Analysis of the amendments to the Constitution
The 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has sent to the presbyteries a host of amendments to ratify or disapprove. This report presents unbiased pro/con summaries that explain
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Camps. Conference centers. Conversions.
What’s so great about camps and conference centers? In three words, they make converts.
Beyond camp traditions: Living into different kinds of witness
There’s no question: The bread-and-butter of Presbyterian camps and conference centers is, not surprisingly, Presbyterians. In other words, the core usage is for classic church-related programming such as summer youth camps and church retreats, leadership training, and spiritual development.
Traveling Day Camp Program
What do you get when you cross Vacation Bible School with summer camp? Central Virginia Presbyterians get the Camp Hanover Traveling Day Camp Program.
Ministers answer King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
Birmingham (PNS)
Representatives of Christian Churches Together (CCT) — a fellowship of 36 denominations and six national organizations representing a large spectrum of Christians — has issued the first known formal clergy response to Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
CWS says local action against hunger needed
NEW YORK (CWS) If 2010 was the year of large-scale disasters — including the devastating Haiti earthquake and wide-spread floods in Pakistan — 2011 is likely to be the year when issues of hunger become increasingly significant on the global stage, international humanitarian organization Church World Service (CWS) says in a New Year’s assessment.
Pope denies appeal of Boston parish closings
VATICAN CITY (RNS) After a lengthy appeals process, the Vatican has ruled that nine Boston-area Catholic parishes should be closed despite protests from parishioners.
Clergy urge Congress to push for civility
WASHINGTON, D.C. (RNS) A coalition of more than 50 Christian, Jewish, and Muslim leaders sent an open letter to Congress urging a “time of soul searching” and national dialogue about “violent and vitriolic political rhetoric.”
Pakistan government refuses to amend blasphemy law
BANGALORE, India (ENI) Pakistani churches say they’re frustrated by the government’s refusal to amend a controversial blasphemy law that makes it a capital crime to insult Islam or the Prophet Muhammad.
Clergy couple launches First Response Ministry
If interim ministers are supposed to help congregations recover from sudden loss of a pastor, why does it take so long to find the interim?
Cross on public land ruled unconstitutional
SAN DIEGO (ABP) A U.S. federal appeals court has ruled that a four-story-tall cross atop an oceanside promontory in the exclusive San Diego suburb of LaJolla is unconstitutional as currently configured.
New satisfactions
Church life offers many satisfactions, perhaps none quite so thrilling as entering a packed sanctuary filled with music, friends, and energy.
Standing with Jesus
I’ve been thinking a lot about Jesus lately.
The Gifts of the Small Church
The Gifts of the Small Church by Jason Byassee
Abingdon, 2010.
reviewed by Mary Harris Todd
Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture; An Agrarian Reading of the Bible
Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture; An Agrarian Reading of the Bible by Ellen F. Davis
Cambridge University Press, 2009. Pb., 252 pp. $23.99.
reviewed by Steve Willis
Polish Catholic publisher defends Holocaust book
WARSAW (ENInews) – Poland's largest Roman Catholic publishing house has defended its decision to issue a controversial book, which accuses Poles of profiting from the Holocaust by betraying Jews to the Nazis and stealing their possessions.
Flight of Iraqi Christians cannot dim churches’ witness, leaders say
GENEVA (ENInews) – U.S. troop withdrawals notwithstanding, Iraqi Christians continue to flee because their safety cannot be guaranteed, and there is little hope their lives will improve soon, six Iraqi church leaders said Feb. 18 during the meeting of the World Council of Churches Central Committee.
WCC explores how to adapt to changing religious world
GENEVA (ENInews) – The World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee on Feb. 17 took a hard look at whether it can adapt quickly enough to rapidly changing ecumenical and interreligious realities. If it cannot, one delegate noted, fixation on governance and institutional survival may "suck the life out of the ecumenical movement."
An Appeal for the Word
Re., the vote to delete G-6.0106b from the Book of Order: “This vote will determine whether as a church we will continue..
An Appeal for the Word
Presbyteries are voting on many amendments. I’m writing about Amendment ‘A’ which would delete G-6.0106b from our Book of Order. For almost fifteen years this paragraph has clarified that we Presbyterians believe what the Christian church has always believed, namely, that God’s intention for us humans is “to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman (W-4.9001), or [in] chastity in singleness.”
A Response to a Letter from Dr. Aubrey Brown, Editor of the Presbyterian Outlook, fifty years later
(In December 1961, two students from the Belgian Congo studying at Union Seminary in Richmond, Va., attended the three-week pilot project called Christmas International House (CIH) at the Westminster Fellowship House at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, S.C., where I was Presbyterian Campus Minister.
Response to the pastors’ letter to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Many of you have read and are discussing the letter from the 45 pastors of mostly larger churches of a more conservative inclination. In the letter they claim that “to say the PCUSA is deathly ill is not editorializing,” and then proceed to propose a remedy for the church’s ills.
Polity experts say church governance should take a back seat to core beliefs
ORLANDO, Fla. (Presbyterian News Service) – Institutional questions around polity and governance are secondary to questions around identity and mission, two middle governing body executives who are polity experts told the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Middle Governing Body Commission at its second meeting here Feb. 3-5.
San Francisco Seminary closes southern campus Trustees cite budget woes at program in Pasadena
SAN ANSELMO, Calif. – In a surprise announcement at its Feb. 8 meeting here, San Francisco Theological Seminary’s Board of Trustees said it is closing the seminary’s Southern California campus in Pasadena by June 30.
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