Alex Metherell, the elder and physician/engineer from Laguna Beach, Calif., who tried to get the 214th General Assembly recalled last year to address the issue of constitutional defiance, has announced that he will be a candidate for General Assembly stated clerk.
RICHMOND — The Mid-Atlantic Synod, meeting here in special session Saturday, voted 19-15 to review the policies, procedures and actions of Baltimore Presbytery with regard to admitting new minister members and the validation of ministries and oversight of ministers.
You probably won’t get a crowd up on their feet screaming if you shout out, "Authoritative interpretation!" On the other hand, those two words have the power to get some Presbyterians mighty riled up.
This year’s General Assembly will be asked, once again, to consider removing from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Constitution the requirement that those being ordained practice fidelity if they’re married or chastity if they are single — language that some contend follows centuries of Christian teaching, and that some others say unfairly excludes gays and lesbians in committed partnerships from serving in leadership in the church.
The question of what to do about Donald Stroud — the Presbyterian minister from Baltimore who has said publicly he cannot comply with the part of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Constitution that limits ordination to those who practice fidelity if they’re married or chastity if they are single — is taking yet another twist.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
We have been at war in Iraq for a year now. Close to 11,000 Iraqis have been killed. Nearly 600 United States servicemen and women have died in the hostilities; another 3,000 have been injured. We ask you to join us in continued prayers for those who are impacted by war, those who are serving in the military, and those in positions of authority.
Parker T. Williamson has won some time. The Permanent Judicial Commission of the Mid-Atlantic Synod has granted a stay of enforcement of a decision by Western North Carolina Presbytery involving Williamson.
What’s at dispute in the case is whether and on what terms Williamson can remain a member of Western North Carolina Presbytery.
James S. Brown Sr., 91, former publisher of The Outlook and general manager of the Outlook Book Service, died Wednesday, March 10, in Richmond, Va. A memorial service was held Saturday, March 13, at Tuckahoe Presbyterian Church in Richmond.
A Texas native, Brown came to The Outlook in 1947 to assist his brother, the late Outlook editor Aubrey Brown, by managing the business side of the operation. Prior to that, James Brown had been working with a Texas City oil refinery and narrowly escaped death in the disastrous explosion of 1947.
This is the magic of the Alpha evangelization program: a guy like John Goodwin, a management consultant from Vancouver, Canada, says, "I came to the Lord through Alpha, and had no intention of doing such a thing." Goodwin, a 65-year-old management consultant, had not gone to church for 35 years when, in 1998, he decided to give an Alpha course a try — in large part because a woman he was dating (and who is now his wife) was involved in the church and asked him to go.
Marcia Mount Shoop, an associate pastor at a big church in the Chicago suburbs, likes the idea of having an evangelistic outreach for people who are seeking to know more about God and Christianity. But when she went to an Alpha conference, "I had some theological problems with some of the curriculum — some of the content I felt was not appropriate for the Reformed tradition, it doesn’t reflect what we believe," Mount Shoop said.
John Zimmerman, a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) pastor from Washington state, saw firsthand how Alpha can transform a congregation when he served as an interim pastor about two years ago of a historic downtown church in Vancouver, B.C. That church, a Baptist congregation, had a long-term pastor who retired, and attendance dropped off by about 180 within a few months after he left. But then the Alpha programs the church had been offering took off — and Zimmerman was amazed at what happened next.
Meeting in Richmond on Feb. 10-11, the board of directors of the Presbyterian Outlook Foundation elected O. Benjamin Sparks its interim editor effective Feb. 20.
Sparks will serve in a part-time, limited capacity and without compensation while he remains pastor of Second Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Va. During his tenure as editor he will give overall direction to The Outlook in theological, editorial and ecclesiastical matters, setting the tone and direction of the paper.
DALLAS – Yes, they finally started talking about ordination.
No, they didn’t answer the big essay question: should the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ordain gays and lesbians (although there are no shortage of folks willing to volunteer the answer on that one.) That kind of discussion – what the PC(USA) should do about its disagreements over theology and ordination – is expected to be on the table when the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the PC(USA) meets again in August. And, after more than two years of work, some of them seem eager to get to it.
DALLAS – What are the qualifications for being a church leader?
The third and fifth chapters of 1 Timothy provide what New Testament scholar Frances Taylor Gench described as "a catalog of virtues" expected of such people – written with the recognition that the world is watching, that for some, how church leaders behave is one of the standards they use to judge whether the faith is real.
DALLAS — Jesus Christ himself is the peace, unity and purity of the church.
That’s the essence of a preliminary report that the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) plans to submit this summer to the 216th General Assembly.
DALLAS — Susan Andrews finds reasons for hope almost everywhere she goes in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) But she also sees "a big cloud" hanging over the denomination, and says "there is a fear, a mistrust, an anxiety, an anger" and a complete avoidance of direct and loving discussion of the key issues dividing the church.
LOUISVILLE — John Detterick, executive director of the General Assembly Council, on Feb. 14 called it a "new day," a "new chapter in the life of the General Assembly Council," because of the work the council has done to create a Mission Work Plan to shape the budget for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for 2005 and 2006.
LOUISVILLE — It’s hard being forced to choose.
In the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is evangelism more important than social justice?
Does spirituality matter more than leadership?
And how do you get from that kind of big-picture talk to cutting $8 million from the budget by early May? Who exactly will lose their jobs? And what programs will be shoved aside?
LOUISVILLE – Here’s the game plan: put together a new, two-year budget for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) that’s built on a big vision and big hopes for a new way of doing things.
Whether the will exists to say that some of what the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) traditionally has done won’t be done anymore, in order to make way for more important and even new things, still has not been determined.
LOUISVILLE — The final draft of a new paper on the doctrine of the Trinity will be available for review and comment on the Web site of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) by late February — a report that both affirms the historic use of the language "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" and suggests other language that can be used too.
LOUISVILLE — People yipped so loudly when the idea was presented last September that it was pulled from consideration. The response was clear: some people thought it was a terrible idea, unwise and unfair, for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to impose an administrative fee of up to 5 percent on restricted gifts to the denomination — money that individuals and congregations give with strings attached, requiring that the money be spent to fund specific things.
LOUISVILLE – What per capita rate will the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) set for 2005 and 2006? Well, that all depends.
The proposal on the table is to offer the General Assembly two options for a per capita rate, and to let the Assembly decide.
The first option would set a rate of $5.46 per active member for 2005 – five cents less than the rate for this year – then to raise it to $5.56, a boost of 10 cents per member from the current rate, for 2006.
LOUISVLLE — The big tiger, another round of budget cuts for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), stayed mostly out of sight as the General Assembly Council opened its winter meeting here Tuesday, Feb. 10. The cat hasn’t disappeared, but the denomination’s leadership is hoping to talk later this week more about the big picture — a "mission work plan" that lays out the vision for what kind of things should get money and what should not — and less about the hard dollars involved.
The disputes in Cincinnati presbytery regarding Mount Auburn church — a congregation whose session has said it cannot comply with the policy of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) regarding the ordination of gays and lesbians — are far from over.
Last summer, Mount Auburn’s pastor, Stephen Van Kuiken, lost his ordination after he refused to stop performing same-sex union ceremonies.
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — After a long, contentious, messy meeting — the kind where people roared down disapproval from the balcony when they didn’t like what they’d just heard — Western North Carolina Presbytery voted 150-106 Saturday night to declare that Parker Williamson, chief executive officer of the Presbyterian Lay Committee and editor-in-chief of the Layman, does not have a ministry that is validated by the presbytery.
LOUISVILLE — Conservative support may start to erode away again from the controversial "Transforming Families" report — as the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy recently voted to take out of a draft language that spoke of some families being established "contrary to God’s will."
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