Seven years ago, after a year-long discernment process, a number of us started tutoring at a nearby public school. Within a year, First Presbyterian Church and Giffen Memorial Elementary School formed a partnership that extended past tutoring. We helped build playground equipment, repaired instruments and organized a special day that brought several authors and illustrators each spring to do small presentations and sign books that the children received for free. However, we always wanted to do more. About two years ago, we formed a not-for-profit, free, after-school tutoring program. The students come twice a week and each works with his or her own tutor on reading, writing and problem-solving skills for 90 minutes. The Wizard’s Wardrobe uses a creative atmosphere to encourage our students to take risks and let their imaginations soar. Our goal is that every 1st and 2nd grader who starts with us will be reading on grade level no later than third grade. – Debra Fagans, volunteer … [Read more...]
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Outpost Blog 23 hours ago
A love letter to the church of welcome and justice
This month, we invited our bloggers to write a “love letter” to the church. Here are their letters. Dear church, You aren’t perfect, but that is also why I love you. This is what gives me hope for the future: While we aren’t perfect, we are constantly changing, learning and growing. We are indeed Reformed and always reforming. We come from a history of exclusion, and now we are naming the sins and evils of the world and in our communities: racism, white supremacy, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and… continue reading... -
What's right? 23 hours ago
What’s right about Wizard’s Wardrobe in Albany, New York?
Seven years ago, after a year-long discernment process, a number of us started tutoring at a nearby public school. Within a year, First Presbyterian Church and Giffen Memorial Elementary School formed a partnership that extended past tutoring. We helped build playground equipment, repaired instruments and organized a special day that brought several authors and illustrators each spring to do small presentations and sign books that the children received for free. However, we always wanted to do more. About two years ago, we formed a not-for-profit, free, after-school tutoring program. The… continue reading... -
Outlook Reporting 1 day ago
J. Herbert Nelson encourages 2020 Vision Team to dream “a vision that is commensurate with our faith”
LOUISVILLE – J. Hebert Nelson, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), gave some advice Feb. 17 to the 2020 Vision Team. J. Herbert Nelson “Take off the brakes,” Nelson told the vision team, which is meeting in Louisville Feb. 16-18. “Say it again,” responded team member DèAnn Cunningham, a ruling elder from Charlotte. “Say it again, say it one more time.” Nelson did. “Take off the brakes,” he exhorted – advising the vision team to worry less about pleasing Presbyterians and more about casting a sense of possibility for… continue reading...
Parties in Stamford case had tried to expedite process in order to get a ruling on the merits of the case January 1, 1995 Uncategorized69 views The General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission -- in sidestepping the question of exactly how deeply a session should be required to probe into the private life of a gay elder who has acknowledged being in a committed, life-long relationship but has declined to say whether he is sexually active -- has put the question off but has not put it to rest.- Ministering with the Earth January 1, 1998 Book Reviews61 views By Mary Elizabeth MooreChalice. 1998. 226 pp. Pb. $19.99. ISBN 0-8272-2323-4 Ministering with the Earth is a quiltwork, both the on-the-ground activity and Moore's book about so ministering. Moore, professor of theology and Christian education at Claremont School of Theology, is fond of the metaphor, suitably pastoral and feminist.
- Remembered Voice: Reclaiming the Legacy of 'Neo-Orthodoxy' January 1, 1998 Book Reviews58 views By Douglas John HallWJKP. 1998. 145 pp. Pb. $18. ISBN 0-664-25772-0 It was in this order. I first read Tillich's Dynamics of Faith. Riveting. Next came The Courage to Be. Gripping. Then I went back and read the first volume of the Systematic Theology. Things began to make sense. Next came Biblical Religion and the Search for Ultimate Reality. Positive.
Rethinking evangelism January 30, 2019 Faith Matters1 comment Because many people now think evangelism means fundamentalists shouting on street corners, lots of mainline Protestant churches have backed away not only from the word but, sadly, from any meaningful practice of it.
Charlene Han Powell, executive pastor at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York, says she’s finally come to terms with the word and now wants to resurrect it in a way that mainliners can accept — not grudgingly, but enthusiastically.
Powell spoke about this recently to my home congregation in Kansas ...
Moving Forward Implementation Commission gets moving December 17, 2018 Outlook Reporting1 comment The Moving Forward Implementation Commission held its first meeting by conference call Dec. 17 – a time of introductions and presenting preliminary thoughts about what the commission is expected to do.
The 2018 General Assembly created the 12-person commission when it adopted the recommendations of the Way Forward Commission, giving the new commission the authority to take “any and all administrative actions as necessary” to implement the W...
All approved: Assembly approves recommendations from Way Forward, All Agency Review and report from Vision 2020 June 21, 2018 Outlook Reporting1 comment ST. LOUIS – With relatively little discussion and no drama, the General Assembly approved the recommendations of the Way Forward Commission and All Agency Review Committee.
While some commissioners struggled to understand the complexity of the proposals, those who have wrangled with these issues for months – and there’s been no shortage of drama there – have said they involve issues of power, control, accountability and trust.
The changes the assembly approved June 21 by a vote of 474-47 will mean governance of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation – a secular corporation the church uses to ha...
What’s right about Wizard’s Wardrobe in Albany, New York?
J. Herbert Nelson encourages 2020 Vision Team to dream “a vision that is commensurate with our faith”
LOUISVILLE – J. Hebert Nelson, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), gave some advice Feb. 17 to the 2020 Vision Team. “Take off the brakes,” Nelson told the vision team, which is meeting in Louisville Feb. 16-18. “Say it again,” responded team member DèAnn Cunningham, a ruling elder from Charlotte. “Say it again, say it one more time.” Nelson did. “Take off the brakes,” he exhorted – advising the vision team to worry less about pleasing Presbyterians and more about casting a sense of possibility for a church still being formed. “The church we are trying to become has not been invented yet by anyone,” he said. What about the report the vision team will submit to the 2020 General Assembly in Baltimore? “Understand that your report is not going to be the report that is going to totally change the church. But it can be a jump-start for how we begin to process change across the church in significant ways,” Nelson said. “So dream and have vision, and let them … [Read more...]
2020 Vision Team hopes to lead Presbyterians in redemptive, transformative change
LOUISVILLE – How can the 2020 Vision Team lead the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in living into the future – into a redemptive, transformative type of change? That’s at the heart of what the Vision Team is discussing during its Feb. 16-18 meeting in Louisville, in which the team is also considering potential revisions to its draft guiding statement (most likely smaller adjustments rather than wholesale changes), and how it could provide additional materials to help Presbyterians use the guiding statement as a tool for adaptive change. The 2018 General Assembly approved that draft guiding statement, along with this comment: “We desire to hear explicit examples of what this would look like in different contexts and how to get there,” and “we would like to hear more inclusion of grace, joy and the Great Ends of the Church.” The comment also says “we encourage the 2020 Vision Team to make the guiding statement more succinct.” Team members have some ideas they’ll try to perfect … [Read more...]
Historic United Methodist church sees ‘hopeful’ time for LGBTQ Christians
CHICAGO (RNS) — The Rev. Myron McCoy is looking for a miracle. Or maybe a few of them. McCoy, senior pastor of the historic First United Methodist Church at Chicago Temple, dreams of the day when the church, which predates the founding of Chicago, will be filled with disciples ready to transform the world. He also dreams of an end to what he called “exclusionary” language toward LGBTQ United Methodists in the denomination’s Book of Discipline. Both require divine intervention, he said in a sermon about the wedding at Cana — in which Jesus turns water into wine — during a service on a recent wintry morning in Chicago. “Believe in the miracle, and God can perform it today,” he said in the Jan. 20 sermon. McCoy soon may know if one of his prayers will be answered. Next week, United Methodists from around the world will gather in St. Louis for a special session of the church’s General Conference. United Methodists are looking to the meeting of the denomination’s … [Read more...]
PC(USA) celebrates Black History Month
Left: Lucy Craft Laney’s portrait is displayed at the Georgia State Capitol. Right: The Rev. Edler Hawkins was the first African-American male moderator of the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. (PNS) African-Americans have played a pivotal role in American church history. Many may be familiar with Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, the founders of what is now known as the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which was established in Philadelphia in 1792. Less known but equally as important to the Presbyterian denomination was the Rev. John Gloucester, who founded the First African Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia in 1807. The Presbyterian Church has a rich history of bold, courageous and gifted African-Americans who contributed and continue to contribute to the advancement of the denomination. During this celebration of Black History Month, we stop to recognize some of these leaders who made a profound impact on the Church. Gloucester was authorized … [Read more...]
On being a Virginian
Guest commentary by Heath Rada Reality time! I am a Virginian, born and bred. Whereas I have adopted North Carolina as my home (and I love North Carolina), I cannot deny my Virginia heritage. On my mother’s side of the family, our roots in Virginia go deep. On the wall of our sunroom hangs a needlepoint sampler that my Virginia-born daughter made for me, and which hints at the arrogance we Virginians feel. It reads: “To be a Virginian, either by birth, marriage, adoption, or even on one’s mother’s side is an introduction to any state in the Union, a passport to any foreign country, and a benediction from Almighty God.” A Virginian’s pride is different from the so-called pride held by people from other states. It’s not as flashy as a Texan’s —with their two-step dancing, cowboy boots, blue bonnets and rodeos. Nor is it similar to the pride of the Midwesterners —smugly affirming their self-sufficiency and their hard-nosed attitude that they are invulnerable to the weather. … [Read more...]
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