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‘Re-Forming Ministry’ project considers meaning of ‘one holy catholic and apostolic church’

LOUISVIILLE — So what does it mean to believe in the one holy catholic and apostolic church, as the Nicene Creed presents it — and what’s involved in trying to be that church?

A new group that’s been put together for theological reflection, with funding from the Lilly Endowment, started off by talking about that famous phrase from the Nicene Creed and about some of its implications for Presbyterians now.

Editorials

Accountability

There is an invitation on The Outlook Web page inviting guest viewpoints on the war in Iraq, in response to the reports of torture and abuse in the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. One of you remarked that I had not declared where I stand.

This editorial is a declaration, taking its cue from the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, where he sits at the right hand of God, and shall come to judge the living and the dead. For (1 Corinthians) Christ must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

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A Historic Perspective on the Role of Stated Clerk

The office of Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is many faceted and seldom understood. Anyone elected to this position must wear many hats and wear them well.

As commissioners prepare for the election of the stated clerk at this year’s General Assembly in Richmond, Va., some historical background on the complexity of this office may be useful.

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Three vie to become first moderator to serve two-year term in PC(USA)

Two pastors and one elder have been nominated for moderator of the 216th General Assembly, which will meet June 26-July 3 in Richmond, Va. This year's election, on the evening of June 26, will be unique in that because of the switch to biennial General Assemblies, the moderator will serve a two-year term.
As in years past, The Outlook asked each nominee to provide a brief biographical sketch and to answer three questions from the editor. That information and their answers follow in alphabetical order by last name.

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Crowded field of evangelicals challenges incumbant stated clark

Passion, drama and Presbyterian? Those aren’t often words used in the same sentence.

Folks can get right worked up over the sports playoffs, politics and the price of gas, the return of the cicadas (and of Prince), carbs vs. fats.

But the stated clerk’s election in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)? Why get hot and bothered over that?

Voices

Reflections on the 2003 PC(USA) Statistics

The Office of the General Assembly has just completed the collation of the 2003 statistics for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A). While the numbers will be readily available to all, the figures themselves do not tell the whole story. Underneath these statistics are real live Presbyterians, who make up our churches and who are faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. The fact that there are fewer active members in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) than a year ago should call us to prayer and repentance.

Voices

The PC(USA) and the Messianic Jewish Movement

In late 2003, a Messianic Jewish congregation, Avodat Yisrael, was approved within the PC(USA) by the presbytery of Philadelphia. In response to the possibility of Jews, who also believe in Jesus, evangelizing other Jews, a group of concerned Presbyterians organized. They were led by Cynthia Jarvis, also of the Philadelphia presbytery.

Voices

Presbyterian – In Name Only?

Every year I try to explain "Orwellian" to my students. I end up with something like "a systematic perversion of language to hide what is real and replace it with an illusion — an illusion that is often the exact opposite of the reality. Its long-term effects are, first, a sense of unreality, then, cynicism, and finally, apathy and despair." I might do better just to hand them The Presbyterian Outlook's annual Higher Education Issue.

Editorials

Church-related higher education revisited

Do you need to be told that even such modest attainments
As you can boast of in the way of polite society
Will hardly survive the Faith to which they owe their significance?
— T. S. Eliot, choruses From "The Rock"’


The debate raised in this issue of The Outlook about how "Christian" a church-related college is (or should be) is no stranger to these pages.

Book Reviews

CREDO

Bill Coffin is a man of intrepid one-liners and steadfast, exuberant faith. "Credo, I believe," as he says in the preface of this slim volume, "best translates 'I have given my heart to.'" (p. xv). Or, I would venture, two hearts. What comes through clearly in this compilation of sentences and paragraphs is God's incredible love for us, all of us, and, in gratitude, one person's giving of his "heart to the teaching and example of Christ" (ibid).

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Presbytery calls on Presbyterian College to halt implementation of proposed changes

Trinity Presbytery passed a resolution Tuesday, June 1, expressing concern with the proposed changes in Presbyterian College's educational program.

The resolution — drafted by a minister-member of the presbytery and amended by the presbytery's general council — was amended by the presbytery to include a call for Presbyterian College to “halt the implementation” of the proposed changes and calls for the formation of a consultation at the synod level "concerning what it means, in a practical sense, for Presbyterian College to be ' ... a church-related institution committed to the Christian faith,' and a college 'related to the Christian Church' in the context of the Presbyterian Church (USA)."

Editorials

The Purpose of Reformed Worship

There is division among us over what constitutes authentic Reformed worship. I have witnessed this firsthand while — as moderator of the worship planning work group for the Committee on Local Arrangements for the 216th General Assembly — balancing competing demands of representation and inclusivity for the Assembly in Richmond in four weeks. The variety of Presbyterian worship today is extraordinary. We’ve made choices.

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Desegregation and the 1955 GA in Richmond

Fifty years ago, in 1954, the United States Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision. In Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka the court set aside Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) which established the "separate-but-equal" racial relations policies for the nation. (Associate Justice John Harlan, a Kentucky Presbyterian, cast the only negative vote against the 1896 decision.)

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Proposal to end Bible requirement renews debate about church-related higher education

A proposal to change the academic requirements at Presbyterian College in South Carolina — a proposal that, among other things, would eliminate the current requirement that students take courses in both Old and New Testament — has some at the school troubled, and wondering, what exactly does it mean to be a "Presbyterian-related college?"

The proposal is still under discussion and wouldn’t take effect before the fall of 2006.

Editorials

The Need for Dialogue

I first encountered African Church hostility to our debates over ordination in 1998 from the courageous editor of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana’s newspaper. He and I talked of many things, not least of which was the fact that for years his was the only voice in Ghana that spoke truth to power. He was hounded, threatened, and would have been shut down, had his funding not been from the Presbyterian Church. A Reformed Christian, he was a tireless advocate of freedom of the press.

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Services held for former PCUS evangelism director, Christian education professor Al Dimmock

BLACK MOUNTAIN, N.C. — Albert Eugene Dimmock, 83, former director of PCUS evangelism efforts and a professor emeritus of Christian education at Union Seminary-PSCE, died at his home here Friday, May 21.

A service of witness to the resurrection was held Sunday, May 23, at Black Mountain church.

Dimmock was born on Nov. 17, 1920, in Norfolk, Va., to Presbyterian minister Thomas Herbert Dimmock and Martha Amis Dimmock. During World War II, he worked in the shipyards at Newport News, Va.

Editorials

Remembering our Heritage

A couple of years ago an elder at Second church, Richmond, introduced himself, saying he and his wife had lived in Rich-mond for over 30 years, and felt at home in a place they had come to love very much. Then he said, "I know that for many of you, that’s no more than a long weekend." It’s true. We don’t forget history or lineage.

Voices

Reshaping the Vsion of how we’re connected

Part of what ails our denomination is rooted in confusion over how we are connected to one another. Over the past 20 years, our shared judicatory mission efforts increasingly have been replaced by congregationally based mission programs. Today, far more mission work is rooted in congregations than judicatories. This process has been enabled and empowered by affordable transportation to any part of the world as well as instant communication through the Internet and e-mail.

Editorials

What unites us

What, besides God’s Spirit, God’s providence and God’s purpose for the PC(USA), will hold us together in a recognizable form through the next 20 years? Does God need the PC(USA) to continue to make a Reformed witness that has been our hallmark since long before John Witherspoon signed the Declaration of Independence?

Voices

Our Ishmaels and God’s Isaac

Recently, the daily lectionary readings have taken us into Genesis. In the 17th chapter there is an episode that may provide some help us to our ongoing struggle over ordination.

The 17th chapter is part of the larger narrative which begins when God first calls Abram in chapter 12. God promises to make for Abram a great nation and a great name so that Abram will become a blessing. Abram, Sarai and others begin to move in faithful response to God’s call and promise.

Editorials

Learning to Speak about God

Last month Leslie Scanlon reported on The Greenhoe Lectures given at Louisville Seminary by Nancy Ammerman. I found her summaries helpful in a variety of ways, not the least of which are some interesting demographics. Less than 20 percent of American households are families with children living at home, and nearly 30 percent of American households are occupied by two adults without children. In addition Ammerman commented on the religious perspectives of Americans. We overwhelmingly believe in God, and at least one-third of us are mainline Christians.

Voices

Remarks at the Million Mom March

Thank God for people of faith who are here today. Our Faith Community is a giant. We’re in every city and town in America. But the Giant is asleep. The Giant also has a powerful, moral voice. But when it comes to fighting gun violence, the Giant is as quiet and timid as a church mouse.

If the U.S. is to reduce its unique level of gun deaths it will be because people of faith awaken their spiritual leaders and demand that they lead the fight from their pulpits and classrooms.

Voices

Margaret Flory: An Appreciation

Margaret Flory is "one of the most outstanding leaders of the ecumenical movement of the 20th Century," Rubem Alves, Brazilian theologian and poet, wrote, "because her eyes had the power to see trees when they were only seeds."

More than 150 people from around the world — not a few of them trees that first encountered Flory when they were seeds — gathered at New York's Riverside Church May 14-15 to honor Margaret Flory on the occasion of her 90th birthday.

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GAC Executive Committee approves budget, job cuts

LOUISVILLE — They winced, but they did it.

The executive committee of the General Assembly Council has approved a two-year mission budget for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) that will cut $4.6 million from its budget for next year and eliminate 37 more jobs at the denomination’s national headquarters in Louisville. Nine of those positions are currently vacant and 28 people will be laid off as of May 14.

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