William "Bill" C. Teng, a fourth-generation Presbyterian minister raised in Hong Kong, is the first declared candidate for moderator of the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
National Capital Presbytery endorsed Teng, the pastor of Heritage Church in Alexandria, Va., at its meeting Nov. 27. Teng previously served as moderator of the presbytery and chair of its council.
ATLANTA -- The Covenant Network of Presbyterians gathers November 1-3 for its annual conference ten years into its so-far-unsuccessful effort to convince the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to change its policy on ordaining gays and lesbians.
The theme for this year is "testimony", or, as preacher Scott Black Johnston, pastor of host church Trinity Church in Atlanta, put it during opening worship Nov. 1: "Can I Get a Witness?"
The idea is that there is power in testimony -- in honesty and truth telling; that minds and hearts can be changed through sharing stories of struggle and faith; and that testimony allows voices to be heard that are not always welcome in the church.
There is a further recognition that the territory ahead is bumpy and uncertain -- and that, as the Covenant Network perseveres in what it sees as a struggle for justice, losses will come along the way, and the network needs some way of measuring progress that's not only about simply winning or losing particular General Assembly votes.
It will be very difficult to see this movie with "fresh eyes," that is, not already aware of all the media buzz surrounding it, including, alas, this review. The novel upon which it is based, by Khaled Hosseini, is simply magical. The movie is faithful to the book. So this remains a singular experience. And you'll want to see it and hear it as if for the first time, if you possibly can.
Part of what is so enchanting about this story is that it transports the Western viewer to another time and place. Most of us know little or nothing about Kabul, Afghanistan. We are perhaps vaguely aware of it having been a "trouble spot" with the Russians, right before their ignominious collapse. Be that as it may, there is a "before" and an "after" in this story.
Last week in Indianapolis, I spoke at Christian Theological Seminary -- "Church Outside the Box," was the title they chose -- and engaged in dialog with three panelists.
We had a grand time up front. I spoke with passion and the panelists responded in spirited debate. But then the moderator invited the audience to ask their questions. Surprise! Their questions went directions we hadn't anticipated.
Go deeper, said one person. We're already beyond denominational woes. What lies ahead?
How do we address a dangerous world situation? asked another.
What specifically should we be doing? Asked one of several people who arrived ready to move on and now wanted guidance.
My husband and I recently celebrated our 25th anniversary. At a small and packed popular restaurant in New York City, they brought out our dessert with Proseco on the house and a chocolate inscription around the plate that gave away our celebration to all the tables around us, opening the door of conversation. Because the couple right next to us was from Oklahoma, my husband felt compelled to tell them that I was from Iran, figuring they probably didn't run into many Iranians in their circle. He apologized later in the cab but I knew instantly why he did this. I have spent my 29 years in America playing the role of ambassador from Iran. And it has been a rocky three decades beginning with the Iranian revolution and hostage crisis in my college freshman year in D.C. to the present day of Iran as the face of evil.
The couple from Oklahoma nodded their heads approvingly at my story and the man declared very proudly that I am "living the American Dream." This did not sit well with me. Like most Iranians who ended up as what I like to call "accidental immigrants," I came to America from a life of privilege. I told our new friends that I grew up in boarding school in England. And I told them something that everyone is always shocked to hear: My parents still live in Iran. Really? How is it for them? Why don't they leave?
ATLANTA -- They're saying, at the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, that the momentum may be shifting from a legislative season in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to a judicial season.
That shift means something like this.
The General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, the highest court in the denomination, is poised to hear in February the appeals of at least two cases stemming from the work of the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity, and Purity of the PC(USA). Those appeals involve the question of what leeway presbyteries have to declare that no departures of conscience from denominational standards will be granted on particular issues.
Some presbyteries want to say they will not allow candidates for ordination or installation to declare departures from the national standards -- to announce a "scruple" -- on things the presbytery has declared "essentials" of faith. But other Presbyterians contend that the decisions of whether to grant departures of conscience from the standards must be granted on a case-by-case basis, in the examination of individual candidates.
Editor's Note: This article is based on material in Shane Claiborne's book, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical and information on the Web site of "The Simple Way," (www.thesimpleway.org ).
"Most good things have been said far too many times and just need to be lived." So says Shane Claiborne at the beginning of The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical, his book on his ongoing quest to discover what that "living" might actually look like. Claiborne and six others are the founders of The Simple Way, a community in Kensington, one of Philadelphia's most challenging neighborhoods.
Claiborne is clear to note that The Simple Way is not a "church plant" or an attempt at creating a model of "radical Christianity" that is theirs alone. "We have never considered ourselves a church plant," says Claiborne, adding, "I'm not sure we need more churches" (pp. 144-45). It does, however, represent a way of being in the world, a way that is intentionally and self-consciously Christian.
Those in more established church traditions might want to pay attention.
Are you in the holiday spirit yet? Have you enjoyed/ will you enjoy gatherings of family and friends?
Intent as we Christians are at keeping Christ at the center of the holidays, we also pour a lot of effort into making it a season for reunions with our loved ones. Whether that entails toting a warm pumpkin pie to the neighbors' or flying home from the eastern hemisphere, we love to gather together to enjoy the Lord's blessing.
As adopted daughters and sons of God, we count one another as our extended Christian family. For some that spreads icing on an already tasty cake. For others, it provides the only family they know. Hence, part of our mission as believers is to build up and promote authentic koinonia throughout the body of Christ in both its immediate expression, the local church community, and its catholic expression, the universal Church.
The board of directors at the Presbyterian Outlook Foundation, Inc., at its September 2006 meeting, stumbled upon a big "aha" regarding our role in the church family. Like so many fellowships and organizations, we were discussing our mission and vision. In the midst of stating the obvious -- reporting accurate news of the church, presenting insightful commentary on the news, and providing helpful resources for ministry -- board chair, Stacy Johnson, said, "I don't think that's the essence of the Outlook's mission."
He caught our attention.
-The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has said the leadership of the United States in the world has broken down and he has in an interview with the British Muslim lifestyle magazine Emel urged a change in US foreign policy.
LOUISVILLE -- Between 50,000 and 55,000 Presbyterians attended presentations by Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) missionaries during "Mission Challenge '07," according to figures released Wednesday (Nov. 14) by the Presbyterian World Mission program area here.
Oslo, 20 November (ENI)--The (Lutheran) Church of Norway has agreed that living in a registered same-sex partnership should no longer be a barrier to someone serving as a priest, deacon or catechist.
'At last, the feeling of holding a second class membership in the church is gone,' Arne Groenningsaeter, himself a homosexual and a member of Oslo's diocesan council, was quoted as saying by the NTB news agency.
The church's general synod, at its meeting in Oeyer in southern Norway, agreed by 50 votes to 34 on 16 November that it would be up to each of the church's 11 bishops and diocesan councils to decide whether homosexuals in registered partnerships can be ordained as a priest, deacon or catechist.
Nyala (Darfur), Sudan, 15 November (ENI)--As peace talks about the conflict in Sudan's western Darfur province remain stalled, humanitarian officials
say that the issue of protecting civilians will continue to offer difficult challenges in an increasingly insecure environment.
LOUISVILLE -- First Presbyterian Church of Baton Rouge, La. -- at 1,600 members the largest congregation in the Presbytery of South Louisiana -- has voted to leave the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC).
The vote by the congregation on Oct. 28 -- with less than one-third of its members present -- was 422-60.
The recent resignation of the director of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s Washington Office begs us to consider how that office should operate.
Some say it ought to close. Wrong answer. Many feel disgruntled over the kinds of efforts exerted there. However, to pull out of the nation's capital would send a signal about church-state relations that does not match our longstanding convictions. God calls us to provide a conscience to the nation, to utter the oft-unpopular prophetic word, to "speak truth to power." God calls us to lead leaders.
Some say we ought to proceed ahead as we have before. Wrong answer, too. Many applaud the office's efforts to broadcast faithful positions to the nation. But, we must ask some hard questions.
Have we been effective at promoting real change? Or, has predictability and a narrow focus diminished our clout?
Have we adapted our modi operandi to the rapidly-changing context -- where the political climate changes like the barometric pressure?
Are we utilizing 21st century communications media or are we stuck in the 1960s?
At least a few things do need to change in order to help our nation promote justice, morality, and mercy in the 21st century.
LOUISVILLE -- Persistent membership losses. Struggles to keep young people in the church. Simmering controversies over homosexuality that threaten church unity. Restructure of the national offices.
Yes, it's the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). But it's also the Church of Scotland, two visiting officials of the PC(USA)'s "mother church" told the Presbyterian News Service during an Oct. 24 visit to the Presbyterian Center here.
"There are parallels all over the place," said Angus Morrison, pastor of St. Columba Old Parish Church in Stornoway and convenor of the Church of Scotland Mission and Discipleship Council.
"We see so many common strands that we're hoping we can spark each other," agreed Douglas A. O. Nicol, who is secretary of the Mission and Discipleship Council.
It's a hard concept to grab hold of: why Presbyterians from the United States should pay attention to how oil and minerals are being mined in central Africa.
But an overture is coming to this year's General Assembly, approved in October by Chicago Presbytery and up for consideration in other places, to ask the assembly to provide support for the "Publish What You Pay" campaign. That campaign -- an international effort -- is trying to persuade companies involved in mining and extractive industries in developing countries to make public the amount of money they provide the governments of those countries. Having those amounts publicly known, the campaign hopes, would pressure the governments to spend the money on public services and relief, not on weapons or personal extravagance.
The World Alliance of Reformed Churches also has passed a declaration asking for such information to be made public.
I'm a fan of Sheldon Sorge, and I affirm his article on ways that congregations can support their pastors in keeping their callings vital. However, I've been forced to conclude, after too many years of study, that there is little evidence from New Testament and pre-Constantinian historical sources to justify a Gentile Sabbath ethic. Sheldon says of himself (and all us pastors) and of members, "I needed not just an equivalent of their Saturday, a day to mow the yard, change the oil, fix the bicycle, etc. -- but also of their Sunday."
Many American Presbyterians remember blue laws and other external constraints on Sunday activity. Those constraints are gone, and "their Sunday" enjoys no practical consensus. Are Sundays for naps? NFL football? Movies and museums? Golf? Shopping? Youth sports? The whole day in acts of corporate and/or personal worship? Lacking a consensus, many pastors and authors are treating Sabbath as a personal spiritual practice, loosely defining it as "rest." Such an approach requires a good bit of work to justify itself as sufficiently grounded in Scripture, confessions, and theological reflection.
Paying attention to Sheldon's situation (and every minister's) can help.
Standing on the corner of Santa Ana Blvd. and Main Street, in downtown Santa Ana, Calif., you experience the sights, sounds, and faces of a microcosm of the American urban story.
On one side of Main Street sits First Church of Santa Ana, a downtown church celebrating this year its 125th anniversary. Considering it is in California, it is actually quite old. Once overflowing with members, more recently it is struggling to adapt to the city's changing demographics. Across Main Street, not a half block away, is the building that formerly housed Trinity United Church, the first United Presbyterian Church west of the Mississippi when it was founded in 1876.
In 1958, Trinity Church, like many downtown Presbyterian churches, left the city to move out of downtown, now in the midst of a sprawling suburbia. First Church remained.
Now, some 50 years later, the two churches are coming together in a partnership that may give hope to other struggling urban churches, and inspiration to their often resource-rich suburban counterparts.
Most of our church members know that the stated clerk is not just a guy with an eyeshade reviewing reports, though that part of the job was and is important. What makes the position so important is its leadership role, and that relates to the way the Clerk embodies and implements the Church's public witness. So we must look first at a definition of public witness, and then look at what current and past stated clerks have been doing.
By definition, public witness is a larger category than social witness and includes at least four main categories:
1. Influencing public opinion by presenting persuasive, credible, ethically-grounded stances;
2. Appealing to the faith and values of individuals, particularly in their church life;
3. Effecting specific policies, involving informed constituencies;
4. Exemplifying viable alternative visions grounded in the Gospel that contrast with the models of secular society, business, and government.
The Office of the General Assembly, focused in the elective office of the stated clerk, represents the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) internally and externally through a range of official and personal roles. Thus it relates to all four of the categories above. By virtue of its "church-wide," or General Assembly-based, election, the Clerk may be legitimately considered the highest elected continuing representative of the Church, carrying administrative duties well beyond those of Moderator, whose role is almost entirely symbolic.
"The clock is running out very, very quickly. I am more pessimistic on the question of time running out than I've ever been."
-- U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (D.-Vt,), while on a visit to Jerusalem with Rep. Peter Welch (D.-Vt.)
I agree with the assessment of our Congressional leaders and applaud them for going to Jordan, Israel, and the West Bank. Reflecting on my three-week visit to the West Bank in May, I too discerned a sense of despairing hopelessness and apathy. Regretfully the delegation could not meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in person. But we saw the visible devastation caused by the Wall as it snakes its way mostly on Palestinian lands, cutting Palestinians off from Palestinians, creating apartheid-like Bantustans. As Shulamit Aloni, former member of Israel's Knesset, said recently, "Forty years of occupation has turned every Palestinian village into a detention camp. We are exercising apartheid."
Forty years of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories was recently marked. In 36 of those years I have witnessed what occupation is, having conducted annual alternative pilgrimage tours, done fellowship study, and been involved in humanitarian projects in hospitals, clinics, and schools. I have seen the strangulation of Palestinian cultural, political, economic, religious and social life, and educational opportunity. Each year it gets worse. Remember, Palestinians are the occupied, not the occupiers; yet they are being punished. Their land is being confiscated for Israeli settlements and an intricate system of roads for settlers only (all contrary to Geneva Conventions).
Of all institutions, the church has both the opening and the obligation to make a personal response to people's needs. People endure anonymous and mechanical responses from other institutions. They expect more from a faith community.
With some exceptions, most church members will grant their church access to their lives. They will respond to personal visits, telephone calls, e-mail, and letters. In a need situation, they probably won't respond to a broadside invitation, such as, "If anyone needs a personal visit, call the church office."
Clergy need to develop the habit of making pastoral calls other than hospital emergencies.
Great Themes of the Bible, Vol. 1, by W. Eugene March. WJKP, 2007. ISBN 0-664-22918-2. Pb., 143 pp. $14.95.
I began each semester in seminary focused on organization.
In those days John the Baptist appeared. ... They had been waiting for him, in fact, for 400 years they had been waiting for him and suddenly there he stood in the wilderness of Judea and his message was like taking fingernails and running them across a chalkboard. Every Advent, we still find him standing there and we are told to listen to what he is saying, for after all this is the one preparing the way!
Come into the darkness
and sit quietly
with the dreams of this season.
Dreams of the Hebrew people ~
of lions and lambs laying together,
of justice rolling down like full streams of water,
of lands flowing with milk and honey,
of joy that comes in the morning.
Dreams of a carpenter ~
of being faithful to his betrothed in the midst of public scorn,
of taking the road less traveled
and journeying on the back roads.
Dreams of your own heart and mind ~ of the searching for and
claiming the masculine within and beside the feminine,
embracing the mystical and the logical,
the creative and the protective,
the carpenter and the birthmother.
Text: Matthew 24:36-44
A church musician first threw down the gauntlet for me concerning Advent. She had grown up as a Lutheran and came to the Presbyterian Church in her late twenties, able to direct a choir with expertise but also filled with boundaries about what should and shouldn't be sung during the days preceding Christmas. It made great sense to me theologically.
Ever since, I have had to deal with the inquiry of complaint, meant more as an allegation against my Christmas spirit, "Why aren't we singing carols, everyone else is?" There is no question that once you have been to Bethlehem it is hard to get back on the road again and do it all over. But here it is Advent and the texts we are asked to read and to proclaim put us on the winding road upon which we have walked before. How do we get there, again?
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