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Small offers suggestions –“gentle cautions” — to FOG Task Force

LOUISVILLE -- The work the Form of Government Task Force is doing to rewrite the constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is "critical" in the life of the denomination, Joseph Small told the task force.

"You are clearly not simply saying, `Let's take this big, thick book of regulations and make it into a leaner, meaner document that will free people up for faithfulness in mission,' " Small said. "You're doing that, but you're doing more than that. This is a chance that comes along not even once a generation ... to make some significant advances in the church's understanding of who and what it is."

But Small, director of Theology, Worship and Education Ministries for the PC(USA), had some gentle cautions to offer the group as well during its meeting in Louisville Aug. 16-18. His advice, he stressed, is based not just on personal opinion, but grows out of discussions among his staff regarding drafts of the task force's work that have been publicly posted on the Internet.

Clifton Kirkpatrick decides not to seek another term as Stated Clerk

LOUISVILLE--Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, shared with the staff of the Office of the General Assembly today that he has decided not to seek another term as Stated Clerk.

Kirkpatrick's current term will conclude at the end of the 218th General Assembly (2008) in San Jose, California, next June. 

"Serving as Stated Clerk has offered me a platform I would never have dreamed possible--to serve the church I love and to give expression to my passions, my sense of call, and my gifts for the things that really matter," wrote Kirkpatrick in a written statement.

He went further to say, "At the same time, I am also eager to have more quality time with my family, to be able to devote myself more fully to the responsibility I have undertaken since 2004 to serve as president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and to share in the life of the church, both locally and globally, in new and creative ways."

D. James Kennedy dies in Florida

D. James Kennedy, 76, founder and senior pastor of Coral Ridge Church in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., known for his extensive television and educational work, and activities of the American religious right, died in his sleep September 5 at his Fort Lauderdale home. He had been in ill health since a cardiac arrest in December 2006.

Funeral arrangements will be announced later. Survivors include his wife of 51 years, Anne, and a daughter, Jennifer Kennedy Cassidy.

Kennedy, a native of Chicago, Ill., was a graduate of the University of Tampa. He earned master's degrees from Columbia Theological Seminary and Chicago Graduate School of Theology, and a doctorate from New York University.

Elenora Giddings Ivory resigns from PC(USA) Washington Office

Elenora Giddings Ivory has accepted a new call to ministry with the World Council of Churches as the Director of the WCC P3 -- Public Witness: Addressing Power and Affirming Peace. She has tendered her resignation as the Director of the Washington Office of the Presbyterian Church (USA), leaving that post at the end of October. The final vote on her appointment will take place when the WCC Executive Committee meets in Armenia, September 25-28. Elenora's starting date in the Washington Office was November 29, 1989. She says that "It has been an exciting 18 years in this position...(and) I will miss certain aspects of it, but I look forward to the challenges of my new call."

Nishioka points denomination toward needs of post-denominational young adults

LOUISVILLE -- Think about this. Church historians agree, according to Rodger Nishioka of Columbia Theological Seminary, that "we're on the cusp of ... a Reformation-type age," one that will stand as significant with the passing of time.

Nishioka, an assistant professor of Christian Education at Columbia, has recently completed a research project involving young adults in their 20s and 30s. He says signs are all around us that a post-denominational age has arrived.

"Pay attention to trends," Nishioka advised the Presbyterian Communicators Network, meeting in Louisville in early August. "Fads are what toss us to and fro," often as a way of marketing new products. "But trends are worthy of your attention."

His research, for example, has investigated why so few young adults stay with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), even if they have been baptized and confirmed in the denomination and, in many cases, were involved in their high school youth groups.

"They're saying they're post-denominational," Nishioka told the Presbyterian communicators. "That denominations really and truly do not matter."

Cumberland Presbyterians launch major reorganization, staffing shifts

The 2007 General Assembly of The Cumberland Presbyterian Church (CPC) -- a small denomination with which the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) participates in several partnerships -- convened in June to take dramatic steps toward overhauling the structure of the denomination, sparking a great deal of anxiety among denominational staff and commissioners.  The legalities involved in some of the June decisions has made necessary a called GA meeting before the 2008 GA meeting in Japan.

When the 177th General Assembly of the CPC gathered June 18 in Hot Springs, Ark., it conducted a lot of business without a great deal of fanfare: (1) adopted recommendations to emphasize evangelism for the next five years and to develop ways to measure and report evangelistic efforts in local congregations; (2) reaffirmed the value of partnerships between the CPC and the PC(USA), and denied a resolution to find ways to reach out to PC(USA) congregations that are considering making a change in denominational affiliation; (3) approved the concept of establishing the office of certified lay minister; (4) granted permission for licentiates to perform the Sacraments; (5) encouraged presbyteries to designate an agency to examine all ministers desiring to become members of a particular presbytery; (6) reminded congregations and ministers that both must have prior approval of the presbytery or tentative approval of an agency acting for the presbytery before entering into any type of ministerial relationship.

Numbers help measure PC(USA) training, local church ministries

It's not possible to get a full sense of things just by looking at the numbers.

But sometimes, the numbers show enough to give some clues to what the deeper issues might be.

For example, here's a quick snapshot of what the road to ministry in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) looks like, as offered by Doska Ross of the Office of the General Assembly to the Presbyterian Communicators Network. The statistics, Ross said, were provided by the PC(USA)'s Office of Vocation.

Scholars trace a lifetime of faith

c. 2007 Religion News Service

Michele Dillon and Paul Wink have interviewed scores of septuagenarians about their faith -- or lack thereof -- and compared their answers to those they gave during their teens and middle age.

Their discovery? People really don't change much over time -- religiosity in early adulthood is comparable to that in late adulthood, with a dip in middle age.

Cannon sermon at conference: Don’t worry, God will provide

NASHVILLE -- Listening to Jerry L. Cannon preach is like riding a roller coaster -- zooming up, swooping down low, screaming around corners. All the while, he never stops talking.

Cannon packs more words into one sermon than some pastors do in a month.

Statistics, examples, theology, quotations from the Bible, from the Book of Order, from his children, demonstrating with his body, wheeling his arms and legs, talking faster, faster, faster, dipping down suddenly into an unexpected, rich moment of silence.

So here's a little (just a little!) of what Cannon -- a fifth-generation Presbyterian and senior pastor of C. N. Jenkins Memorial Church in Charlotte -- had to say to the National Presbyterian Evangelism Conference, preaching during worship Sept. 1.

Martha Sadongei encourages churches to “find the delicious surprise”

NASHVILLE -- Martha Sadongei learned to set a formal table growing up.

But in her heart, she's a "one knife, one fork, one spoon, one mug or glass kind of gal." She's happy with paper plates.

Through the years, though, Sadongei has sometimes found herself in fancy settings with lots of silverware and unfamiliar food -- food she's embarrassed to admit she doesn't know how to eat. That stuff on the outside -- do you cut it off or eat it? What exactly is it, anyway?

And she finds a lesson in that -- and in Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, from the 4^th chapter of John's gospel -- in the struggle Presbyterian churches have with evangelism.

Beliefs in the afterlife grow with age, survey shows

(RNS) As Americans get older, their confidence in an afterlife increases, according to a recent survey of people over 50 conducted by American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), the advocacy group for seniors.

Seventy-three percent of older people believe in life after death, and two-thirds of those believers say that confidence has grown with age, according to the survey.

But while 86 percent of respondents say there is a heaven (70 percent believe in hell), they were split on what it looks like and if humans go there. Forty percent of those who believe say heaven is a place, while 47 percent think heaven is a "state of being."

"Americans see life after death as a very dynamic thing," said Alan F. Segal, a professor of religion at Barnard College, in the AARP article. "You don't really hear about angels and wings, sitting on clouds playing melodies. ... They talk about humor in the afterlife, continuing education, unifying families -- like a retirement without financial needs."

While most people believe that heaven exists, and about nine in 10 of them say they'll end up there, they are less sure about others. People who believe in heaven say an average of 64 percent of others will get there, too.

Other findings in the survey:

·         Women are more likely to believe in an afterlife (80 percent) than men (64 percent).

·         Income matters: Of those who believe in an afterlife, 90 percent of those earning $25,000 or less believe in heaven, compared to just 78 percent of people with an income of $75,000 and above.

·         29 percent of those who believe in a heaven think one must "believe in Jesus Christ" to enter. Twenty-five percent believe "good people" go to heaven, and 10 percent think everyone is admitted.

The survey was conducted by telephone between June 29 and July 10. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

By the numbers: 2006 statistics help shape current face of PC(USA)

(PNS) Active membership in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) continues to decline, decreasing by more than 46,000 in 2006, and the number of people being baptized also continues to slide, according to statistics.

Membership went from 2,313,662 in 2005 to 2,267,118 in 2006, according to the annual statistics compiled by the Office of the General Assembly (OGA). The numbers also show that fewer adults, 946 less, and children, 234 less, were baptized in 2006.

David C. Hancock, 93, died August 1 in Minnesota

(PNS) David C. Hancock, a longtime leader in Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) efforts to minister with people suffering alcohol and drug addictions, died Aug. 1 in a Minneapolis nursing home. He was 93.

Guide to go: Elders told to be leaders in mission

NASHVILLE - Love. Go. Guide.

Corey Schlosser-Hall wants Presbyterian elders to use that job description to help the church take a turn toward mission.

Schlosser-Hall, an elder and executive presbyter of North Puget Sound Presbytery, picked the verbs from the greatest commandment and the great commissioning - love and go - and added 'guide' to the list of elder duties, as in guiding a ship through shoals and reefs.

Church council welcomes release of kidnapped Koreans

Tokyo, 31 August (ENI)--The National Council of Churches in Korea has welcomed the release of 19 Korean Christians who were kidnapped in Afghanistan and held by the Taliban for more than 40 days.

'We hope that the event [the kidnapping] will be a start of enabling us to do more effective and safer services and missions,' said the Rev. Kwon Oh-sung, general secretary of the national church council in South Korea.

'For that purpose, after the victims of the abduction return safely, we will make efforts in various ways such as holding a major debate,' Kwon said in a statement.

Dangerous elders: ‘Claim ministry for your own,’ first-ever national conferees told

NASHVILLE-- The Rev. Gradye Parsons laid down the challenge from the very start of the first-ever National Elders Conference Wednesday.

"We want to create a bunch of dangerous elders," Parsons said, elders "who know what the ministry of being an elder is about and want to claim that ministry for their own."

Part of that role is that of worship leader. Melva Costen and the Rev. Rhashell Hunter, presenting together, thanked the 330 elders in attendance for, as Hunter called it, "saying yes when (pastors) come to you with big puppy dog eyes."

Costen, one of the denomination's foremost authorities on worship and music, noted that centuries ago both men and women from Africa, the Orient and Native American culture were respected as elders because they "had their fingers on the pulse of the community. Can they say the same about us today?"

Worship, witness and service are inseparable, Costen said. "We live as we worship, and we can't lead without realizing that."

Norway’s Christians, Muslims agree on conversion between faiths

Oslo, 24 August (ENI)--The signing of a declaration between a group representing Muslims and another, Christians in Norway, that supports the right to convert between faiths without harassment, is the first pact of its type in the world they say.

The Islamic Council of Norway and the (Lutheran) Church of Norway Council on Ecumenical and International Relations on 22 August jointly declared that everyone is free to adopt the religious faith of their choice.