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Second chance at 60

It all started with a Saturday phone call. Our daughter, a Montreat Youth Conference Coordinator, asked if I would be interested in being the keynote speaker for the Montreat Middle School Conference held each July at Presbyterian College in Clinton, S.C., her alma mater.    

On Civil Unions

Civil union is a legal contract between two adults forming a partnership of responsibility for each other’s lives and the sharing of each other’s property.

Christians accused of trying to convert Obama’s Muslim grandmother

NAIROBI — (ENI) A row is simmering between the Seventh-day Adventist Church in western Kenya and Muslims in the country over reported attempts to convert to Christianity Sarah Obama, the grandmother of U.S. President Barack Obama.

Hundreds in annual John Paul II peace marathon

(ENI)--Former Italian volleyball world champion Andrea Zorzi was one of 50 Italian runners who joined about 100 Israelis and Palestinians in the sixth annual Pope John Paul II Peace Marathon that has ended today (April 23) in Jerusalem.

Amendment B nears defeat; Presbyteries on verge of keeping ‘fidelity and chastity’ ordination standard

LOUISVILLE — As of April 21, Amendment B, which would replace the current Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) constitutional requirement that church officers live in "fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness" with a new section G-6.0106b of The Book of Order, is within a single vote of being defeated.

Spirituality, Transformation and Conflict

On the blackboard I wrote a single sentence that had come to me the night before just as I was dozing off..

Faith, rights groups lament racism conference’s shunning of Dalits

(ENI) There is an untouchable word that appears nowhere in the declaration of the U.N. conference in Geneva reviewing progress on fighting racism. It is Dalit, the self-designation of a South Asian group traditionally regarded as untouchable or of the lowest caste.

U.N. racism conference begins mired in controversy, division

GENEVA — (ENI) Race, religion, and politics are all high-octane factors around the United Nation's Durban Review Conference on racism, which began in Geneva today (April 20) with some nations staying away in protest that the gathering is harmful to religious tolerance.

Calvin anniversary prompts questioning of Protestant “work ethic”

(ENI) — German Bishop Margot Kässmann has criticized the Protestant work ethic ascribed to the 16th century theologian John Calvin, saying it has  excesses in the current social and economic climate.

Stephanie Egnotovich died April 13; was executive editor of Westminster John Knox

Stephanie Egnotovich, executive editor of Westminster John Knox publishers died April 13 in Arlington, Va., after a brief illness.

Unwelcome guest at GAC, COGA meetings

LOUISVILLE – Not surprisingly, the 10,000 pound gorilla in the room as Presbyterian policy-setting groups met here in late March has been the staggering economy, sort of like the unwelcome guest at the dinner table.

Synod court nullifies presbytery vote in Larges case

A church court has ruled that San Francisco presbytery made a mistake in allowing Lisa Larges, a lesbian who has been trying for years to be ordained as a minister, to declare a conscientious objection to the ordination standards of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) before she had been examined as a candidate for ministry.

A down economy doesn’t lift church attendance

When the economy heads downward, pastors sometimes expect the pews to get a little more crowded.

Abraham Lincoln’s journey of faith

The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial in 2009 is shining a bright light on nearly every aspect of the life of the rough hewn man recently voted by a poll of historians as our most important president.

Top Sellers of 2009

Judson Press

Crazy Faith: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives

The not-so-right stuff

Nearly 15 years ago, an associate pastor at my church preached a fabulous sermon from an obscure passage in I Samuel 10.