More than 25 Christian, Jewish and Islamic leaders will gather in Pittsburgh just prior to the Sept. 24-25 G-20 summit of industrialized nations to press world leaders for actions — not just words — that will help hungry and poor people lift themselves out of poverty.

Representing the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) at the faith leaders gathering will be Presbyterian Hunger Program Coordinator Ruth Farrell.

The faith leaders will hold a Sept. 23 press conference, where they will voice their support for a new U.S. government initiative to reduce hunger and poverty around the world. Following the press conference they will …

ATLANTA — “Is Peace with Justice Possible in Israel/Palestine?” is the theme of an Oct. 17 conference here sponsored by Joining Hands for Justice-Atlanta/Palestine Committee and the Peacemaking Committee of the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta.

To be held at Atlanta’s Trinity Presbyterian Church, the event will feature speakers Jala Basil Andoni, Hekmat Bessiso-Naji and Ruth El Raz of Jerusalem Women Speak, a project of Partners for Peace, Christian, Muslim and Jewish: Three Women, Three Faiths, One Shared Vision; Mark Braverman, an American-Jewish writer and author of Fatal Embrace: Christians, Jews and the Search for Peace in the Holy Land; …

“Citizen journalism” and “grass roots publishing” are two terms that can now be associated with news in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Relative to the church, the terms apply to Presbyterian Neighbor News, a one-stop, online source for everything Presbyterian, said the Rev. Shane Whisler, who led a session on that site here Sept. 3 during the Synod of Lakes and Prairies’ communicators conference.

Whisler is the communications director for the Synod of the Sun.

PNNews, as Whisler calls the site, is a collection of local, regional and national news of the denomination. The site maintains a steady feed …

Some see Google as an “evil empire” and others see it as the “best personal assistant,” said the Rev. Sarah Moore-Nokes, who led a session on Google Tools here last week during the communicators conference of the Synod of Lakes and Prairies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

But Google, which began as an Internet search engine and has evolved into a company that produces a varying array of Web-based products, apparently works well for her in the personal assistant role. Moore-Nokes is associate executive presbyter of Winnebago Presbytery.

But she has what she calls an “inner geek,” adding, “Google …

The Rev. Lewis S. Mudge, a scholar and theologian whose breadth of interests and expertise enriched virtually every corner of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the global ecumenical movement, died in his sleep Friday afternoon (Sept. 11) at his home in Berkeley, Calif. He would have turned 80 on Oct. 22.

A native of Philadelphia, Mudge earned a B.A. and a Ph.D. from Princeton University and an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary. In 1958 he studied at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.

Ordained by Philadelphia Presbytery in 1955, Mudge served as Presbyterian university pastor at Princeton University for …

The dearth of Hispanic Presbyterian scholars in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s theological seminaries dominated conversations in the first meeting of a task force elected by the National Presbyterian Hispanic Caucus to address the need for systemic changes in the denomination.

The group met in Salem Presbytery in North Carolina Sept. 3-5.
It prioritized four major areas of immediate concern — immigration, theological education, institutional racial and cultural discrimination, and financial co-dependency and stewardship — and developed strategies and plans of actions addressing all four areas.

As a result of recent staff reductions at a number of PC(USA)-related seminaries two of …

No one asked me the above question when I was at the Montreal World Film Festival, but had I still been pastor of a church, I’m sure some people back home would have wondered about my spending 12 days sitting in the dark looking up at stories unfolding on the screen.

The short reason for my attending would be “To see movies.”

My main disappointment is that even with 12 days of screenings, there was time to see just 41 of the films I wanted to see. Not that all 200 festival films were of interest, but most were highly …

An ecumenical group of Reformed Christians — meeting under the auspices of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches — has issued a “message” on the ongoing global economic and environmental crisis.

The 58-member group met in Johannesburg, South Africa, from Sept. 3-7 to follow up on the Accra Confession adopted by the 24th WARC General Council in the Ghanaian capital. The confession declared that working to create a more just economy is essential to the integrity of Christian faith.

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) participants in the Johannesburg event were the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, former General Assembly stated clerk and WARC’s president; …

Next month, fans of Westminster John Knox Press’ “Feasting on the Word” series will be able to take a bite out of the latest installment.

The sixth volume will be released Oct. 1.

“Feasting on the Word” is a 12-volume lectionary commentary series covering all the Sundays in the three-year lectionary cycle. For each of a day’s four lectionary texts, readers can see essays from four perspectives — exegetical, theological, pastoral and homiletical.

The series offers “16 different ways into the text” said David Dobson, executive director of publishing and editorial for the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. …

Many Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations display strength, vitality, and openness to change despite current resource constraints.

These findings are from a fall 2008 survey of 115 PC(USA) congregations that was part of the larger Faith Communities Today 2008 (FACT 2008) survey.

Two-thirds of PC(USA) congregations (66 percent) are experimenting with different worship styles. One in six is using drums (18 percent) or visual projection equipment (15 percent) in worship.

Leaders of most congregations “strongly agree” or “somewhat agree” that their congregations are “like a close-knit family” (89 percent) and “spiritually vital and alive” (85 percent) and 86 percent say that …