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Large Tulsa church votes to leave PC(USA); polity, property questions raised

Kirk of the Hills  Church, a 2,665-member congregation in Tulsa,  Okla., has taken unusual steps to withdraw from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).The Session and pastors took that action in a Session meeting of August 15 and the members endorsed that decision in a congregational meeting held August 30.

An unprecedented process

The withdrawal actions followed an unprecedented process of dissolving the church and reincorporating as "Kirk of the Hills Corporation, an independent congregational church, built on Presbyterian structure and Reformed theology." The two pastors, Tom Gray and Wayne Hardy, resigned from affiliation with the PC(USA)--renouncing jurisdiction--and were then "hired by the Kirk of the Hills Corporation as co-pastors of the church," as stated in the Kirk's press release.  

The Session anticipates "...reuniting with the faithful Presbyterian church by seeking admission into the Evangelical Presbyterian Church."

When questioned about their irregular separation efforts, Gray responded that the denominational leadership provoked them to take such actions. On his personal blog he explains, "We realize that we are not doing the process as set out in the Book of Order. This has been intentional. Also, we know that we have no assurance of retaining our property in this ordeal. The basic avaricious and punitive attitude of the denomination doesn't breed confidence."

Globalization and Reformed tenets: Sinclair lectures in Colombia

© 2006. Used by permission.

BARRANQUILLA, Colombia  --  The questions kept coming from the audience at the close of the Rev. John Sinclair's reflections on Reformed theology in the context of globalization, one of the opening lectures at the four-day celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia.

Sinclair, a former Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) missionary to Latin America and retired secretary of the church's Latin America Office, kept taking the questions, one-by-one and applying five tenets of the Reformed faith to his analysis.

Four scientists honored by PASTCF; Epitomize science as a Christian vocation

Four persons were recognized this year by the Presbyterian Association on Science, Technology and the Christian Faith (PASTCF) at a luncheon during the 217th General Assembly in Birmingham. They are Dr. Randall M. Erickson of Los Alamos, N.M., Dr. Ronald Lee Jenkins of Birmingham, Ala., Dr. Brian Scully of Royal Palm Beach, Fla., and Dr. James H. Shelhamer of Kensington, Md.

PASTCF inaugurated the "Daniel W. Martin Science as a Christian Vocation" program in 1998 to recognize Presbyterian scientists, engineers, science educators, and other technical professionals whose work is truly in response to a call from God. To date, PASTCF has recognized 36 individuals in the program.

2006-7 academic year opens for theological schools

Presbyterian and affiliated theological schools are beginning academic year 2006-7 with opening convocations, new faculty members and/or programs, and other noteworthy events.

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.