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Eyewitness account #3: Lahore after assassination of Benazir Bhutto

All was well until Thursday when this country was rocked to its core by Benazir's assassination.  Our lives have since been dominated by watching TV, reading online, and pondering what will come next in this tumultuous environment.  We have no wisdom to impart: we're watching the same news you are. Our Pakistani colleagues don't have a sense of what will happen either.  We've tightened security on campus and closed the college offices until January 2. 

Eyewitness Account #2: Lahore after assassination of Benazir Bhutto

Daylight has come to Pakistan, as has calm. Grief, shock and anger over Benazir Bhutto's assassination, however, are still with us. It appears that the wave of rage that washed over some areas in the night subsided fairly early. The three day mourning period for Benazir has begun, and with it, an uneasy truce. However, the potential for violence remains high, so high that the city of Karachi (a PPP stronghold) is under virtual lockdown today, with flights in and out of that city suspended for the day.   Here in Lahore, there were small, but violent demonstrations.

Eyewitness account: Lahore after assassination of Benazir Bhutto

As I am sure you are hearing, all of Pakistan's major cities are experiencing violent demonstrations right now. The 'good' news (if you can call it that) is that it is not pervasive, and seems to be limited to certain always-tense areas. The PPP - Benazir's party - has mobilized across the southern province of Sindh, and some cities, notably Hyderabad, are virtually cut-off from the rest of Pakistan by blocked roads, fires and marching mobs.

2007 was a quiet harbinger of significant things to come

History books are full of dates that mark seminal events: 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door and launched the Protestant Reformation; or 1973, when the Supreme Court legalized abortion.

Those boldface dates are preceded by less prominent but nonetheless decisive times: 1516, when a Dominican named Johann Tetzel led the sale of indulgences that deeply angered Luther; and 1970, when a young Texas woman named Norma McCorvey (Jane Roe) filed suit to obtain an abortion.

Form of government changes, options prepared for ’08 Assembly

LOUISVILLE -- Recognizing there is opposition to some of what it has proposed, but still confident that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) needs a more flexible form of government to navigate in a post-modern world, the Form of Government Task Force is recommending significant changes in the denomination's constitution, but providing opportunities for amendment if the broader church disagrees.

The task force is recommending what its members think is best -- doing what it thinks is right for the church after a year and a half of hard work. But it's also providing options on some particularly sticky issues if the 2008 General Assembly comes to a different conclusion. It met Nov. 30 -- Dec. 2 in Louisville.

Hunter Farrell to mission pastors: Dare to change, go beyond “programs”

LOUISVILLE -- Hunter Farrell has learned a lot in his years serving the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in Congo and Peru. One of the things he's learned:  "There's a cost to being missional."

Now Farrell, the new director of world mission for the PC(USA), is challenging Presbyterians to think in new ways.

He's sending signals that the denomination's national staff is ready "to move into a new mode of doing mission," that it wants to work in real partnership with "mission initiators" from local congregations and presbyteries.

Web-based video project seeks youths’ interpretation of Micah 6:8

JEFFERSONVILLE, IN -- Tapping the creative energy of potentially thousands of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) youth in order to "connect" and "engage" the denomination around mission and ministry is the goal of a new effort of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Foundation.

YMI Live (Youth Mission Initiative LIVE) is a Web-based project launched by the Foundation in November to create an Internet community of Presbyterian youth and adults joined to engage around the mission and goals of the denomination.

Catholic-Orthodox statement a “first step” to agreement

Rome/Geneva (ENI) -- Church leaders have cautiously welcomed a document issued by a joint Roman Catholic-Orthodox commission dealing with the papacy, among other things, as an important move towards overcoming a 950-year rift between the two Christian traditions.

"We must be clear this is only a first step, a modest step," said Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, after the November 14 publication of the document agreed to at a meeting the previous month in Ravenna in northern Italy.

Austin Seminary, Mission Presbytery ask: What must we believe?

A new issue has popped up in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s Mission Presbytery recently: should a person have to confess to the belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior in order to become a member of a church?

The issue arose when Robert Jensen, a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin, joined St. Andrew's Church in Austin, Texas, in 2005, and later declared in a published article that he does not believe in Jesus, or God, at all. When Mission Presbytery's Committee on Ministry researched whether or not there are questions in the Book of Order on joining the membership of a church, they found such questions -- at least as required in an explicit formula -- are not there.

Getting to Bethlehem — Again (The fourth Sunday of Advent)

I've always been a fan of Joseph.  Maybe it is because he reminds me of my own father. 

Later in the Gospel of Matthew we learn that Joseph was a tradesman, a carpenter. Jesus had returned home and had gone to the synagogue and he began to teach. He astonished them with his wisdom. He astonished them because none of us ever quite expect the people we know best to move beyond our expectations. They say of him, "Is not this the carpenter's son?" They are incredulous, but at least some new information surfaces about Joseph.

Advent and Christmas reading

Resources for Year A

Hunger for the Word: Lectionary Reflections on Food and Justice, Year A, Larry Hollar, editor. Liturgical Press, 2004. Pb., 240 pp. $19.95. 

In a world of hunger and starvation, Bread for the World's Larry Hollar has edited a resource that brings reflections on hunger issues to the forefront of consideration of lectionary texts. Through the perspectives included here, preachers and teachers will find their eyes opened to God's concern for the plight of the poor and hungry of the world. 

Isaiah, Interpreted by Early Christian and Medieval Commentators, translated and edited by Robert Louis Wilken. The Church's Bible. Eerdmans, 2007. Hb., 590 pp. $45.

PDA New Orleans coordinator Rich Cozzone dies Dec. 7

Richard Joseph "Rich" Cozzone, 61, Volunteer Village Coordinator for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) was killed in an automobile accident in Mississippi on December 7. He resided in Bainbridge, Ohio.

U.S. Methodist leader says dismissal due to differences on vision

New York, 13 December -- The former head of the United Methodist Church's main ecumenical and inter-religious agency says his recent dismissal was due to disagreements over the future direction the body should take.

'They didn't agree with my vision or my ability to bring it forward,' Larry Pickens said of his December 5 dismissal as head of the denomination's General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns, a post he had held since 2004.

Pickens, 49, described the decision as 'absolutely disappointing'. He told Ecumenical News International on December 12 it stemmed in part from disagreements between him and some commission members over his support for what he called the 'social justice dimension' of ecumenical work.

O Come, All Ye Faithful

Come and sit under the stars,

Come away from the bright lights of the stores, the displays,

the parties, even of the Christmas trees.

Come and sit.

Look for the star of Bethlehem.

Come and listen to the silence of the night.

Come away from the sounds of the stores, the blare of the muzak,

the non-stop music of the radio.

Come and listen.

Hear the brush of angels' wings.