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BOP Medical Plan dues up .5% effective Jan. 1; costs cited

(PNS) With health care costs continuing to rise annually by nearly 10 percent, the Board of Pensions (BOP) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has voted to raise its Medical Plan dues by one-half percent, to 19.5 percent of "effective salary."

The increase, which brings total dues for medical plus pension benefits to 31.5 percent, is effective Jan. 1, 2007. The board approved the increase at its July 13-15, along with subscription increases in related health care programs, such as the Affiliated Benefits Plan (an 8.8 percent increase) and medical coverage for seminary students (an increase commensurate with the Medical Plan dues increase).

Christian groups press for Middle East ceasefire

(RNS) As Middle East hostilities entered its second week, mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic leaders around the world continued to press the combatants --and the Bush administration -- for an immediate cease-fire.

On July 24, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches called for "an immediate cessation of violent acts by all parties," and said the first step "is for all acts of violence to end immediately." In a July 21 letter to Bush, signed by more than a dozen Roman Catholic and Protestant groups including the National Council of Churches, Churches for Middle East Peace told the president his leadership "and the full weight of the Untied States, acting in concert with the international community, must be applied now to achieve an immediate cease-fire and to launch an intensive diplomatic initiative for the cessation of hostilities.

"This is a necessary first step toward the diplomatic resolution of this crisis and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the way toward a comprehensive Middle East peace," the letter to Bush said.

Adair named PFF associate director

W. Andrew Adair, who has been working as a mission co-worker for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in Asia, has been named associate director for mission sending of the Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship and The Outreach Foundation. He will lead their new effort to fund and send their own missionaries.

Since 1997, Adair and his wife, Teri, have worked in Asia, where he has helped direct a partnership involving workers from close to a dozen countries and a variety of agencies. Before that, he worked as mission pastor for Highland Church in Dallas.

Adair, a former investment banker, earned a master's in divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary. He will be based in Houston.

PC(USA) fires Golliher; Embezzlement charged

LOUISVILLE -- The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has fired its associate director for finance and accounting, Judy Golliher, after discovering that she has embezzled at least $102,000 from the church.

The theft has been reported to the Jefferson County Commonwealth Attorney's office and criminal prosecution is being considered.

“Fear of the different other” explored by YWCA executive at PWC meeting

LOUISVILLE -- Musimbi Kanyora, a native of Kenya, lives in Geneva, Switzerland now -- she's general secretary of the World YWCA. So she thinks of the challenges of diversity with a global view, not an American one

Kanyora has seen what she calls "the growing fear of the different other," and says that racism has sometimes made her fear she could be attacked as she walks along a street in Europe. She sees how vulnerable many Muslims in Western countries feel.

And Kanyora, speaking July 8 at the 2006 Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian Women, held up her arm to display three wristbands: three brightly-colored reminders of how the economic diversity of have and have-not plays out in the world.

Presbyterian Women celebrates history, explores present needs, future service

LOUISVILLE -- Trying to get one's arms around the 2006 Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian Women is like trying to grab hold of a river dashing down a hillside -- there's too much at once, and always more coming.

The Gathering -- held July 7 to 11 in Louisville -- brings together about 3,000 Presbyterian women from around the United States and also more than 80 global partners, who come to share stories of the faith and work of women from their countries.

It is partly a celebration of Presbyterian Women's long history of hard work on behalf of mission -- a recognition of the strength and service women have brought to Presbyterian congregations through the generations.

Hope of the Church: Conference looks ahead

David Dobler addresses crowd at Montreat conference.

A once-in-a-lifetime gathering of seminary presidents and former moderators brought their impressive brain power and experience together to discern where to go from here now that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly has approved the recommendations of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church.

About 270 participants came to meet with 10 seminary presidents (or their representatives) and 16 former moderators at Montreat, NC, to plan for the future. The majority of leaders represented a moderate or left-of-moderate viewpoint. The participants ranged from conservative to moderate to liberal. Missing were the very conservative and the very liberal voices. Also missing, at least from the podium, was the denomination's stated clerk or a representative from his office.

Mission networks growing in numbers, energizing efforts, says Browne

LOUISVILLE--Mission networks have proved to be a valuable component of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s international mission work and their importance will grow, declared a PC(USA) mission leader after a gathering of mission network leaders here July 13-14.

"The network experiment has been successful beyond expectations," said Will Browne, associate director for Ecumenical Partnerships, in an interview. "Networks are here to stay to help the whole of the PC(USA) engage in international mission. They are generating a growing energy across our church."

Leaders of 20 of the denomination's 26 mission networks came together for the consultation. Mission networks are groups of Presbyterians who share a common interest in a country, people group, or programmatic emphasis. An outgrowth of mission partnerships developed by synods, presbyteries and congregations, networks provide a venue for partnership participants to relate to international partners, connect with PC(USA) international mission staff and mission personnel, think about common strategies, coordinate efforts and share best practices.

New Wineskins association takes shape

TULSA -- What exactly the New Wineskins Association of Churches is -- and what it wants to become -- is still shaking out.

The group will hold its third convocation Feb. 8 and 9 in Orlando, after a flurry of other gatherings that may shine some light on the mood of the evangelical wing of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) A steering committee will have more recommendations then.

In the meantime, some pieces have fallen into place. And on some other things, the New Wineskins convocation, meeting July 19 to 22 in Oklahoma, decided, "Not yet."

New Wineskins supporters explore defining, implementing movement;
Weaver likens it to “wet cement”

TULSA -- What does it mean to have unity in Christ?

For some supporters of the New Wineskins movement, unity is getting new interpretations -- focusing in part on finding unity with Christians in the Southern hemisphere, or among evangelicals in other settings, but not necessarily within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

"If we're going to talk about unity in the church, we have to talk about the church -- not the American church, but the body of Christ," crossing every race and place, Dean Weaver, a Pennsylvania pastor and the co-moderator of New Wineskins, told that network's national convocation July 20.

"What we are about here today is not about how we realign a small group of American Western Presbyterians," but how Presbyterians fall into line with what God is doing around the globe, Weaver said.

Down the middle

The 217th General Assembly was a "down the middle" Assembly. It elected a moderator who seemed moderate and open-minded. It approved the report of the Theological Task Force (TTF) on the Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church (for short, "PUP Report"), which most regard as offering more leeway for the ordination of gay and lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) church members. But it resolutely refused to consider amending the Book of Order to delete the prohibition in G-6.01206b; it refused even to keep these overtures alive by referring them to the next General Assembly.

The key recommendation of the PUP Report was Number 5, in which the Task Force called on the 2006 General Assembly to adopt an authoritative interpretation ("AI" for short) of G-6.0108b. This AI acknowledges formally that 8b has already established the legitimacy of "departures" ("scruples" in the language of the Adopting Act) from adherence to the letter of the Constitution, as long as they are not violations of the "essential and necessary" features of Reformed faith, practice, and polity.

Leaving the PC(USA): What Are The Facts?

Recent discussions in many quarters are focused on congregations and presbyteries considering removing themselves from the denomination. Questions about dissolution and secession or expressions of grave concern about future relationships with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have arisen largely in response to the Report of the Task Force For the Peace, Unity, and Purity (PUP) and possible responses to it by the General Assembly meeting in Birmingham. 

The clearest expressions of concern came from presbyteries and congregations, and also from coalitions of Presbyterians not officially connected with the PC(USA), governing bodies and groups that opposed the recommendations, usually  from a conservative evangelical perspective. The Presbyterian Coalition, for example, indicated in a statement released on October 10, 2005, that the PUP report, "... if adopted, will undermine the church's purity and exacerbate the denomination's disunity. Indeed, it will promote schism by permitting the disregard of clear standards of Scripture and the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)." The Coalition will meet in Atlanta with the recently formed Presbyterian Global Fellowship after the General Assembly, presumably to make common plans about direction in a post-Task-Force-Report church. In its mission statement the latter says that it considers the PC(USA) to be in a deep crisis, an inward looking organization that is "an aging, dying, visionless denomination."