A New York minister will soon fill the Obama administration's long-vacant position to oversee international religious freedom after the Senate voted to confirm the Rev. Suzan Johnson Cook for the post.
The Office of Financial Aid for Studies announced today a new program designed to forgive loans made to seminary graduates who are serving in part-time or temporary pastoral positions in Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations of 150 members or less.
This program was developed by the General Assembly Mission Council to incentivize service to hard-to-call churches, provide relief to pastors burdened with educational debt, and to complement the Board of Pensions' Seminary Debt Assistance program, seeking especially to serve applicants who are not eligible for that program.
“In the changing landscape of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), about half of our over 10,000 PC(USA) congregations have 100 or fewer members,” said the Rev. Dr. Marcia Clark Myers, director of the Office of Vocation, which includes the work of Financial Aid for Studies. “As today’s seminary graduates answer God’s call to serve in small towns, inner city neighborhoods, and a host of diverse settings, a tentmaking ministry may be their model of choice. This new program will provide financial assistance for those who offer themselves for such part-time service, taking bold risks to begin new bridge-building ministries through which they will lead congregations and serve their communities in some other employment.”
Led into Caldwell Chapel by scores of academic, church and institutional leaders, the Rev. Michael Jinkins was inaugurated and installed today (April 15) as the ninth president of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary (LPTS). He will also serve as professor of theology.
Yenwith (Yen) Whitney, a longtime Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission worker in this country and overseas, died April 12 in Sarasota, FL, after a long illness. He was 86.
When Ethiopian immigrant Dabas Chekol, 31, sits next to his father, Gretaet, at the Seder table on the evening of April 18, it will be the first time father and son celebrate the Jewish holiday of Passover together.
On the second night of Passover (April 20), Rabbi Harold White will lead a traditional seder dinner with matzoh and bitter herbs and all the trimmings. Five days later, he’ll deliver the sermon on Easter Sunday.
The Rev. Gregory A. Love, associate professor of systematic theology at San Francisco Theological Seminary, has been named winner of the 2011 Angell Award by the Presbyterian Writers Guild (PWG).
The award is given by the PWG each year for the best first book published the previous calendar year by a Presbyterian writer. The award was established in 1996 by an endowment from the late Jim Angell.
Love’s book ― Love, Violence, and the Cross: How the Nonviolent God Saves Us through the Cross of Christ ― was chosen from among 19 entries published in 2010. It was published by Cascade Books/Wipf and Stock.
“The central theme of this book is to articulate an alternative to the prevalent ‘penal substitutionary atonement’ interpretation of the crucifixion,” the Angell Award judges stated. “It presents a competent challenge to substitutionary atonement, a reasonable presentation of two modern theological alternatives, and a fair, good effort to create an alternative view of the crucifixion with the framework of Christian orthodoxy.”
In 2011, the Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confession in Brazil marks 50 years of continuous mission among the indigenous peoples of Brazil.
Almost all U.S. churches witnessed a change in the financial giving they received in 2010 compared to 2009, with smaller churches feeling the squeeze but larger churches faring relatively better, according to a new report.
When one considers the current political climate, whether within the United States or around the world, ‘forgiveness’ might not be the first word that comes to mind. But forgiveness, said the Rev. Donald Shriver Jr., an ethicist and former president of Union Theological Seminary, is exactly what’s needed.