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Voices

Gracious Unity: Two Views of the Church

What is the function of doctrinal truth in the church?

One view of the church defines it as a group of Christians gathered out of the body of professing Christians, under the confessional flag of a fully developed orthodoxy. This was the view of J. Gresham Machen and those who seceded from mainline Presbyterianism to form the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The Presbyterian Church in America followed a similar pattern.

Voices

No ‘Gracious Separation’

The "gracious separation" outline which came to me should be reduced to six letters: SCHISM. That's right, "gracious schism." Is there such an animal in God's economy?

I was in seminary 1961-64 in the PCUS. I don't know how I knew, but I'd have bet the farm the denomination would split. I just did not know when.

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Covenant Network sets timetable for seeking change in ordination standards

WASHINGTON, D. C. — The plan is this. In 2006, the Covenant Network of Presbyterians will push again for another vote on the ordination standards of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) — hoping to open the door fully to ordaining gays and lesbians.

That will be shortly after the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the PC(USA) will have made its report, whatever that might turn out to be.

Voices

Resource vs. Regulation: A General Assembly Choice

A decade ago, Craig Dykstra and James Hudnut-Beumler asked whether the nature of the Presbyterian General Assembly was in the midst of changing. It had been a resource for congregational life through the first half of the 20th century. Was it becoming more like a "regulatory agency," providing little resource but lots of rules for Presbyterians?

Voices

A Reason for Keeping ‘Under God’ in the Pledge

In 1954, George Docherty preached a sermon at New York Avenue church in Washington, D.C., and suggested that since morality is based on a Judeo-Christian foundation, the Pledge of Allegiance should include a reference to God. President Eisenhower was seated in the congregation and was moved by the sermon. As a result, Docherty’s sermon was influential in the movement to change the Pledge of Allegiance to include the phrase "under God."

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Passionate case for unity made at Covenant Network meeting

WASHINGTON, D.C. — They both walked to the microphone with some apprehension, needing to say uncomfortable things but also wanting to make a compelling case about the future — to say that Presbyterians who hammer each other over homosexuality would be doing themselves and even the world a favor by sticking it out together.

Book Reviews

Niebuhr and His Age: Reinhold Niebuhr’s Prophetic Role and Legacy

By Charles C. Brown

Trinity Press International. 2002. 333 pp. Pb. $20. ISBN 1-56338-375-6

— Review by Robert Dunham, Chapel Hill, N.C.

A decade after publishing the acclaimed hardback edition of Charles Brown's appreciative intellectual biography of Reinhold Niebuhr, Trinity Press International has made this important work more widely available in a paperback edition, updated by the author. The timing could not have been more auspicious (nor, perhaps, intentional), given the turn of world events in recent years.

Voices

Whither Theology for Pastors?

The name of William Ames (1576-1633) is never mentioned among Presbyterians today. He’s long dead, was a Puritan of the Reformed persuasion (though a Congregationalist in polity), and he wrote theology in a way many today would call "dry and dusty."

Voices

Churches continue to struggle with how to offer successful campus ministry

Andrea Catherine Stokes, 20, is committed to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and is planning to go to seminary — she wants good things for her church. But here’s what she’s found, from personal experience, that college students can expect from the PC(USA). "I have never been in a congregation that has extended a hand to college students or young adults, I’ve never had that luxury," Stokes said. "I don’t want to go bowling and eat pizza, I’m past that. But I don’t want to knit. There’s nothing in between."

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Presbytery declines to file heresy, other charges; Martin installed at First church, Palo Alto

No longer facing the prospect of a hearing on charges of heresy and violating his ordination vows, W. Robert "Rob" Martin III was installed last month as pastor of First church in Palo Alto, Calif.

An investigating committee of Western North Carolina Presbytery declined to bring charges against Martin, whose move to California was put on hold over the summer while the charges — made by attorney Paul Rolf Jensen — were investigated. In the middle of the process, Martin asked the presbytery for vindication.

Voices

An Urgent Call for Concern

From 43 retired Presbyterian pastors, mission workers, educators
and church executives now residing in Santa Fe, N.M.

We are deeply troubled. We are alarmed about problems in the life of our nation, issues illuminated by the Bible. For several reasons, Santa Fe, N.M., is the home of a large number of retired Presbyterian church workers, including pastors, missionaries, Christian educators and executives. And right now we find ourselves united in concern and anger about issues in our national life.

Voices

Higher Education and the Life of the Mind

Historically, Presbyterians value higher education. In the best traditions of our Reformed faith, this commitment is always being challenged, examined and restated. Prospective students and their parents, along with professors, alumni/ae and governing bodies frequently ask, "What does it mean for a college to be related by covenant to the Presbyterian Church?" The question deserves a thoughtful response.

Voices

Whose Church is it anyway?

See if this scenario sounds familiar.

A small handful of angry detractors mount a "whisper campaign" against a recently installed pastor. For a year the congregation and the pastor engage in a process designed to bring healing and resolution to the situation.

Book Reviews

The Power of God at Home: Nurturing our Children in Love and Grace

By J. Bradley Wigger

Jossey-Bass. 2003. 224 pp. $19.95. ISBN 0-7879-5588-4

— Review by Joyce MacKichan Walker, Princeton, N.J.

"The large conviction and concern of this book is that faith empowers family life and parenting" (p. 19). So states Brad Wigger in the first chapter of The Power of God at Home, and just so does he clearly summarize the purpose and usefulness of this book for ministry to, for and with families. Who, as a Christian parent, has not struggled with how to bring into our daily conversations and living our belief that God is the ground of who we are and why we exist; that this trust is one we want our children to witness in our homes and experience for themselves?

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Division a common theme of Presbyterian history

DALLAS — In 1869, after an excruciating 30 years of separation and spiritual division, the reconciled Presbyterians marched into the church in Pittsburgh two by two, arms locked, the Old School faithful holding onto their former opponents in the New School, with "welcomes, thanksgiving and tears."

It was the formal reunion after the bitter division in 1837.

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Life Abraham and Sarah, task force not sure where it is going, but trusts God

DALLAS — Gary Demarest calls it an Abrahamic journey. God told Abraham and Sarah to leave their home; they didn’t know where they were going, but they had faith that God would go with them. Demarest is not too comfortable with that — he is a tall, deep-voiced, take-charge kind of guy. When he tells people he’s not sure where the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is going or what it will accomplish, "I hear people muttering, ‘What the hell kind of leader is that,’ " Demarest said.

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Task force ponders how to decide

DALLAS — It was a first draft, very preliminary, a piece of paper put on the table for discussion — but not for a vote. And the paper had to do, in part, with whether to vote or not to vote.

When there’s a big fight over something, when people feel strongly, but they’re also willing to listen to one another — really listen, not just to say they will — what’s the best way to make decisions?

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Theological Task Force wades in ‘the issue’ – studies six writings on theology and homosexuality

DALLAS — They waded into the water, but not up to their necks.

For the first time, after meeting for nearly two years, the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) began to talk directly about theology and homosexuality — not by offering their own views, but by analyzing pieces from six authors whose work they critiqued by examining the tools those writers used to reach the conclusions they did.

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Presbyteries and churches struggle with dilemma of withholding per capita from the GA

Kirk Johnston’s congregation decided years ago that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) gets it wrong way too often, and that it couldn’t trust the denomination to make good choices about what it funds. So the congregation, First church of Paola, Kan., stopped sending money. Since the controversy over the Reimagining Conference a decade ago, it has withheld the part of its per capita payment that goes to the PC(USA) offices in Louisville, and has used that money instead to fund mission programs that the Paola church selects.

Editorials

The Story has only just begun

A recent survey of public expectations claims that pessimism prevails in opinions about ethical values. According to a report cited in the Christian Century, more than two-thirds of Americans feel that general morality is on a downhill slope. A vague and unspoken assumption seems to be that American society was once much more keenly centered on high and praiseworthy ideals, but that with the slippage in attention to religious and noble motives, and the seductive attractions of consumerism and a newly permissive amorality, we are gleefully submitting to social corrosion.

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Coalition talk options, including schism but comes to no decisions about future

PORTLAND — Think of Neapolitan ice cream. A stripe of outrage (an old evangelical specialty). A stripe of good news (always a pleasure). A stripe of intense confusion.

Three flavors side by side, ending up all mixed together. That’s pretty much the taste of the Presbyterian Coalition’s recent national gathering here Oct. 6-8, where everything got talked about, from leaving the denomination to godly visions, and nothing got decided.

Outlook Reporting

Gracious Separation: just an idea for now

PORTLAND — A sprinkling of people wore buttons that said: "Gracious Separation, A Faithful Choice," and a workshop to discuss it was packed, but it was far from clear whether people were just curious about the idea or willing to actually support it. The Presbyterian Coalition board has not endorsed it — it’s presenting options but not pushing openly for any — and the Lay Committee, where the idea reportedly has some support and some opposition, hasn’t voted yet.

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Two Differing Viewpoints from the Presbyterian Coalition

PORTLAND — Bob Howard used to think the right thing to do was to stick around, to try to change the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) from within. Now he thinks that’s wrong, that it’s time to admit that the denomination can’t be fixed, that the wide Presbyterian family can never agree about theology and that it’s time to split it up. He calls it "gracious separation."

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