Christians sensing they are almost aliens in their own cultures have a lot in common with the first century believers, according to Jim Edwards of Whitworth University, who taught a Bible study at the closing session of this year’s Presbyterian Coalition 11th Annual Gathering in Newport Beach, Calif., October 15.
DECATUR, GEORGIA — Laura Mendenhall announced Oct. 8 that she will conclude her tenure as president of Columbia Theological Seminary at the end of the 2008-2009 academic year.
In the waning moments of the General Assembly Council meeting, Bruce Reyes-Chow, moderator of the 218th General Assembly, floated an idea.
In times of economic upheaval, everybody gets inconvenienced. Most feel anxious. Some — a minority — actually lose their jobs, their homes, their savings, even their hope. Their plight often goes unnoticed.
Gradye Parsons, stated clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), has issued a statement condemning the hanging of effigies of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
Word has reached the OUTLOOK that Louis H. Evans, Jr., once pastor of Bel Air Church in Los Angeles, Calif., and National Church in Washington, D.C., died at home Oct. 28 in his sleep. His wife of more than 50 years, Colleen Townsend Evans, was with him.
LOUISVILLE — Adding its voice to the widespread public concern for possible voter disenfranchisement, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy [www.pcusa.org/acswp] (ACSWP) Oct. 27 released a report entitled, “Lift Every Voice: Democracy, Voting Rights, and Electoral Reform”.
(ENI) -- The leader of Zimbabwe's largest functioning alliance of Christians says the country's main grouping of traditional Protestant churches and the African and global umbrella church organizations with which it is affiliated have been notable for their silence on what is happening in his country.
(ENI)--Church leaders and activists have hailed as "courageous" the decision by a young Roman Catholic nun to publicly recount how she was raped by Hindu extremists in India's eastern Orissa state, and who has reiterated her demand for federal police to investigate the case.
“Changeling” is definitely not happily ever after. Angelina Jolie plays Christine Collins, a single Mom of the 1920s, whose young son disappeared from home one Saturday while she was at work. What follows is her harrowing experience with the Los Angeles Police Department, who first did nothing, then didn’t believe her, then tried to pawn off another kid as hers, and then considered her crazy when she wouldn’t accept him as her own.
We interrupt our regularly scheduled cycle of reporting to direct our attention to you. Older folks speak often of you as “the church of the future;” at other times they amend their words with: “The youth ARE the church right now.”
SNOWBIRD, UTAH — The news is full of the nation’s economic crisis and for many congregations and Presbyterian families, there is a lot about which to be concerned. What will happen to endowments, investments, retirement funds? What about job stability and the price of gasoline, food and heating fuel, with the approaching winter?
SNOWBIRD, UTAH — What role should the Presbyterian News Service play in the life of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)?
SNOWBIRD, UTAH –—Among Presbyterians, the word “missional” is as popular these days as “awesome” is for teenagers.
Frequently the notion that the church has an important role to play in higher education seems freighted with nostalgia. We are likely to remember the crucial role the church played historically in founding some of the nation’s most influential colleges, some of which have become even more influential universities.
“My college will never give academic credit to a student for doing community service!” Words spoken by a college president in defense of academic integrity, but missing the integrity of community service by students and their mentors as a context within which learning takes place.
Long before I arrived, First Church in Lincoln was sending Christmas care packages to its college students. Sometime in late November the deacons gather and cram cookies, candy, games, pencils, and all sorts of trinkets into small boxes and mail them off to students across the country. It is an important ritual for our deacons. As they see the names on the boxes, they remember fondly the kids who have grown up here and moved on to pastures green.
LONDON — Christian Internet bloggers have received 10 commandments to help them avoid the danger of writing in haste what they might later regret at leisure.
Editor’s Note: This essay won the 2008 Outlook Church-College Partnership Award open to graduating seniors invited to write on the topic, “How my education at a PC(USA)-related college has equipped me for significant service and leadership.” The winner received a $1,000 prize. Information on the 2009 contest is available on page 14.
Editor’s note: This essay was first runner-up in the 2008 Outlook Church-College Partnership Award open to graduating seniors invited to write on the topic, “How my education at a PC(USA)-related college has equipped me for significant service and leadership.” The writer received a $200 award. Information on the 2009 contest is available on page 14.
Colleges and universities related to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) begin the new academic year with new faculty members, campus improvements, and program changes. Here are their reports:
Speaking of America’s church-related colleges and their tie with their founding churches, Fr. James Tunstead Burtchaell wrote a decade ago: “[T]here is usually some concern expressed today about how authentic or how enduring that tie really is; and often wistful concern is all that remains.”
As the recently elected Chair of the Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities (APCU), I am pleased to tell you about the important work that the association is doing and to describe how having roots in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) shapes and is expressed at my own institution, Wilson College.
What does it mean to be a Presbyterian-related college or university these days? On the one hand, we are told that our increasingly secular age has reduced such links to tepid “values” affirmations (call that The Dying of the Light syndrome). On the other, we are reassured that college students widely affirm their spiritual interest and that colleges with strong faith connections are increasingly popular (the God in the Quad factor).
There were no voting booths in ancient Palestine. Yet prophets and popular movements did express their preferences, often at great risk. That risk intensified under the Romans. Sometimes today there seems to be almost as much discussion of St. Paul and empire in Biblical studies as there is about America and empire in political science.
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