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GA 2010: Committee recommends denouncing, not divesting from Caterpillar

MINNEAPOLIS – A church panel wants the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to stop short of selling off its stock and bond holdings in Caterpillar, Inc.

GA 2010: Ordination issues as real-life experiences told to committee

MINNEAPOLIS – They came to the microphone and told stories of faith and life, in 90-second segments – just long enough to give a taste.

GA 2010: Gulf oil spill “new business” for General Assembly committee

MINNEAPOLIS -- “There’s a need for the church to address the environmental catastrophe in the gulf and our Christian response to it,” said Amber Ellington, Theological Student Advisory Delegate (TSAD) from McCormick Theological Seminary.

GA 2010: Bolbach Elected

Six candidates, four rounds of voting, hours of talking, and a few technical glitches made Saturday's election of Cynthia Bolbach as Moderator..

GA 2010: Earth Care Awards to be presented at luncheon July 6

Since 1997, Presbyterians for Earth Care (formerly Presbyterians for Restoring Creation) has given awards annually to publicly recognize individuals and groups, institutions, and churches for their leadership and accomplishments in caring for God’s creation. Individuals receive the William Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award, and congregations or institutions receive the Restoring Creation Award.

Video report: Jack Haberer talks with Mustafa Barghouthi

The former Palestinian presidential candidate (received 19 percent of the vote when Mahmoud Abbas was elected in 2005), and founder/general secretary of the third Palestinian political party shares his hopes for reconciliation and peacemaking in the Middle East with Outlook editor, Jack Haberer, when they met recently in Dr. Barghouthi's Ramallah office.

GA 2010: Assembly hears praise, criticism of Middle East report

MINNEAPOLIS – Ron Shive says his committee’s report on conflict and peacemaking between Israel and the Palestinians lives up to its title, “Breaking Down the Walls.”

GA 2010: Panel recommends retranslation of Heidelberg Catechism

MINNEAPOLIS – The Committee on Theological Issues and Institutions approved today (July 5) the recommendation of a special committee, calling upon the General Assembly to commission the retranslation of the Heidelberg Catechism. 

GA 2010: Overture advocates urge end of New FoG

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.—The Form of Government Revision committee began hearing from overture advocates today at the 219th General Assembly meeting here. Criticism of the proposed FoG included “consider the cost,” comparisons to an uncooked, diseased pig and the prospect that the new FoG will be a “litigator’s dream.”

GA 2010: Outlook honors Syngman Rhee

MINNEAPOLIS – The Presbyterian Outlook honored Syngman Rhee with the Ernest Trice Thompson Award at its 219th General Assembly banquet here yesterday (July 3). The presentation came after the attendees heard brief speeches by the six candidates for moderator. The moderatorial election came six hours after the luncheon banquet adjourned.

[caption id="attachment_21916" align="alignright" width="270"]Syngman Rhee holds up E.T.Thompson Award. Jack Haberer, Outlook editor, and Laura Mendenhall, Outlook board member, look on.[/caption]

UPDATED- GA 2010: New Web site featured in opening session of General Assembly

MINNEAPOLIS — “We pray for living waters, for all we left behind and all we need to do today and in the days to come,” prayed the Rev. Alika Galloway of the Kwanzaa Community Church here, as she led commissioners and observers in worship to open the meeting of the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) yesterday (July 3).

GA 2010: Symbolic and real water flows at opening worship service of 219th General Assembly

Dancers embodying the four directions and processional banners symbolizing living water heralded the opening worship service of the 219th General Assembly in Minneapolis, Minn., today (July 4).

UPDATED: GA 2010: Middle East report criticized at breakfast meeting

MINNEAPOLIS – Opponents of a report aimed at forwarding efforts to forge a peaceful, two-state solution to conflict between Israelis and Palestinians said Sunday (July 4) it instead risks making a bad situation worse.

GA 2010: nFOG Q&A illustrates polity differences

MINNEAPOLIS— The proposed Form of Government revision that the 219th General Assembly will consider this week might be considered like an architectural plan, some members of the task force which proposed that revision suggested.

GA 2010: Bolbach elected moderator on fourth ballot; Whitsitt is vice moderator

MINNEAPOLIS – After four rounds of voting and some worry about technical difficulties with the electronic voting keypads, the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) elected as its moderator Cynthia Bolbach, a lawyer and the only elder in a six-person field.

            Bolbach – tall, plain-spoken, with a crisp sense of humor – brings to the office decades of experience in church life, from the congregational to the national levels of the denomination.[caption id="attachment_21910" align="alignright" width="426"]Cynthia Bolbach, newly elected moderator, addresses the General Assembly in Minneapolis. Photo by Erin Dunigan.[/caption]

            She has served as a deacon and clerk of session for her congregation, First Church in Arlington, Va., as well as moderator of National Capital Presbytery, chair of the presbytery’s Committee on Ministry and its interim general presbyter. She also serves as co-moderator of the Form of Government Task Force, that is bringing to this assembly a proposal – four years in the making – to streamline and make more flexible the denomination’s Form of Government.

            After the fourth ballot, the candidate with the second-highest number of votes was Julia Leeth, a pastor from California, who earlier in the evening said she guessed she might be among the most conservative of the candidates.

 In that final ballot, Bolbach received 325 votes (51 percent) and Leeth 148 votes (23 percent). But Bolbach led from the start, winning 149 votes (30 percent) in the first ballot – with things splitting neatly from there, with four of the other five candidates drawing from 71 to 76 votes apiece that time around.

GA 2010: Workshop on Middle East report highlights “eye-opening” task

MINNEAPOLIS — A brief, pointed exchange during a pre-General Assembly workshop July 3 hinted at what could prove an impassioned struggle over the Middle East Study Committee’s report and recommendations to the General Assembly.

GA 2010: Pre-GA conversation explores civil unions, Christian marriage report

Six members of the General Assembly Special Committee on Civil Union and Christian Marriage – two of whom were authors of a minority report from that committee – presented the special committee’s findings and fielded questions from a group of 150 commissioners and advisory delegates on July 3, at one of the Riverside Conversations that preceeded the formal opening of the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Many of those who attended the session were Young Adult Advisory Delegates.

GA 2010: nFOG task force presents change proposals to committee

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.— An overview of changes in Christian churches today, and recommendations about changes to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) form of government highlighted the Form of Government Revision committee meeting here today (July 3), a full day in advance of the convening of the 219th General Assembly.