The World Alliance of Reformed Churches has issued a potent denunciation of economic disparities in the world and the capitalist systems that foster them – saying in a confession on economic injustice that “we reject the current world economic order of global neo-liberal capitalism” and that “global economic justice is essential to the integrity of our faith in God and our discipleship as Christians.”
Without doubt, the most heated plenary debate at the 216th General Assembly was the debate about whether to discard the Authoritative Interpretations on homosexuality. The tactic of the majority report, to abandon the A.I., was keenly designed to attract votes from the theological center. Instead of saying that this would make gay ordination a local option (although this was the claim of a Witherspoon Fellowship newsletter), the majority report sought more “moderate” grounds: that the language of A.I. was “antiquated” and “offensive,” thus it should be eliminated.
Martha Skelton, a veteran church journalist, has been named associate editor
of THE OUTLOOK effective Aug. 2.
A freelance journalist with extensive experience in religious publishing,
she has spent most of the last 20 years employed by the Southern Baptist
Church, and was director of the European Baptist Press Service for four
years.
American Clifton Kirkpatrick admits there is "more than irony" in his election as president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) August 9 at their meeting in Accra, Ghana. He will serve the next seven years.
Kirkpatrick, the stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church USA, was elected president in a unanimous vote Monday to spontaneous applause from 400 delegates from around the world. "I had real questions about this (coming from the US)," he said following the election.
DALLAS – Well, it was 97 degrees in Dallas, but the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) didn’t bare much skin.
For those who had hoped the task force would unbutton its defenses and begin to discuss publicly what the PC(USA) should do about ordaining gays and lesbians, that didn’t happen. The task force did talk about homosexuality – that was front-and-center on its agenda during the Aug. 3-6 meeting – but the most substantive parts of that conversation came during two long, closed-door sessions in which task force members cleared the room of all observers and spoke from their hearts, explaining their own views and sharing stories from their lives that have shaped those views, in an exchange that task force member Joan Kelley Merritt described during a worship service as powerful and courageous.
DALLAS – Think of this like an episode of your favorite TV show. You’re going to have to tune in later to find out what happens.
The Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) did talk about homosexuality during its Aug. 3-6 meeting, although nearly all behind closed doors, in more than seven hours of private discussions.
DALLAS – Where do homosexuals fit in the Christian church?
In what ways are gays and lesbians part of the great narrative of the gospel drama?
What does it mean for a gay or lesbian who’s in a committed, monogamous relationship to be created in the image of God, like everyone else; to be in need of reconciliation, like everyone else; and to be redeemed in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit?
DALLAS — About to start discussing one of its most difficult topics, the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has voted to go into closed session.
The task force voted 16-1, with two abstentions, to close a portion of its meeting regarding homosexuality and ordination — a session described on the agenda as “Exploring God’s presence in our encounters with homosexuality.”
Some might consider Donegal Presbytery in Pennsylvania to be exactly the sort of place where financial revolt could be launched. It’s in the heart of conservative Presbyterianism, where a lot of folks think the denomination has gone way off track and where the last thing they want is to give more money to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to spend on whatever the national church chooses.
But the numbers show something different.
Our moderator, Rick Ufford-Chase, is urging the church to take risks, to "get in the boat with Jesus." One of the risks he encouraged sent chills down the spines of some seminary presidents. He called for sacrifice. He believes pastors are paid too much, and that we need to learn, alongside Hebrew and Greek, a living language such as Spanish or Korean.
One of the "holy moments" on the floor of the 216th General Assembly came when the minority report on Authoritative Interpretation became the majority vote by only four votes. There was a spontaneous moment of silence, prompted by the sadness of those who had prayed and worked for the majority report which would have invalidated the 1970s authoritative Assembly statements. There was also the humble recognition by everyone present who saw how deeply divided our church remains on the issue of ordination.
The Committee on the Office of the General Assembly will conduct an investigation involving concerns that the process used in the stated clerk’s election on July 2 might not have been fair.
And that investigation is likely to lead to a bigger conversation in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) about whether more specific rules should be adopted for electing a stated clerk — now there basically are no rules governing campaigning for that office — and about whether the behind-the-scenes efforts to influence commissioners at General Assembly are acceptable or sometimes go too far.
RICHMOND, Va. — For people with profound disagreements, they were mighty polite.
Next year, for the first time in forever, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will not meet. It’ll be a year off, and it’ll be a year following an Assembly that didn’t do anything wild and crazy, did not threaten schism, intentionally didn’t rock the boat.
RICHMOND, Va. — The 216th General Assembly "did the math" Saturday morning and approved mission and per capita budgets for the coming two years based on the actions of the Assembly during the week concluded.
The Assembly approved a 2005 mission budget with revenues of $114,891,603 and expenditures of $114,387,431. The mission budget for 2006 was set at $115,048,841.
RICHMOND, Va. — A weary General Assembly took on issues of the world during its last morning of work — tired, but still concerned about how the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) relates to people around the globe.
TAIWAN: The PC(USA) expressed solidarity with the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan and with the Taiwanese people, and the assembly asked for continued monitoring of the relationship of Taiwan with mainline China, describing that as "an emerging issue fraught with danger."
RICHMOND, Va. — Responding to an investigation of sexual abuse in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is recommending a series of changes in the church’s Constitution that would govern sexual abuse in other cases as well.
While many of the victims in the Congo were children at a boarding school for the children of missionaries, several speakers referred to other examples of sexual abuse they indicated were not uncommon in Presbyterian churches — for example, a pastor becoming sexually involved with an adult in the congregation or with someone the pastor was counseling.
RICHMOND, Va. — It was close — agonizingly close for all concerned.
By four votes Friday the 216th General Assembly declined to supersede authoritative statements that have been used since the late 1970s to help prohibit sexually active homosexuals from being ordained as church officers.
Clifton Kirkpatrick, 58, won reelection Friday to a third term as stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church, in a broad affirmation of the denomination's current leadership.
Kirkpatrick received 349 votes, or 65 percent of votes cast, on the first ballot, easily defeating three opponents from the evangelical side of the church who called for tougher enforcement of constitutional standards.
RICHMOND, Va. — The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has described the U.S. invasion of Iraq as "unwise, immoral and illegal" and has condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the torture and abuse of prisoners by the U.S. military there.
A Presbyterian pastor from Iraq, Younan Shiba of the Assyrian Evangelical Presbyterian Church, was asked by a 216th General Assembly commissioner Friday if the Iraqi people were better off before or after the U.S. invasion, and he responded plainly, speaking through a translator: "We were better off before."
Prayer doesn’t grab the headlines but the 216th General Assembly was underlined by prayer all week. Prayer preceded votes, was sung after breaks, and offered during daily Assembly worship. Each day’s printed schedule began with devotional guides for morning and evening prayer.
The debate over advisory delegates and their role in the General Assembly occupied a large share of Thursday afternoon’s report from the Assembly Committee on General Assembly Procedures.
In the end, the commissioners to the 216th Assembly failed to pass a standing rule change that would have added 16 youth advisory delegates (YADs) to the 217th General Assembly which is meeting in 2006. The proposal, from Greater Atlanta Presbytery, was in response to the fact that while the number of commissioners to the first every-other-year Assembly has been increased, the number of YADs was not.
A step to the left, a step to the right. The General Assembly gave ground to each side in debate Thursday night on issues concerning families, Christian marriage and same-sex relationships.
• To the right: The Assembly approved the laboriously rewritten "Transforming Families" report, which was rejected last year for being too open to gay and lesbian relationships.
The 216th General Assembly on Thursday approved a resolution calling for a comprehensive legalization program for U.S. immigrants and directed the Office of the General Assembly to employ an attorney to advise presbyteries and churches whose members have immigration problems.
The resolution also calls for the General Assembly Council to better coordinate ministry work related to racial ethnic and immigrant church growth and evangelism, and to establish an annual Immigration Sunday.
RICHMOND, Va. — The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) backed away — just barely — from revising a policy statement on late-term abortions to say that "late-term abortions should be considered only if the physical life or mental health of the mother is at serious risk and no alternative means of delivering the baby alive is available."
RICHMOND, Va. — Presbyterians in Iraq are grateful for the prayers of world, grateful for the efforts American churches made to prevent war there, for their "witness as peacemakers," and thankful for the humanitarian aid they have received, says ounan Shiba, pastor of two Presbyterian churches in Baghdad.
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