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The Bible

Editor's Note: The following essay is one in a series dealing with topics of interest and importance to Presbyterians. Author Johnson explains: "The report from the General Assembly Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church provides us both the occasion and the urgency for theological dialogue within the PC(USA). This and succeeding essays are offered as a constructive effort in that direction."

These essays have cited the Bible regularly as source and norm for the substance of each essay. The time has come to discuss the Bible directly, especially how different people can get different meanings from the same text. The competing interpretations are enough to shake our confidence in the Bible as "our only rule of faith and obedience" (Westminster LC q. 3, Book of Confessions., 7.113). As a people of the Book, we cannot leave the field to the cynicism around, among, or within us. This essay covers how the Bible functions powerfully among us with the help of three circles: the Word and the words, Word and Spirit, the Word then and the Word now. My aim is to reaffirm some basic, Reformed views of the Bible and point a way beyond the roadblocks that beset us in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Eugene Carson Blake: Stated clerk and Christian statesman

Eugene Carson Blake was born just one hundred years ago. As stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church, as well as chief executive of the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Blake deserves a hearty "Happy Birthday" this year. 

He was born into the home of fundamentalist sympathizers in St. Louis, Mo., at a time when Presbyterians were engaged in the Fundamentalist-Modernist brawl. His family traced ancestry back to Scotland and Ireland. From these Presbyterian strongholds they sailed westward across the Atlantic to the new country, then to St. Louis, Mo. He grew up in the West Church.  Across town in South St. Louis, this author also matured.

Cincinnati Presbytery members implement more rigorous examinations of candidates

At the September 12, 2006 meeting of the Cincinnati Presbytery, three candidates were examined for ordination, David Zuidema, Nate Manzo and Thomas Emery. Moderator Rebecca Lindsay prefaced the examination by explaining how the examination process has changed since the adoption of the report of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church. She referred to the General Assembly Stated Clerk Cliff Kirkpatrick's counsel during and after GA: With the PUP vote..."we have not altered the fundamentals; we have the same standards as before. The [PUP] report encourages a more pastoral approach to ordination and encourages our governing bodies to do a thorough work of examining people for office.' During Zuidema's examination, a commissioner declared the intention to ask the same related questions of all three candidates:

Congratulations Class of 2006!

Abbreviations: Associate pastor -- a.p.; stated supply -- s.s.; director of Christian education -- d.c.e.; graduate study -- g.s.; clinical pastoral education -- c.p.e.; pastor -- p.; evangelist -- e.; pastoral intern -- p.i.; pastoral assistant -- p.a.; temporary supply -- t.s.

AUBURN/UNION

M. Div.

Robert Williams Birch; Christa Dawn Swenson; Sarah Segal McCaslin (M.Div. /M.S.S.W.); Shannon Farrand-Bernardin.

M.A.

Brian Cave, Erin Reese; Rebekah Sachiko-Walter.

Awards, prizes, and fellowships

Robert Williams Birch, The Traveling Fellowship for promise of contribution to theological knowledge; Sarah Segal McCaslin, the Maxwell Fellowship for promise of excellence in parish ministry; Christa Dawn Swenson, the Julius Thomas Hansen Award for a Senior relating Philosophy, Theology, and Ethics to Christian Ministry and Contemporary Society.

Sacramento Presbytery acts on property, scruples, per-capita giving issues

Sacramento Presbytery, in a vote that is catching the attention of folks around the country, has passed a resolution that apparently would allow congregations that wanted to leave the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to do so with their property.

It also voted not to grant any exceptions to the PC(USA)'s ordination standards, not to recognize any "scruples" involving individual conscience, and not to allow the presbytery to make up the difference if congregations withhold their per capita payments to protest policies of the national church.

Presbyterian Church of Colombia 150th anniversary celebrated

 Â© 2006. Used by permission.

BARRANQUILLA, Colombia -- A nearly four-hour worship service closed a four-day celebration here of the 150^th anniversary of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia (PCC), a denomination with a strong reputation for offering education to the poor and of upholding the human rights of the country's most disadvantaged.

The PPC has approximately 12,000 members in 50 churches organized into three presbyteries.

Under way from Aug. 10-14, Monday night's closing service also marked the 50^th anniversary of the Association of Reformed and Presbyterian Churches of Latin America (APRAL), a council that relates to the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) in Geneva, Switzerland, an organization that represents 280 Reformed churches in 107 countries.

The night wrapped up a week of Reformed hoopla.

“Something happened here”: PGF challenged to move into mission future

ATLANTA -- Think of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) as a lemon-colored rotary phone in a cell-phone world.

Useful in its time. Not working too well now.

That was the image that Vic Pentz, senior pastor of Peachtree Presbyterian church in Atlanta, used to kick off the first-ever gathering of the Presbyterian Global Fellowship (www.presbyterianglobalfellowship.org) -- an entity that he acknowledged is brand-new, is still taking shape, that no one is exactly sure how to describe.

But more than 800 people from 42 states came to this meeting at Peachtree August 17-19 -- ready for something different, wanting to "move beyond the old model of mission, which is simply sending great gobs of money from the West to the rest," Pentz told the opening night gathering.

So he thunked down the yellow rotary phone on the pulpit -- and there it stayed, a visual clue as to what's not working with the PC(USA).

Understanding the history of mainline Protestant decline

c. 2006 Religion News Service

In a city (Houston) where bigger is expected and megachurches abound, I took frustrated leaders of three small Episcopal parishes and one Methodist church back to 1964.

That's the year membership in the Episcopal Church peaked and a four-decade decline began. Other mainline Protestant denominations sagged, too.

"What happened in 1964?" I asked in a church wellness seminar. Answers came flying. "Beatles on 'Ed Sullivan.'" "Vietnam." "Bra-burning." "Martin Luther King." "The Ford Mustang." All actual events, but not the biggest event of 1964 affecting church membership. Neither was the early rumbling of liturgical change or emergence of women in church leadership.

"What happened in 1964," I told them, "was that post-war Baby Boomers began to graduate from high school. They left home and many parents lost their main reason for attending church." I added: "We didn't give them other reasons to stay." We went one decade not even acknowledging their absence and then two decades blaming their absence on whatever we didn't like.

A religious and demographic profile of Presbyterians

The following are excerpts of a study developed by the Presbyterian Panel, analyzing the members, ordained elders, and ordained ministers of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).It reflects responses from more than 3,500 individuals, sampled in fall 2005. A more complete analysis can be found at www.pcusa.org/research/panel . 

Non-statistical congregational analysis

Recently every congregation should have received the report from the General Assembly entitled Statistics, January 1-December 31, 2005 (for a fee of $10). In it records from every Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) church can be found concerning the number of active members, gains and losses in membership, officer information, and financial receipts and expenditures. Using these figures as a basis, the General Assembly can look for denominational trends on membership changes, pledging, giving to mission causes in and out of the Presbyterian church, and investments and endowments.

Anecdotal evidence suggests, however, that these numbers do not tell us everything we want to know about the nature and vitality of the local church. How do you understand the statistics from your own congregation? How do you evaluate whether or not your church is alive and filled with the Holy Spirit? Which graphs tell you that you are growing or on a downward slide to the point of no return? 

FACTs about personal religious practice: Meeting evangelicals halfway

One of those end-of-the-millennium polls found that 52 percent of all Americans pray every day and that 56 percent report that someone in their family usually says grace at family meals (Hargrove and Stempel, www.shns.com ). Is it merely a coincidence that the Faith Communities Today (FACT2000) national survey of congregations conducted at about the same time found that 51 percent of all U.S. congregations gave "a great deal" of emphasis to personal devotional practices in their preaching and teaching and that 54 percent of U.S. congregations gave "a great deal" or "quite a bit" of emphasis to family devotions? Or, does this provide striking evidence that what we do in our congregations does make a difference? 

Assuming the latter, then the FACT2000 survey also suggests that old-line Protestants are less likely than persons from other faith groups to pray every day, are less likely to engage in family devotions, and indeed are less likely to engage in any of the home or personal religious practices mentioned in the FACT2000 study.

Myths and facts about evangelism and church growth

The U.S. Congregational Life Survey takes a look at what works in the areas of evangelism and church growth. Responses from fast-growing churches debunk common myths. Used with permission.

Interfaith worship, cooperation has increased among congregations

Interfaith activity among faith communities has more than tripled since 2000, according to the latest national survey of U.S. faith communities.

The survey, sponsored by the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership, found that slightly more than two in 10 (22.3%) congregations reported participating in an interfaith worship service in the past year. Nearly four in 10 (37.5%) congregations reported joining in interfaith community service activities.  

These figures are from Faith Communities Today 2005 (FACT2005) survey of 884 randomly sampled congregations of all faith traditions in the United States. The survey updates results from a survey taken in 2000, before the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Ufford-Chase joining anti-war march Sept. 26

Posted Sunday, September 3rd on Rick's weblog:  https://what-i-see.blogspot.com/2006/09/sisters-and-brothers-i-have-written.html

Sisters and Brothers,

I have written and spoken often about my conviction that our witness as people of faith should, wherever possible, be a positive one. What we as followers of Jesus are for is far more compelling than what we are against, and we must accept the challenge to live out Jesus' absurd conviction that we are most secure, and most right with God, when we love our enemies.

It is that desire to be a witness for Christ that has led me to become a reservist with Christian Peacemaker Teams. It is what has compelled me to be involved in the work of trying to save the lives of folks who are dying in the desert. It was what compelled me to become the Director of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship with the hope of creating a corps of Presbyterians who will offer nonviolent accompaniment wherever sisters and brothers in our partner churches are at risk around the world.

Though I remain firm in that core commitment to offer positive, Christ-centered, alternatives to violence, I also believe that there are times when evil is so strong, and so interwoven into the fabric of our culture, that God demands that we rise up in protest.

Controversial book not endorsed by PC(USA)

The Presbyterian Publishing Corp. -- responding to criticisms of a new book it has published that asserts American military and political leaders were involved with planning the 9/11 attacks -- issued a news release Aug. 11 stating that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) does not endorse the claims the book makes.

The controversial book -- Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11: A Call to Reflection and Action -- was written by David Ray Griffin, a retired professor of philosophy and theology at Claremont School of Theology in California.

Since its publication by Westminster John Knox Press earlier this summer, Griffin's book has riled up Presbyterians who have argued that Westminster shouldn't have published the book and that it is bringing more trouble down on an already divided, declining denomination.

Accompaniers in Colombia: Live and worship side-by-side

© 2006. Used by permission.

BARRANQUILLA, Colombia--While accompaniment of Latin Americans by North Americans is generally understood to protect bodies threatened by illegal armed groups and berserk military strategies, people here say it is equally good for the soul.

"We probably won't know what the changes are within ourselves until we look back, but it is impossible to come here and not be changed," says 27-year-old Traci Smith of Batavia, Ill., and a spring graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, who is ending six weeks of accompaniment of threatened church human rights workers this week.

She's sitting in the rain-soaked courtyard of the Presbyterian secondary school here, where a spectacular thunderstorm has abruptly soiled an outdoor dance, one event amidst the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia (PCC). The storm turned the city's concrete streets into gullies and cut the electricity in this middle-class neighborhood, where the school has operated for more than 100 years.

Presbyterians and peacemaking: Levels of understanding, action vary

Sometimes it's hard to look at the news. What's happening in the world, in places like Lebanon and Israel and Iraq and the Sudan, is often so painful.

And Presbyterians who are serious about wanting peace in the world sometimes don't know what to do.

But as complicated as world politics can be, many Presbyterians do feel an obligation, sometimes a calling, to work for peace and for a more loving and just world. In times of turmoil, what does that look like? What can "ordinary" Presbyterians and congregations do to be peacemakers?

The answer, to some extent, depends on the person. Some are comfortable with quieter involvement, with prayer and reading and discussion, trying to understand. Others feel pulled to action and advocacy. For some Presbyterians, the pain of the world is so strong that it demands that they do something to try to make a difference.

Sayings of Muhammad come under scrutiny

c. 2006 Religion News Service

Jihaad Abdul-Majid has often found inspiration in the words and deeds of Islam's prophet Muhammad, from his acts of compassion and charity to his counsel that followers treat women fairly and help the poor.

At the same time, other sayings that implied female inferiority and intolerance toward other religions troubled the 23-year-old student at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.

"These issues have pushed me to seek more knowledge," said Abdul-Majid, who recently enrolled in an online course about the hadith, the collected stories of what Muhammad and his closest companions said and did.

Muslims hold the hadith second only to the Quran as a source of Shariah law and personal guidance. For centuries, Muslims have hotly debated the hadith, often coming to vastly different conclusions about what lessons to draw from Muhammad's life.

Hadith: A Case Study

c. 2006 Religion News Service

The Verse: "A nation led by a woman shall not prosper."

The Context: This verse is part of a longer hadith, or narration about the life of Muhammad, recounting the story of how a Persian king executed one of the Islamic prophet's messengers, sparking his anger against the empire. Muhammad made the statement after the king died and his daughter became ruler.

Aid Groups urge help for refugees caught in web of terrorism rules

c. 2006 Religion News Service

Advocacy groups are pressuring Congress to take broader action to alleviate the plight of refugees who have been caught in a tangle of new regulations designed to keep terrorists from entering the United States.

Refugee Council USA, which includes numerous faith-based organizations, estimates that as many as 20,000 refugees worldwide are being denied asylum in the United States because their activities fall within broad new U.S. definitions of helping terrorist organizations. Many of the refugees, from countries like Myanmar, Colombia, Liberia, and Cuba, are living in refugee camps in other countries.