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Synod court reverses Van Kuiken decision; controversial minister says he’s leaving PC(USA)

A Presbyterian minister cannot be brought up on disciplinary charges for performing a same-sex "marriage" ceremony, because the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has not yet spoken definitively enough about whether such ceremonies are absolutely prohibited, a church court has ruled.

In order to create such a prohibition, either the denomination’s Constitution would have to be changed or a General Assembly would have to issue an authoritative interpretation to state that ministers are prohibited from performing such ceremonies, the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of the Covenant has ruled in a closely divided decision.

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PC(USA) cuts 37 jobs as church trims $4.6 million from 2005 budget

LOUISVILLE — Needing to cut $4.6 million from its budget for next year, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has announced that 37 more jobs will be cut at the denomination’s national headquarters in Louisville. Nine of those positions are currently vacant, but 28 people will be laid off.

This is the third consecutive year that positions have been cut at the denomination’s national offices because of budgetary pressures, and programs and services are being cut as well as jobs.

Book Reviews

The Cross in Our Context: Jesus and the Suffering World

By Douglas John Hall
Augsburg Fortress. 2003. 2243 pp. Pb. $17.

— Review by Edwin W. Stock, Raleigh, N.C.

The author is a Canadian Lutheran scholar whose book was first delivered in 2002 as 10 lectures at Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, Ohio. It is easy to read because it has an oral style. Yet, it is scholarly as it addresses Martin Luther's "thin tradition," a theology of the cross (theologia crucis) not well known or appreciated in Reformed Calvinistic branches, whose theology begins with the foundational pillar of the Sovereignty of God.

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216th GA will consider overtures on Jewish-Presbyterian relations

The question of how the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) should relate to people of other faiths — how to be Christian in a pluralistic world — will definitely be before this year’s General Assembly in Richmond.

In part, that’s fallout from the controversial new Messianic congregation in Philadelphia — Avodat Yisrael, started with $145,000 in financial support from Philadelphia Presbytery, plus $40,000 from Trinity Synod and $75,000 from a General Assembly Council committee.

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Pastor Dean Thompson named president of Louisville Seminary

LOUISVILLE – Emphasizing his new role as a "pastor-president," a minister from West Virginia — Dean K. Thompson, pastor of First church, Charleston — has been named the eighth president of Louisville Seminary.

With Dorothy Ridings, chair of the seminary’s board of trustees, saying that the seminary needs pastoral leadership at a difficult time, Thompson told a crowd gathered Thursday in the seminary’s chapel that he and his wife, Rebecca, feel led by the Holy Spirit to come to Louisville. "We’ve been nurtured by the Spirit, comforted, taught and guided towards you," Thompson told the crowd.

Outlook Reporting

Outlook reporter, art director honored by Associated Church Press

TORONTO — Leslie Scanlon, The Outlook's national reporter, and Stann Bailey, its art director, received honors from the Associated Church Press during the organization’s annual meeting here April 18-21.

Scanlon, who has been with The Outlook for four years, received a second-place award in magazine newswriting for her coverage of the Cincinnati Presbytery meeting at which minister Stephen Van Kuiken lost his ordination last summer. (That decision was later overturned by the Covenant Synod PJC.)

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Princeton Seminary names Iain Torrance as its sixth president

Princeton Seminary's board of trustees has named Iain R. Torrance as the institution’s sixth president. Torrance is moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Divinity at the University of Aberdeen, and master of Christ’s College, Aberdeen, where he is professor in patristics and Christian ethics.

  In assuming the presidency on July 1, Torrance will succeed Thomas W. Gillespie, who served from 1983 to 2004.

Editorials

Stop gun violence

Nothing could be more timely, or more in the spirit of an Easter faith than the Moderator’s and Stated Clerk’s March 24th letter to the denomination. They deplore the gun violence in this country and its tragic toll in human lives (28,000-35,000 deaths per year since the 1960s). They call attention to the federal ban on assault weapons that will expire this September on the watch of an apathetic, fearful Congress. Since Congress is not expected to act, those million moms, bless their hearts, are on the march again, on Mother’s Day in our nation’s capital.

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Presbytery cannot base financial support for churches on per capita participation, says synod PJC

Heartland Presbytery cannot require congregations to make per capita payments and mission pledges to be considered for loans or other financial support from the presbytery, the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Mid-America Synod has ruled.

The synod judicial commission ruled April 3 that the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) provides "that the session (of a congregation) has sole responsibility to distribute the gifts of the people" and that Heartland’s policy, adopted in June 2003, had a "coercive force" that was not acceptable.

Editorials

Trusting that which we don’t control

In previous years this magazine has sponsored what I thought was a wearying debate between those who took a rather relaxed view of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and those who insisted that belief in the resurrection of the body was essential. Without it we were all doomed to the theological and moral wasteland of Christian thought.

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To be vital, congregations need to make a difference, says researcher

Nancy Ammerman recognizes Lake Wobegon Lutheran Church when she sees it — the congregation where the families have all been there for generations, where everybody knows everybody and there’s no question at all about which hymns will be sung or what food will show up at the potluck: tuna noodle casserole and Jell-O with fruit. Every time.

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Metherell announces candidacy for GA Stated Clerk

Alex Metherell, the elder and physician/engineer from Laguna Beach, Calif., who tried to get the 214th General Assembly recalled last year to address the issue of constitutional defiance, has announced that he will be a candidate for General Assembly stated clerk.

Editorials

Neither a right nor a convenience

I am new at this business, unaccustomed to writing each week for the whole church. A valued friend reacted quickly to last week’s editorial. He thought it was a little too far on the wild side; he was especially critical of my sweeping, dogmatic claims about validated ministries. Yet he admitted that the editorial opened up an ongoing discussion. Thus doth provocation produce dialogue.

Uncategorized

Synod reopens review of Baltimore Presbytery

RICHMOND — The Mid-Atlantic Synod, meeting here in special session Saturday, voted 19-15 to review the policies, procedures and actions of Baltimore Presbytery with regard to admitting new minister members and the validation of ministries and oversight of ministers.

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Overtures to remove ‘fidelity and chastity’ or authoritative interpretations coming to GA

You probably won’t get a crowd up on their feet screaming if you shout out, "Authoritative interpretation!" On the other hand, those two words have the power to get some Presbyterians mighty riled up.

This year’s General Assembly will be asked, once again, to consider removing from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Constitution the requirement that those being ordained practice fidelity if they’re married or chastity if they are single — language that some contend follows centuries of Christian teaching, and that some others say unfairly excludes gays and lesbians in committed partnerships from serving in leadership in the church.

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Letter from the GA Moderator and Stated Clerk

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We have been at war in Iraq for a year now. Close to 11,000 Iraqis have been killed. Nearly 600 United States servicemen and women have died in the hostilities; another 3,000 have been injured. We ask you to join us in continued prayers for those who are impacted by war, those who are serving in the military, and those in positions of authority.

Editorials

Addressing the issues

My next few editorials will respond to recent news stories and guest viewpoints that have received no editorial treatment.

This week I will address the Jan. 31 meeting of Western North Carolina Presbyterian at which the ministry of Parker Williamson was not revalidated. This was reported in the Feb. 23 issue of The Outlook and the February issue of the Layman. I want also to respond to reader reaction to the Jan. 26 Outlook editorial, "Ministry of Fear."

Voices

‘Righteous Judgment’ and Biblical Preaching

I read with great interest the article by James Goodloe ("Righteous Judgment") and the endorsing letter by Eddie Soto. Though the term is never used, I assume that both are being critical of "Lectionary Preaching."

Both are correct when they say that lectio continua (preaching through a book of the Bible "in course," chapter by chapter) was used back to the earliest days of the church, and that the reformers, especially the Genevan reformers, urged pastors to preach through books of the Bible.

Uncategorized

Mid-Atlantic Synod PJC puts Wililiamson decsion on hold

Parker T. Williamson has won some time. The Permanent Judicial Commission of the Mid-Atlantic Synod has granted a stay of enforcement of a decision by Western North Carolina Presbytery involving Williamson.

What’s at dispute in the case is whether and on what terms Williamson can remain a member of Western North Carolina Presbytery.

Editorials

Rold of ‘The Outlook’ Editor

have been a member of the Outlook Foundation Board of Directors almost longer than I can remember. It came with the territory; it came very soon after I moved to Richmond in 1982 to become pastor of Second church. I think it was assumed that I would serve on the board because of The Outlook’s long history with this congregation. One of our predecessor journals was brought to Richmond in 1856 by the first pastor of this church, Moses Drury Hoge, and most of the ministers of Second church since 1938 had served on the board as well.

Voices

Lent and Limits

In some parts of the country we have endured a long, cold winter and the blizzards are still coming (after several weeks of sub-zero weather). Many people are sick of it and feel like they are caught in a frozen trap.

Some of this normal depression will pass, of course, when spring comes; when we get rid of the ice, the heavy coats and gloves, the constant aggravation of getting into a freezing car. Then we will feel better again.

Book Reviews

An Examined Faith: The Grace of Self Doubt

By James M. Gustafson
Augsburg Fortress. 2004. 128 pp. $15.

— Review by Ralph D. Bucy, Harrisonburg, Va.

From the cowardice that dares not face new truth
From the laziness that is contented with half-truth
From the arrogance that thinks it knows all truth
Good Lord, deliver us. (p. vii)

Uncategorized

Former ‘Outlook’ publisher James S. Brown Sr. dies

James S. Brown Sr., 91, former publisher of The Outlook and general manager of the Outlook Book Service, died Wednesday, March 10, in Richmond, Va. A memorial service was held Saturday, March 13, at Tuckahoe Presbyterian Church in Richmond.

A Texas native, Brown came to The Outlook in 1947 to assist his brother, the late Outlook editor Aubrey Brown, by managing the business side of the operation. Prior to that, James Brown had been working with a Texas City oil refinery and narrowly escaped death in the disastrous explosion of 1947.

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