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Movie Reviews

The Pianist

'The Pianist' is the true story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, the Polish pianist who was just entering his prime in the ill-fated year of 1939. The German blitzkrieg began there, in September, and Poland fell in a fortnight. Then it was the occupation, with the gradual encroachment of civil rights. Jews had to wear armbands with the star of David. Jews couldn't be seen in public parks or on public benches. Jews couldn't walk on the sidewalk. Jews had to have a work permit. Jews had to relocate, in a narrow area known as the Warsaw ghetto. And the once-proud and prosperous Szpilman family, mother and father and sisters and brothers, were crammed like beggars into a dirty hovel where even the rats cannot survive because there is no food.

Movie Reviews

‘Catch Me if you Can’

In 1963, Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo De Caprio) was a normal 17-year-old high school kid. Then his world fell apart. His father, owner of a small printing business, and recent honoree of the local Rotary club, runs afoul of the IRS. Suddenly banks will no longer lend to him. The family has to sell their nice house and their late-model car, and downgrade to a lowly apartment and a rattle trap used auto.

Editorials

The Time Between the Times

The church has just celebrated Advent and Christmas and now looks toward Easter and Pentecost.

In terms of the triune God's grand plan of salvation, we who belong to Christ are living in the time between the times, between the already and the not yet. We know, by faith, that Christ stands at the beginning and ending of all that is, with the Father and the Holy Spirit. In the meantime God's glorious plans for the creation are unfolding inexorably in human history.

More specifically, God's raising of Jesus from the dead is the center of history, and the beginning of the end of history. As we speak of the time between the times, more properly we are speaking of the time between God's self-revelation in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the inauguration of the kingdom of God (coupled with the extension of the Incarnation, the birth of the church at Pentecost) and Christ's second coming, which will bring to conclusion God's plans for the whole creation.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), like all parts of the universal church of Jesus Christ on Earth, lives in this time between the times, as historically understood. And yet there are an infinite number of far more limited times between the times in the life of the Christian Church down through the ages.

The first decade of the 21st century is just such a time for the Presbyterian Church, a critical time in which life-and-death decisions will need to be made.

This more limited understanding of the time between the times, in the first decade of the 21st century, has at least two facets:

(1) the time between old age and death for the denomination if current trends continue; and

(2) the time between the situation of theological/confessional uncertainty in which we find ourselves today, and a clear affirmation — by most of the Presbyterian Church's ordained leadership — of the foundational convictions of the historic Christian movement.

The latter includes reaffirmation by the ordained leadership of the church of biblically and theologically rooted views of human sexuality, which are the norms according to which the community lives its life together in the world. Widely divergent views on this topic have been the occasion of enormous internal turmoil for several years.

To address the first issue: the time between now and the prospective death of the Presbyterian Church, the question must be raised as to whether this be inevitable, 30, 40, 50 years from now, as suggested by some?

Uncategorized

Davis announces for stated clerk

Robert "Bob" Davis, 39, executive director of the renewal organization Presbyterian Forum, announced Monday, Jan. 5, that he is seeking election as the stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) at the 216th General Assembly (2004) in Richmond, Va.

Davis said, "It is time for a new direction in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). We need to be intentional about our responsibility as a faithful part of the Church historic in a dynamic world," he said in an e-mailed press release.

Voices

John’s Bunion or This Pilgrim’s Progress

Having a poor visual memory is a source of considerable regret to me.  Art historians stir a profound awe in me because they need to know everything that any expert knows and in addition apply it to what they have seen.  On the three occasions in my life when I was in some danger of committing the sin of pride, I picked up Charles Cuttler's great book, Northern Painting from Pucelle to Bruegel and committed the sin of envy instead.

Editorials

Real Presence III

We’ve been examining the concept of real presence in this column, and its significance to our understanding of the nature and work of the triune God. God is really present, truly present, in every place all the time. And if that be true, as Christians profess it to be true, then life cannot be lived as if it were not true.

Voices

WCC Christmas Message 2002

Once again we approach Christmas. Yet particularly this year, people all over the world are struggling with fear and anxiety: fear of a possible war in the Middle East and its unpredictable consequences far beyond the region; fear of deadly terrorist attacks like those that occurred in Bali or in Moscow recently; fear of loss of livelihood and destitution, as in Argentina; fear of a long-drawn-out illness and death among those living with AIDS, especially in sub-Saharan Africa;

Outlook Features

Christmas: When OK can be better than perfect

"Make them stop! Make them stop!" That's my younger daughter's advice to the people in our town who fired up their Christmas lights and decorations, even put up their trees, well before Thanksgiving.

"Don't they know they're rushing the season?" my older daughter asked.

Voices

Christmas Evermore

What do you do with the tinsel on the Christmas tree after Christmas? Save it for next year? Decorate birthday gifts? Throw it away?

I still have the handmade Santa Claus that I fashioned out of poster board, and then colored with red crayon (Santa’s suit), with black crayon (Santa’s belt and one boot) and with brown crayon (Santa’s other boot) plus a clump of fluffy cotton glued on for his straggly beard. Santa has hung around on the family Yule tree every year since I was in the first grade.

Voices

A Mangy Scene at Christmas

Being a keen observer of the human condition, and a sometimes participant in it, I think it is fair to say that most new mothers love their new babies. When our first child arrived, Margaret exclaimed in wonderment to the attending physician, "I thought all newborns were ugly; my daughter is beautiful!" Nature knows that a baby without a mother's love is in for big trouble. Even government knows.

Voices

Analyzing the Amendments to the Constitution

The 214th General Assembly (2002) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) approved 13 amendments to the Book of Order and recommended them to the presbyteries for their affirmative or negative votes.

A majority of the 173 presbyteries must approve an amendment for it to pass. The votes are to be reported to the 215th General Assembly (2003), and all those approved will take effect at that time.

Movie Reviews

Movie Review – ‘Santa Clause 2’

Tim Allen does it again. He not only plays Santa Claus convincingly, but is warm and funny without being saccharine or sappy. In "Santa Clause 2" the jolly elf in the red suit appears with a cast of children and puppets and makes something magical.

The viewer doesn't have to have seen the original "Santa Clause" to catch up to the sequel.

Voices

Response to ‘Assessing the Amendments to the Constitution’

As one of the members of the Task Force on the Educational Design for the Ordination of Certified Christian Educators, I must take exception to some of the interpretations of the effect of the overtures, and to some of the arguments, offered in the front-page assessment article by Bill Lancaster (Jan. 13-20). Allow me to be specific:

Editorials

Real Presence II

Is the triune God — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — truly present in the world God made and for which Christ died on the cross? That is the question being raised in this space during this season of Advent leading toward Christmas.

The point made in the previous column was that much of what we observe about the life of today's church — modern, acculturated, well-to-do, self-satisfied — would lead the impartial observer to question whether we modern Christians truly believe that God is really present.

Voices

Amendment A: Why I’m in favor of it

Even in the midst of an impassioned discussion regarding our understanding of the nature and practice of ministry, the Presbyterian Church, U.S. A. can be grateful that God is calling us to wrestle seriously with such issues. The question of how to vote on Amendment A challenges each of us to probe deeply our assumptions and expectations of roles and titles commonly used in our denomination. My own prayerful - and difficult - probing of the issues surrounding this amendment and my attitudes regarding those issues, has led me to speak in favor of the proposal set before us.

Voices

Response to ‘con’ positions on Christian Educator amendments

The summaries and responses below are in rebuttal to the con positions presented in the "Assessing the Amendments To the Constitution" article from the Jan. 13-20, 2003 Presbyterian Outlook.

Together the amendments of 02-A.1-5 and 02-C.1-5 provide both theological and institutional clarity on Christian educators in our church today.

Voices

Why Amendment A is Unacceptable

If passed by a majority of presbyteries, Amendment A will create a pathway for certified directors of Christian education (DCE) to become associate pastors (AP) of the Word and Sacrament, and in specified situations to continue to function in their present locations. The following points are lodged against the approval of this amendment.

Voices

Concentration in Education Ministry Amendments 02-A.1-A.5

Amendment 02-A has five components, each of which seeks to strengthen educational ministry within the PC(USA) by requiring a new competency level from those who answer calls as pastors and associate pastors serving in the role of educator. The first three amendments in this group are attempts to raise standards of educational ministry in the church for persons who feel called to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament with a specialty in education.

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Rock Star Bono brings appeal for Africa to PC(USA) headquarters in Louisville

LOUISVILLE — It was a fine conjunction of forces: more than a thousand people, standing in a long chilly line under a sweet sliver of a moon, drawn to the parking lot of a conservative church in the Louisville suburbs by the prospect of listening to a rock star — Bono of U2 — who admits that he's not too comfortable in churches and that on this tour "the wheels are falling off my wagon a little bit — having no sleep and I drink too much."

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Howard Edington announces retirement

Howard Edington, 60, pastor of 5,500-member First church, Orlando, Fla., for two decades and a prominent figure among evangelical Presbyterians, has told his congregation that he will retire at the end of January 2003.

The retirement announcement by Edington, who saw the size of his downtown congregation more than triple during his 21 years as pastor, took some in the congregation by surprise. And the response has been both widespread praise and appreciation from his supporters for his work, and hints at some unrest within the congregation.

Voices

Real Presence

Advent/Christmas means nothing if it does not mean the real presence of the triune God with and for God’s people and the world. Incarnation, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, is real presence. The church of Jesus throughout the world, past, present, future, is the real presence of the body of Christ in God’s created order. The Holy Spirit, the awesome personal power of God in us and in all that God has made, is the real presence.

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Paying more for coffee helps Third World coffee growers make a decent living

Many Americans don't think twice about walking up to the counter in a cozy java joint and ordering a coffee drink for $3 or $4. What they may not know is that coffee farmers in many countries are struggling to sell their coffee for anywhere near a living wage — and that how people in the United States buy their coffee can have a direct impact on the quality of life for farmers in some of the poorest countries in the world.

Voices

Locating the Solution

Shall we ordain practicing homosexuals? The way the question is being posed leaves only two possible answers: yes or no. The form of the question has turned the inquiry from seeking more complex resolutions and has pushed us into looking for the solution in the wrong place.

It seems to me that when we strip all extraneous issues from the discussions, the matter grounds to a single question: Is a person born with a sexual preference?

Editorials

Building Community Among Strangers

The ultimate result of the Presbyterian Church opening itself to its Lord and the work of the Holy Spirit in the matter of building community will be what a recent General Assembly paper called "Building Community Among Strangers."

The paper eventually approved by the General Assembly in 1999 had a long and conflicted history, but what was produced was finally affirmed by most.

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