former director of PCUS evangelism efforts and a professor emeritus of Christian education at Union Seminary-PSCE, died at his home here Friday, May 21.
A service of witness to the resurrection was held Sunday, May 23, at Black Mountain church.
Dimmock was born on Nov. 17, 1920, in Norfolk, Va., to Presbyterian minister Thomas Herbert Dimmock and Martha Amis Dimmock. During World War II, he worked in the shipyards at Newport News, Va.
LOUISVILLE The boycott by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) of Taco Bell hasn’t closed any Taco Bell stores or caused any layoffs. That wasn’t the point, a denominational official who works with the campaign said Friday.
But the boycott has drawn some ecumenical support.
LOUISVILLE — They winced, but they did it.
The executive committee of the General Assembly Council has approved a two-year mission budget for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) that will cut $4.6 million from its budget for next year and eliminate 37 more jobs at the denomination’s national headquarters in Louisville. Nine of those positions are currently vacant and 28 people will be laid off as of May 14.
Montreat, with its clear air and its streams making music day and night, with its clusters of cottages and stone lodges riding the mountains of North Carolina, is a place where some Presbyterians have been coming all their lives, where their parents and grandparents came before them, where the porches and pathways are full of memories.
For Southern Presbyterians, "it’s the closest thing to Mecca that we have," said Frederick J. Heuser Jr., president of the Presbyterian Historical Society and Department of History. "It’s a place that resonates with people’s souls."
A Presbyterian minister cannot be brought up on disciplinary charges for performing a same-sex "marriage" ceremony, because the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has not yet spoken definitively enough about whether such ceremonies are absolutely prohibited, a church court has ruled.
In order to create such a prohibition, either the denomination’s Constitution would have to be changed or a General Assembly would have to issue an authoritative interpretation to state that ministers are prohibited from performing such ceremonies, the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of the Covenant has ruled in a closely divided decision.
LOUISVILLE — Needing to cut $4.6 million from its budget for next year, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has announced that 37 more jobs will be cut at the denomination’s national headquarters in Louisville. Nine of those positions are currently vacant, but 28 people will be laid off.
This is the third consecutive year that positions have been cut at the denomination’s national offices because of budgetary pressures, and programs and services are being cut as well as jobs.
The question of how the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) should relate to people of other faiths — how to be Christian in a pluralistic world — will definitely be before this year’s General Assembly in Richmond.
In part, that’s fallout from the controversial new Messianic congregation in Philadelphia — Avodat Yisrael, started with $145,000 in financial support from Philadelphia Presbytery, plus $40,000 from Trinity Synod and $75,000 from a General Assembly Council committee.
LOUISVILLE – Emphasizing his new role as a "pastor-president," a minister from West Virginia — Dean K. Thompson, pastor of First church, Charleston — has been named the eighth president of Louisville Seminary.
With Dorothy Ridings, chair of the seminary’s board of trustees, saying that the seminary needs pastoral leadership at a difficult time, Thompson told a crowd gathered Thursday in the seminary’s chapel that he and his wife, Rebecca, feel led by the Holy Spirit to come to Louisville. "We’ve been nurtured by the Spirit, comforted, taught and guided towards you," Thompson told the crowd.
Princeton Seminary's board of trustees has named Iain R. Torrance as the institution’s sixth president. Torrance is moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Divinity at the University of Aberdeen, and master of Christ’s College, Aberdeen, where he is professor in patristics and Christian ethics.
In assuming the presidency on July 1, Torrance will succeed Thomas W. Gillespie, who served from 1983 to 2004.
Heartland Presbytery cannot require congregations to make per capita payments and mission pledges to be considered for loans or other financial support from the presbytery, the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Mid-America Synod has ruled.
The synod judicial commission ruled April 3 that the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) provides "that the session (of a congregation) has sole responsibility to distribute the gifts of the people" and that Heartland’s policy, adopted in June 2003, had a "coercive force" that was not acceptable.
Nancy Ammerman recognizes Lake Wobegon Lutheran Church when she sees it — the congregation where the families have all been there for generations, where everybody knows everybody and there’s no question at all about which hymns will be sung or what food will show up at the potluck: tuna noodle casserole and Jell-O with fruit. Every time.
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