Stephen Van Kuiken, the Ohio pastor who was rebuked in April by the Permanent Judicial Commission of Cincinnati Presbytery for performing same-sex unions and who has said, as a matter of conscience, that he will not stop, has been charged with blasphemy and heresy.
Can Muslims and Christians seriously engage with each other in these troubled times in creative, nonviolent ways? I am a witness to a community of 30 Christian and Muslim scholars who in early April, just beyond the sound of rockets and big guns, gave a resounding "yes" in answer to that question. We met and talked about our sacred Scriptures and how we view and interpret them. This was the second occasion for such an international gathering.
Paul Rolf Jensen, the lawyer who has filed more than 20 disciplinary cases in the courts of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), now has filed a civil lawsuit in California against a top Presbyterian leader — suing Fahed Abu-Akel, moderator of the PC(USA)'s 214th General Assembly, for slander.
In three successive editorial series, which began late last year, titled The Real Presence, The Time Between the Times, and Renewing the Covenant, your editor has offered reflections on the state of the church, where we've been, where we are, where the Lord might be leading us. Such an effort is daunting and, perhaps, presumptuous, but has been undertaken in good faith to promote discussion about the most basic elements of faith, the church, life, the world.
Paul Rolf Jensen, the lawyer who has put in long hours over the past year filing Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) disciplinary cases, has filed another one — this time not involving ordination and homosexuality, but the theological views of a pastor trying to transfer his membership to another presbytery.
Presbyterian researchers involved in a major study of U.S. congregations have found there isn't one "silver bullet" that will make a congregation succeed. Strong congregations can be large or small, there's no single formula for what works. But they say congregations that want to become extraordinary need to develop multiple strengths — to figure out what they do best — and to intentionally focus on those things.
By Richard Avery and Donald Marsh
CSS. 2002. 180 pp. Pb. $29.95.
ISBN 0-7880-1906-6
— Review by Mary Ann Lundy, Santa Fe, N.M.
Many of us cannot remember a time when we did not know and sing what came to be a noun, "Avery-and-Marsh." "Let's do an 'Avery-and-Marsh,'" we'd say, or "I'll look in Avery-and-Marsh and see what there is for Easter." Going to national meetings and conferences meant that we could see them "do their thing" in the flesh, which meant arousing passive, stone-faced Presbyterians to move and clap and dance and, yes, sing with gust.
'Bend It Like Beckham' is this year's 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding.' It's about a girl growing up in a very ethnic family, and how she struggles to honor her roots and yet find some independence. She's not perfect, but she's likable because she's so passionate. And she tries so hard. And while she cannot bend the world to her point of view, she can at least decide what to embrace and what to refrain from embracing (Ecclesiastes 3), and in the process discover something of who she is.
There are several refreshing elements to this film for the American moviegoer. First, it does not adhere to some of the silly Hollywood rules about what is glamorous. The lead character, 'Jess' Bhamra (Parminder K. Nagra), is neither tall nor skinny nor blonde nor blue-eyed; though her friend, Jules Paxton (Keira Knightly), is all those things. What the two girls have in common is a gift for soccer. Jess has just been playing 'football' with (guy) friends in the public park near her house. Jules is playing on a women's team. When she spots Jess' skill, she invites Jess to be on the women's team, as well. The coach, Joe (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), is skeptical until he sees Jess play. And then he is ecstatic. And so is she, because she didn't realize how good she was until now.
When Thomas Daniel signed up for the religion class his senior year of college, he did it for one reason: he wanted to take a class from John Kuykendall, then president of Davidson College (N.C.). "He is a truly fascinating guy and I wanted to take a course with him," Daniel said. "If he was teaching physics, I would have taken that."
Even at Davidson College — a Presbyterian-related school — Daniel didn't know anyone who went to church.
Actually, it seems more like 'God and Generals' because there is a whole lot of Scripture quoting, praying, conversing about the mysterious will of the Almighty in a reverential tone and, on deathbeds, the literal assurance of Heaven. It's not often a Hollywood movie is so very religious. But it is also very violent.
'Gods and Generals' is the adaptation of Jeff Shaara's Civil War historical novel about the early part of the war, when the Confederates were consistently victorious. Lee and Jackson looked invincible, while the Union suffered with a series of hesitant commanders who were either intimidated, afraid to make a mistake, paralyzed into inactivity, or all three.
Because we must eat in order to live, a considerable part of our life is spent at table. Apparently, our first parents, Adam and Eve, were vegetarians (Gen. 1:30) until they took a big bite of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (2:17). In any case, food customs are deeply embedded in every culture today, and food preferences identify many ethnic groups.
This ongoing exploration of what covenant renewal would look like in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in the early years of the 21st century has followed many threads of our corporate existence, demonstrating how things have changed in the last 50 years or so, and lifting up some possibilities for collectively, intentionally and prayerfully re-envisioning our life together and the shape of our mission.
For the last 17 years it has been my privilege to work closely with, and indeed to be partially "on loan," first to the diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf, part of the Church of England, now to a diocese of the American Episcopal Church. At a recent diocesan yearly convention that I attended, there was an extended debate on (what else?) the Trinity, inclusive language, the authority of Scripture and the ordination of non-celibate homosexuals. I really couldn’t believe it — the sense of deja-vu was so strong I could taste it.
Christian education is not just about telling the stories of the Bible or delving into the meaning of a particular passage. It is not just about helping children to know they are included in the body of Christ or adults to understand the theology of the church. I believe it is also about helping each of us, whether eight or 80, to find our spiritual grounding.
In times of crisis as well as tranquility, public dissent is the conscientious conservator of democratic freedoms. As Rear Admiral Gene LaRocque, retired Navy, recently said, "Where there is no dissent, there is no democracy."
He was speaking in dissent and opposition to the "Bush Doctrine" of "exceptionalism" which has flouted the judicious wisdom of historic international principles for waging war, including the classical Christian bases of a just war.
Cincinnati Presbytery’s Judicial Commission has found minister A. Stephen Van Kuiken guilty of participating in same-sex marriage ceremony at Mount Auburn church and issued a rebuke.
The censure says he should perform marriage ceremonies "only for a man and a woman." If he performs "holy union" ceremonies for same-sex couples he is "directed to take special care to avoid any confusion of such services with Christian marriage."
Here is the simple thing that I did. I opened an envelope that contained a hospital bill. It was 19 pages long, an exact tabulation of every syringe, every test, every pill, every process that had occurred. It was the concrete, specific inventory of everything that had happened to my mother. It was the ritual of her last days, a medicinal rosary, one bead after another of failed instruments and procedures. Each one, listed here, rested now in my hand nine years after her death.
I have recently read and susequently re-read Robert Bullock's carefully crafted series on the current state of the denomination and those elements that have had an effect on our present malaise. Following this process I have also read articles in Presbyterians Today and The Layman, all dealing with elements of the same concern.
By Katherine Paterson
Dutton. 2001. 266 pp. $24.99. ISBN 0-525-46482-4
— Review by Freda Gardner, Princeton, N.J.
The subtitle could be: What Makes Katherine Tick? What are the thoughts, experiences, loves, concerns that make this author so prolific, so admired around the world; so ready to speak to and with children and to care about them with a passion that marks the decades of her life? Who are the people that called forth that passion and keep it burning today? And what of God, who continues to call Katherine Paterson to many ministries, to the use of the gifts that are hers?
Change is a human constant. In recent weeks the idea of covenant renewal in the Presbyterian Church has been discussed extensively, toward the end of suggesting an overall framework in which 21st-century American Presbyterian Christians in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) might reclaim the past and recommit to a new vision of the church and its work, that we might move beyond the paralysis which has descended upon us in recent decades.
The spring beauty of Easter is here again! On Resurrection Sunday churches everywhere will be overwhelmed with throngs. This is the day when even the faintest faith will flicker again. Some are more preoccupied with the pagan symbols of the goddess of spring — rabbits, eggs, flowers, brightly colored clothes — but they still are attracted to the one Easter object, the sign of the cross.
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Where there’s fire, hose it down! Then again, if the smoke is coming from a fireplace, let it burn. And if the smoke is coming from a refinery, it may be incinerating toxins (good!) or it may be releasing them (evacuate!). Then again, what appears to be fire may actually be steam, which could be good (a power plant) or bad (a radiator).
Where there’s smoke, who knows what to do?
LOUISVILLE - The Menaul School -- a Presbyterian-affiliated school in Albuquerque with students in grades 6-12 -- will get another chance to get back on financially solid ground, thanks to a $450,000 loan from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
LOUISVILLE - The General Assembly Council unanimously approved a budget of nearly $127 million for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for 2004 - a budget that includes $3.1 million in adjustments and the elimination of 19 positions on the denomination's national staff. Nine of those positions are vacant, but 10 people will lose their jobs.
When the denomination's budget is being cut, it's natural to look inward: to talk about what's getting the axe and what's being preserved.
But Fahed Abu-Akel, moderator of the 214th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), turned attention back to the world outside in his remarks to the General Assembly Council on April 4. Abu-Akel asked each Presbyterian to pause at noon each day to pray about the war in Iraq
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