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Leaders of Christianity’s diverse traditions meet in Nairobi

Nairobi, 6 November (ENI)--A global gathering aimed at bringing together representatives of all the world's main Christian traditions has opened in Kenya with leaders saying they want to find new ways of working together.

         'I don't think it is going to be easy, but I hope we will find a meeting space,' the Rev. Setri Nyomi, general secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches told Ecumenical News International on the opening day of the 6-9 November meeting, called the Global Christian Forum, at Limuru, near Nairobi.

Movie Reviews

God Speaking and God Silent

"The Ten Commandments":  Talk about unanswered prayer:  the Hebrews cried to the Lord for 430 years before God decided to send deliverance.  This animated version of the life of Moses is quite serious and literal about the capricious Pharaoh, the slaughter of the innocents, the baby in the basket in the bull rushes, and Moses being brought up as a youngster in the Pharaoh's house, raised as a stepbrother to the "real" Prince. 

Editorials

A new chapter: Believers behaving blessedly

Believers behaving badly. How many news items must we read to get the point that believers can behave really badly? From ministers' deviancies to treasurers' embezzlements; from denominations' internecine skirmishes to nations' religious persecutions; from cult groups' mass suicides for God to zealots' suicide bombings for Allah; the portrayal of faith on screen and in print has become ugly.        

No wonder "Christianity's image [is] taking a turn for the worse," according to the Barna Group and a story in the Los Angeles Times (Oct. 13, 2007). "A decade ago, an overwhelming majority of non-Christians, including people between the ages 16 and 29, were 'favorably' disposed toward Christianity's role in society. But today, just 16% of non-Christians in that age group had a 'good impression' of the religion ... "

No wonder that outspoken atheism is growing in popularity again.

Uncategorized

Thoughtful Christian introduces studies reaching out to teens

In February, the Presbyterian Publishing Corp. plans to roll out a new series of studies from The Thoughtful Christian -- with these intended for use with teens (www.thethoughtfulchristian.com/main/home1.asp ).  

The launch of this new line, at the annual meeting of the Association of Presbyterian Christian Educators in San Diego Feb. 13-16, signals the hunger among Presbyterians for study materials on contemporary issues, according to David Maxwell, editor for The Thoughtful Christian. 

In focus groups conducted last summer with leaders at the Youth Triennium, the publishers were encouraged to prepare materials for juniors and seniors in high school who are getting ready to leave home and will have to decide, once they're on their own, what role faith will play in their lives. So the new lessons will hit on subjects such as consumerism or cheating, and "the pressure on kids now with all these pre-college classes," Maxwell said.

Uncategorized

COGA discusses, seeks to model “discernment” decision-making

 

Based on a report by Sharon K. Youngs, OGA communications coordinator, and Jerry L. Van Marter, coordinator of Presbyterian News Service

 

LOUISVILLE -- The Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA) was directed -- and planners and moderators of other governing bodies were urged -- by the 217th General Assembly (2006) to "explore the use of alternate forms of discernment."

At its recent meeting, members of COGA not only discussed the assembly's directive and its implications for future assemblies, they sought to live it out in their own decision-making. They learned that the discernment model is a prayerful approach to decision-making that takes focus, good listening skills, and time.

 

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Islamic scholars write Christian leaders to seek common ground

Geneva -- More than 130 Muslim scholars have said in a letter to Christian leaders, including Pope Benedict XVI and the head of the World Council of Churches, the Rev. Samuel Kobia, that world peace depends on cooperation between Christianity and Islam.

"Our common future is at stake. The very survival of the world itself is perhaps at stake," the 138 signatories state in the letter made public on October 11.

The letter is also addressed to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeos I and other Orthodox church leaders, as well as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and the leaders of world groupings of Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, and Reformed Christians.

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New Hampshire church splits over New Wineskins

 

A vote to depart the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is leading to a split in a "quintessential New England white church on the town common," Londonderry (N.H.) Church, acknowledged clerk of Session, Lee Carvill.

The majority has chosen to affiliate with the New Wineskins Presbytery of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (NWP-EPC). A group wishing to remain loyal to the PC(USA) claims that they have been locked out of their church facilities.

The congregation, the second largest church in the Synod of the Northeast, voted to leave the PC(USA) on Sept. 30. The recommendation to disaffiliate was supported by 208 voters with 86 voting against, a margin of 71% to 29%. Given a total membership of 446, the plans to leave have been officially supported by 47% of the members.

According to the constitutional policy of the PC(USA), the proposal to leave now is to be taken up by the Presbytery of Northern New England (PNNE) for action at their next meeting.

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Niebuhr, re-issue: Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932)

 

Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr (popularly remembered as "Reine") remains one of America's leading theologians and ethicists. He deserves a note on this anniversary of his first notable volume, Moral Man and Immoral Society, just re-published by Westminster John Knox Press.

His book deserves another look.

Niebuhr (1892-1971) was born in Wright City, Mo., to Gustav and Lydia Hosto Niebuhr. Gustav was a minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Synod, highly intelligent and pious. Their daughter Hulda taught at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, Ill., and their son Richard became a professor at Yale University Divinity School.

Voices

Finding truth on the page and on the stage

 

c. 2007 Religion News Service

 

Before I was a journalist, I was an actor.

Briefly, a semester or so ahead of my debut in the pages of the Wheaton College student newspaper, I became a member of its theater company, a group known simply as "Workout."

The company performed in the Arena Theater, a simple black box that was transformed miraculously into imaginative sets for various productions. Long since I walked its stage, that theater remains a sacred space for me. I was transformed inside its walls, touched by grace and the hand of God in a way I've rarely felt elsewhere.

What happened in Workout was wonderfully creative and deeply spiritual, no matter what material we were working with. I learned as much about faith and doubt, forgiveness and trust, holiness and wounded wholeness from a raucous production of "The Man Who Came to Dinner" as I did from a magical adaptation of Madeleine L'Engle's novel "A Wrinkle in Time."

Voices

Uncovering the origins of Christianity in Ethiopia

 

Ethiopia shall stretch forth

its hands to God.

Psalm 68:31

 

Why does this Ethiopian come among us?

Ethiopian Moses, 3

 

References about Ethiopia and Ethiopians, like the ones above, are sprinkled throughout biblical and extra-biblical writings. Most of us are familiar with Luke's story of the Ethiopian eunuch (a treasurer of a queen of Meroë) who confessed his faith and was baptized after his encounter with the evangelist Philip (Acts 8:26-40). New Testament interpreters generally view this passage as a fulfillment of Acts 1:8, which declares Christianity is to extend to the ends of the world. Yet after the dramatic conversion experience of the Ethiopian, we hear nothing more from him, the Queen whom he represented, or the other people who may have witnessed this encounter. And though the biblical text says Christianity is to extend to the ends of the world, we who teach and research the New Testament have no readily available (or accessible) path to the world of the Ethiopians.

Book Reviews

Honor: A History

 

Honor: A History, by James Bowman. New York: Encounter Books, 2007. ISBN 1594031983. Pb., 265 pp. $18.95. 

 

Every good playground has its own hierarchy. James Bowman does not dismiss this as mere childishness. He sees human history modeled in the playground hierarchy and writ large. "Dominant nations and their leaders are expected to give demonstrations of their dominance so as to avoid the necessity of having to establish it by fighting. When such demonstrations are ambiguous or unconvincing, fighting and all that implies of heartbreak and misery ensues."

Book Reviews

Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade

 

Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade -- And How We Can Fight It, by David Batstone. HarperSanFrancisco, 2007. ISBN 0061206717. Pb., 320 pp. $14.95.*

 

Reading David Batstone's Not For Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade -- and How We Can Fight It reminds me of the speech that William Wilberforce delivered to Parliament on May 12, 1789. Wilberforce had introduced the first bill abolishing the British slave trade and after a lengthy and impassioned speech before Parliament, he concluded by saying: "The circumstances of this [Slave] Trade are now laid open to us. We can no longer plead ignorance, we cannot evade it, it is now an object placed before us, we cannot pass it [by]. We may spurn it, we may kick it out of the way, but we cannot turn aside so as to avoid seeing it."

 

Book Reviews

Holy Play: The Joyful Adventure of Unleashing Your Divine Purpose

 

Holy Play: The Joyful Adventure of Unleashing Your Divine Purpose by Kirk Byron Jones. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2007. ISBN 0787984523. Pb., 188 pp., $21.95.

 

She had been dead for perhaps two decades when I became their pastor, but the people of the church in rural Southside Virginia where she had taught Sunday school for some forty years still quoted Mrs. Cowie: "A Christian is not supposed to have fun!" Kirk Byron Jones dares to disagree. In Holy Play: the Joyful Adventure of Unleashing Your Divine Purpose Jones asserts not only that life is to be enjoyed but that having fun is living faithfully and that our passions and joys are means through which we discover divine purpose for our lives. To use Jones's words, "This book will teach you how to stop waiting for God to tell you what to do and start confidently doing what God has been inspiring you to do all along" (xiv). 

 

Book Reviews

Calvin: The Necessity of Reforming the Church

 

The Necessity of Reforming the Church, in Calvin: Theological Treatises, edited by J. K. S. Reid. WJKP, 2000 (Reprint, The Westminster Press, 1954), pp. 183-216.  ISBN 9780664223670. Pb., 356 pp.  $39.95. 

 

There is a haunting, enigmatic characteristic to Calvin's writing. You rarely catch this at first. It all seems to be so didactic and straightforward. But as you spend more time with him, you begin to sense that there is more than meets the eye. And as this occurs, you cannot help but wonder why you assumed at first that you understood what he said.

Tight lipped when it came to self-disclosure, expository of the text in a pre-critical way, deeply layered from the earlier theologians he had absorbed, and, above all, persistent in his analysis of the human will, Calvin's own style seemed to wall off further penetration. Over the course of the years, however, I came to find that the structure of his texts, the choice of his themes, and the syntax of his writing began to yield more. Like many human fathers, our father in the Reformed faith was more complex than I had thought.

Book Reviews

Augustine, Teaching Christianity

 

Augustine, Teaching Christianity, intro., trans., notes by Edmund Hill, O.P. The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century. New City Press, 1996.  ISBN 1-5648-049-X.  Pb., 259 pp. $22.95

 

Teaching Christianity (De doctrina christiana) was written in two parts. The major portion was written (396) shortly after Augustine became bishop of Hippo Regius and shortly before he wrote the Confessions (397-401); the latter portion was composed about three decades later (427). To some degree the Confessions and Teaching Christianity interpret each other. The former describes the restless wandering of the human heart until it rests in God. The latter offers rules for finding in Scripture God's message to the wanderer. Augustine would have us see that Scripture guides and encourages the yearning rather than satisfying it. Faithful interpretation and communication of this divine address will engage the "unquiet" of the audience and urge it on.

Book Reviews

The Almighty’s Dollar: Money and American Protestantism

 

In Pursuit of the Almighty's Dollar: A History of Money and American Protestantism, by James Hudnut-Beumler. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0807830798. Hb., 288 pp. $29.95.

 

Early in the American Protestant experience a decisive shift took place. The forms of Christianity that had been conceived of and supported as public goods in the European context came to be regarded as private goods in this new setting. James Hudnut-Beumler's account of that historical turn and the ensuing story is an important volume for any concerned about issues of money in the life of American churches.

Voices

Share Power

 

Ever wonder why church members seem to complain all the time?

I think it's because they feel powerless in at least part of their lives, and church is a safe place to deal with that powerlessness. If your boss is a brute, then complain about something at church. Pass along the aggravation.

Editorials

All truth: God’s truth

Speakers at scholar lecture events on many college campuses often are greeted by a sea of empty seats. Not so at Roberts Wesleyan College in 1976. Chapel attendance was mandatory four days each week, so guest scholar Arthur Holmes got to play to a packed house each day.

Then again, packed doesn't necessarily equal enthusiastic. Holmes was introduced as a philosophy professor from a rival college. Two strikes against him.

The dean introducing him also mentioned that he was a Presbyterian. Third strike. This bastion of hearts-strangely-warmed Wesleyans had honed their anti-Calvinism argumentation skills. We religion-and-philosophy majors specialized in crafting such debates. We listened with polite skepticism, at least at the beginning.

Uncategorized

New mission leader urges new missions direction

LOUISVILLE -- Hunter Farrell, the new director of World Mission for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), calls this a crossroads time for Presbyterians -- with the health and vitality of the denomination at stake.

"I believe we in the Presbyterian church are at a crossroads, a kairos moment, a time when we're going to have to choose which direction to go," Farrell told more than 600 people who gathered in Louisville Oct. 2-5 for the World Mission '07 "Celebration of Grace" convocation -- an effort by the denomination to jump-start enthusiasm for international mission and to build closer connections between the national staff and Presbyterians involved in world mission at the local level.

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New stated clerk search started; application deadline December 23

LOUISVILLE -- The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s Stated Clerk Nomination Committee (SCNC), elected at the 217th General Assembly in 2006 in Birmingham, Ala., is now accepting applications for the position of General Assembly stated clerk, the top ecclesiastical post in the 2.3-million-member denomination.

Next summer's 218th General Assembly in San Jose, Calif., will elect the successor to Clifton Kirkpatrick, who announced last month that he will not seek a fourth three-year term. Kirkpatrick was first elected stated clerk in 1996 and is only the second General Assembly stated clerk elected since Presbyterian reunion in 1983.

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Seminary professor nominated for top U.S. ecumenical post

NEW YORK -- Michael Kinnamon, an educator and seminary professor with long-standing ties to a variety of ecumenical bodies, has been nominated to become the ninth general secretary of the U.S. National Council of Churches.

In making the announcement on Oct. 3 the NCC tapped someone with very different credentials than Bob Edgar, the organization's former general secretary and one-time Pennsylvania congressman who left the council earlier this year and is now head of the Washington-based advocacy organization Common Cause.

Voices

The paradoxes of liberal education

"The compelling purpose of Presbyterian College, as a church-related college, is to develop within the framework of Christian faith the mental, physical, moral, and spiritual capacities of each student in preparation for a lifetime of personal and vocational fulfillment and responsible contribution to our democratic society and the world community."

In case you're in doubt, this is the mission statement of Presbyterian College. It is the simplest and most authoritative description of our common task as a college of the Presbyterian Church.

Without saying so directly, it places us in the long tradition of liberal education that goes back to fifth-century Athens. While this tradition has changed in many ways, there are still recognizable continuities.

Voices

The Sharing of the Light: A Second Chance at America

It began with a wrong turn in a familiar city, and the daily privilege I have in dropping my children off to school every morning.

The "it" to which I am referring is the progression of my thinking about the role of church-related higher education in America, particularly church-related higher education in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Many may not know the history of our denomination in America; a history that is long and committed to easing the burden of "the least of these" in our country and in our world. We focused on two specific forms of outreach: healthcare and education. With the exception of the many congregation-related community clinics in places like the Eastminster Church in Pittsburgh, Pa., or the weekly foot care clinic for seniors at the Queen Anne Church in Seattle, Wash., much of our church-related healthcare ministry has been subsumed by larger corporate entities. The name may still remain the same as is best exemplified by the plethora of Presbyterian hospitals that exist across the country, but the economics are much more complicated and the mission is understandably different. Quality healthcare is expensive, bureaucratic, requires a great deal of research and investment and, with but a few remarkable exceptions, is now an industry that has outgrown one denomination's ability to provide those services well.

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