Anybody remotely related to Christianity, and its churches, would have to be automatically interested in a film named 'Atonement.' That is, after all, the essence of the Christian message: that Christ came to offer atonement for our sins. However, atonement, among us mere mortals, at least, comes with many emotional layers, if it visits at all.
Because we can accomplish more together than we can individually, I am inviting you to rise with me to a new challenge.
When the Steering Committee of Joining Hearts & Hands met on Wednesday via conference call, we learned that $212,000 stands between us and the deployment of gifted mission candidates to serve where Christ has called them. Denise England -- called to Egypt; Carol Dolezal-Ng -- called to Lebanon; Kathy Reeves -- called to Switzerland; and other qualified candidates who are ready and waiting need your financial assistance now.
New Delhi, 29 November (ENI)--In an unprecedented protest, more than 30 bishops joined scores of priests, nuns and church activists in a sit-in near the Indian parliament in New Delhi to demand an end to the decades-old discrimination against Christian Dalits.
'We want the government to end this discrimination,' demanded Church of South India Bishop Jeypaul David, president of the National Council of Churches in India, addressing the sit-in on 29 November.
Rome, 29 November (ENI)--Pope Benedict XVI has responded to a letter sent to him and other Christian leaders by 138 Muslim scholars, by inviting a group of its signatories to meet him and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.
The response came in a letter from the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, to Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal of Jordan, president of the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought in Amman and a prime mover of the Muslim letter.
Geneva, 30 November (ENI)--Faith-based campaigners and religious leaders say churches should not relax their efforts to deal with the HIV/AIDS pandemic despite UN figures showing a drop in the number of people worldwide living with the virus.
'This is not the time for complacency nor apathy,' said South African Anglican Archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu in a 30 November statement released by the World Aids Campaign to mark World Aids Day on 1 December. 'It is the time for compassionate leadership.'
LOUISVILLE -- A church-backed group of farmworkers and their supporters donned walking shoes today (Nov. 30) for a nine-mile march through Miami to the corporate headquarters of Burger King to demand higher wages and better working conditions in Florida's tomato fields.
The Florida-based Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), which receives support from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and other faith groups, is calling on the fast-food giant to pay a penny more per pound to farmworkers harvesting its tomatoes.
A sonnet by Stephen Rehrig.
HAZLETON, PA -- It's the American Dream: find a good job, live in a safe neighborhood with good schools and churches, raise a family...
Yes, the American Dream: for North Americans, Central Americans, South Americans and every other country we in the USA -- a country founded by immigrants -- use to hyphenate ourselves.
Yet, in this immigrant nation, immigration is a hot-button issue in 3-D: documentation, denigration, deportation.
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.
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