Presbyterian redevelopment officer loses home to fire
A Mankato (Minn.) Presbyterian church has started a fund to help a PC(USA) redevelopment associate recover from a Christmas Eve fire which destroyed his home.
Latest Posts
The Gift of Enthusiasm
Are you looking for something special to lift your spirits this Christmas? What about a gift that can't be purchased? Namely, the gift of enthusiasm. The seed of genuine enthusiasm is God-given, lying deep within the soul of everyone. The emergence of enthusiasm depends on the maturity of one's walk and talk with God. The nature of enthusiasm (see your dictionary) is to be God-possessed and infused with new energy.
The Broadening Church
The gospel is intended for all people. The church is to go to all nations. God's will is that every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
As the late Lefferts Loetscher of Princeton Seminary in a book titled The Broadening Church taught us, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has been a broadening church -- an inclusive church -- throughout its history, but becoming the people God wants us to be has not been easy.
Cuban Christians have done ‘so much with so little,’ says mission volunteer McAtee
This is the gist of what 14 trips to Cuba have taught Bill McAtee, a retired presbytery executive from Kentucky. In Cuba, where for decades the practice of Christianity was discouraged, "they have done so much with so little. And we have done so little with so much."
Responding in a Time of Need
Recently I watched on television as President Bush signed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, making airport security a direct federal responsibility. A week earlier, Congress seemed to be deadlocked regarding airport security, with neither party willing to compromise on their own strongly held positions. But, within days, the Senate and House had both agreed to a bill which the Senate passed without opposition and the House passed by a vote of 410 to 9.
Task force members contemplate the job ahead
Before they gathered for their first meeting, the members of the Theological Task force on Peace, Unity and Purity wrote down some of their thoughts about the task force -- what they hoped for, what they were concerned about, what they expected. Here are a few excerpts from those statements, which were distributed without the writers' names attached.
Introducing Feminist Theology
By Anne M. Clifford
Orbis. 2001. 287 pp. Pb. $21. 
ISBN 1-57075-238-9
— reviewed by by Isabel Rogers, Richmond, Va.
The goal of Christian theology, says Anne M. Clifford, "is to bring faith to understanding for a Christian community" (p. 179). That is what she aims to do in this book -- to help the Christian community understand its faith, especially in light of the experience of women.
Task force encouraged to think in terms of managing – not resolving – conflict in church
DALLAS -- A task force charged with leading the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in spiritual discernment was encouraged at its first meeting, Dec. 6-8, to think in terms of managing conflict rather than resolving it -- recognizing that the Christian church has had conflict almost from its beginning -- and to stop equating conflict with combat, in which some other person or idea has to be destroyed.
The Need for Constitutional Reform
Among those efforts that can be undertaken by the denomination to address our current malaise and drift toward fragmentation, none is as important -- or as elusive -- as the need for a major overhaul of the Book of Order.
Rethinking the Beloved Community: Ecclesiology, Hermeneutics, Social Theory
By Lewis S. Mudge
WCC Publications and University Press of America, Inc. 2000.312 pp. Pb. $27.50 ISBN 2-8254-1332-1
— reviewed by Louis Weeks, president, Union-PSCE, Richmond.
This collection of articles and essays by Lewis Mudge -- which have previously appeared in a variety of publications during the past 30 years -- offers a good summary of his thought. He believes that the whole church needs to think fresh thoughts about its identity as the body of Christ. More, it must develop its identity in the world. Ecclesial life for Mudge is a reality, and social theory can illumine its existence.
Wheeler tells Moderators Conference that church needs evangelicals
LOUISVILLE -- Barbara G. Wheeler, the president of Auburn Seminary in New York, calls herself a liberal and strongly believes that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) should not deny ordination to sexually-active gays and lesbians, and shouldn't cite the Bible as its reason for doing so. But here's some of what she has to say about evangelical conservatives, the people she says she disagrees with "strenuously" in the painful and continuing battle over homosexual ordination.
Presbyterians Expose THeir Buts!
In their proper place, I have long, and roundly, maintained a lowdown admiration for nice, big Presbyterian buts. To close and appreciative observers like me the fundaments of Reformed dogmatics are both ample and shapely with lots of wiggle room. Being generously endowed (and with intelligence, too), Presbyterians are aware that many theological affirmations are so complex the only proper response to them is, "yes, but...."
GAPJC hears case of gay Connecticut elder
ATLANTA -- How far must a session go in inquiring into the sexual practice of candidates for elder? If a person has acknowledged that they live in a committed, same-sex relationship, but refuses to answer the direct question if they are sexually active in that relationship, can the session proceed to install them? Or is the examination incomplete?
Wife of former Outlook editor dies
LAKELAND, Fla. -- Mary Alice Minear Hunt, 82, wife of former Outlook editor George Laird Hunt, died Nov. 26 of kidney failure at the health center of Florida Presbyterian Homes here.
A professional musician, recitalist and church soloist, she studied music under Robert Grooters, Madeline Bartell and David McCormick.
There is a Third Way: Theses for the Crisis in Our Church
1. A Third Way requires a new mode of thinking. At first glance it is bound to seem implausible.
2. Without a Third Way, our church is in danger of shattering.
Walking Toward the Horizon
During the 10 days of my senior-year spring break, I participated in Davidson College's "reverse mission experience" journey to Nicaragua led by college chaplain Rob Spach and Kathy Beach-Verhey, associate pastor of the Davidson College church.
Images of Hope from a Church set free
A recent mission study trip to the northeastern part of Hungary and Ukraine -- with 10 persons from Missouri Union and Peaks presbyteries -- left me with three distinct images, all relating in some way to our old friend, Daniel Szabo, head curator of the Cistibiscan Church District.
Evangelism and Church Growth in Southern Africa
You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God (2 Corinthians 9:11-12, NRSV).
The lost art of congregational visitation
There are several reasons why congregational visitation is no longer a priority; the difficulty of arranging it; members are busy; pastors are busy; and we are not sure what it accomplishes.
There are several reasons why congregational visitation should be a priority. It meets people where they are; it facilitates contact with members who seldom are seen; and it can renew the church.
Is There a Way Out?
Amendment A, overturning the "fidelity-chastity" requirement for ministers and church officers, must be defeated by those voting in the presbyteries in the coming months. There are several reasons why conscientious presbyters, who will be called to vote on this and other amendments approved by the 213th General Assembly (2001), should vote no.
PC(USA) may face $2.5 million shortfall in 2002
LOUISVILLE -- From the moment he took office as executive director of the General Assembly Council (GAC) in 1998, John Detterick has said that the Presbyterian Church (USA)'s $140 million mission enterprise sooner or later would have to be made leaner, more efficient and better prioritized.
The Art of Teaching the Bible
By Christine Eaton Blair
Geneva. 2001. 138 pp. Pb. $12.95.ISBN ISBN 0-664-50148-6
— reviewed by Margaret Parks Cowan Maryville, Tenn.
Christine Eaton Blair has produced a lively and practical guide for teaching Bible study to adults. She acknowledges the problem of biblical illiteracy and the difficulty of motivating adults to participate in Bible study. While she presents different approaches to the text and theological implications of those approaches, the strength of her book lies in its discussion of insights from adult learning theory and practical strategies for teaching that flow from these insights.
All in the Family
"Resolutions acknowledging the Catholic Church as part of the body of Christ, and calling for continuing study of those practices which first divided us were approved, as was a resolution of invitation to invite the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to join in studies leading to possible future affirmation of one another's baptisms."
-- 213th General Assembly News (June 13, 2001)
Presbyterians have a chance ‘to teach a moral lesson the nation can take to heart,’ Covenant Network told
PASADENA, Calif. -- Peter Gomes, a best-selling author and Harvard College professor, spoke recently to Presbyterians pushing for change -- those who want to see the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) permit the ordination of sexually-active gays and lesbians -- on the theme of "Paradise Postponed," and the question of what they should do while they are waiting.
Getting Serious About Jesus Christ
It's time to get serious. The intramural debates preoccupying the PC(USA) look rather trivial and self-defeating when compared to the all-too-real challenges now facing the world in the aftermath of Sept. 11. With commercial jetliners having been turned into weapons of mass destruction; with biological weapons having been directed, however crudely, at news agencies and government leaders;
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