The General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission (GAPJC) has ruled that Jane Adams Spahr, a California minister, did not violate the constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) by performing two “ecclesiastical” wedding ceremonies for lesbian couples.
They’re off! The race is on. The kickoff is in the air. The puck is on the ice. The first pitch is thrown.
Choose your favorite athletic metaphor. Easter is behind us and the 218th General Assembly looms on the horizon — awaiting us on June 20 in San Jose, Calif. The season of contesting legislation and campaigning leaders has been launched.
LOUISVILLE –Gradye Parsons, currently director of operations for the Office of the General Assembly, has been chosen by the Stated Clerk Nomination Committee as its nominee to be the new stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
It’s the kind of reality that threatens to whack on the head congregations all over the denomination. They’re small already – and getting tinier and older by the day. There’s not enough money to pay a full-time pastor – or if there is, the cash will run out soon.
(PNS) The General Assembly Council (GAC) announced April 4 that it has signed a leasing contract for approximately 30,000 square feet of first floor office space at the Presbyterian Center in downtown Louisville.
(RNS) Rebuilding a central California Episcopal diocese after a majority of believers there split with the national church will take time and a good cell-phone plan, the diocese’s newly chosen bishop said March 29.
As a former director of Stony Point Center, I was very interested in — and appreciative of — your recent article on “Stony Point: Iona on the Hudson.” Rick and Kitty Ufford-Chase have suggested an exciting possibility for the future of the center. I hope others will catch and support this vision.
While it’s not widely known in the United States, there is an emerging Presbyterian witness in Russia. I came to know it through James Kim, a Korean-American pastor [Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)] in the Dallas area. He knows this church because of its Korean origins.
“The G.A. ought to help us, not make our life more complicated!” “Why don’t [they] do something useful for a change, not make more rules!” “No wonder denominations are dying!”
A trophy trout lies patiently in his hole near the edge of the river. His gaze is fixed upstream where he watches a spinning mayfly. A neuron fires in his brain; he lunges toward his quarry.
Editor’s Note: This is the eleventh essay in a series dealing with theological topics of interest and importance to Presbyterians. The essays are a response to the General Assembly Task Force Report on the Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church, but also a considered effort to probe the Reformed heritage and find fresh theological language with which to move beyond the poles that divide us.
For the last few weeks I have enjoyed the daily reports of the agony of the California Supreme Court listening to testimony in cases around the issue of marriage between people of the same sex. (As a famous English professor once said at a commencement address not long ago, people have sex, nouns have gender.)
“I have had a happy life and thank the Lord. Goodbye and may God bless all!” Christopher McCandless wrote these words – a psalm-like prayer – during the late summer of 1992 and prior to his death on an abandoned bus in the Alaskan wilderness.
Austin Presbyterian Theological
Seminary, Austin, Texas
The Reverend Dr. Devison T. Banda, principal of Justo Mwale Theological College in Lusaka, Zambia, will address graduates at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary’s commencement on Sunday, May 25, at 2:30 p.m.
Recruiting leaders is hard work.
It is easier to accept the willing, to anoint whoever steps forward, even if they lack requisite skills or cannot “play well with others.”
Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha’olam
Blessed are you, Eternal God, ruler of the universe
IRVING, TEXAS — Synod of the Sun, a regional governing body of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), has appointed an administrative commission to examine concerns regarding church property and presbytery leadership in South Louisiana Presbytery.
Moving briskly and with little discussion, the General Assembly Council dispensed with a plateful of business April 25 — including passing a budget for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for 2009 and 2010.
LOUISVILLE — The General Assembly Council’s Stewardship Committee is recommending that discussions continue between the council’s leadership and the Presbyterian Foundation over the issue of whether the council should be required to invest all of its medium and long-term funds with the foundation.
LOUISVILLE — With many questions still unanswered, a task force studying the pros and cons of creating a separate corporation for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) has recommended that church leaders not move forward with incorporation at this time.
LOUISVILLE – The Synod of the Southwest, concerned that the Presbyterian Foundation isn’t producing as strong a return on investments as is available elsewhere in the financial market, is pushing for change.
DETROIT--The Rev. Edward H. Koster, current stated clerk of the Presbytery of Detroit, announced April 21 he will stand for election as stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Koster comes to the election from a varied background with experience as a pastor, presbytery stated clerk, and lawyer.
He is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and served five years in the Navy during the Vietnam War. After receiving his Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Va., he studied Old Testament history in the doctoral program of the Department of Near Eastern Studies of the University of Michigan for three years, receiving his MA in 1974. He served as pastor of Calvary Church in Ann Arbor, Mich. for 10 years, during which time he also served as chaplain in the Washtenaw County Jail, president of the Ann Arbor Council of Churches, and chaplain at the VA Hospital in Ann Arbor. He studied organizational development in 1985-86 under the late Dr. Ronald Lippitt, then at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, and Kathie Dannemiller, who was principal in Dannemiller-Tyson Associates of Ann Arbor.
So how do you respond to the Jeremiah Wright episode? Most pastors would be thrilled to discover that after one's retirement from pastoral ministry millions of people watch videotaped excerpts of their sermons. Wright probably isn't thrilled.
The broadcast on YouTube of excerpts from some of Wright's sermons has generated widespread
Sometimes it happens organically -- a small church and a big church form a relationship and start working together.
But now there are new efforts in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to try to cultivate intentional partnerships between bigger congregations and smaller ones, to explore ways they can work together in mission, both overseas and close to home.
One long-standing partnership between a big congregation and a smaller one is the local mission partnership between Second Church in Indianapolis -- a suburban church that stands more than 4,000 strong -- and Westminster Church, an inner-city congregation that's dropped to just 22 active members.
The partnership goes back to 1980, when Catholic, Baptist, and Presbyterian congregations in the neighborhood -- a low-income area just east of downtown -- decided to hold Vacation Bible School together. That led next to the idea of creating a summer-long program for area children, "a safe place to be," said Donna Studevent, a member of Westminster since 1982. She is an educator who trains substitute teachers and now is Westminster's clerk of session and commissioned lay pastor.
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