President Obama has named top U.S. church leaders to an advisory council on faith-based programs, but the list of appointments is also drawing questions about a lack of diversity from minority faiths.
Eight recently appointed Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission personnel, along with three mission workers who are assuming new roles, attended orientation last month in preparation for their assignments.
All will depart in coming weeks for places of service around the world. They include:
Andrew Berg and his wife Margarita, who are going to Guatemala to serve as intercultural encounter facilitators with the Evangelical Center for Pastoral Studies in Central America, commonly known by its Spanish acronym, CEDEPCA. Andrew’s home church is First Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Michigan, while Margarita’s home congregation is St. James Presbyterian Church in Chicago,
Ruth Brown, …
In a different spin on the traditionally separate denominational lunches, attendees from the five partner denominations of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators annual event dined together Feb. 3.
Some churches, parishes and church schools in northern Sudan are closing due to a large movement of people to the south after the independence referendum, according to some church leaders.
The New Year’s Day massacre at a Coptic church in Egypt. Christian converts facing the death penalty in Afghanistan. Swastikas painted on a Jewish synagogue in Venezuela.
The Thoughtful Christian (TTC), an online resource center available through the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation (PPC), has launched 2011 with increased discounts on books available on its website. Discounts range from 35%–75% off the retail price. In 2010, TTC expanded into a fully developed, online marketplace, offering books in addition to its popular downloadable youth, adult, and parent studies. “We hope to provide a helpful way for people to find good books and resources at great prices,” stated Marc Lewis, President and Publisher of Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. “The Thoughtful Christian’s aim is to provide a trusted selection with an everyday low price and good service.”
This is indeed a rich time of ferment and deep discernment in the Christian Church and denominations like the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Many talk about this era as being like a wilderness experience for the church, from which we can learn the lessons of being the vibrant people God leads from exile into life. At General Assembly we heard from Phyllis Tickle, who talks about “the incrustations of an overly established Christianity” that are being, even as we speak, broken open and reformed. And the good news, Tickle says as she looks back on centuries of Christianity, is that when this happens “the faith has spread – and been spread – dramatically into new geographic and demographic areas, thereby increasing exponentially the range and depth of Christianity’s reach as a result of its time of unease and distress.”
On Feb. 2, Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) issued a statement calling on the United States to not stand in the way of the resolution submitted by Lebanon to the United Nations Security Council seeking immediate resumption of peace talks between Israel and Palestine and a halt to settlement construction in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Eastminster Presbyterian Church, in Portland, Ore., has 38 members. The average age of congregants is 80. And until recently, the church had several unused Sunday school classrooms.
The typical member of a fast-growing U.S. atheist association is a highly educated, married white male who grew up with religious parents.