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More mission workers proposed in budget GAC to consider this week

LOUISVILLE -- The mission budget being proposed for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for 2009 and 2010 does not call for layoffs, but would use $7 million in reserves to balance the budget.

The proposal, which the General Assembly Council will vote on this week -- probably April 25 -- also calls for an increase in the number of missionaries who would serve the PC(USA) in the next two years.

And it would restore the denomination's Environmental Ministries office, which was eliminated in a major round of budget cutting in May 2006. At least two overtures coming to this year's General Assembly have asked for that -- with one from Mid-Kentucky Presbytery, for example, saying that the office was eliminated "at a time critical to sustaining the planet and life on earth as we know it."

The cost for restoring the office is estimated at $100,000 a year.

The council will vote this week to approve a proposed two-year budget that it will send on to the General Assembly for consideration in June. Concern about Presbyterian presence in global mission work definitely will be part of the discussion.

Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands reaches 25th missionary deployed

LOUISVILLE  – (PNS) With the announcement that Bruce and Lora Whearty will begin their mission service in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in August, the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands (MIJHH) celebrates the deployment of its 24th and 25th new mission co-workers since the campaign was launched at the 214th General Assembly (2002).

Pope Benedict meets sexual abuse victims

New York, 18 April (ENI)--Pope Benedict XVI has met privately and prayed with several survivors of sexual abuse by clergy during his visit to the United States, in a move that is believed to be the first time a pontiff has met with abuse survivors.

The unannounced meeting on 17 April, reportedly at Benedict's request, was held at a chapel at the papal nuncio's residence in Washington.

Bernie McDaid, an abuse survivor who was at the meeting, said in an interview with the CNN television network that he told the pope 'it wasn't just sexual abuse, it was spiritual abuse. And then I told him that he has a cancer growing in his ministry, and needs to do something about it,' said McDaid, who was abused by a cleric as an altar boy.

John Allen, who writes on Vatican affairs for the National Catholic Reporter, described the meeting as 'an unexpected and essentially unprecedented move'.

CIW co-founder to testify on Capitol Hill today

LOUISVILLE -- The co-founder of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)-backed Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) is to be among those testifying before a U.S. Senate committee today (April 15) about conditions facing farmworkers in the growing fields of southern Florida.

         CIW co-founder Lucas Benitez, a former tomato picker, and investigative journalist Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, are among the witnesses expected to appear at the hearing of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee.

         The CIW, an Immokalee, Fla.-based group of farmworkers, receives support from the PC(USA) and other faith groups.

         The hearing, in Washington, D.C., beginning at 10 a.m. comes after U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) visited Immokalee in January to urge support for the CIW's Campaign for Fair Food, which is working to persuade Burger King and other food industry leaders to raise tomato workers' pay.

Episcopal Church says court ruling violates constitutional rights

OXFORD, OHIO -- The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States has said that a Virginia court ruling in favor of 11 breakaway churches that want to keep church property is a violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. constitution, which guarantees the separation of Church and State.

         The court ruled on April 3 that the Virginia congregations that broke away are covered by a state law written during the U.S. Civil War era. The statute says that any congregation that "divides" remains under the control of the majority, as does property entrusted to it.

         In a statement, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said if the statute means what the court held, "it plainly deprives the Episcopal Church and the Diocese, as well as all hierarchical churches, of their historic constitutional rights to structure their polity free from governmental interference and thus violates the First Amendment and cannot be enforced."

Rob Bullock new Assembly director of mission communications

LOUISVILLE -- Rob Bullock, of Orlando, Fla., has been selected as the director of mission communications for the General Assembly Council. He begins his new post here April 14.

In this new position, Bullock will oversee the development of strategies and messaging to communicate the full work of the denomination's mission arm, with the goal of engaging Presbyterians at all levels of the church in that work.

"There are so many great things happening in the PC(USA)," Bullock said. "If we are going to find a way to unite as a denomination and fulfill all that God is calling us to do, we need to share those stories, to remind ourselves that we can do so much more together than we can individually, so that we invest our lives in the connectional work on which our denomination is built."

Marc Lewis named president, publisher-elect of PPC

LOUISVILLE -- The Board of Directors of the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation (PPC) has unanimously elected Marc Lewis as president and publisher-elect.

         The board's appointment is subject to approval by the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which meets in San Jose, Calif., in June.

         Lewis, 58, a graduate of the Owen School of Management at Vanderbilt University, brings a career of denominational publishing experience to the position. His mother was a Cokesbury bookstore manager in Nashville, Tenn., and Lewis' first endeavor in the industry was to open a new Cokesbury store in Memphis, Tenn. Lewis and his wife, Clare, are members of Springdale Church in Louisville.

CNN to air live broadcast of presidential candidates at Forum on Faith April 13

CNN will serve as the exclusive broadcaster of a presidential candidate forum on faith, values, and other current issues at Messiah College near Harrisburg, Pa., on Sunday, April 13, at 8 p.m. (ET)

CNN Election Center anchor Campbell Brown and Newsweek editor and Newsweek.com election anchor Jon Meacham will moderate what is being billed as The Compassion Forum, which will take place nine days before the Pennsylvania primary.

Why men should not be ordained

A major topic of discussion taking place in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A. today is the ordination of women. The issue is one of the primary driving forces for congregations leaving the PC(USA). These congregations are moving to the Presbyterian Church in America and other denominations that do not ordain women as ministers, elders, or deacons. Other congregations are considering such a move for the same reason.

San Diego Presbytery no longer “primarily a governing body”

San Diego Presbytery in an effort to recast the way it sees its reason for being -- has declared that "we are no longer primarily a governing body," and that "we are a relational community and that we are becoming a mission agency."

The presbytery also has voted to affiliate with the Presbyterian Global Fellowship -- becoming the first presbytery to do so, as one step in an effort to form a "missional identity" in a post-denominational setting.

Princeton Seminary Library goes digital

The library at Princeton Theological Seminary -- home to one of the largest collections of religious material in the United States, with more than 1.1 million books and other items -- will begin making some of its books available online starting in about a year.

Princeton has struck an agreement with Microsoft Corp. to digitize some material that is out of copyright, generally meaning works published in the United States before 1923. While the seminary's agreement with Microsoft prohibits releasing specific information on the number of volumes involved, Donald Vogt, the seminary's collection development librarian, described it as "many thousands of volumes," that then will be available to users around the world.

From church on fire to “Church On Fire”: Malibu Church’s journey

Recovering from a great disaster challenges a congregation's quick reflexes and endurance, according to Greg Hughes, pastor of Malibu Church in Malibu, Calif.

"Up until this point it's been a sprint," admits Hughes. He and the church made international news as the first structure to burn in the October 2007 wildfires that wreaked havoc through the Malibu area last fall. "Now we've got to start pacing ourselves -- we are now in the marathon stage," says the pastor. Almost six months after the fire, the story of Malibu Church is one of both perseverance and exhaustion, of challenge and opportunity as the staff and the congregation work to grieve over what has been lost and dream toward what is yet to come.

APCE honors Walker as “Educator of the Year”

Joyce MacKichan Walker was honored February 15 as Educator of the Year by the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators at its annual conference in San Diego.

Ufford-Chase named Stony Point co-directors

LOUISVILLE -- Former General Assembly Moderator Rick Ufford-Chase and his wife, Kitty, have been named transitional co-directors of financially-troubled Stony Point Center, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)-owned conference center in New York.

They will share the full-time director's position beginning August 1, succeeding William Pindar, who recently resigned.

"Kitty and Rick are uniquely qualified to lead Stony Point Center into its vision for the future," said Gary Batty, president of the Stony Point governing board. "Not only do they have extensive backgrounds in peace and justice work that is deeply grounded in the practice of their faith, they also bring a passion for modeling an intentional community at Stony Point Center -- both strong components of the vision."

How our Reformed faith informs our teaching with adults

Recent studies indicate that only about half of our church members grew up Presbyterian, and many of these left our Presbyterian congregations during their teen years only to return later as they begin to establish families. As a result, an understanding of our Presbyterian heritage and the tenets/themes of our Reformed faith is not part of the background or memory of most of our members.

As people make a commitment to the ministry of teaching adults, they often come to the task with a sense of call, a love of learning, a desire to pass along the stories of our faith, and an earnest hope to make a difference in the lives of others. However, many are unaware that being Reformed implies particular viewpoints regarding the ways that we teach the adults with whom we work. To that end, we look to the major tenets of our faith tradition to consider how they inform our teaching.

Gradye Parsons nominated to be Stated Clerk

LOUISVILLE -- The Stated Clerk Nomination Committee has chosen Gradye Parsons, currently director of operations for the Office of the General Assembly, as its nominee to be the new stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

            The General Assembly, meeting in San Jose in June, will make the actual decision -- and it's likely that other candidates will step forward to challenge Parsons for the position.

            But the nomination committee, in a news release issued April 3, announced that it had selected Parsons from among 14 candidates as the nominee it would recommend to the assembly -- with committee moderator Steve Grace saying in the news release that Parsons "brings a wonderful blend of experiences and creative leadership" to the position.

Lindner leaves National Council of Churches after three decades of ecumenical service

NEW YORK -- Eileen W. Lindner, a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) minister widely known as editor of the Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches and as a tireless leader and chronicler of the ecumenical movement, has announced her departure from the National Council of Churches USA on May 15.

         Lindner, former NCC deputy general secretary research and planning, has served as director of organizational development since a reorganization of the NCC on Jan. 1. "Fund raising is a crucial position for any non-profit organization and this has never been more true for the Council than it is now," Lindner said. "The role of fund raiser needs to be focused much more sharply than is possible in my current position."