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Voices

Task Force expectation: fostering honest conversation

Presbyterians, beware the Ides of September.

All right, technically the Ides of September falls on the 13th and I'm referring to the 15th. People from many sectors of the PC(USA) are waiting expectantly for that date, for the release of the report of the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity, and Purity of the church. The Presbyterian Outlook recently featured an editorial as well as several articles and letters on this topic:
 

Common Ground: Task Force, small groups seeking way forward for PC(USA)

Common Ground: Montreat meeting focuses Columbia Grads on future

September 15 (editorial, May 30 2005 issue)

Letters to the Editor response to 'September 15'.
 

Some groups like More Light Presbyterians have elected not to wait but to act peremptorily:  https://www.mlp.org/resources/overturefaq.html . Many presbyteries have already begun softening the church in anticipation. I find I am a bit more inclined to proceed with extreme caution.

Book Reviews

From Christendom to World Christianity: A Review Essay

Andrew F. Walls, The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission of Faith. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1996. 266 pages; and The Cross- Cultural Process in Christian History. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2002. 284 pages.
 

An intriguing intramural debate is being waged today among members of the mission studies academy -- a debate about terminology. What is the best phrase to describe the result of revolutionary change in Christian demographics that occurred at the end of the 20th century? This change concerns the center of gravity of Christian adherents in the world. Mission demographers, David B. Barrett and Todd M. Johnson, document in their massive publication (The World Christian Encyclopedia, Oxford, 2001) that by the year 2000 there were more Christians in the southern and eastern hemispheres than in historic Christendom--Europe and North America. Philip Jenkins has highlighted this phenomenon in his work, The Next Christendom (Oxford, 2002), claiming that perhaps as many as two-thirds of the world's Christians will live outside the West by 2050. Shall we refer to this global Christian movement as "world Christianity" or "global Christianity"? By either name 21st century Christianity not only now is firmly established as a world-wide phenomenon but also has become predominantly a non-Western religion.

Book Reviews

Whose Religion is Christianity? Christianity beyond the West

by Lamin Sanneh. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003. Pp. xii, 138. ISBN 0- 8028-2164-2. $12.

In the course of the 20th century, Christianity finally outgrew its long Western phase of development, underway since the time of Constantine. A world religion had emerged by the end of the modern era, an "ambi-cultural" network of Christian faith communities that will not be bound by past patterns of social, aesthetic, or even theological conformity. Lamin Sanneh, D. Willis James Professor of Missions and World Christianity at Yale Divinity School, is not concerned to establish these facts here. Instead, his burden is to explore the implications of Christianity's unfolding polycentric future, where the edges of greatest growth are to be found in places like China and sub-Saharan Africa, rather than in the old North Atlantic heartlands of 19th century Christendom.

Editorials

The long and short of it

Presbyterians need both long-term and short-term mission workers, and I call on Presbyterians to support both. We can afford both, if we renew our commitment and improve our stewardship practices. I also call on Presbyterians to improve what you do in short-term mission, and to update your understandings of what we do together through long-term service.

Voices

Beauty and suffering: An African journal

Last spring, Moderator Rick Ufford-Chase made an extended visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo to visit the churches and peoples of the two Presbyterian partner denominations of the PC(USA). As he traveled, he kept a running journal of his experiences and observations …

Uncategorized

Task Force Recommendations release August 25th

 

CHICAGO -- Tweak here, clarify there, make the sentences crisp and clear.

On Aug. 25, the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will announce its long-awaited recommendations. But today -- the day before the big day -- the task force spent about an hour editing and improving draft sections of the report it had made public in July. The task force went back into closed session after that for more private discussions.

That leaves about a three-hour block of time scheduled for Aug. 25 to make the recommendations, discuss them and vote on the final report.

Many of the editing changes suggested were minor, meant to sharpen a point or clear up cluttered language -- there were certainly no roaring discussions. The task force members have seen these drafts before; any major differences of views, if they existed, apparently have been worked out in private.

So they concentrated today on the fine points.

Uncategorized

Hanover Presbytery (1755): Samuel Davies and Patrick Henry

The organization of the Hanover Presbytery, now Presbytery of the James in Virginia, is a fascinating tale of pious migrants settling the Mid-Atlantic region, of emerging church leaders challenging them to grow and cooperatively come together during the turbulent years before the American Revolution broke out.

Francis Makemie, the father of American Presbyterianism, wrote A Plain and Persuasive to the Inhabitants of Virginia and Maryland (1750). He advised migrants to the New World to move south into Virginia and to build houses, churches, and school, to grow tobacco. Makemie then moved north, won a right to preach and build churches in New York and vicinity. He helped form America's first Presbytery. The body grew, disagreed over matters such as the First Great Awakening, split into Old Side -- New Side, but carried on. Pious people, but without clergy, streamed into Virginia. Some began to form "reading houses," as they were called, because Williamsburg's Anglican establishment would not allow other Protestants to build "churches." A William Morris, for example, joined with his neighbors to meet and study books they had, including Luther's Galatians commentary, John Knox's Scot's Confession, the Westminster Confession and Catechisms, and George Whitefield's sermons. The movement spread. When asked by authorities to which denomination they belonged, they identified themselves as Presbyterians, aided by New Side clergyman from New Castle, William Robinson.

Voices

Conversations between Christians with diverse theologies and political circumstance have never been easy.

"The mystery of peace is located in the nature and quality of relationship developed with those most feared."

-- John Paul Lederach
The Moral Imagination
 

Conversations between Christians with diverse theologies and political circumstance have never been easy. Last year, for example, the Southern Baptist Convention decided to quit the Baptist World Alliance because its theologies were "too liberal" and its criticisms of the United States too many.

A different crisis of ecumenical relations occurred last October in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). With help from its world mission headquarters in Louisville and the participation of its Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, it sent a fact-finding delegation to the Middle East. Among other local hosts in visits to six countries were the Middle East Council of Churches and the Synod of Lebanon, Syria. Leaders of the latter asked the delegation to undertake a conversation with representatives of the militant Muslim group Hezbollah. Back in Louisville, denominational executives had advised "caution" about having such a meeting, but they never forbade the delegation to undertake it. The upshot of the event was the firing of two General Assembly staff members for incompetence in permitting that meeting to take place and for failing to protect the church against negative media publicity.

As a longtime student of the ethics of forgiveness and repentance, I have had to ponder the complexity of Jesus' word to disciples that they are to "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:44). That word applies as much to conflicts inside the church as outside. As a Presbyterian, I am proud of its ecumenical and social justice traditions; and I believe that this internal denominational controversy needs to be judged against the background of twentieth century ecumenical history. Many issues in the incident transcend this one denomination.

Book Reviews

The Elusive Spirit of Just War: A Review Essay

 

Books reviewed:

Jean Bethke Elshtain, Just War Against Terror: The Burden of American Power in a Violent World. New York: Basic Books, 2003. 250 pages.

Edward Leroy Long Jr., Facing Terrorism: Responding As Christians. Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 2004. 117 Pages.

Oliver O'Donovan, The Just War Revisited. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Editorials

Lingering Discontent

Dr. James Smylie’s article in this issue, looking toward the 250th Anniversary of the organization of Hanover Presbytery in 1755, reminds me of one of the losses of the 1983 reunion of the Northern and Southern Presbyterian denominations. “They” took away our name.

Voices

In defense of conversation between friends and enemies

“The mystery of peace is located in the nature and quality of relationship developed with those most feared.”

— John Paul Lederach
The Moral Imagination
 

Conversations between Christians with diverse theologies and political circumstance have never been easy.

Editorials

A Worthy Beginning

Dr. James Smylie’s article in this issue, looking toward the 250th Anniversary of the organization of Hanover Presbytery in 1755, reminds me of one of the losses of the 1983 reunion of the Northern and Southern Presbyterian denominations. “They” took away our name.

Uncategorized

Church members ministering “where God wants me to be”

Sometimes the path is straight and clear. And sometimes the journeys of the heart twist around through thickets and wilderness and desert and what seem to be dead ends. But they keep walking. Across the church, acting from faith, ordinary people stir concrete and walk into prisons and set up cots. Sometimes people end up in places they never would have imagined, meeting people whose lives seem so different and yet with whom they discover they have so much in common.

And when they get to that unexpected place, they often say: "This is exactly where God wants me to be."

Uncategorized

Task Force: No position on ordination

DALLAS -- The Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) apparently will not take a position on one of the church's most divisive issues: whether gays or lesbians who aren't celibate should be ordained.

While the group's final recommendations won't be released until August, the task force says in a draft report released July 19 that it "was not asked to take a position on human sexuality or ordination and we have not attempted to do so. We did invest considerable time and energy in conversation, seeking to understand each other's points of view. We did not try to convince fellow Task Force members of our own perspectives or to decide whether the church's current position should be changed."

Voices

Living in Hope

With so many others across the church, I am waiting with curiosity and hope for the report of the Theological Task Force..

Book Reviews

The Dignity of Difference: How To Avoid The Clash of Civilizations

 

by Jonathan Sacks
(New York: Continuum, 2002 with four reprints; ISBN 0 8264 6850 0)

 

If you are concerned about the world, and wonder if there is any hope for the crises and complexities of our times, and if you care about faith and relationships around the globe, this is a book for you.

The year: 2020. Jonathan Sacks, philosopher and theologian, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth (UK), paints two different pictures of how the world could be.

In one wonderful vision, the year 2020 brings the dawning of "a world of global prosperity and peace." Information technology and high-speed communication have doubled real incomes in the space of 20 years. The dangers of overpopulation have been removed. Genetically modified crops have made starvation a thing of the past. The latest in education curricula reach the most remote African villages via the Internet. Low-cost medical treatments have brought AIDS, TB and malaria under control. International agreements have put an end to the injustices and tensions, the inequity and exploitation that characterized the first years of the 21st century.

Book Reviews

The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Speech that Inspired a Nation

 

by Drew Hansen. New York: Ecco, 2003. ISBN 0060084774. $13.95. 293 pp.

It has been 37 years since an assassin's bullet tragically ended the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. A stone marker at the base of that balcony on the grounds of what is now the National Civil Rights Museum has an eerie quotation from the book of Genesis, "Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now therefore, and let us slay him ... and we shall see what will become of his dreams."

Dr. King's "dream" led to monumental changes in American culture and we all share a debt of gratitude for his selfless prophecy and vigilance. But if he were alive today, I am certain Dr. King would remind us that his "dream" has not been fully realized. In our country today, the issues of "residential segregation, inequalities in education and poverty among Americans of all races" threaten the very fabric of our democracy.

Book Reviews

The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words

By Ronald C. White Jr. (New York: Random House, 2005. Pp. xxiii, 448. $26.95)

Ronald C. White's new book is a thorough and engaging study of the rhetoric of Abraham Lincoln's major speeches and public letters. The focus on language is clear throughout: White argues that Lincoln carefully crafted his words to address specific situations and persuade his immediate audiences. Yet The Eloquent President is not a literary study per se; it avoids technical, theoretically informed analysis in favor of straightforward readings discussed against the background of the day-to-day life and social encounters of the Civil War President. This is a well-written book without a heavy-handed message or strong thesis. It reads easily and yet makes serious points.

 

Book Reviews

Honest Patriots: Loving a Country Enough to Remember Its Misdeeds

by Donald W. Shriver Jr. (New York, Oxford University Press, 2005, 285 pages)

A dishonest patriot believes that his or her country can do no wrong and calls anyone who disagrees a traitor.

A dishonest patriot benefits from prejudicial laws and advocates special interests above public interest.

An honest patriot is acutely aware of both the strengths and weakness of his or her country. He or she works hard to celebrate the good while correcting the bad so that a spirit of humility and gratitude will bless the future.

This book, by the well-respected ethicist, Donald W. Shriver Jr., is a sustained effort to develop in responsible detail a portrait of an honest patriot. It is a sequel to Shriver's 1995 work, An Ethic for Enemies-Forgiveness in Politics. The author is president emeritus of Union Theological Seminary in New York City.

Movie Reviews

Dark Water

"Dark Water" is one of those creepy/tingly films that you don't think you want to see, then pulls you into its dreary, dank interior until you go home not wanting to turn on a water faucet.

Jennifer Connelly plays Dahlia, a just-separated Mom in the midst of trying to work with mediators about the visitation arrangements. It's wearying business. Each parent is trying to undermine the other, and both firmly believe they're operating in the best interests of the child, but they're too emotionally involved to separate that from their own best interests. The Dad, Kyle (Dougray Scott) is not portrayed as an uncaring monster, but is just frustrated enough to be believable, especially as he loses his temper over the way she remembers a shared past. He thinks she's re-writing history. She thinks that he could not possibly be as good a parent as she is. And so they stalk off to their respective desultory apartments.

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