Advertisement

Latest Posts

Voices

Cracking the code with Iran: Meeting Iran’s president

September's theater season in New York featured an odd pair of actors in roles that are both loved and loathed by audiences around the world. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and George Bush made speeches to the General Assembly of United Nations on the same day (Sept. 19), from diametrically opposing geopolitical viewpoints.

One portrays the other as a bully on the global playground, while the latter denounces the first as a rogue state, belonging to the "axis of evil." Were it not for consequences in the real world, the rhetoric alone would be both alarming and entertaining. But historical grievances outstanding and military maneuvers ongoing at the convergence of their respective zones, together with heightened fears of nuclear weapons proliferation, make these theatrics quite dangerous.

Voices

Rethinking the Holocaust

 

Because I am both an elder in a Presbyterian church and a religion columnist for a daily newspaper, I followed the divestment issue closely. I even wrote a column criticizing the church for its failure to be in constructive dialogue with our Jewish brothers and sisters before the 2004 General Assembly vote.

But the more I work with a rabbi on my current book project, the clearer it is to me why we Presbyterians failed to anticipate Jewish anger at that divestment vote and, thus, why we felt obligated to try a new approach in 2006. I have come to understand that most Christians fail to understand much of anything about our faith's historic relations with Jews -- whether good (of which there is precious little) or bad (of which there is enough to take up gigabytes of chip memory).

Voices

Palestine, Israel, and “the wall”: Can we talk?

 

This is not easy to discuss.

That point was illustrated to me very clearly a few weeks ago while having dinner with a friend in New York City. I had just returned from the West Bank and was recounting some of experiences of my trip. I did have a vague sense that the couple at the adjacent table, a bit close for my comfort, had become rather quiet. That sense was confirmed when the man next to me, apparently having reached his limit of being able to hold his tongue, plunged into our conversation without so much as a polite apology about the intrusion.

In a recent television interview, former president Jimmy Carter pointed out that "the deprivation of basic human rights among the Palestinians is really horrendous" and that "this is a fact that's known throughout the world ... (and) debated heavily and constantly in Israel," but "it is not debated at all in this country."

Difficult or not, we must be able to address it.

Voices

The Pharisee

 

Lent 5 ¢ Introduction

In recent years, thanks in part to scholarly research, and also to a new and more open dialogue with our Jewish brothers and sisters in faith, we know much more, and understand much more, about the Pharisees.  A far more interesting and complex picture of first century Judaism has emerged as a result. We have learned that the earliest Gospel writers, deeply influenced by the increasing competition and resulting hostility between Judaism and their own infant new religion, tended to paint all Pharisees (and in John's gospel, even all Jews) with the same condemning brush. However there is no denying that, among Jesus' own people, and particularly within the religious power structure of that time, there was a growing, and increasingly threatening hostility to our Lord and his message. This week's meditation illuminates some of the grounds for that hostility.

  

(Matthew 12:22-23, Mark 3:23-27, Luke 11:14-20)

Voices

Does Jesus’ tomb mean the end of faith?

 

(RNS) For many years I've wondered about the following scenario: What if an archeologist turned up the bones of Jesus and had some decent proof? And what if they were found in such a way that it was hard to deny the claims?

That would really shake things up in the Christian world. After all, Christian faith is based on the belief that Jesus rose from the dead. The empty tomb is an essential component. As St. Paul says in his First Letter to the Corinthians, If Christ is not risen ... then your faith is in vain.

So, to be honest, the news of a new book, The Jesus Family Tomb, and a related Discovery Channel documentary produced by James Cameron, startled me. There are several such tantalizing elements, including an ossuary (bone box) marked Jesus, son of Joseph found besides others marked with familiar names from the family of Jesus.

Uncategorized

Services March 24 for Dr. Isabel Wood Rogers, beloved ‘Dr. Izzie’

Updated 3/20/07

Izzie Rogers.jpg

RICHMOND, VA. -- Dr. Isabel Wood Rogers, 82, Professor Emerita of Applied Christianity at Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education, died March 18 in Richmond.

Services are scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday, March 24, at Ginter Park Church in Richmond with a reception to follow. Interment will be in her birthplace of Tallahassee, Fla. Survivors include a sister, Elizabeth Green McCord of Tallahassee, and two nephews.

Born in 1924, she held degrees from Florida State University (A.B.), the University of Virginia (M.A.), the Presbyterian School of Christian Education (M.R.E.), and Duke University (Ph.D.). Austin College, Westminster College, and Centre College all awarded her honorary degrees.

Dr. Rogers, known affectionately as "Dr. Izzie," taught at the Presbyterian School of Christian Education from 1961-1998. Upon her retirement, she was named Professor Emerita of Applied Christianity. Prior to her work at PSCE, she was the Presbyterian campus minister and chaplain and the director of campus religious activities at Georgia College in Milledgeville.

Uncategorized

Montreat Conference Center Welcomes New Director of Development Operations

Diane Pennington.JPG(Montreat, NC) -- Montreat Conference Center is pleased to introduce Diane Pennington, the conference center's new Director of Development Operations.  Professionally, Pennington brings a diversity of experience to the Montreat Conference Center Development office.  Over the course of 15 years in corporate New York, she gained experience in management, operations, administration, and corporate communications and marketing. 

Uncategorized

Staff appointments, social justice resolutions passed on final day of GAC meeting

LOUISVILLE -- Responding to a request from the Evangelical Church of Iran, the General Assembly Council of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has passed a resolution asking U.S. political leaders to initiate "direct diplomatic dialogue with leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran, so that by all means, a military confrontation would be avoided" involving Iran.

It asks Presbyterian military chaplains to lead prayers for peace and the "well-being of all peoples in the region."

And it asks the council to remind Presbyterians of the denomination's policies on nuclear weapons "and the dangers of military confrontation."

Uncategorized

Leaner General Assembly Council shifts focus from details to big picture

LOUISVILLE -- "We are in a time of great change in our church."

That's how General Assembly Council member Steve Benz presented the challenge -- shorthand for everything from infighting in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to financial distress to the reality that nearly half of the denomination's congregations have fewer than 100 members.

And Tom Gillespie, a council member and retired president of Princeton Theological Seminary, preached on that reality during worship.

Uncategorized

Presbyterian Foundation reports “outstanding year” for funding mission

The Presbyterian Foundation reported March 13 that $78.5 million was made available for mission in 2006, an increase of $6.3 million from 2005. As a ministry of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Foundation is called to nurture the accumulated resources of Presbyterians to further the mission of the Church and grow the resources that support mission giving for the future.

 

Uncategorized

GAC executive committee hears reports on funding, staffing at beginning of Council meeting

LOUISVILLE -- Most Presbyterians don't sit around thinking about how the top levels of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) are organized. But just understand this:

·         The reorganization of the top levels of the denomination's national staff is continuing -- with a key appointment in communications and funds development recently being announced. That appointment, if confirmed by the General Assembly Council this week, will round out the top level of the PC(USA)'s administrative team.

·         The council, meeting March 14-16 in Louisville, is also being reorganized, with the election of new leadership and a new committee structure. The size of the council also will change in the months to come, producing a council that's supposed to be more streamlined and more focused on the denomination's Mission Work Plan goals.

·         Linda Valentine, who was named the council's executive director in June 2006, spoke of how she hopes the new alignments will allow the council to more effectively "talk about big issues, what the church needs and how we can respond." Valentine spoke of the need for "adaptive thinking, generative thinking, strategic thinking" in the PC(USA).

Uncategorized

COGA: Designated giving okay for us, too

LOUISVILLE --The Committee on the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) agreed today to allow its ministries to solicit designated funds from potential donors. Heretofore, the Office of the General Assembly has been funded singly by per capita funds, with the exception of special fund raising that has been done in recent years by the Presbyterian Historical Society.

Voices

“Justification by Grace Through Faith” is What the Reformation Confessions Actually Teach

I think each of us has at least one of what the French call our "betes noires," those little black beasts that drive us mad. One of mine is when I hear modern-day Presbyterians saying that faith is our response to salvation rather than saying that we are saved "by grace through faith." So while I enjoyed parts of Merwyn S. Johnson's, "The Marks of the True Church," Presbyterian Outlook, 3-5-07, I was disappointed to hear him repeat this overused--and in my view highly inaccurate--contemporary Presbyterian nostrum. He writes: "How can the Reformation marks of the true Church help us at the present time? Several things come to mind. First, the Reformation confessions have a whole different take on grace and salvation. Faith, they say, is the result of our salvation, not the cause of it." (underscore added.) He continues,  "The chief end of the Christian life is to glorify and enjoy God forever, not to be saved for its own sake (Mark 8:34f)."

Uncategorized

Middle governing body leaders ask the tough questions

Are you ready to fire yourself? Presbytery and synod representatives, gathered in Albuquerque, N.M., Feb. 14-16, seeking ways to salvage their governing bodies. In the process they were asked to risk losing their careers. 

Rendle20070214.JPG"Do we need synods? Do we need executive presbyters?" asked conference facilitator Gilbert R. Rendle. "These [questions] are dangerous because as we ask them, we have to ask whether we are ready to lose our jobs. I don't take such questions easily.  Three times I've gone through a process that led to the determination that my job was not needed. I didn't like it then. I don't like it now."

Rendle spoke about more than a corporate restructuring. He pressed those gathered leaders like a revival preacher. "This is a spiritual issue, a Mosaic issue. Are we ready to go out into the wilderness, not knowing where we are going to end up?" 

Voices

Professor Bruce M. Metzger: One student’s remembrance

In his Reminiscences of an Octogenarian (1997), Bruce M. Metzger of Princeton remarks that it has often been said, "The snare of autobiographers is that we see ourselves neither as others see us, nor as God sees us." Dr. Metzger taught many of the New Testament scholars currently at work around the world. But he prepared many more of his students as pastors. I recall how some of us saw and benefited from his ministry in that role

Movie Reviews

Amazing Grace

This is the fascinating story of the life of William Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffudd), the late-eighteenth century member of the British Parliament whose life work was finally succeeding in getting a provision passed that banned the slave trade in Great Britain. (OK, so historically, it just moved to other places during the next century, like the Indies and the Americas, but it was still a heroic struggle.)

Voices

James and John

Lent 4 ¢ Introduction

One of the most fascinating and rewarding aspects of being an author is the varied nature of the responses one receives from readers. In recent years I have learned from these that my two earlier Faces... books, Faces at the Manger and Faces at the Cross, were found to be helpful, not only in private, personal devotion life, but also, on occasion, in public worship. Creative pastors, and lay people also, have adapted the musings of the various Faces as dramatic monologues, or even, in one college in Canada, into a whole Christmas Eve service. This week's meditation, in the persons of James and John, might possibly be adapted (into two voices perhaps) for such use on Transfiguration Sunday.

Voices

Holy Lent

(RNS) If I could wish you a Holy Lent, it would have two components: personal and communal.

At the personal level, it is time to focus on the basics: prayer, study and self-examination.

Prayer, or talking with God, can take many forms, from the formal to the spontaneous, from highly intentional to humble submission. The point isn't to do it right, but to give God the opening.

Uncategorized

Presbyterians’ “faith walk” taking them to protest against Iraq War March 16

When people of faith think the war in Iraq is wrong, what's the right thing to do?

Some Presbyterians, grappling with that question, have decided it's time to take to the streets in public witness. They are planning to come to Washington D.C. on March 16 to participate in Christian Peace Witness for Iraq, https://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=action.cpw&item=cpw_main, an event that will involve worship at the National Cathedral and nonviolent civil disobedience outside the White House, possibly including arrests.

Editorials

Hawkish dove

Let's be honest. While the vast majority of Americans presently oppose the Iraq War, most of those same Americans were being well represented when Congress voted its initial authorization for the use of military force against Iraq. Chilling reports of the use of chemical weapons against its own people, a cat-and-mouse game with U.N. weapons of mass destruction inspectors, and reports of exporting post-9-11 terrorism convinced many of us to support the efforts to depose Saddam Hussein.

Since then, the original intelligence reports have proven erroneous. Most allied nations have withdrawn their troops. The quick overthrow of the government has turned into a protracted civil war. We now find ourselves caught in a military quagmire.

Voices

“Downsizing” synods and presbyteries

Author's note: Denominational "downsizing" has continued with relentless persistence over the past 30 years due largely to changing views and practices of how Presbyterians ought to fund God's work in the church and the world. Periodic discussions have ensued about the various levels of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) governance and their optimum size and shape. The substance of the proposal that follows was first published in the Outlook in 1994. Much has happened in the church and the world since, but recent developments in the denomination have led to requests that the Outlook republish an updated version of the article. Perhaps the time is right for a new "big idea" that has potential to help us all re-imagine how authentically Presbyterian polity could be refashioned to serve the new needs of new times.   

 

Voices

On creating a Christian movement for peace

 

On September 26th of last year, I was arrested in the Hart Senate Office building in Washington, D.C., while participating in an intentionally nonviolent, interfaith prayer service to end the war in Iraq. I was not alone; 71 other people of faith and conscience were arrested that day as well, among them four Presbyterian pastors.

Coming out of that experience, a small group of us began dreaming of a new kind of witness for peace. It would be clearly, unapologetically Christian. It would be deeply grounded in worship and in prayer. It would be bold about who Christ calls us to be as peacemakers. It would be an invitation to join a movement of Christians who believe that genuine security will come only when all of God's people commit themselves to build right relationships with one another around the world.

Voices

Unity as work and diversity as mutual forbearance

 

"I believe we are at another such time in our life together when the focused and timely work ... could help us seek a more excellent way, a way guided by the Spirit of Christ seeking mutual understanding and enabling us to speak the truth in love," - the Rev. Syngman Rhee, Moderator of the 212th General Assembly

 

How can a Presbyterian congregation embrace "emergence" while remaining true to its historical roots? The members of Mountain View Church in Loveland, Colo., struggled with this thorny question, as have many other Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations. It is answering it in both a creative and unified way.

Voices

The wild, fierce and beautiful Spirit: Transforming church and community

When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness (Acts 4: 31).

Rick Smyre wrote in a recent edition of Net Results: "All communities and churches will face, without exception, the need to transform themselves as the effectiveness of old ways crumble."* As we try to imagine new capacities for new realities, as we try to help people learn how to think differently, it will also be important to help people see God in new transforming ways. Our capacity to respond to new realities is either hampered or enhanced by the images of God we have inherited.

 

Page 814 of 893
Advertisement