Dr. Bruce Manning Metzger, New Testament professor emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary and one of the preeminent American New Testament critics and biblical translators of the twentieth century, died February 13, 2007 at the University Medical Center at Princeton, at the age of 93.
Fereshteh Dibaj and her husband Reza Montazemi, a Christian couple in Iran, were released from an Iranian jail last October after spending 10 days in detention.
The charges against them are still unclear, but it is likely to do with their religious affiliation. They belong to Iran's little-known Christian population, a minority that constitutes less than one percent of the country's 70 million inhabitants.
According to Amnesty, Reza's mother, who owns the house in which they live, was reportedly ordered to sign a document two days before the couple was arrested, promising that no more Christian meetings for worship, prayer or Bible study would be held there.
It should come as no surprise that Tehran's religious authorities are concerned about the Christian community.
I observed recently that the PUP Report had not changed anything. A pastor asked, "If nothing's changed, what's the big deal?" An elder responded that we are in a spiritual battle. These comments spurred my deeper evaluation of the dynamics gripping us all.
The key to understand our dilemma is to realize the depths of that spiritual war.
Some history is helpful. In 1978 the northern Presbyterian Church issued a Definitive Guidance prohibiting ordination of "... avowed, practicing homosexuals..."
In 1979 the Definitive Guidance of the southern Presbyterians stated, "...unrepentant homosexual practice does not accord with the requirements for ordination..."
With reunion, these statements were incorporated as Authoritative Interpretation (AI).
Why is it that so many well-intentioned, ethically-minded people behave so badly, so often? Nowhere is that more the case than during national election campaigns. The best and brightest work countless hours, empty their savings accounts, and promise to enact ennobling legislation, all aiming to fulfill their high call to civic service. But in the process they trash their opponents by slinging false accusations like competitors in a cow-pie-tossing competition.
Here's a whiff of reality.
Half of all the communications that Rhett Smith receives on his cell phone are text messages.
Smith -- who's in charge of the college ministry at Bel Air Church in the Los Angeles area -- no longer posts much information on his church's Web site, because he knows that many young adults won't bother to look there.
Instead, Smith relies heavily on MySpace.com and other social networking sites to communicate with students -- they're already there, so he's created his own MySpace page. But increasingly he's seen folks migrating from MySpace to Facebook.com -- "Facebook has really exploded," Smith said -- so now he's there too. He understands: social networking, at whatever the hot place of the month, is the way to get out the word.
LOUISVILLE -- Sharing joys, concerns, hopes, and prayers was the focus of a letter sent January 19 by the members of a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) delegation in the Middle East at that time. General Assembly Council (GAC) Chair Allison Seed, General Assembly Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick and GAC Executive Director Linda Bryant Valentine were visiting Lebanon, Israel, and Palestinian territories in an effort to show their continued support for the region's Christians and to get a first-hand look at the area's dynamics.
I (Tomas Spath) preached a sermon not too long ago in which I admitted I cannot speak with certain members of my family. When I open my mouth, I get either a loud verbal "NO!!!" or the silent treatment.
To my surprise, as the congregation left that Sunday morning approximately 85% of the congregants admitted that they too had a similar problem with their siblings or parents.
I shared this experience with my retired pastor father who was preaching at an interim post and he decided to do the same. He admitted from the pulpit that he was having difficulty maintaining a conversation with certain members of his family. To his surprise, about 85% of the congregants in his church also admitted the same!
c. 2006 Religion News Service
Picture a congregation gathered to decide its future.
Feelings were strong. Disharmony was rife. Carefully coordinated plans were being executed, an information war was ratcheting to a new level designed to convey unstoppable momentum.
In this church, people who once got along have drawn verbal swords. Two stood and said, "If you don't vote our way, you put your mortal souls in peril." Another was shocked that "dear friends" could speak to her that way.
"Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Lord Acton has a point, but I disagree with him. I say, "Power does not necessarily corrupt, but the temptation to be corrupted by power is exceptionally strong."
Only God has absolute power, but we humans are responsible for our use of the relative power we can exercise. "I am not ashamed of the Gospel for it is the power of God ... unto salvation for all who believe!" (Romans 1:16)
I want both to invite you to think about power with me and to encourage you to pour your own unique content into the fascinating, vital subject.
I believe the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is in a particularly parlous place.
For the last three decades we have been struggling with issues related to human sexuality. The most prominent issues have been abortion, the nature of marriage, and the ordination of non-celibate gays and lesbians.
A couple of months ago, a recently ordained minister was being examined during our presbytery meeting. Another pastor rose to challenge a portion of his statement of faith. The new minister looked down at what he had written, indicated his words did not express at all what he intended, and quickly owned up to his mistake. With grace and good humor, he recognized the error. With grace and a bit of levity, the presbytery noted his oversight - and then approved his examination. These days, such an exchange--a timely admission and a gracious response--is not always common among Presbyterians.
It started over a cup of coffee.
In the summer of 2004 two friends from seminary, both serving at the time as associate pastors in prominent downtown congregations, met for coffee in Richmond during General Assembly. (See these friends' thoughts in "Montreat meeting focuses Columbia grads on future" in the May 30, 2005, Outlook). After catching up, the conversation turned to the events of the Assembly. Both were incredibly frustrated with the politically-charged atmosphere, as well as the enormous amounts of time spent huddling and strategizing instead of praying and working together to make our church a healthier, more faithful place.
Let me tell you about my friend, Ben. He was an older man who had recently lost his wife. Returning home from a long trip, Ben found his sliding-glass door at the rear of his home shattered and a back door damaged. A neighborhood twelve-year-old had committed the crime. Ben came to see me about it because the investigating officers wanted to remove the boy from his home and place him in a home for troubled kids.
c. 2007 Religion News Service
Of all the actors, athletes and hip-hop performers venerated by urban teenagers in Southern California, most improbable of all, perhaps, was a 13-year-old girl by the name of Anne Frank.
So goes the inspiring story behind "Freedom Writers," a recent movie starring Hilary Swank. The film's Jan. 5 release was timed to precede the nation's commemoration of another figure in the ongoing fight against racial prejudice: Martin Luther King Jr.
Both are about people struggling to survive in a hostile environment. Both are about people who start out very awkwardly, but slowly learn to care for each other. Both are about experiencing racial discrimination, both overtly and covertly. Both are about learning to succeed in small but important ways, like relying on hard work, and refusing to be beaten down, and withstanding the criticism and rejection of others. Both are about taking pride in one's own story, one's own struggle, one's own life. Both are about gaining respect by maintaining dignity, integrity, and self-reliance. Oh, and getting by with a little help from your friends.
ORLANDO -- Saying the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is close to "utter ruin" and possibly extinction, the New Wineskins Association of Churches https://www.newwineconvo.com/ on February 8 laid the groundwork for a group of congregations to leave the denomination together, probably to join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC). https://www.epc.org
A vote on whether to leave likely will be taken the evening of Feb. 9.
ORLANDO -- The New Wineskins Association of Churches https://www.newwineconvo.com/ has voted unanimously to ask the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) https://www.epc.org/ to create a new, non-geographic presbytery to which congregations that want to leave the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) could be dismissed.
The EPC's General Assembly is expected to vote in June to create the presbytery.
'Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby': This bumpy-ride lowbrow comedy about a race car driver (Will Ferrell) contains a startlingly frank and lengthy discussion at the dinner table about prayer. Is it OK to pray to 'baby Jesus'? Or must we address a 'full-grown Jesus with a beard'?
A church moving into a golf club and conference center?!
That was my reaction when the invitation came to attend the dedication of the new facility of the First Presbyterian Church, Honolulu, Hawaii. It probably is no surprise to anyone that I jumped at the chance to go and check out how the Presbyterians were faring in the fiftieth state. What I found were vibrant, growing churches engaged in creative ministry and witness.
I have just returned from the Middle East. While there, we were thrilled to visit with Reformed Christians in Lebanon--the place of the first Presbyterian Church international mission endeavor--and to see the vitality and strength of the ministry there. We celebrated churches alive in worship, children learning the Christian faith, seminarians being trained for ministry, and a church reaching out to all those who suffer in a war-torn country.
[Ramallah] A loud siren wails in the main street of Ramallah as the ambulance races to the nearby hospital. The casualty inside the vehicle is a teenage Palestinian who received two bullets to his chest during clashes among rival armed militia.
In a separate incident, a number of disgruntled armed young men showered the Daraghmeh store with scores of bullets in Ramallah's commercial district. The fire engulfed the store's interior, resulting in losses totaling $450,000.
At the entrance of a well-established restaurant in the city, a big sign reads "No hand guns allowed on the premises."
As ammunition is readily available through black market middlemen, the sounds of bullets are heard frequently across the city. In a Pavlovian response, the citizens of Ramallah run into hiding as soon as the bullets start flying, their daily life controlled by the will of the gunmen.
LOUISVILLE -- Reading the Book of Order of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) can be dry work -- although, amazingly, some folks love to do it.
But the discussion the Form of Government Task Force https://www.pcusa.org/formofgovernment/index.htm is having about how to rewrite the Book of Order gives reflections -- like glimmers on the water -- of ways in which a denomination's rules really do make a difference in the daily lives of churches.
At its meeting here Jan. 11-13, the task force talked, for example, about what happens when a former or retired pastor stays in the community near the church where that pastor had served.
Editor's note: This year marks the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown in Virginia.
Off the coast of North Carolina lies Roanoke Island, whose Northern tip is the site of England's failed colony in the 1580's. Other than the sound of surf breaking against the shore, all is silence. You feel a palpable sense of loss.
Four hundred years ago, three ships -- the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery -- launched out of the Thames River from London toward the English Channel. The 105 passengers were men and boys; the women would come in later voyages. Five months later, on May 14, 1607, they founded Jamestown, England's first permanent colony. The site was a peninsula 40 miles up the James River in what is now Virginia.
Two dominant faiths stand side-by-side in our nation. Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson originated a public faith our presidents salute in their speeches, imploring God's blessing on the U.S. Jefferson called this national Deity the "Creator" and "Nature's God" in the Declaration of Independence. Orthodox Christianity ranks as the second popular faith alive nationally. God revealed Himself in Christ Jesus. Jefferson refused to use Christian imagery or language in the Declaration of Independence. He and the majority of Founding Fathers kept separate these two faiths.
Only three of Maria Chan Tun's five children lived past the age of five. In her Mexican village, Lerma, as in all of the developing world, water-borne disease is the primary killer of children.
But for Maria's seven grandchildren, the future is brighter.
In 2004, a Living Waters for the World ministry's purification system was installed at the Filadelfia Church that she attends. When she was told that her grandchildren would now have clean, healthy drinking water, Maria was moved to tears. She and her whole congregation celebrated this new privilege, and Pastor Carlos Arias explained that the water system could become a new ministry for the church, offering clean water not only to church members but also to others in the community.
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