Seven months from today — July 11th — the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will have concluded in Minneapolis.
But, in a sense, the commissioners’ work in Minneapolis will simply have been prologue to the work ahead of them in their home presbyteries. Part of this work will include presenting the overtures passed at the assembly that require presbyteries’ approval for potential ratification
On Nov. 5, 2009, the Presbyterian News Service announced Project Overture. Our plan: to follow, through a series of articles, an overture from conception to the floor of the 219th General Assembly, July …
Anita Coleman didn’t set out to start a gardening ministry — it just sort of sprouted up on its own.
Coleman and a few others had been pondering the challenges of ‘doing church’ in a culture in which folks are busy and often shy away from activities that add to the information overload that plagues many. Coleman attends Irvine Presbyterian Church in the heart of Orange County, Calif., and a member of Los Ranchos Presbytery.
“We started thinking of those who don’t necessarily want to come and hang out in church, or don’t have a culture of going to …
RICHMOND, Va. — Union Theological Seminary-Presbyterian School of Christian Education — soon to be Union Presbyterian Seminary — has announced the hiring of Richard Wong as vice-president of institutional advancement. A Presbyterian elder, he joined the Union-PSCE staff on Jan. 4.
Most recently, Wong served as a nonprofit consultant and prior to that was chief executive officer for Gifts In Kind International in Alexandria, VA. In this role, he led and rebuilt the organization which, under his direction, facilitated $800 million in donations from corporations and was recognized by Forbes Magazine and Charity Navigator.
He will be responsible for …
When Minh Phuong Towner learned that her pastor at Vienna (Va.) Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Peter G. “Pete” James, was planning to use her story to illustrate the topic of happiness in a book he is writing, she was humbled and not just a little surprised.
For the Vietnam native — who in 1968 had witnessed the murder of her father and two of her siblings and later survived internment in a Communist prison camp along with her younger brother — seeing herself through “Pastor Pete’s” eyes as an embodiment of happiness would have at one time been unthinkable, but …
Memorial services will be held on both coasts this weekend for two of the brightest stars in the Presbyterian galaxy.
Services will be held at 7:00 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 9, at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Portland, Ore., for the Rev. Harold Kurtz, who as executive director of the Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship pioneered the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s global outreach to people without the gospel. Kurtz died Dec. 18 of brain cancer.
Jerry Van Marter will cover the service for PNS.
The same day at 1:00 p.m. services will be held at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City for the …
Retirement festivities will be held Jan. 9-10 for the Rev. Joanna Adams, one of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s most effective bridge-builders of understanding. She will be honored at a dinner Saturday evening and her 30 years of ministry will be celebrated during worship Sunday morning at Morningside Presbyterian Church in Atlanta.
Adams served five pastorates during her career — three in Atlanta, on in nearby Decatur, and at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago. She is a graduate of Atlanta’s Emory University and Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur.
She has served as a trustee of the Prebyterian Church …
Jann Treadwell, a Presbyterian Christian educator who has served in Grace Presbytery for more than 20 years, has been named 2010’s Educator of the Year by the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators (APCE).
The Dallas native will receive the award during APCE’s annual event, Jan. 27-30 in Nashville, Tenn.
Unlike typical Christian educators, Treadwell has no recollection of church school, never attended a vacation Bible school and shied away from church youth groups, according to an APCE press release announcing the honor.
“She feels such limitations are nothing for the God who called her into educational ministry,” the release states, …
The Board of Trustees of San Francisco Theological Seminary has elected the Rev. Laird J. Stuart — pastor of Calvary Presbyterian Church in San Francisco since 1993 — to serve as the seminary’s new interim president, effective March 1, 2010. Stuart succeeds Rev. Philip W. Butin, who served as the seminary’s president from 2002-2010.
Stuart is well known by the seminary community, having on the SFTS Board of Trustees from 1997-2006, the final two years as chair. In 41 years of ministry, he has served pastorates in Milford, Conn., Bergenfield, N.J., Grand Haven, Mich., and St. Clair, Pa.
He has held …
National Capital Presbytery has unanimously endorsed the first candidate to stand for moderator of the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The assembly will be held July 3-10 in Minneapolis.
Elder Cynthia Bolbach, 61, is a lawyer and member of First Presbyterian Church in Arlington, Va.
“I feel called to stand for Moderator to help our church — proud inheritor of the Reformed tradition — discern how best to proclaim the timeless Gospel message to a 21st century world that is multi-cultural and religiously pluralistic,” Bolbach said in a presbytery press release.
She has leadership experience in many …
Christmas is the season of giving, and in that spirit, Corydon Presbyterian Church in southern Indiana encouraged members to extend that giving outside their own families.
In fact, the church offered an incentive to make alternative giving a little more attractive.
With alternative giving, rather than buying a material gift, a donation is given to a charity in the recipient’s name.
The Mission Committee set aside $1,000 and offered to match alternative Christmas gifts to the charity of the giver’s choice up to $50. The program was announced the week before Thanksgiving and continued until the funds were used up. …