Landon Whitsitt, the 33-year-old pastor of First Church in Liberty, Mo., near Kansas City, and I had lunch on July 5 — just two pastors sitting down at the pub for a friendly lunch — with my recorder. Landon was Moderator Cynthia Bolbach’s pick for vice moderator.
MINNEAPOLIS —The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly overwhelmingly approved an amended report on conflict in the Middle East that aims at a careful balance between Palestinian and Israeli narratives of injustice and the path to peace.
MINNEAPOLIS —Commissioners to the 219th General Assembly voted overwhelmingly July 8 to approve a document outlining theological understandings between Christians and Muslims, but they referred back to committee a document aiming to bring greater understanding between Christians and Jews.
MINNEAPOLIS — A proposed new Form of Government is heading to the 173 presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for their consideration and vote. Sent by the 219th General Assembly, it has been four years in the making. Proponents say it will give the church more flexibility to meet the mission needs of a changing world; critics are unconvinced it will improve Presbyterian governance.
MINNEAPOLIS — Help is on the way for struggling presbyteries and synods of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), thanks to the formation of a commission to aid middle governing bodies as they explore options for their future. The commission was formed by a sound 566 to 104 vote of the General Assembly, which met here July 3-10.
MINNEAPOLIS —Once again, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has voted to remove the requirement in the denomination’s constitution that those being ordained practice fidelity if they are married or chastity if they are single.
MINNEAPOLIS —Eight overtures that would have empowered pastors to perform marriages for same-gender couples in states where these marriages are legal were effectively tabled with little discussion in a late-night session of the full 219th General Assembly July 8.
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.
MINNEAPOLIS —The General Assembly approved a commissioners’ resolution asking that Presbyterians “refrain from holding national meetings at hotels in those states where travel by immigrant Presbyterians or Presbyterians of color or Hispanic ancestry might subject them to harassment.”
MINNEAPOLIS —The 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has directed a special committee to engage in a retranslation of the Heidelberg Catechism. And it voted to ask the presbyteries to add the Belhar Confession from South Africa to the PC(USA)’s Book of Confessions.
The healthy and growing church will offer multiple and, yes, conflicting faith experiences.
IT WILL GO DOWN IN MY MEMORY as one of the top ten all-time meaningful events in my ministry.
TOKYO (ENI) — A Japanese pastor who became a Christian after surviving the atomic bombing of Hiroshima says his decades-long pursuit of peace has involved a resistance to "nuclear weapons in the human mind."
Now that the 219th GA has mercifully ended and the dust on all of the policy decisions is finally settling, what conclusions..
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The 5,000 teenagers gathered at the recent Presbyterian Youth Triennium know the issues of the world: the environment, poverty, and war, to name a few.
Ronald Edward Peters, director of the Metro-Urban Institute at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, has been named the new president of The Interdenominational Theological Center, a consortium of African-American seminaries in Atlanta, Ga. He will assume his new duties September 1.
NAIROBI (ENI) — A number of retired Kenyan Protestant church leaders have broken ranks with their successors to mobilise support for a controversial proposed new constitution for the East African nation.
STUTTGART (ENI) — It is easy to lose democracy but difficult to get it back, says the incoming general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, the Rev. Martin Junge.
HONG KONG (ENI) — The new president of the World Alliance of YMCAs has said the movement will do more to provide services to people in need, and must "work urgently" to help young people take up leadership roles in global affairs.
NAIROBI (ENI) — Sudan's Roman Catholic bishops say it is "tragic" their country's political establishment has made national unity unattractive to the people of southern Sudan, who vote on secession from the north in January.
"The Dry Land." Ryan Piers Williams, the writer and director of “The Dry Land,” is the “significant other” of America Ferrerra, so it’s not surprising that she would be a primary figure in his movie about post-traumatic stress disorder. However, she plays the secondary victim, the wife of the man who comes home from war and has difficulty adjusting to civilian life. Click here to read the full review.
“Predators” & “South of The Border.” Click here to read what they both have in common
“Salt” is a throwback movie. Though set in the present, it hearkens back to the Cold War era, when the two world powers on the earth grappled clandestinely in the deadly, covert world of spy networks. The desperation is high because the stakes are ultimate: the threat of nuclear holocaust is imminent and pervasive.
Both sides played at Armageddon scenarios, both sent secret agents deep undercover, preferably in the heart of the highest security clearances of the oblivious enemy. read more
Ryan Piers Williams, the writer and director of “The Dry Land,” is the “significant other” of America Ferrerra, so it’s not surprising that she would be a primary figure in his movie about post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Predators” is that almost-laughable sci-fi melodrama where everybody takes themselves so seriously it just begs for its own caricature. (But if they did a “Saturday Night Live” parody, would anyone identify the original?) It’s an interesting career turn for Adrien Brody, of “The Pianist” fame, who’s come a long way from pre-World War II Poland.
“Salt” is a throwback movie. Though set in the present, it hearkens back to the Cold War era, when the two world powers on the earth grappled clandestinely in the deadly, covert world of spy networks. The desperation is high because the stakes are ultimate: the threat of nuclear holocaust is imminent and pervasive.
Director Roger Nygard, besides working on television comedies like “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” has also given us “Trekkies” (about the extreme fans of the “Star Trek” series) and “Six Days In Roswell” (about UFO enthusiasts). So Mr. Nygard appears to have an affinity for showing us people’s heartfelt passions about the invisible, looked upon with an ironic air of comic absurdity.
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