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Report on Christians in Egypt

Agef Gendy, president of Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo, preached Jan. 19 at the Fellowship of Presbyterians' Covenanting Conference in Orlando, Fla. The following report from The Layman, describing the current climate and the experiences of Christians in Egypt, is from presentations Gendy made Jan. 17 and 18 at the Reformed Theological Seminary campus in Orlando. Click here to read full story

We expect what we inspect

ORLANDO – Instead of just requiring congregations to submit annual statistical reports, the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians would ask for annual narrative reports, as Presbyterian congregations routinely did in the years before 1925.

Fellowship of Presbyterians releases new theology and polity documents: Orlando, January 19

ORLANDO – The Fellowship of Presbyterians has given a name to its new Reformed body. The new denomination will be known as the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians.

            John Ortberg, a well-known author and the pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in California, kicked off the second day of the Fellowship’s Covenanting Conference Jan. 19 by preaching at morning worship. As that ended, the Fellowship distributed revised copies of its theology and polity documents – the cornerstones of the new denomination’s constitution.

Film in review: “Contraband”

We feel for Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg). In his younger years, he led a life of crime, but somehow he has been able to get out of “the life” and go straight, without anybody coming after him, either the law or his former cohorts. His successors in the international smuggling business have apparently felt no need to eliminate him as a potential informant.

Essential tenets, an alternative proposal

          The quaint expression, “essential tenets,” comes from the 18th century-bred subscription vow for Presbyterian officers: “Do you sincerely receive and adopt the essential tenets of the Reformed faith as expressed in the confessions of our church as authentic and reliable expositions of what Scripture leads us to believe and do, and will you be instructed and led by those confessions as you lead the people of God?”

Here I stand if only


 

Here I stand; I can do no other.” I’ve heard those words more times than I can recall — mostly from pastors who were drawing a line in the sand and separating themselves either from a rival faction in the congregation or from their denomination of affiliation or both. However, many of those pastors ultimately sounded a different refrain: “If only I’d known what would have resulted, I never would have started this.”

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