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Due
to a medical condition called transient
global amnesia,
your
editor ended up in a university hospital
for tests. He is back to normal, and plans to
post the
issue for Thursday, July 16, 2009 later today.
We apologize for not posting an issue for July
15.
|
Tuesday,
July 14, 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 |
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| Racism,
human trafficking, other issues addressed by Presbyterian
Women – by
Leslie Scanlon / The Presbyterian Outlook |
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LOUISVILLE
– Educating folks about key issues is a part
of the Presbyterian Women’s mission. So when
members get a chance, they talk – about hunger,
racism, tainted water, AIDS, poverty, the many
forces that keep women discouraged and oppressed. |
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Calling
for a ministry of meddlin' – Plenary
speaker examines call of community at Presbyterian
Women Churchwide Gathering
By Beth Newberry / PNS |
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LOUISVILLE
- “The good news of the gospel is that it
calls us to a ministry of meddlin,’”
said Margaret Aymer as she began her sermon during
Presbyterian Women’s Churchwide Gathering
July 12.
During the plenary
session themed “Wonder of Community,”
Aymer reinterpreted the Southern expression, “Preacher,
you’ve left off preachin’ and taken
to meddlin’” in the context of Mark
2:1–12.
Related: Choosing
Life – by Carol Gruber / PNS
In keeping with Sunday evening’s theme
– “Wonder of Creation” – at
the Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian Women,
Barbara Rossing spoke of the enchantment of waking
to the song of a bird, gazing at a waterfall or
watching a child discover a new creature.
But is all well
with the world we cherish?...
Rossing reminded
the crowd that “choosing life” means
living in a more sustainable way. |
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Seeing
the “dazzling theater”
Calvin Jubilee speaker kicks off conference celebrating
500th birthday
By Jerry L. Van Marter / PNS |
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MONTREAT,
NC — John Calvin, credited as the father
of Reformed tradition, said that the glory of
God is unfathomable, but its evidence is everywhere,
impossible to miss, a leading Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.) theologian said here July 8.
This “dazzling
theater” of the world was the focus of the
opening lecture of the Calvin Jubilee here, celebrating
Calvin’s 500th birthday.
Cynthia Rigby,
W.C. Brown Professor of Theology at Austin Presbyterian
Theological Seminary, encouraged attendees to
consider the setting of Montreat Conference Center
when thinking about the wonder of God’s work. |
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| Letters
from PCUSA missionaries and Young Adult Volunteers |
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Some
18 letters received in July have been posted recently. |
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| Scripture
lessons for today
– from
the Lectionary |
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As
a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs
for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living
God.
"Saul spoke to his son Jonathan and to all
his servants about killing David. But Saul's son
Jonathan took great delight in David. Jonathan
told David, "My father Saul is trying to
kill you; therefore be on guard tomorrow morning..."
"About that time King Herod laid violent
hands upon some who belonged to the church. He
had James, the brother of John, killed with the
sword. After he saw that it pleased the Jews,
he proceeded to arrest Peter also..."
When he returned to Capernaum after some days,
it was reported that he was at home. So many gathered
around that there was no longer room for them,
not even in front of the door; and he was speaking
the word to them. |
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Today
in the Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study
New
Castle Presbytery – Delaware,
Maryland |
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"Part
of the mission and ministry of the New Castle
Presbytery has been to respond to the needs of
those greatly impacted by hurricanes and other
natural disasters, especially those affected by
Hurricane Katrina. Together with the presbyteries
of Baltimore and National Capital, New Castle
Presbytery now employs a presbytery disaster recovery
coordinator, Bob Schminkey..." |
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News of all other churches.
in the USA and worldwide.
and their interaction with
the world around them.
Included: opinions, resources
|
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Voices
from the entire spectrum
Therefore:
Always something to like,
always something to dislike,
always something to ponder...
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Seventh
church bombed in Iraq within 48 hours
By Robert Williams / Christian Post |
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A
Chaldean Christian church in Iraq was bombed Monday,
injuring three children in the latest violent
act against a Christian house of worship, Iraqi
officials said.
An Iraqi Interior
Ministry official said Monday's bombing, the seventh
since Saturday; occurred when a car bomb exploded
and damaged the church in Mosul. |
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| Bible
bashed: Kids vow Good Book 'irrelevant'
/ SKY News |
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Only
one in 20 Brits can list all Ten Commandments
and 16% cannot name any, a damning study of modern-day
knowledge of the Bible has found.
The National Biblical
Literacy Survey 2009 also revealed that 40% did
not know that the tradition of giving Christmas
gifts came from the story of the Wise Men bringing
gold, frankincense and myrrh to the baby Jesus.
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Unite
to defend ‘moral values’ Russian Patriarch
urges Orthodox
By Sophia Kishkovsky / ENI |
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MOSCOW
– Patriarch Kirill I of Russia has paid his
first visit to Istanbul since his enthronement
as leader of the largest Orthodox church in the
world.
In Turkey, he held
talks with Patriarch Bartholomeos of Constantinople
aimed at overcoming post-Soviet-era tensions that
have divided the two Orthodox churches.
The Church of Constantinople,
as the city of Istanbul was once called, is much
smaller than the Russian church but many regard
it as the historic seat of Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
In Istanbul, Patriarch
Kirill said the two churches should unite to bear
witness in the modern world. |
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Episcopal
Church to lift ban on gay bishops
By Daniel Burke / RNS |
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The
Episcopal Church's House of Bishops voted late
Monday to allow gay and lesbian bishops in the
church, essentially lifting a de facto ban in
place since 2006. The House of Bishops approved
the resolution, called D025 (text here), by a
two-to-one margin just one day after a similiar
resolution garnered the votes of two-thirds of
the 800 delegates in the the House of Deputies.
In the Episcopal Church's bi-cameral system, resolutions
need approval by majorities in both houses.
Monday's move takes
the Episcopal Church one step closer to lifting
the ban. The bishops made amendments to the resolution
that will require approval by the House of Deputies,
but none of the changes are thought to be deal-breakers.
The House of Deputies could take up the amended
resolution as soon as Tuesday.significant part
of the Church in North America." |
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| Southern
Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
opposes Sotomayor nomination, says she will 'redefine
the law' / BP |
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As
the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee began considering
Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court
Monday, the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious
Liberty Commission announced its opposition, saying
she is an "unpredictable wildcard" who
will work to "redefine the law."
The commission
announced its position in an e-mail alert from
its president, Richard Land, that linked to detailed
information about the nominee.
" "Sonia
Sotomayor’s record reveals that she is perfectly
willing to lift the blindfold of justice to achieve
her desired result. She is a judge with a terribly
flawed view of the judicial system at best or
a judge who simply doesn’t care what the
law says at worst..." |
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| Lay
Catholic group fears demise amid budget woes
/ AP |
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BOSTON
– A lay Catholic group founded in the worst
days of the church's clergy sex abuse scandal
said Monday it may be forced to cease operations
because of a downturn in donations.
Leaders of Voice
of the Faithful sent out a fundraising letter
Monday to members saying it is "at the crossroads
of financial survival" and needs $60,000
by the end of this month.
Voice of the Faithful
was founded in 2002 during the clergy sex abuse
crisis with the mission of giving lay people a
greater role in the Catholic Church. The group's
long-standing goals remain helping victims of
clergy sex abuse, supporting priests of integrity
and increasing the role of laity by having more
say in financial management of dioceses.
The group's membership
grew to about 35,000, but it has struggled in
recent years as attention to the sex abuse crisis
has faded. |
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Modern
immaturity
Why
it’s okay for twenty-eight-year-olds to play
Halo 3.
By Doron Taussig / Washington Monthly |
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A
lot of people seem to be worried about me these
days. Well, not me specifically, but my generation,
and my demographic: twenty- and thirtysomething
middle-class men. In a January essay in City Journal,
editor Kay Hymowitz dubbed us "child-men,"
and said that we’re "not very promising
husbands and fathers."... this past May,
A. O. Scott of the New York Times theorized that
in today’s America, "a man is, at last,
a triumphant boy, with access to money, sex and
freedom but without the sad grown-up ballast of
duty and compromise." My generation, these
critics say, have failed to make, or even acknowledge,
their passage into adulthood, choosing instead
to live in a state of perpetual teendom...
Men
to Boys: The Making of Modern Immaturity
, a 328-page, heavily endnoted attempt by
a professor of history at Pennsylvania State University
named Gary Cross, is an attempt to explain how,
historically, today’s young man came to be...
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When
basketball meets 'social justice'
By Thomas Sowell |
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"Sometimes,
when I hear about "disparities" and
"inequities," I think of a disparity
that applied directly to me – the disparity
in basketball ability between myself and Michael
Jordan...
"Most discussions
of "disparities" and "inequities"
are a prelude to coming up with some "solution"
the government can impose, winning politicians
some votes in the process. How could the disparity
between Michael Jordan and me be solved?..." |
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A
religious scientist? Dr. Francis Collins picked
for NIH
By Chuck Colson |
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"It
was good news when I picked up the New York
Times and read that a good friend of mine,
Francis Collins, was picked by President Obama
to become the head of the National Institutes
of Health (NIH)...
"But as I
read the article, my delight turned to dismay.
After citing Collins’s significant achievements,
the Times darkly warned, “But praise
for Dr. Collins was not universal or entirely
enthusiastic.”
"The chief
reason for this – hold on to your hats, folks
– is that Collins has (gasp) publicly “embraced
religion.”
"The Times
reports that he has even written a book entitled
The
Language of God .
Scandalous! Even worse, he has, quote, “given
many talks and interviews in which he described
his conversion to Christianity as a 27-year-old
medical student.”
And the Times
warns its readers, “Religion and genetic
research have long had a fraught relationship,
and some in the field complain about what they
see as Dr. Collins’s evangelism.”
"This is ignorance
and bias at its worst..." |
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Not
one sparrow – Editorial
/ Christianity Today
We can be 'speciesists' and show compassion for
animals. |
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"...we
misstep when we brush off animal cruelty with
nonchalance. Showing animal compassion does not
de facto assign animals the same worth as humans.
It merely acknowledges that animals have worth
and dignity – something plainly assumed in
biblical passages like Exodus 21-22:14 and Deuteronomy
25, which outline upright ways to handle livestock,
and Proverbs 12:10, which praises the righteous
man who "cares for the needs of his animal."...
And while Luke 12:6's five sparrows sold for two
cents usually refer to God's sovereign care for
us in our daily lives, it's remarkable that those
five sparrows aren't forgotten by God, but are
part of his sovereign care as well.
"Instead of
leading us down dangerous paths toward secular
humanism, animal compassion becomes part of our
privileged role as custodians of the creatures
in which God delights...
"The most
famous evangelical animal activist, William Wilberforce,
publicly opposed bull-baiting (a spectator sport
where dogs attack bulls) and co-founded the first
animal welfare group out of the same vision for
Christ's kingdom that led him to support public
Sabbath observance, fund evangelism to Indians,
and work to overthrow the British slave trade,
among countless other initiatives..." |
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| Best
of It: Final thoughts – by
Michael Kruse |
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We
have come to the end of our discussion of John
Stackhouse’s Making the Best of It: Following
Christ in the Real World. I’ve read this
book three times now. Here are some reasons why
this book has been so important to me. |
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| Letters
from readers – email
us |
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