 |
|
|
|
 |
| |
| |
| |
Tuesday,
July 7, 2009
Come
to this page first...
it is
the quick and easy way to miss nothing
of
All the National PC(USA) news
Something we may have overlooked? Please, tell
us |
| |
Stewardship
approaches must take cultural diversity into account
Giving and involvement are inseparable, veteran
fundraiser says
By Jerry L. Van Marter / PNS |
| |
The
Rev. James Foster Reese, who this fall will celebrate
the 60th anniversary of his ordination, told a
joint workshop of the Stewardship and Investment
Conference and the Racial Ethnic Convocation that
“we’re discovering much larger diversity
within racial ethnic groups than anyone realizes.”
He said 40 Asian
groups, countless Hispanic/Latino groups and some
500 Native American tribes have been identified
by researchers “and there’s tremendous
diversity within all those groups.” |
| |
New
president installed at Montreat Conference Center
Pete Peery, former Ashville pastor, is 16th leader
of storied center
By Kim Hayes / Montreat Conference Center |
| |
Worshipers
filled Anderson Auditorium June 14 for the installation
of the Rev. Albert G. “Pete” Peery,
Jr. as the 16th president of the Mountain Retreat
Association [Montreat Conference Center].
“I believe
it’s significant,” said Peery prior
to the service, “that the words we’ll
use are adapted from the liturgy used to install
a minister of Word and Sacrament as a pastor in
the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).”
In the service,
Peery was charged not only to be responsible for
the management of Montreat, but “as a minister
of Word and Sacrament to assure that the Word
may be rightly proclaimed and the sacraments rightly
celebrated here.”
Peery, who has
served congregations in Georgia and North Carolina
for more than 30 years, comes to Montreat Conference
Center after fourteen years as pastor of the First
Presbyterian Church of Asheville, NC. |
| |
Great
Awakener lies in Presbyterian crypt
By G. Jeffrey MacDonald / The Layman |
| |
NEWBURYPORT,
Mass. – Every year, as many as 1,000 pilgrims
journey to this seaside town from as far away
as England and South Korea, just to be near a
preacher who never says a word. Pastor Rob John
at the crypt of George Whitefield.
Their destination
is First Presbyterian “Old South” Church,
a 91-member Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation
led by Pastor Rob John. He admits he’s not
the big draw.
“They’re
not coming for worship,” Rev. John says with
a laugh. “They’re coming to see the
crypt.”
He’s referring
to the tomb of Rev. George Whitefield (pronounced
“Wit’-field”) – the “Great
Itinerant” preacher who led the First Great
Awakening in the colonial era and made exuberant,
open-air revival meetings a staple of American
religion. |
| |
| What
is the place of covenanted same-gender partnerships
in the Christian community?
– by Ray D.E.
McCalla |
| |
"Those
who wish to provide an affirmative answer to this
question... need to overcome three primary obstacles:
biblical teaching regarding marriage and sexuality,
our confessional testimony, and the continuous
practice of heterosexual marriage in Judaism and
Christianity for thousands of years, not to mention
the consensus of the universal church today..." |
| |
Presbyteries’
heavy-handed tactics undermine constitution
By Parker T. Williamson / The Layman |
| |
"Presbyteries
have become clergy union halls. Within these walls
gatekeepers let clerics in, kick clerics out,
regulate their salaries and benefits, reward those
who support the denomination and punish those
who don’t.
"It is on
the presbyteries’ turf – where ministers’
performances are assessed and their livelihoods
weighed – that the denomination has chosen
to fight for its survival. The Office of the General
Assembly’s strategy is crystal clear: Corral
congregations by having presbyteries tighten the
reins on their ministers. |
| |
PCUSA
Peacemaking Program:
Support
Stop VULTURES Fund Act |
| |
"Call
your US Representative today and ask him or her
to co-sponsor the Stop VULTURES Fund Act (HR 292\32).
On June 18th, Representatives Maxine Waters (D-CA)
and Spencer Bachus (R-AL) re-introduced , a bill
in the House of Representatives that would prevent
vulture funds from making this excessive profit
at the expense of poor countries.
'Vulture fund'
is a name given to a company that seeks to make
profit by buying up debt in default on the secondary
market for pennies on the dollar, then trying
to recover up to ten times the purchase price,
often by suing impoverished countries in U.S.
or European courts.
The Stop VULTURE
Funds Act would prevent these funds from using
US courts to collect more than 6% interest above
the amount they paid to purchase the debt. |
| |
| Presbyterians
in their local news |
|
|
Faribault
County church celebrating sesquicentennial
"The Blue Earth Post of September 9, 1897,
called the Presbyterian Church “...an architectural
poem.” New stanzas continue to be added as
the church and its congregation celebrate its
sesquicentennial..." |
| |
| Scripture
lessons for today
– from
the Lectionary |
| |
"Help,
O LORD, for there is no longer anyone who is godly;
the faithful have
disappeared from humankind.
They utter lies to each other;
with flattering
lips and a double heart they speak.
"Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned;
for I have transgressed the commandment of the
LORD and your words, because I feared the people
and obeyed their voice. Now therefore, I pray,
pardon my sin, and return with me, so that I may
worship the LORD." Samuel said to Saul, "I
will not return with you; for you have rejected
the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected
you from being king over Israel."..."
"Now as Peter went here and there among all
the believers, he came down also to the saints
living in Lydda. There he found a man named Aeneas,
who had been bedridden for eight years, for he
was paralysed. Peter said to him, "Aeneas,
Jesus Christ heals you; get up and make your bed!"
And immediately he got up. And all the residents
of Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the
Lord..."
"On the sabbath they rested according to
the commandment.
"But on the
first day of the week, at early dawn, they came
to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared.
They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,
but when they went in, they did not find the body.
While they were perplexed about this, suddenly
two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them...
the men said to them, "Why do you look for
the living among the dead? He is not here, but
has risen..." |
| |
Today
in the Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study
The
Presbytery of Baltimore – Maryland |
| |
In
Baltimore, Central Presbyterian Church has joined
with local health organizations to support those
living with HIV. Two years ago, members of the
church’s Hope Springs program partnered with
the JACQUES Initiative, a pilot program of the
University of Maryland School of Medicine, to
help HIV patients who have difficulty adhering
to life-giving medication regimens.
As HIV/AIDS awareness
grew, so did the number of volunteers eager to
serve the HIV community. Other churches soon joined
Hope Springs, which now provides more than one
hundred volunteers who support HIV-partnership
programs such as those that help ex-convicts reenter
Baltimore’s workforce or villagers in Malawi
build a clinic. |
| |
|
|
| |
|
News of all other churches.
in the USA and worldwide.
and their interaction with
the world around them.
Included: opinions, resources
|
|
Voices
from the entire spectrum
Therefore:
Always something to like,
always something to dislike,
always something to ponder...
|
|
| |
Encyclical
Caritas in Veritate released
Pope
proposes a 'Christian humanism' for the global
economy
New encyclical on the economy offers something
for both the political left and right to cheer…
and something to be grumpy about
By John L Allen Jr / National Catholic Reporter
|
| |
"Blending
a call for increased aid to developing nations,
support for global governance with “real
teeth,” alarm at the “unregulated exploitation”
of the environment, and staunch opposition to
population control programs, Pope Benedict XVI
today sketched what he called a “Christian
humanism” for the globalized age in his long-awaited
social encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (“Charity
in Truth”)...
“Liberals
will likely applaud Benedict’s call for robust
government intervention in the economy and his
endorsement of labor unions, while conservatives
will appreciate his unyielding opposition to abortion,
birth control and gay marriage, insisting that
such policies are not only morally flawed but
poor economic strategy...
"Benedict
says the church does not have "technical
solutions to offer," but nonetheless issues
a slew of specific recommendations...
One of them: "Reform
of the United Nations and international institutions
of economics and finance, in order to promote
“a true world political authority... with
real teeth,” though one informed by the principle
of subsidiarity – meaning respect for the
liberty of individuals, families, and civil society..."
"Underlying
his specific positions, Benedict argues for a
view of the human person founded on faith in God
and open to spiritual meaning, as opposed to “an
empiricist and sceptical view of life.”...
"For the first
time in a social encyclical, a pope argues that
current demographic trends – in particular,
population declines and rapid aging in parts of
the developed world, especially Europe and Japan
– illustrate the wisdom of Catholic sexual
morality..."
Related: The
English text of the 30,000 word encyclical Caritas
in Veritate |
| |
| Malaysia:
Court set to rule on use of ‘Allah’
among non-Muslims Judges to determine
whether Malaysians of other faiths can use the
Arabic word. |
| |
(Compass
direct News) – With the Kuala Lumpur High
Court in Malaysia scheduled to determine the legality
of the word “Allah” in non-Muslim literature
tomorrow, what is at stake goes beyond the sanctioned
name for God among non-Muslims in the majority-Muslim
nation.
Such a limit on
free speech in Malaysia is especially biting for
Muslim converts to Christianity; already the Malaysian
government does not recognize their conversions
and marriages and still considers their offspring
to be legally Muslim. With non-Muslims increasingly
feeling the sting of discrimination and Muslim
elites feeling a need to assert a national Islamic
identity, the skirmish over “Allah”
is clearly part of a greater cultural war.
Malaysian authorities
and Malaysia’s Roman Catholic Church have
continued to lock horns over use of the word “Allah”
in the Malay-language edition of the Herald, the
church’s newspaper, as they await the ruling.
The newspaper had been allowed to use the term
until a final court decision, but the Kuala Lumpur
High Court on May 30 overturned that brief reprieve.
The Catholic newspaper
has provided a panoply of historical uses of “Allah”
among Christians in Malaysia. The Rev. Lawrence
Andrew, editor of the Herald, quotes examples
from a Malay-Latin dictionary dated 1631, and
the Dutch-Malay Dictionary of 1650 lists “Allah”
as the vernacular translation for God.
According to church
sources, the Malay term for “God,” Tuhan,
came into vogue only after deadly May 13, 1969
communal riots as part of a national unity campaign. |
| |
World's
oldest Christian Bible digitized
By Nardine Saad / AP |
| |
The
surviving pages of the world's oldest Christian
Bible have been reunited – digitally. The
early work known as the Codex Sinaiticus has been
housed in four separate locations across the world
for more than 150 years. But starting Monday,
it became available for perusal on the Web at
http://www.codexsinaiticus.org
so scholars and other readers can get a closer
look at what the British Library calls a "unique
treasure."
As it survives
today, Codex Sinaiticus comprises just over 400
large leaves of prepared animal skin, each of
which measures 15 inches by 13.5 inches (380 millimeters
by 345 millimeters). It is the oldest book that
contains a complete New Testament and is only
missing parts of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha.
The 4th-century
book, written in Greek, has been digitally reunited
in a project involving groups from Britain, Germany,
Russia and Egypt, which each possessed parts of
the 1,600-year-old manuscript. |
| |
| Israeli
archaeologists discover ancient quarry
/ AP |
| |
Israeli
archaeologists have uncovered an ancient quarry
where they believe King Herod extracted stones
for the construction of the Jewish Temple 2,000
years ago, the Israel Antiquities Authority said
Monday. The archaeologists believe the 1,000-square-foot
(100-square-meter) quarry was part of a much larger
network of quarries used by Herod in the city.
The biggest stones
extracted from the quarry would have measured
three yards (meters) long, two yards (meters)
across, and two yards (meters) high.
The archaeologists
said the size of the stones indicates they could
have been used in the construction of the Temple
compound, including the Western Wall, a retaining
wall that remains intact and is a Jewish shrine. |
| |
| Dissident
Anglicans launch protest movement against Church
of England liberalism – by
Riazat Butt / The Guardian |
| |
Thousands
of Anglicans will gather in London tomorrow to
support the launch of a UK movement opposing liberalism
in the Church of England, with critics claiming
it will undermine the church and the authority
of the archbishop of Canterbury.
The Fellowship
of Confessing Anglicans (FCA), which counts five
homegrown bishops among its backers, is aimed
at congregations and clergy unhappy with the Church
of England's position on the blessing of same-sex
unions, the ordination of women and homosexuals
as priests.
One of the English
churchmen supporting the FCA is Michael Nazir-Ali,
bishop of Rochester, who continues to draw criticism
for his views on homosexuality.
The other danger to
Christians and the Church of England was "syncretism"
– the attempted reconciliation of opposing
principles or beliefs, he said. |
| |
| At
meeting, NEA declines to remain neutral on abortion
/ BP |
| |
SAN
DIEGO – The National Education Association,
the nation's largest labor union, voted July 5
to reject a proposal officially to remain neutral
on the issues of abortion and family planning.
Also during its
annual meeting in San Diego July 1-6, the NEA
went on record as supporting laws legalizing civil
unions and "gay marriage" – it
said either are acceptable – and it backed
efforts to repeal federal legislation that "discriminates"
against same-sex couples, which presumably could
target the Defense of Marriage Amendment. |
| |
Christian
educators group stands up to 'Goliath' ACLU
By Eric Young / Christian Post |
| |
Christian
Educators Association International (CEAI), which
has filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit filed
earlier this year by the ACLU against a Florida
county school district, says it is the “David”
in its battle for religious freedom and that the
ACLU is the “Goliath.”
“The ACLU
is engaged in a well-financed, systematic campaign
to intimidate Christian educators across the nation,”
said CEAI Executive Director Finn Laursen on Monday.
“We feel this
case is so important that we must take a stand,”
Laursen added.
Last week, Christian
legal group Liberty Counsel filed the motion on
behalf of CEAI, insisting that an overly broad
consent order against the Santa Rosa County School
District essentially bans all employees from engaging
in prayer or religious activities, whether before,
during, or after school hours.
“Not only
does the ACLU want to strip public school employees
of their rights to free speech while working,
the ACLU is now arguing that they lose their rights
after work and off campus,” stated Mathew
D. Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and dean
of Liberty University School of Law. |
| |
When
it comes to the IRS, conservatives fight back
By Tiffany Stanley / RNS |
| |
WASHINGTON—If
there is a wall separating church and state in
America, it’s hard to imagine the Rev. Barry
Lynn and Mathew Staver ever living on the same
side.
However, their
latest feud has them agreeing on one activity:
reporting each other to the Internal Revenue Service.
Both the church-state
watchdog Americans United (AU) and the Christian
conservative Liberty Counsel are pointing fingers
at each other, calling on the IRS to investigate
the other’s violations of tax laws.
After Americans
United submitted an IRS complaint that the Jerry
Falwell-founded Liberty University was violating
its tax-exempt status by “essentially making
an in-kind contribution to the Republican Party”
when it banned a student Democrats club, the school’s
legal arm, Liberty Counsel, decided to fight fire
with fire.
Liberty Counsel
declared that AU... is guilty of the same partisanship
it routinely criticizes – turning a blind
eye to left-leaning churches that endorse Democrats,
but watching conservative churches like a hawk. |
| |
LDS
church seeks to broaden its image
By Peggy Fletcher Stack / The Salt Lake Tribune |
| |
"...More
than half the church's nearly 14 million members,
roughly a third of its 50,000 missionaries and
most of its temples are outside U.S. borders.
The faith's unique scripture, The Book of Mormon,
has been translated into more than 100 languages,
missionaries from abroad dominate the tour-guide
roster at Salt Lake City's Temple Square, and
many articles in its international magazine are
produced by members from around the world. More
and more of the faith's second and third tier
of authorities hail from other countries. Even
the governing First Presidency includes a German,
Dieter F. Uchtdorf.
"Mormons observe
a Friday Sabbath in Middle Eastern countries and
experiment with shortened services in South America.
Spanish soon may become the faith's most common
language.
Still, it isn't
easy to untangle America from Mormonism. It is,
after all, embedded in the theology.
In The Book of
Mormon, the Americas make up the promised land.
Mormons consider the United States' founding,
Constitution and form of government to be blessed
by God. And its global headquarters is in the
western United States. The Garden of Eden, Mormons
believe, was in Missouri, and Jesus will return
to reign in the "New Jerusalem" there. |
| |
So
much for 'energy independence'
By Robert Bryce / The Wall Street Journal |
| |
"...Mr.
Obama has been pro-ethanol and anti-oil for years.
But he and his allies on Capitol Hill should understand
that removing drilling incentives will mean less
drilling, which will mean less domestic production
and more imports of both oil and natural gas.
"That's hardly
a recipe for "energy independence."
Note: It is our impression that the kind
of arguments put forward in this article are generally
at best underreported if not often missing in
media reports on attempts to achieve energy independence,
and are therefore given here for the purpose of
providing some balance to the (probably one-sided)
information our readers can be safely assumed
to already have on the subject without us having
to tell them again.– Ed. |
| |
| Defending
truth – by
R.R. Reno / First Things |
| |
"Fr.
Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. (1877–1964), was
the twentieth-century Catholic theologian whose
outlook and intellectual projects epitomized the
confident intransigence of the pre-Vatican II
Church. Professor of theology at the Angelicum
in Rome for many decades, Garrigou-Lagrange taught
Aristotle and St. Thomas to many generations of
seminarians. As a consultant to the Holy Office,
he played an important role in the intellectual
politics of mid-century Catholicism. His reputation
was clear: hardnosed about truth and in favor
of the use of church authority in its defense.
"In recent
decades, Garrigou and the Catholic sensibility
he embodied has been out of style, very out of
style. Richard McCormick, Roger Haight, Elizabeth
Johnson, Monica Hellwig, Charles Curran, Gregory
Baum, David Tracy, and other post-Vatican II theologians
emerged as the standard bearers for what they
hoped would be a new church, a new spirit, and
a new age. They wanted to be flexible and pluralistic
when it came to truth, and they were suspicious
when it came to authority, especially church authority.
"Time has
passed. The young progressives have aged and grayed.
Critical theology became contextual theology,
which turns out to be progressive political platitudes
lightly seasoned with pious phrases. For the rising
generation, the old, supposed authoritarian and
discredited tradition so roundly denounced by
the liberals (who have their own authoritarian
tendencies) has begun to seem relevant, even attractive..." |
| |
Gay
issues atop Episcopalians' agenda
By Julia Duin / The Washington Times
|
| |
Blessings
of same-sex marriage and removal of an informal
ban on gay bishops are expected to be the top
items at the upcoming 10-day meeting of the Episcopal
General Convention, which starts Wednesday in
Anaheim, Calif. |
| |
'I
really believe God was in there with me'
Metro crash survivor says his long reliance on
prayer saw him through
By William Wan / The Washington Post |
| |
At
6 feet tall and 240 pounds of muscle, Daryl Smith
Jr. cuts an imposing figure. It was that brawny
build many passengers recalled after last week's
deadly Metro train crash.
Survivors from
the first car of the colliding train – the
one that ended up half-demolished – recalled
a big man who smashed his way through the backdoor
and helped fellow passengers escape.
As investigators
have looked for clues to the crash's cause, Smith,
who is 19, has been searching his memory and pondering
his faith, trying to find meaning in the wreckage.
Smith, who comes
from a deeply religious family, said he felt God's
presence amid the crash. He doesn't understand
why the crash happened, but he said that he believes
God intended for him to be there and that prayer
helped him survive. |
| |
| SAT-7
KIDS' new mini “Letter and a Verse”
program begins production |
| |
Early
reading books used in many western schools years
ago were often called “primers” and
commonly utilized Bible stories to teach letters.
For example: “A” was for “Adam,”
“B” was for “Babylon,” etc.
These kinds of books are no longer used in most
schools, but SAT-7 KIDS is using the format to
teach young viewers basic Arabic letters and Bible
verses at the same time! The 28, five-minute spots
are being produced for SAT-7 KIDS by Blooming
Productions in Jordan and will begin airing this
summer.
Sat-7: "Christian
Satellite Television by and for the People of
the Middle East and North Africa."
|
| |
A
whole good world outside
Opening our blinds to the prevailing wonder of
creation.
By Philip Yancey / Christianity Today |
| |
"...
emerged from childhood with a distorted image
of God: a frowning Supercop looking to squash
anyone who might be having a good time. I have
since come to know God as a whimsical artist who
fills the world with creatures like the porcupine
and skunk and warthog, who lavishes the world
with wildflowers and tropical fish more beautiful
than any design on display in an art museum..." |
| |
| Best
of It: Conclusion (Part 1) – Blog
series by Michael Kruse |
| |
Today
we begin the review of the conclusion to Making
the Best of It, in which John Stackhouse pulls
all the pieces together.
Stackhouse reminds
us that Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s driving question
was, “Who is Jesus Christ, for us, today?”
Stackhouse writes:
"I have then
posed the complementary question: Who are we,
for Jesus Christ today? What sort of person
am I, and what sort am I to be, for Jesus Christ,
today? What sort of family, or congregation are
we Christians, and what are we to be, for Jesus
Christ today."
"...We must
participate in government where we have the freedom
to do so as part of answering the cultural mandate.
I think the line comes when total allegiance to,
and worship of, the state is mandated for participation." |
| |
Missional
and formational in John 15, Part 1
Blog series by Mark D. Roberts |
| |
"Today,
I want to examine a text in the Gospel of John
that is profoundly missional and formational.
It shows that you can’t have one without
the other. Moreover, this passage reveals crucial
elements of what it means to be missional and
formational disciples of Jesus..." |
| |
| PCA
posts first-ever decline – by
G. Jeffrey MacDonald / RNS |
| |
The
Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) lost members
last year for the first time in its 37-year history,
according to a new report from the denomination.
The PCA, a conservative
evangelical denomination that prioritizes church
growth to save souls, saw membership decline from
345,582 in 2007 to 340,852 in 2008.
Newly elected moderator
Brad Bradley urged every PCA congregation to plant
at least one new church by 2020 in a bid to grow
the denomination's ranks. |
| |
Hungary
remembers opening of Iron Curtain with mixed feelings
By Stephen Brown / ENI |
| |
BUDAPEST
— Hungary has marked the 20th anniversary
of a symbolic opening of the Iron Curtain, which
once separated it from neighboring Austria, amid
warnings from churches that Europe remains divided.
“We, here
in Eastern Europe feel that in this region and
in this culture we need to run more, we need to
worry more… than in the northern or western
part of our continent,” said the Rev. Marianna
Szabó-Mátrai, deputy bishop of the
southern district of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in Hungary.
Szabó-Mátrai
was addressing a June 26-29 Lutheran World Federation
consultation in Budapest on “Church and State
in Societies in Transformation,” 20 years
after the end of communism in 1989.
Between 2004 and
2007 most central and eastern European countries
had joined the European Union. |
| |
| Letters
from readers – email
us |
|
•
|
Karl
Landstrom "I note that the Rev.
Cowling, in his letter of July 6, expresses
an attitude of curiosity about the famous remark
in the Westminster Confession of Faith about government
waging war "upon just and necessary occasions."
Of curiosity, not of outright disavowal or rejection..." |
|
|
|
|
Copyright © 2009 CHURCHandWORLD.com Inc.
|
|
|
|
