by Andrew Purves. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press. 2004. pp. ixxxv, 236.
Pastors ought to read this book. It concerns the very important foundations that underlie much that we do as pastors. Its title, Reconstructing Pastoral Theology: A Christological Foundation, indicates the combination that makes this book so valuable—pastoral care with Christology.
If The Left Behind series of novels were not enough to disfigure the Christian faith in the public square, now we have the television series Revelations, an obvious effort to cash in on the fears and heresies of American life. These entertainments are fed by dispensationalists and pre-millenialists who have swirled into public influence in the last decade. They present a fantastic, anti-biblical view of how believers are invited by the Jesus of the Gospels to wait for his return when he shall come in glory to judge both the living and the dead.
Perhaps more pointedly than anywhere in Scripture, Matthew's gospel calls the church not to investigate apocalyptic events to discern when Christ will return, but to be obedient here and now. In the parable of the Last Judgment, where no one is left behind, we are divided into sheep and goats, and then Jesus tells us why. We have done the right thing (or the wrong thing) to him, as he is represented in real, historical time by his brothers and sisters, his "little ones" who were hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, and in prison. Some interpreters understand this to mean that the nations (gentiles or outsiders) will be judged by how they have treated members of the church. Other interpreters claim that this is a call to universal human obedience, and that all people of all religious persuasions will be judged (and received or rejected) by these criteria.
Pentecost Meditation on Joel 2:23-39
Frequently in the morning, after I’ve walked the dog, I’ll come in, get a cup of coffee and sit down on the kitchen floor; and then, when my wife joins me, I’ll ask her what she dreamed about. Most of the time, Ann says she can’t remember. But I remember what I dream about; and I enjoy relating the vivid things that come to me in my sleep. (Well, some of them, at any rate. A few I keep to myself.)
Editor’s Note: This challenge was issued on the blog of Moderator Rick Ufford-Chase as part of a focus on the ministry of accompaniment in tense situations. The blog address can be accessed through the PC(USA) website (www.pcusa.org) or directly at www.what-I-see.blogspot.com.
It's about Jesus Christ making a difference in the world. It's about turning young people on to what mission is really all about--in their schools, downtown or overseas. It's about helping the Church move out into the world.
The New Wilmington Missionary Conference brings more than 1,500 participants and visitors together every year for just these reasons. Attendees spend a week on the campus of Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pa. to be challenged about mission needs here and around the world. The experience includes listening to speakers, sharing in small groups, praying late at night in the dorm halls, playing sports, meeting new friends, and eating breakfast with missionaries from Mozambique or Manhattan or Malaysia.
In the beginning, the concept was this: approach potential big donors, people whose pockets run very deep indeed, and convince them to give money to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) to support international mission work and church growth in the U.S. If there's anything Presbyterians can rally around, the thinking went, it would be that.
There's a lot of talk at the General Assembly Council these days about new ways of thinking, new directions -- creative ways of rearranging the furniture, maybe even remodeling the house. And one of the things the council is being asked to consider rearranging is itself.
In April 2006, the council will be asked to approve a new structure for the council itself. If that happens, the plan would be submitted to the General Assembly in Birmingham in June 2006 for final approval.
After months of discussion and hard work -- and a lot more passion than some might expect history to incite -- an agreement apparently has been struck to allow the Presbyterian Historical Society to continue to have a presence in Montreat, N.C.
Under a concept approved March 29 by the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly, the historical society's Philadelphia offices would serve as the main repository for archives of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Last summer's stated clerk election at the 2004 General Assembly was fair and in compliance with the assembly's Standing Rules. But such elections could be even more transparent if new guidelines were to be implemented.
Those findings were presented and discussed during a meeting of the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA) March 30 in Louisville. A COGA subcommittee, the State Clerk Election Review Committee (SCERC), reported its preliminary findings March 30. The finding that the stated clerk election was valid was approved by COGA to be forwarded to the General Assembly Council (GAC), which also is meeting in Kentucky through April 2.
For my installation as Minister of Word and Sacrament at Second Church in Richmond, Hanover Presbytery, at my request, invited Father William Stickle to sit with the Commission and take part in worship. Bill was priest at St. Peter's, the oldest Roman Catholic congregation in the city. I remembered my friendship with him and with his successors as I watched John Paul II's funeral.
I also recalled that at Union Seminary (now Union-PSCE) in John Leith's theology class I learned what papal encyclicals are. Like no one else in my experience, Leith caused us to understand their importance -- not only to Roman Catholics, but to theological and ethical discourse in the holy universal church for the common good of the world's peoples. We studied Rerum Novarum (1891) and Mater et Magister (1961). My final year at seminary we joined an ecumenical conference of students and faculty at St. Mary's Catholic Seminary in Baltimore on the place of Scripture in our tradition.
Very few women and even fewer men still remember Mary Virginia Hawes Terhune, alias "Marion Harland." She was, however, a Virginian Presbyterian woman who, as a very young woman, helped shape the lives of American women, indeed, women of the world, long before Martha Stewart of recent notoriety. She did this as a storyteller and especially with her household advice, which she shared with other women around the globe. She was a biblical "Martha" as well as a "Mary."
Mary Virginia was born 175 years ago in Amelia County, Va., daughter of Samuel Hawes, a migrant to the South from Massachusetts, and Judith Anna Smith, daughter of well-to-do-planters. She received a first rate classical education from tutors, and at a Presbyterian girls seminary in Richmond where the Hawes family attended the Second Presbyterian Church and listened to the preaching of the noted Moses Drury Hoge. Precocious from the beginning, she began to write and publish stories for a denominational journal. At the age of twenty-four she published a novel entitled Alone under the pseudonym, "Marion Harland," by which she became known and we shall employ here.
I get it wrong about as often as I get it right. But I have learned, partly through my own mistakes, that healthy leadership will generally contain these three elements: thoughtful assessment, shared and transparent process, and seeking the good of the whole. Not only will better decisions be made, but the led will follow with confidence and trust.
Roman Catholic bishops, meeting at the Second Vatican Council in October 1965, overwhelmingly adopted a declaration that repudiated anti-Semitism and called for “mutual understanding and respect” between Catholics and Jews. The document, Nostra Aetate in Latin or “In Our Time” was adopted by a vote of 2,221-88.
“I believe that today God invites us to change our old practices,” said Pope John Paul II, speaking to some 80,000 Muslim youth in a stadium in Morocco in 1985. “We must respect each other, and we must also stimulate each other in good works on the path of God.” Christians and Muslims have “badly understood each other, opposed and exhausted each other in polemics and wars. Dialogue between Christians and Muslims is today more necessary than ever.”
As we consider the opportunities and concerns of an aging American population it might be a good time to ask why the..
By Ernest Lee Stoffel
Smythe & Helwys. 1999. 104 pp.
ISBN 1-57312-261-0
— Review by Robert V. Sturdivant, Cary, N.C.
In The Apocalyptic Resurrection of Jesus, Ernest Lee Stoffel offers a refreshing account of Jesus' resurrection.
Reacting against interpretations of the resurrection as mere myth, legend or symbol, and likewise that of literal persuasion, Stoffel prefers an alternative he identifies as embodying apocalyptic language, imagery and thought. Apocalyptic language, he notes, was known and in use at the time of Jesus.
The General Assembly Council is doing a lot of big-picture thinking -- about how to set spending priorities when dollars are limited, about how decisions should be made and money raised and distributed in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
But sometimes, there's a day for the smaller pieces -- they don't add up to the big picture, but can provide some clues as to what's happening and to the complexity involved.
The General Assembly Council, in the third day of its spring meeting in Kentucky, met in committees -- with each considering particular parts of the denomination's work. Here's some of what they talked about.
LOUISVILLE -- Should a Presbyterian delegation that went to the Middle East last fall have met with leaders of Hezbollah? And should two of the denomination's national staff members who went on the trip have lost their jobs because of that meeting?
The General Assembly Council got right to the brink of discussing that on March 31 -- and then went into closed session.
The Presbytery of Philadelphia has decided to dissolve its relationship with a controversial Messianic congregation, Avodat Yisrael, as of July 1.
Starting July 1, Avodat Yisrael will no longer be formally related to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and will receive no additional funds from the denomination, although it's possible the congregation could try to make a go of it on its own.
The General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission has ruled in a controversial case involving Parker T. Williamson, chief executive officer of the Presbyterian Lay Committee and editor-in-chief of the Presbyterian Layman, ruling partly in favor of Western North Carolina presbytery and partly for Williamson.
The judicial commission, in an April 4 decision, sustained Williamson's complaint that the presbytery's policy governing validated ministries -- involving work other than being a pastor of a church -- was inadequate and should have been more detailed. But the commission disagreed with his contention that the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of the Mid-Atlantic had made a mistake in its handing of the case and that the synod commission should have ruled that the presbytery acted improperly against him because the Lay Committee had issued a paper called "A Declaration of Conscience."
John Paul II has died. The television pictures of that frail, physically impaired gentleman had long prepared us for the news of his passing. He was eighty-four years old, and had been in failing health for many years. May he rest in peace.
Popes have always interested me.
The austere, aristocratic figure of Pius XII contrasted with the almost folksy, rotund John XXIII who opened the windows of the Roman Church so that new breezes could blow in. Paul VI stood bravely before the United Nations and pled for peace in the days of the Vietnam War. Alas, his successor, John Paul I lived only a month after his election, to be followed by the robust Pole, who took the name John Paul II, to honor his immediate predecessors. I have read biographies of many of them, finding their leadership styles to differ, even if the power they held was in every case almost absolute. To this Presbyterian the idea that one man could be given absolute authority in matters relating to faith and morals has been incomprehensible. Yet, each of these men has also been very much a member of the human race, with individual characteristics, foibles, quirks that are common to all humanity.
History intrudes on the Church’s liturgical pilgrimage through Holy Week and Easter. The face of death this year, at least in the U.S., is the face of Terri Schiavo. The Schiavo case has dominated the news media, exacerbated political divisions, and played heavy on the sympathies of the public.
Editor’s Note: Clay J. Brown, Associate Pastor for Christian Formation and Discipleship at Grace Church in Houston, Texas, has written the following response to two recent essays in The Presbyterian Outlook: “The Significance of the Resurrection” by Cynthia L. Rigby and “Easter Faith, Easter Church”, by George Stroup (issue 187-11, March 21, 2005). One of the essayists, Cynthia Rigby, who is W. C. Brown Professor of Theology at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, has replied to Mr. Brown. Her response follows his essay.
For years, a church’s declining membership concerned its leaders. Their solution— a youth ministry. After several years, the church pastor acknowledged that the effort invested to attract young families was not working. The pastor’s conclusion was simple and refreshing: “I have been telling the session that perhaps it’s time to be who we are, a church for older adults.”
A journey as long as the way from Eden to Babel and back, as painful as Abraham’s knifebearing sojourn with Isaac,
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