Scott Anderson, an openly gay member of the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is seeking to be ordained once again as a PC(USA) minister.
Anderson, executive director of the Wisconsin Council of Churches and a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, set aside his ordination in 1990 after two members of the congregation he then served in California publicly revealed that Anderson is gay.
But Anderson said in an interview that he is asking John Knox Presbytery in Wisconsin to approve him as an inquirer seeking ordination. If the presbytery accepts him as an inquirer, he intends to declare a "scruple" or an objection to the part of the PC(USA)'s constitution that limits ordination to those who practice fidelity if they are married or chastity if they are single.
Anderson met with John Knox's Committee on Preparation for Ministry on Nov. 2, receiving the committee's support. The presbytery will consider his request on Nov. 14.
COLUMBUS -- John Buchanan is pastor of Fourth Church in Chicago and editor of The Christian Century magazine, also is a co-founder of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, which for the past decade has tried to convince the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to ordain gays and lesbians.
He was moderator of the General Assembly in Albuquerque in 1996 -- the assembly that passed the rule limiting ordination in the denomination to those who practice fidelity if they are married or chastity if they are single.
And on the opening day of the Covenant Network's 2006 conference, Buchanan said the denomination is now in a new place -- a place where the report of the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity, and Purity of the PC(USA) provides "a precious opportunity to try to live together as if the gospel makes a difference," as the Covenant Network's executive director, Pamela Byers, has said.
Here is a prayer that Dave Peterson, pastor of a 4,500-member Presbyterian church, has taught himself to pray: Lord, make me an evangelist!
"When I started out in ministry, evangelism was literally No. 13 on the list," said Peterson, who leads Memorial Drive Church in Houston. Peterson is also co-chair of the steering committee of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s major fundraising drive, the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands, which is raising money for new church development and international mission work.
But as a young pastor, Peterson said, evangelism "was the last thing I was interested in."
Dave Peterson, the Houston pastor who's co-chair of the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands fundraising campaign, is as curious as anyone about what will happen next.
The Hearts & Hands campaign doesn't have enough money in unrestricted donations to pay its operating costs for 2007 -- and the campaign's leaders hope the General Assembly Council can find a way to come up with enough funding soon to keep the $40 million campaign afloat.
The Eve of Christ the King
Gray, fading, year-worn light
portends an absence of anticipation.
No consideration, even, as to whether
or not it will begin again after
the evident onset of the dark....
mostly I crouch, head bowed, eyes closed
against the soft black, safe in liquid suspense.
but even in the nothing there are constant somethings:
a fluid symphony, simmering, rolling, rushing past;
a metronome beating out the time,
world without end--and a voice:
hushed murmur, burbling laugh,
distant yet irresistible.
Advent is a busy time in the life of anyone, let alone a pastor. A hospital was the last place I ever planned to be during the weeks leading up to Christmas, with the exception of visiting other people. But one year, my body decided otherwise. And so, in mid-December, I lay under the surgeon's knife for the second time in a year.
A hospital is not a haven of quiet and rest. It is anything but a peaceful place. I had a roommate who smoked in the bathroom and turned the lights and TV on in the middle of the night with no regard to my feeble attempts to sleep. Across the hall, an elderly woman with no idea where she was howled with pain and cried for help at least once every three minutes, day and night, day and night, day and night.
Advent 1: Luke 21:25-36
I was a tall, skinny, spindly-legged girl, gawky and uncoordinated. I recall my kindergarten teacher being alarmed when initially I could skip only on one side of my body. But all through my elementary years jump rope proved particularly challenging. Remember the schoolyard motion -- elbows bent at the waist, palms down, a slight rocking motion, hands pushing the air in time with the rope? I could do that for hours. Days. I never knew how to jump in.
I feel like that with a text like this. I'm not quite sure how to jump in here.
Scholars come along and try to give us a push: It's just apocalyptic literature, they say. So we jump in -- only to discover that apocalyptic is the double-dutch of biblical genres, and we collapse in a tangled mess of dispensational exegesis.
The fact that it's Advent, too, the beginning of the church's liturgical calendar, the Christian New Year, complicates matters as well. Because this text is more about an ending than a beginning, and it hardly evokes a sense of celebration. Yes, we're assured Jesus is coming again ... but not before we're bombarded with images of persecution and pestilence, cosmic disturbance and destruction. Don't let the prescribed lectionary boundaries try to soften the blow -- force yourself to go all the way back, at least to verse 12 and start reading there. Linger over these verses and you begin to get the sense that apparently followers of Jesus are not exempt from suffering. So much for a happy New Year.
Presbyterians in Houston, Texas, were instrumental in staging one of the largest faith celebrations ever in the Lone Star state, where the gospel of Jesus Christ came in the form of BMX bikers, skateboarders and concerts.
Luis Palau's CityFest Houston mixed evangelism with elements of a music festival, extreme sports and celebrity appearances to draw in a total of some 225,000 people to the modern-day open-air Christian revival, which was held Oct. 7-8.
Memorial Drive Church (see stories in pages 3 and 4) took the lead in organizing the $3.7 million multimedia outreach that was supported with volunteers and donations from about 600 Houston-area churches, including a throng of Presbyterian congregations.
The family-friendly event was also backed by scores of high-profile city leaders, businesses and professional sports franchises like the Houston Astros baseball team and the Houston Texans NFL football team.
A Service of Remembrance for William P. Thompson, former Co-Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and Stated Clerk of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., will be held in the Chapel on November 28 at 11:00am. Mr. Thompson died on April 27. This service, to be led by former colleagues of Mr. Thompson, had been envisioned for a time before the General Assembly in June, but now follows the service earlier in the year for James Andrews and the Centennial remembrances of Eugene Carson Blake. Mr. Andrews was Mr. Thompson's successor in the reunited Church; Mr. Blake his predecessor. The current Stated Clerk, Clifton Kirkpatrick, will participate in this service, as he did in the Thompson funeral back in May.
November 8, 2006
Comments on David Ray Griffin's Christian Faith and the Truth behind 9/11
Louisville, KY--The Board of Directors of the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation (PPC) has reviewed the decision to publish David Ray Griffin's Christian Faith and the Truth behind 9/11. The book was published by Westminster John Knox Press (WJK), a PPC imprint, earlier this year. "David Ray Griffin is a distinguished theologian who has published a number of books with PPC," said Kenneth Godshall, chair of the PPC Board of Directors. "This particular volume is not up to WJK editorial standards and not representative of the PPC publishing program."
The book makes the extraordinary claim that the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, were orchestrated by the federal government and made to appear to be the work of al-Qaeda. The book also challenges Christians to wrestle with questions raised by American foreign policy. "Griffin's theological reflections are helpful and timely," Godshall commented. "The Board believes, however, the conspiracy theory is spurious and based on questionable research." For more than 160 years the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation has published works that contribute to worldwide scholarship in the areas of biblical studies, theology, religion, and ethical issues of importance to the larger society. Under its WJK imprint, PPC publishes a theologically and religiously diverse selection of books that often extend beyond the Reformed tradition and the official policies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Scott Anderson, the only openly gay member of the former Task Force on the Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church, has been enrolled as an Inquirer under the care of the John Knox Presbytery after a unanimous vote of the presbytery on Nov. 14.
LOUISVILLE -- Say "Form of Government" or "Hey, there's a new task force working to revise the Book of Order," and watch people's eyes roll right back into their heads. It's not exactly "Deal or No Deal."
But "people are hungry for a simpler way to shape our life," Joan Gray, the moderator of the 217th General Assembly, told the Form of Government Task Force recently. Presbyterians from the South remember when the Book of Order was a third of the size it is now, Gray said.
"If you come up with something that is useful and slim and flexible, it will be greeted with great rejoicing in the church," she said. "I don't think it will be a hard sell."
© 2006. Used by permission
BARRANQUILLA, Colombia - Eli Maria Alvarez Jimenez has persistent dark circles under her eyes.
She looks tired and anxious. And she is.
Her youngest child, Mauricio Avilez, 26, left Barranquilla two years ago for safety's sake and hasn't yet been able to return. He cannot resume his life there without renewed death threats from right-wing paramilitaries who want to stop his efforts to help some of Colombia's 3.6 million displaced poor in the name of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia (PCC).
So now she is telling him to go: To leave Colombia and to stay away until he is no longer hunted. And she has no idea when that may be. Neither does he.
Determining where to go, and then how to get there, are both easier said than done. Not to mention how he will fare in a strange place once he is gone.
c. 2006 Religion News Service
When Ingrid Mattson was elected head of the Islamic Society of North America in August, she became not only the first female leader in the organization's 43-year history, but also its first North American-born president.
Mattson, raised as a Catholic in Ontario, converted to Islam nearly 20 years ago after meeting West African Muslims in Paris. Today she is professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Conn., and director of the seminary's Islamic Chaplaincy Program.
RNS spoke with Mattson about the significance of her election.
Most church officers would agree that personal contact with new people who are visiting the church and with members who have special needs is a good thing. Religious institutions are unique in that regard. Not too many organizations have ready access to people in the privacy of their own homes, and service providers and businesses are not expected to suggest that they have an obligation or a right to pay customers or clients a private visit.
In the church the desire to call on people in their homes comes from sincere Christian motives. Most church members know that this is one of the responsibilities of the pastors as they provide prayers for the people [W- 1.4005 a. (3)], offer pastoral counseling (W-6.3003), meet with prospective new members, visit those who are in the hospital, call on shut-ins in their homes or in senior care facilities, console those who have lost loved ones, and assist those with special health, mental, or spiritual needs (G-6.0202).
PNS) Two southern California congregations and Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts and Hands (MIJHH) steering committee member Chuck Ford have combined to fund two mission workers at Forman Christian College.
Ben Lacy Rose, professor emeritus of pastoral leadership and homiletics at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Va. (now Union-PSCE), died November 13 at his home in Westminster-Canterbury Richmond Retirement Community.
Born Dec. 12, 1914, in Fayetteville, N.C., he was moderator of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.) from 1971 -- 1972, and was a Presbyterian pastor for nearly 70 years. He served the Chinquapin, Bethel, and Beulaville churches in Duplin County, N.C.; Central Church in Bristol, Va.; First Church in Wilmington, N.C.; and Chapel on the Boardwalk in Wrightsville Beach, N.C.
Dr. Rose served as professor of pastoral leadership and homiletics at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia from 1956-1973 and was named professor emeritus following his retirement. He held three degrees from Union Seminary: He earned the bachelor of divinity (B.D.) in 1938; a master of theology (Th.M.) in 1950; and the doctor of theology (Th.D.) in 1955.
(PNS) The highest court of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has reversed two lower-court rulings in favor of a Kansas City, Mo., congregation that challenged a neighboring church in its ordaining as an elder a woman thought to be a lesbian.
The General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission (GAPJC) overturned decisions by both the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of Mid-America (SPJC) and the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Presbytery of Heartland (PPJC) in the case of Session of Colonial Presbyterian Church, Kansas City, Missouri v. Session of Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church [GCPC], Overland Park, Kansas.
"At this stage of the proceeding, this Commission is compelled to accept as true the allegation in the Complaint that the (Grace Covenant) session may have had cause for further inquiry based on its professed knowledge of the life and character of the elders-elect," the GAPJC said in its ruling released in mid-October.
The case originated after the session of Colonial Church questioned whether the session of Grace Covenant Church violated the Book of Order when it ordained four elders in July 2004.
Editor's Note: The following statement has been issued by various renewal leaders after their meeting in Chicago Nov. 7-8. "The intent is to state publicly the charitable nature of the relationships between those who are wishing to leave the PC(USA) and those who are committed to staying in the PC(USA), and to highlight a few previously released statements as worthy of consideration by the whole church," according to spokesman Michael Walker. Here is the full statement:
Nothing Can Separate Us
At all times and in all places, Christians are called to confess the Lordship of Jesus Christ with our lips and our lives and to do so without equivocation. The Church is called to "the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind; the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God; the maintenance of divine worship; the preservation of the truth; the promotion of social righteousness; and the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world." We confess that we have not fulfilled these "Great Ends" of the Church. Longing to be a more faithful people, we acknowledge our complete dependence upon the grace of God.
GREENVILLE, SC -- Speakers at a Nov. 3-4 gathering here of the "Constitutional Presbyterians" urged participants to separate from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) if the denomination ceases to be "a true church."
Some here believe it already has, citing an "authoritative interpretation" of the PC(USA) Constitution adopted by this summer's 217th General Assembly as part of its approval of its Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church (PUP).
The authoritative interpretation would allow a candidate for ordination to declare a principled objection to any provision of the Constitution. If the ordaining body determined that the objection did not constitute a departure from the essential tenets of the Reformed faith and practice, the person could be ordained.
Bob Browning, a lawyer from Pineville, W.Va., could write a book on pastoral leadership in small Presbyterian churches.
He's trying to help figure out how four congregations in his part of the state will get along when their ordained pastor leaves at the end of this year. For the past several years, the four congregations -- with fewer than 50 members apiece -- have been sharing the services of one minister and two commissioned lay pastors, working together formally as the Presbyterian Parish of Southern West Virginia, "which we just call the parish," Browning said.
But now the pastor is leaving, and the congregations are revisiting the question of what arrangement could work best and what's financially viable.
The 75th Episcopal Convention and Triennial Assembly in Columbus, Ohio, was held the same week in June as the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly in Birmingham. Since our usual representative to ecumenical bodies, Stated Clerk Cliff Kirkpatrick, could not attend. I gladly accepted the role as the Presbyterian ecumenical partner representative.
Amidst all the other issues coming before the Episcopalian delegates at their bicameral bodies, the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops, were two larger issues: The election of a new presiding bishop, and their response to the Windsor Report from the wider Anglican Communion.
(RNS) The Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, said Oct. 2 that he will not seek a third four-year term as the top administrator of the ecumenical organization.
His current term ends Dec. 31, 2007, and a third term would have been unprecedented in the NCC's history.
© 2006. Used by permission.
LOUISVILLE, KY. - Adelaida Jiménez is keeping secrets from her two pre-teen sons. It is a habit that she has learned: Tell them only what they need to know and save the rest for later.
When they are bigger. Or, when the threat has passed.
After all, how do you explain terror? How do you justify exile as the only way to keep hired killers or armed paramilitary soldiers from blowing your father, or his children, to Kingdom Come? How do you tell your children that staying safe means leaving home, maybe for good, or, at least until the political climate cools down? How do you say that and not scare your child out of his mind, especially when you are trying to tend to your own trauma and not fall prey to your own worst fears?
So Jiménez is parceling out information on a "need-to-know-basis."
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