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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.

Uncategorized

PC(USA) lost 43,175 members in ’04

 Latest statistics are 'a wake-up call' for the denomination, Kirkpatrick says

Active membership in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) declined by 43,175 in 2004, continuing a trend dating to the mid-1960s.

At the end of last year, PC(USA) membership stood at 2,362,136. The 2004 membership drop was the second largest of the past decade. The church lost 46,658 members last year.

t the time of Presbyterian reunion in 1983, the denomination had 4.2 million members.

Outlook Features

Pastors and the Sabbath: God set the example

Summer is supposed to be a time when time almost stops, with long slow days spent reading books and picking berries and fishing and hiking and drinking an icy something and yakking with the relatives. You're supposed to be able to eat dinner in your bathing suit or your pajamas if you wish.

Tell that to the ministers.

For ministers, summer is a time when there's still worship every Sunday and people still get sick and die and their marriages still hit the rocks (remember those cold beverages and all the yakking with the relatives?). For a solo pastor serving a small church, taking vacation can mean finding someone else to fill in. For ministers from bigger churches, it can mean shouldering more of the load, taking on more stress, so someone else can fit in a week or two away.

Within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and in other denominations, some are starting to pay attention to the realities of ministers' working lives -- to the sources both of joy and of stress. There has been a lot of conversation about what kinds of people are going into ministry and what happens to them when they do -- if they are well-enough prepared, if they are the right kinds of people for the congregations that need pastors, if they like the work and the pay well enough to stick around.

Editorials

Un-Reformed assumptions

I thought about strategies of officer training when confronted by two quite disparate comments this week. Both of them rest upon distinctly "un-Reformed assumptions" about the character and conduct of human life in society -- not only the nation, but also the church. Enshrined in the comments is the inevitable conflict between respecting the right of individual conscience and the upholding the confessions, laws, bill of rights, etc., which, as citizens and disciples, we hold in common and which bind us together. One person, asked on what she based her arguments for intelligent design as scientific principle, said that her "Creator revealed it to me in my heart." The other assertion was quoted from a Supreme Court justice's majority opinion based upon the sovereignty of the individual.

Voices

The power of the blogosphere

When the Rev. Mark D. Roberts started his blog, he envisioned a small outreach to his community and parishioners at Irvine Presbyterian Church in Irvine, Calif.

A little more than a year later, the blog reaches far beyond that, drawing 1,500 visitors daily -- 2,000 on weekends.

"I have readers literally all over the world," says Roberts, pastor to a 750- member congregation. His review of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" has drawn more than 25,000 visitors since the film's release, and it continues to draw readers by the hundreds.

It is but one small example of the growing reach of Christian bloggers going online to evangelize, mobilize and occasionally demonize. They marvel at the way blogs give them an opportunity to engage with a lively and diverse audience they could never attract on their own.

The term "blog" is short for "Web log" and refers to the online journals that have given a public voice to anyone with an Internet connection. Evangelicals, for instance, used blogs to get voters to the polls in November, becoming a big part of President George W. Bush's victory.

Uncategorized

Past controversy resolution examples studied by Task Force

DALLAS -- The controversies that some think may split the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) apart now aren't unprecedented -- they follow a similar path carved by Presbyterian battles over the years. The pattern typically is this: the church feels pressure to make decisions on matters on which there are a range of views, often involving eligibility for church office; people feel locked into just two positions; they struggle for control of the church.

And "the result is a church both preoccupied with and weary of conflict," according to a draft report of the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) presented during meetings this week.

Searching through history, hoping to provide guidance for the current troubles, the task force looked for ways of dealing with conflict in Presbyterian history that could provide some relief.

Uncategorized

Task Force posts portions of report; Focus on theological convictions

 

DALLAS -- The Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has begun unveiling draft sections of its report -- without yet addressing some of the most controversial issues before it, but by emphasizing the theological convictions underlying its work and by stressing how much its 20 diverse members have learned from one another.

The task force will vote on its final report Aug. 24 and 25 in Chicago. The task force members have been exchanging sections of the draft report privately among themselves for months, revising as they go along, and have had hours of closed door discussions, including at this meeting, which began July 18.

The draft sections of the report are being posted on the PC(USA)'s website as soon as they are handed out to journalists. And so far, the task force members' public comments have been mostly along the lines of suggesting small editorial changes rather than any major revisions.

Uncategorized

Task Force members reflect on the pain, power in the process

DALLAS -- What exactly the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will recommend remains to be seen.

But its 20 members do say in draft section of their report, released July 19, that they were intentionally selected to serve on the task force because of their diverse views and have found their faith strengthened by honest, ongoing, heartfelt discussions with those with whom they disagree.

 "Repeatedly, we found ourselves moved and impressed by the depth and the truth of statements" made by those from very different backgrounds, the draft report states, and "more surprisingly, our faith was enriched and strengthened by the contributions of those whose views on contested issues we do not share."

Uncategorized

Retired missionary-surgeon Paul S. Crane, 86, dies

Paul Shields Crane, 86, prominent retired missionary-surgeon, died June 12 at his home in Black Mountain, N.C. of congestive heart failure. He was also diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

A renaissance man, Crane was a respected linguist who translated for U.S. presidents on three occasions, helped develop a medical treatment for a debilitating parasite, assisted in establishing universities in Korea and served as both a teacher and a surgeon in Korea for more than 20 years.

Uncategorized

PC(USA) divestment stance: presbyteries, churches react

You know the old saying: sometimes the journey is at least as interesting as the destination.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) set sail last summer -- with little warning and a not-very-clear itinerary -- towards the idea of possibly divesting in some companies doing business in Israel, as a way of expressing concern about Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people.

Already, it's been a bumpy, exciting ride, and there's still a long way to go.

Who knows what decisions involving divestiture the 2006 General Assembly might be asked to consider, or what the mood of the church will be, with a bucket of other sizzling issues on the table as well?

And who has a clue what twists and turns politics in the Middle East may take before then?

Uncategorized

Austin Colloquium examines divestment

 

Presbyterian and Jewish congregants gathered in Shelton Chapel at Austin Seminary on March 30 in an effort to further open the lines of communication between the two communities. The gathering was the President's Colloquium, "A Difficult Friendship: Divestment, Dialogue, and Hope."

Two speakers addressed the challenges and opportunities facing Presbyterians and Jews in the wake of the divestiture vote last summer at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly: the Reverend Joseph D. Small III, associate director for the PC(USA) Congregational Ministries Division and coordinator for the Office of Theology and Worship/Spiritual Formation, and Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor, director of Interfaith Affairs for the Anti-Defamation League.

According to the PC(USA) website, "The 216th General Assembly approved several measures opposing the Israeli occupation of Palestine ... including a call for the corporate witness office of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to begin gathering data to support a selective divestment of holdings in multinational corporations doing business in Israel/Palestine."

Editorials

Divestment dialogue:good for the church

What has the church learned from the explosive response to our actions last summer in Richmond on divestment? Granted this is not everyone's concern, yet by its action -- intentionally or not -- the General Assembly opened the door to widespread public discussion in every place where Jews and Christians have significant contact. We both initiated and contributed to a dialogue that has been sadly lacking in American political life. The General Assembly took heat for these and subsequent actions, one of which resulted in the firing of folk in the Louisville office.

Voices

“Minimum Salary”

Text: John 16:16-33

One of the best commentaries on the Gospel of John is Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, a novel which also has a good deal to say about theological education. I want to begin by quoting at length a passage from that novel that has to do with a novice priest who has recently graduated from a theological school of sorts and who is struggling to discern the particular shape of God’s call upon his life.

Voices

The Children of Abraham: An interfaith pilgrimage to the Holy Land

Abraham went, and his children followed.

Forty-five “Children of Abraham”— 14 Jews, 15 Christians, 15 Muslims, and one Unitarian-Universalist participated in an interfaith pilgrimage to the Holy Land, February 10-21, 2005, sponsored by the Wilshire Center Interfaith Council of Los Angeles. The pilgrims were led by Rabbi Stephen Julius Stein of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple;

Voices

Why I support the PC(USA) selective divestment policy

The PC(USA)’s Divestment Policy is a protest of thirty-eight years of Israel’s illegal military occupation in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. The policy is not anti-Israel, anti-Jewish, or anti-Semitic. Its purpose is to promote the end of the occupation.

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