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Judicial Commission rules on per capita pledge question

A presbytery cannot require a congregation to pay all of its per capita or to fulfill a mission pledge in order to receive financial assistance from the presbytery, the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission has ruled.

The ruling helps answer the ongoing question of what presbyteries can do -- or not do -- when congregations refuse to pay all or part of their per capita assessments, often to protest positions taken by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). And it affirms a decision issued last April by the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of Mid-America.

The General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, the PC(USA)'s highest court, had earlier ruled, in July 2003 in the Minihan v. Scioto Valley Presbytery case, that a presbytery can't force a session to pay per capita, the per-member assessment that the General Assembly sets, and it can't punish a session for failing to pay per capita. While paying per capita is not mandatory, in a connectional system it is strongly encouraged, the judicial commission ruled in that case, stating that withholding funds "as a mean of protest or dissent" is "a serious breach of the trust and love with which our Lord Jesus intends the covenant community to function."

Presbyterian churches and the “M” word: Giving with gratitude

It's the sermon pastors hate to preach, the ones congregations hate even more to hear.

 It usually comes in the fall, and it's when they ask, cajole, even plead for  ... money

And, theologically, it's all about God, our relationship with money, and thanksgiving.

"Gratitude is at the heart of our spirituality in the Reformed tradition," Tim Hart-Andersen, pastor of Westminster church in Minneapolis, preached last spring at a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) gathering on stewardship. "There is no other human response to God more basic than gratitude, a deep thanksgiving that wells up from within . . . Our churches and those who inhabit them need such a rekindling of biblical stewardship, where we learn again what once we knew so well: `The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof.' " (Psalm 24:1)

GAPJC rules in Heartland Presbytery case

(PNS) The General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission (GAPJC) of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has ruled that a session's failure to pay its per capita apportionment cannot be the sole factor in the presbytery's determination whether that congregation is eligible for requesting financial assistance from the presbytery.

In it's Oct. 18 decision in Johnston, et. al. v. Heartland Presbytery, the commission also ruled that a congregation's failure to pay its per capita apportionment and mission pledge could not be the determinative factor in a presbytery's refusal to grant assistance to that congregation. At the same time, the GAPJC determined that "a congregation's effort to pay its full per capita apportionment and to fulfill a mission pledge is clearly relevant as one factor among many others that a presbytery may consider in exercising its stewardship responsibility to allocate limited resources in action upon a congregation's request for assistance."

Two staffers gone in wake of Hezbollah meeting

LOUISVILLE - Two key Presbyterian Church (USA) staff members were apparently fired November 11 by General Assembly Council (GAC) Executive Director John Detterick - with no clear public explanation for their departures.

Kathy Lueckert, the deputy executive associate director of the GAC, the governing body of the church's mission program agency, and the Rev. Peter Sulyok, coordinator of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP), are no longer employed by the GAC.

Leuckert has served the denomination for five years, Sulyok for nearly twelve.

Lueckert supervised Sulyok and both were members of an ACSWP fact-finding delegation to the Middle East last month that included a televised meeting with Hezbollah, an organization that is on the U.S. government's watch list of terrorist groups.

Sexual questions, few answers at Covenant meeting

CHICAGO -- These progressive Presbyterians came to Chicago to talk about theology and sexuality -- about what it means to be a Christian and to live responsibly and faithfully as a sexual being.

And, like the wind whipping famously down Michigan Avenue, fueled by the torrents of the presidential election and the sting of John Kerry's loss, the conversation at the Covenant Network of Presbyterians' annual gathering quickly swirled into other territories too.

How can the church talk convincingly to young people -- many of them with their feet firmly planted in the secular world -- if it rarely talks about sex at all?

What should the church say about sex outside of marriage -- is it always wrong? What about committed, long-term relationships among unmarried partners, including gays and lesbians, but also church-going senior citizens and huge numbers of heterosexuals who live together or certainly sleep together before they marry?

Taskforce explores core tenets as basis for discussions

CHICAGO -- No votes have been taken.

It's kind of like reading the tea leaves before the kettle has even come to a boil.
But a preliminary, tentative, test-the-waters discussion Oct. 13 indicated that the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) still is searching for consensus on some of the most controversial issues it faces, including homosexuality and ordination.

On the first day of its Oct. 13-15 meeting, the task force considered draft papers on two big issues -- what to say to the church about ordaining gays and lesbians who are sexually active, and whether the denomination ought to spell out what it considers to be essential tenets. Neither of those papers was being formally advanced as reflecting the task force's position nor was up for a vote.

But at its last meeting, in August, the planning team for this October meeting suggested that it might be time to put forth some "affirmations," some suggested statements about ordination standards and essential tenets, just to see how task force members would respond -- basically, to sense where there might be some areas of agreement and where there's still work to be done. Those affirmations were drafted by a working group from the task force consisting of three pastors -- John "Mike" Loudon of Florida, Sarah Sanderson-Doughty and John Wilkinson, both from New York state -- and William Stacy Johnson, who teaches systematic theology at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Taskforce: Facing divisions, strong convictions

CHICAGO -- Immediately after a discussion on global context, a conversation about how the preoccupations and work of Presbyterians in the United States fit into the larger concerns of the world, the members of the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) went into another closed-door session.

They shut the doors on October 15 because they wanted privacy to try to figure out what to say to the PC(USA), particularly on the controversial question of ordaining sexually-active lesbians and gays.

They went from the big view, the international context, to the small: the infighting within the denomination.

Presumably, the conversation had to do in part with theology and in part with politics and power. These 20 people have theological views, convictions, but also in some cases alignments with those in the church involved in the political fight. They are weighing what they want to say in their hearts, what they can afford to say publicly, what the church can accept and what they feel would be prophetic to say. They have developed a deep affection for one another, but they also may want to convince some of their friends to move.

They want to say something that will have the ring of truth.

They want the Holy Spirit to speak.

They want to know how they will know if that has happened.

Criticism, confusion after PC(USA) advisory Comm. meets Hezbollah officials

Presbyterian relations with Jews, already stressed and battered, have taken another blow after a Presbyterian delegation to the Middle East met in Lebanon with representatives of Hezbollah, an Islamic group that the U.S. State Department has placed on a list of foreign terrorist organizations.

Top leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) quickly criticized the meeting, saying they'd tried to prevent the Oct. 17 meeting, describing it as "misguided, at best," and calling the remarks of members of the Presbyterian delegation "reprehensible."

But the incident won't be just wiped away. Jewish groups, already unhappy with the PC(USA), spoke out hotly and quickly. And some Presbyterians say they're also confused about what message their denomination is trying to send -- and concerned that whatever moral authority the church is trying to bring to bear on the Israel-Palestine crisis may have been weakened.

PC(USA) leaders disavow comments made in Lebanon

LOUISVILLE - Three top officials of the Presbyterian Church (USA) have issued a statement disavowing comments made by members of a Presbyterian delegation during an Oct. 17 visit to a former Israeli prison that is now a Hezbollah-run museum and memorial in southern Lebanon.

News that the delegation - comprised mostly of members of the denomination's Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) - had met with a group on the U.S. government's watch list of terrorist organizations has further eroded relations between Jewish groups and the PC(USA).

One ACSWP delegation member - Ronald Stone, a recently retired professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary - was quoted as saying: 'As an elder of our church, I'd like to say that according to my recent experience, relations and conversations with Islamic leaders are a lot easier than dealings and dialogue with Jewish leaders.'

Synod Judicial Comm. announces Williamson decision

The Presbytery of Western North Carolina made mistakes in its handling of a case involving the ministry of Parker T. Williamson, chief executive officer of The Lay Committee and editor of The Layman, and failed to provide "adequate due process and fundamental fairness," a church court has ruled.

The Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of the Mid-Atlantic ruled Sept. 29 that the presbytery had made procedural errors significant enough that its controversial decision last January to make Williamson a "member-at-large" of the presbytery, rather than to validate his call for his work with the Layman, should be set aside.

The judicial commission also ordered Western North Carolina presbytery not to take any action involving the validation of Williamson's ministry for a year from the date of the ruling, and ordered the presbytery and Williamson -- who has been a member of the presbytery for 32 years -- "to jointly formulate a presbytery-wide process of reconciliation concerning this issue."