Paul Rolf Jensen, the lawyer who has put in long hours over the past year filing Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) disciplinary cases, has filed another one — this time not involving ordination and homosexuality, but the theological views of a pastor trying to transfer his membership to another presbytery.
Presbyterian researchers involved in a major study of U.S. congregations have found there isn't one "silver bullet" that will make a congregation succeed. Strong congregations can be large or small, there's no single formula for what works. But they say congregations that want to become extraordinary need to develop multiple strengths — to figure out what they do best — and to intentionally focus on those things.
When Thomas Daniel signed up for the religion class his senior year of college, he did it for one reason: he wanted to take a class from John Kuykendall, then president of Davidson College (N.C.). "He is a truly fascinating guy and I wanted to take a course with him," Daniel said. "If he was teaching physics, I would have taken that."
Even at Davidson College — a Presbyterian-related school — Daniel didn't know anyone who went to church.
Cincinnati Presbytery’s Judicial Commission has found minister A. Stephen Van Kuiken guilty of participating in same-sex marriage ceremony at Mount Auburn church and issued a rebuke.
The censure says he should perform marriage ceremonies "only for a man and a woman." If he performs "holy union" ceremonies for same-sex couples he is "directed to take special care to avoid any confusion of such services with Christian marriage."
LOUISVILLE - The Menaul School -- a Presbyterian-affiliated school in Albuquerque with students in grades 6-12 -- will get another chance to get back on financially solid ground, thanks to a $450,000 loan from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
When the denomination's budget is being cut, it's natural to look inward: to talk about what's getting the axe and what's being preserved.
But Fahed Abu-Akel, moderator of the 214th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), turned attention back to the world outside in his remarks to the General Assembly Council on April 4. Abu-Akel asked each Presbyterian to pause at noon each day to pray about the war in Iraq
LOUISVILLE - The General Assembly Council unanimously approved a budget of nearly $127 million for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for 2004 - a budget that includes $3.1 million in adjustments and the elimination of 19 positions on the denomination's national staff. Nine of those positions are vacant, but 10 people will lose their jobs.
LOUISVILLE -- John Detterick, one of the top leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is a little frustrated -- he's tired of hacking away at budgets, and wants the Presbyterian church to come up with a new and more strategic way of figuring out what work it should be doing and what it can no longer afford.
David Stoner, who has been a principal party in negotiations with the Pakistani government, reports that Forman Christian College in Lahore will be formally turned over to PC(USA)-designated college principal Peter Armacost, today, March 20.
NEW YORK — Holmes Rolston III, professor of philosophy at Colorado State University, whose 30 years of research, writing and lecturing on the religious imperative to respect nature have established environmental ethics, has been named the 2003 Templeton Prize laureate. The prize, valued at more than $1million, was announced Wednesday at a news conference at the Church Center for the United Nations in New York.
KANSAS CITY — Finally, it's final: the 214th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will not be called back into session.
For months, the denomination has been waiting to hear whether Alex Metherell, an elder and physician from Laguna Beach, Calif., would succeed in his efforts to reconvene last summer's General Assembly to take on an issue which he claims could pull apart the PC(USA) — that of sessions and pastors which refuse to follow the denomination's constitutional standards, which limit ordination to those who practice fidelity if they're married or chastity if they're single.
KANSAS CITY — During an all-day hearing here Monday, one lawyer said this case "will decide the future of our denomination," another said it's a test of whether there's any trust left in the church.
The General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, the highest court of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is expected to decide later this week whether, after months of high drama, the 214th General Assembly (2002) will meet again — maybe the week before the 215th General Assembly.
LOUISVILLE — As the Witherspoon Society — founded in 1973 and built upon the push-for-change energy of the 1960s — celebrates its 30th anniversary, some of its own members are thinking through what it means to be a progressive voice in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) with a nation preparing for war and a church divided against itself.
Editor's note — Following is the Report of the Pastoral Committee appointed by the Presbyery of Northern New England to work with Christ church, Burlington, Vt. The report was accepted without change by voice vote at the presbytery's stated meeting on March 8. It is the final report of the presbytery's compliance under the GAPJC decision in the Londonderry case.
Menaul School, a PC(USA)-affiliated secondary school in Albuquerque, N.M., is facing an economic crisis which must be resolved by April.
To continue operation, the school is seeking $550,000 in loans — $450,000 from the General Assembly and $100,000 from Southwest Synod. [Note — School officials had earlier told The Outlook that the GA request would be for $900,000. It has since been reduced.] The good news for the school is that the synod has approved a $200,000 loan. On the other hand, the GA committee that must recommend the larger loan does not meet until April 1.
KANSAS CITY — The General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission will hear a complaint over whether the 214th General Assembly should be called back into session, but with only one defendant — Moderator Fahed Abu-Akel.
The trial is scheduled to begin March 17 in Kansas City. It's not clear whether, if the judicial commission were to rule against Abu-Akel, if there is still enough time to call the Assembly back into session before the next General Assembly — the 215th — opens for business in Denver May 24.
KANSAS CITY — Katie Morrison got a lot of people's attention when she told reporters that she's lesbian, that she lives in a committed relationship with a longtime partner, and that to her way of thinking, chastity is not at all the same thing as celibacy. But Morrison, who was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in California in October 2001, told Redwoods Presbytery, when it was considering her ordination that fall, that she could comply with the requirement in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Constitution that those being ordained practice fidelity if they are married or chastity if they are single.
KANSAS CITY ‑- The General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission is supposed
to decide by March 3 whether to move ahead with a complaint regarding the refusal of
top Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) leaders to call last year's General Assembly back into
session.
DALLAS - Mark Achtemeier, a theology professor from Iowa, talked
about the dangers of "cut-and-paste" biblical interpretation - taking what
you like, tossing out the rest.
DALLAS – The elephant finally ambled into the room at the fifth meeting of
the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of thePresbyterian Church (U.S.A.). But it hasn't kicked anybody yet.
Emile H. Dieth Jr., president of the Montreat Conference Center since 1998, resigned Tuesday, Feb. 18, according to a Montreat news release.
In a message addressed to his staff and board colleagues, Dieth wrote, in part, "I take pride in the many achievements and accomplishments which have been concluded during my administration."
It's the subject weighing on the heart and conscience of almost every American, the one pastors know is troubling people but about which they aren't sure what they should do. Should the United States attack Iraq? And, facing that prospect, what is the Christian response?
At some Presbyterian churches, members pass out "Peace is Patriotic!" signs and gather in candlelight vigils for peace, along with sympathetic new friends who may be Quaker or Muslim or Catholic or of no faith tradition at all.
General Assembly Moderator Fahed-Abu Akel, says he won't call the 214th Assembly back into session, but a challenge pending in the church courts could bring a different result.
The General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, the denomination's highest court, is scheduled to meet Feb. 28 in Kansas City. During that session it may consider a remedial case filed against Abu-Akel and others involved in the decision to not recall the Assembly.
The denominational battle over ordination standards came to Rockville church, Rockville, Md., when the church's Pastor Nominating Committee (PNC) decided to call Alice Anderson as pastor.
On Wednesday, Jan. 29, National Capital Presbytery's Committee on Ministry (COM) said it could not confirm Anderson's call because of a "significant" minority opposition within the 241-member congregation to calling the openly lesbian minister.
SAN ANTONIO — Louis H. Zbinden Jr., 66, senior minister of 3,066-member First church, San Antonio, since 1971 and a leading figure among conservative evangelical Presbyterians, has announced to his congregation that he will retire effective June 1, 2003. His last Sunday in the pulpit will be May 25.
Zbinden told the session of the church about his retirement at its monthly meeting Monday night, Jan. 27. The church mailed a letter to the congregation that same day.
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