Chuy Gallegos, pastor of a Hispanic immigrant fellowship in Greenville, S.C., responds to questions by Leslie Scanlon, Outlook national reporter, about the impact on his congregation of the October raid on the Columbia Farms poultry plant.
Many people concerned about immigration reform will be watching the start of the Obama administration carefully, looking for indications of how the new president will lean on one of the nation’s most divisive issues.
Some convergences of timing — no matter how amazing — reflect little more than a coincidence. That an African-American would be inaugurated as the president of the United States just 23 days before the 200th birthday of the president who proclaimed emancipation for African-Americans is just such a coincidence.
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance has issued the following report and appeal today (January 9):
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
For surely I know the plans I have for you…to give you a future with hope.” Jeremiah 29:11
All people impacted by the current violence in the Middle East are facing overwhelming humanitarian needs as a result of the continuing violence. The most basic needs — safe shelter, medical care, food, water, electricity — are well beyond the reach of many of those caught in the crossfire.
The Presbyterian Writers Guild is again seeking entries for the James Angell Award to be presented to the best first book published by a Presbyterian author during the calendar year of 2008. The Guild and the family of James Angell, a prolific and respected Presbyterian writer, established the award to recognize and encourage new writers.
LOUISVILLE — Leaders of the Geneva-based World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) have called upon member churches to pray for an immediate cease-fire and for “a lasting peace with justice in this region ...”
“None of the violence is acceptable,” said WARC President Clifton Kirkpatrick of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and WARC General Secretary Setri Nyomi — a Ghanaian Presbyterian — in their Jan. 7 statement, entitled “A Call to Prayer and Action to End the Violence in Gaza.”
(ENI)--The University of California in Santa Barbara is to host what it says is a first-of-its-kind series of meetings between humanitarian organization leaders and scholars in international studies to examine the role of religion in human rights work around the globe.
The Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies at the university will conduct the research thanks to a $400,000 grant awarded by the Henry Luce Foundation.
(ENI)--A new book on Vatican diplomacy during World War II that examines the stance of Pope Pius XII on the persecution of the Jews has been hailed as "a path-breaking study" that will shed light on a controversial issue facing the Roman Catholic Church.
The book by Charles R. Gallagher, a London-based Jesuit priest, tells the story of Joseph Patrick Hurley, a priest who was the first U.S. citizen to become a diplomat for the Vatican, and who found himself embroiled in debates about communism and Nazism during the build-up to war in the 1930s.
LOUISVILLE — Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons called Jan. 7 for an immediate end to the violence in Israel/Palestine and reiterated the church’s call for the “two-state solution” endorsed by the Bush administration and the World Council of Churches among many others.
(ENI)--Some church leaders in Kenya fear cracks within the ruling coalition could worsen, if the parties fail to mend their differences and they say that laws seen as seeking to stifle free speech and muzzle the press reflect the tensions.
Roman Catholic Bishop Martin Kivuva Musonde of Machakos described a proposed media law as unfortunate, and urged an amendment of controversial clauses. "The State should not do what the majority of the population is against," Bishop Kivuva, a former journalist, told the Daily Nation newspaper January 5.
Market researchers have done studies on the generation of Americans who are now around college age, a generation sometimes known as Generation Y or the Millennial generation.
An information sheet that the international profession services firm Deloitte put out in 2005 included a list of characteristics shared by this younger sector of the population. “Techno-savvy” and “Connected … 24/7” topped the list. Farther down the page, the sheet included the statements “Never experienced life without computers” and “The world is a click away.”
Two recent and very ordinary events have set me thinking about a New Year’s resolution that might just be worthwhile for us..
(ENI) —The Antioch chalice, regarded by some as the Holy Grail, the cup used by Christ at the Last Supper, is attracting the attention of about 6,000 visitors each day at an exhibition in London depicting 1,000 years of the Byzantine Empire.
BANGALORE (ENI) — Sri Lanka's National Christian Council has urged religious leaders to speak out against "warmongering" following violent celebrations by majority Sinhala groups after government forces captured the headquarters of ethnic Tamil rebels at Kilinochchi in the northern part of the country.
OSLO (ENI) — The general secretary of the (Lutheran) Church of Norway's council on foreign and ecumenical relations, the Olav Fykse Tveit, says he was summoned to the Israeli embassy in Oslo after criticizing Israel's use of military force in Gaza.
(ENI) Civilians injured by bombings in Gaza are stuck in their homes without food and water, unable to seek medical attention, says the director of an Anglican hospital in Gaza City. Nurses working at the hospital are unable to reach their own injured children at home.
(ENI) Two regional German Protestant churches situated among many of the historic sites associated with the 16th-century reformer Martin Luther have merged to form the Evangelical Church in Central Germany.
(ENI) — A group of Christian leaders is pushing for a "theology of simplicity and caring" to bring hope to a "prodigal world" teetering under a burden of widespread economic crisis, and climate change that could submerge small islands in the Pacific.
LOUISVILLE — The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study, which dates back to 1892, is now available in formats never dreamed of by earlier generations of Presbyterians.
(ENI)--Supporters of a strict interpretation of the separation of church and state in the United States have filed a lawsuit seeking an end of the use of the term "so help me God" during President-elect Barack Obama's January 20 inaugural ceremony.
She was birdlike and petite, with a hawk nose and an attractive smile. She was routinely mocked in parliament by big angry men shouting "Go back to Moscow" or "Go back to Israel." Yet this indomitable Jewish woman could make strong men tremble. Oh, and she helped break down the walls of apartheid in South Africa.
SINGAPORE (ENI) — Christians in Malaysia have urged the government to lift restrictions to allow the distribution of Bibles in the local Bahasa Malaysia language and also to ease restrictions on a Roman Catholic newspaper effectively barred from publishing in the mother tongue of most of the country's Malay majority.
MONTREAT, N.C.—Rep. John Lewis, the Democratic congressman elected by the state of Georgia, felt his calling early in life. When he was 8 or 9 years old he began to preach in the chicken yard of his home in Troy, Ala.[caption id="attachment_20072" align="alignleft" width="225"]
John Lewis, U.S. Congressman and veteran Civil Rights leader, spoke to students on Sunday, Jan. 4, during the annual College Conference at Montreat, OUTLOOK photo by Catherine Williams.[/caption]
MONTREAT, N.C.—After months of planning meetings, Facebook campaigns, video blog posts and eager anticipation, the 2009 College Conference at Montreat Conference Center kicked off Friday in a very animated, and nearly full, Anderson Auditorium. Conferees greeted friends new and old as they swarmed into the first keynote session of the four-day conference on “Outrageous Generosity.” Students swayed and clapped to the soulful strains of “Wade in the Water,” played by a talented and as-yet-unnamed band from Nashville.
(ENI) — A coalition of U.S. Christian leaders is calling on president-elect Barack Obama to “make achievement of Israeli-Palestinian peace an immediate priority” during his first year in office.
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