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Book Reviews

Steps Along the Way: A Spiritual Autobiography

By Diogenes Allen
Church. 2002. 134 pp. Pb. $13.95. ISBN 0-89869-352-7

— reviewed by Ed White, Washington, D.C.

This book recounts Diogenes Allen’s search for the providence of God. He begins by describing the shock of witnessing the overwhelming poverty in India in 1955: “I was not prepared for the horror of seeing people dying in the street” (p. 3).

Editorials

The Wellsprings of Faith

It is time for Presbyterians to remember and to recover the wellsprings of their faith, the fountainhead of God’s grace which suffuses the life of each Christian, of the church and even the world, though the world knows it not.

Those wellsprings are a constant source of faith, hope and love, and they are always there, but it is easy to forget that they are there; easy to ignore them; easy to turn from them in the struggles of everyday life.

Outlook Features

Call for special session has numbers, but timing is not right say some

Note — Since this story was posted on Oct. 21, we have received an e-mail from Alex Metherell, whom we attempted to reach last week but did not receive a reply. His response is as follows:

"Your report gives the impression that we have the 50 signatures needed to call the special meeting of the 214th General Assembly. In fact, we have 25 signatures (13 elders and 12 ministers) representing 19 presbyteries and 11 synods. All of these came from the e-mailing I made to about 70 commissioners. We still need to get another 12 elder commissioners and 13 minister commissioners. I have now sent out via regular mail a call to all 554 commissioners," wrote Metherell.

Voices

More Sensitive Than Thou

You may have missed it, but here in the Empire State a woman in Brooklyn has started a mini-revolution. On Sunday, June 2, a front-page story in the New York Times headlined: "The Elderly Man and the Sea? Test Sanitizes Literary Texts." Jeanne Heifetz, who is the mother of a high school senior, had inspected 10 high school statewide Regents English exams from the past three years and found that a large number of passages from well-known authors had been sanitized of any reference to race, religion, ethnicity, sex, nudity, alcohol and even the mildest profanity.

Uncategorized

Post-war Guatemala Faces Many Challenges

GUATEMALA CITY — Rocked by 36 years of civil war which took at least 200,000 lives, this Central American nation continues to struggle with the haunting memories of that conflict and the poverty and crime which have followed.

It’s a precarious peace. Most of those who committed atrocities during the war have gone unpunished. Some who have pushed for justice have paid with their own lives.

Voices

Constitutional Crisis or Connectional Conundrum?

"Constitutional crisis." Those two words roll off the tongue as easily as "Just do it" or "the real thing." These days, "constitutional crisis" seems to be rolling off more Presbyterian tongues than the other expressions. Have we fallen into a constitutional crisis? Is the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on the verge of exploding for a lack of constitutional cohesion?

Uncategorized

Presbyterians for Renewal counsels against special GA session

News release from Presbyterians for Renewal

A few weeks ago, members of the Board of Presbyterians for Renewal learned that some General Assembly commissioners are urging their comrades to reconvene the 214th General Assembly to address what they term a "constitutional crisis." We have carefully analyzed the commissioners’ rationale and the possible outcomes of such a meeting, and we believe a called Assembly at this time would be inopportune and perhaps misunderstood.

Voices

PFR Board Speaks on Church Discipline

The Board of Directors of Presbyterians for Renewal, meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, Sept. 28, 2002, issued the following statement:

We believe in and intend to follow faithfully Jesus Christ as Lord of all, and the will of God as revealed in the Holy Scripture.

Uncategorized

Changes recommended to accommodate move to biennial General Assemblies

LOUISVILLE — With a change to biennial assemblies on the horizon for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) — the 2002 General Assembly voted for the denomination to start holding its annual policy-setting meeting every other year, beginning in 2006 — some new ground rules have to take effect.

And the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly is recommending that, when the change takes effect:

Book Reviews

Struggling with Scripture

By Walter Brueggemann, William C. Placher and Brian K. Blount
WJKP. 2002. 80 pp. Pb. $9.95. ISBN 0-664-22485-7

— review by David W. A. Taylor, Cary, N.C.

 This little book of 80 pages is an immensely useful resource for interpreting the Scripture within the cultural context of our time. These three biblical scholars of unimpeachable reputation take the Bible with utmost seriousness, yet not as fundamentalists. They insist that we must struggle with Scripture if its word is to be “a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.”

Voices

Meeting less often is not better

Following the advice of this past General Assembly, the next time a feuding family comes into my office seeking pastoral counseling, I guess I should tell them, "Meet less often!" Sounds like absurd, bad advice when spoken to a feuding family, doesn’t it? It is equally bad counsel when spoken by the GA to a denomination which is an extended, feuding family system.

Uncategorized

Victims who told their stories should be recognized as heroes says leader of inquiry

LOUISVILLE — The women who told investigators that they had been sexually abused by a Presbyterian missionary while their parents were missionaries in the Congo — and whose revelations have led the leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to say publicly that they will try to strengthen denominational policies to prevent such abuse from happening in the future — were "being asked to open a wound in front of strangers" and should be "embraced and recognized as the heroes that they are," a lawyer who led the PC(USA)'s independent committee of inquiry said Tuesday.

Uncategorized

Changes recommended in handling sexual abuse reports; cases were largely ignored for 40 years

LOUISVILLE — An independent committee investigating allegations of physical and sexual abuse involving the children of missionaries in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has determined there is "overwhelming" evidence that one charismatic, well-respected Presbyterian missionary sexually abused at least 22 girls and women over nearly a 40-year period, both in Africa and in the United States, from 1946 through 1985.

Book Reviews

The Sprituality of Men

Philip L. Culbertson, ed.
Fortress. 2002. 282 pp. Pb. $22. ISBN 0-8006-3447-0

— review by J. David Wiseman, Cary, N.C.

A story is told of several Americans traveling in Africa, who had hired a native guide to lead them up a mountain. As they climbed, the guide stopped for rest more frequently than the hikers desired. Growing impatient, one hiker finally posed the question, "Why are we stopping so often?" The wise guide responded, "We need to give our souls time to catch up with our bodies."

Editorials

Reinventing Theological Education II

As stated in this column last week, the 10 theological seminaries of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) collectively are arguably the most important set of institutions beyond the congregation, with which they have a symbiotic relationship. To the extent that the Presbyterian tradition depends on learned ministers and educated lay people, derived from a deeply ingrained commitment to serving God with the mind, the seminaries are indispensable.

Uncategorized

GAC calls for prayer, peace over war in Iraq; narrowly rejects paper on role of news service

LOUISVILLE — The General Assembly Council of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) approved a statement Saturday, Sept. 28, regarding Iraq — calling for prayer and asking national leaders "to speak in ways that encourage peace, rather than war."

It also narrowly turned down a proposal from the News Advisory Council to clarify the role of the Presbyterian News Service — a proposal that some cautioned could give denominational leaders more leeway to try to "spin" the coverage the news service provides.

Voices

Covenant Network Board Adopts Statment on Constitutional Observance

Meeting in Chicago this week, the Board of Directors of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians discussed current actions within the Presbyterian Church and adopted the following statement:

"The Covenant Network of Presbyterians is committed to working for the removal of G-6.0106b from the Book of Order.

Uncategorized

Council will apologize to victims of sexual abuse by missionaries

LOUISVILLE — A committee investigating sexual abuse that Presbyterian missionaries allegedly committed against children in Africa from 1945 to 1978 has reported back — and leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) plan to send a letter of apology to those who endured the abuse and to set up a work group to consider what steps to take next.

Uncategorized

Financial picture not rosy for PC(USA)

LOUISVILLE — The General Assembly Council's Mission Support Services Committee received an update Thursday on the financial picture of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for the year so far — and there is some cause for concern.

Receipts are down about 7 percent for the year through August, although it's too soon to tell if that picture will hold, said Joey Bailey, the PC(USA) deputy for mission support services.

Uncategorized

Council will consider statement on Iraq

LOUISVILLE — The General Assembly Council of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is considering whether to make a statement about the possibility of U.S. military action against Iraq.

The council is considering whether to make an interim statement — a formal statement the council can make on important issues between meetings of the General Assembly — or to issue a pastoral letter, to summarize General Assembly policy statements regarding Iraq, or not to say anything at all.

Voices

Some Room for Further Exploration

It is not surprising that my first reaction on reading "A Future for Our Seminaries" was to say, "Of course, that’s right; our seminaries are doing a good job." The intensive work that C. Ellis Nelson, Bob Lynn and I did (along with Larry Jones, the "outsider" who was dean of Howard University Divinity School) as consultants for part of the major study mentioned by Nelson, opened up avenues of thought that could extend over a lifetime. Here I choose only to quarrel a bit with one of his recommendations, and then to mention five areas which we need to explore further.

Voices

A Promising Point of Departure

Anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson wrote several years ago, "Men and women confronting change are never fully prepared for the demands of the moment." But "they are strengthened to meet uncertainty if they can claim a history of improvisation and a habit of reflection."

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