Top leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have called on the Iranian government to release the Rev. Yousef Nadarkhani, a 33 year-old minister of the Church of Iran and pastor of a 400-member congregation in the city of Rasht, who was sentenced to death in November 2010 by a state court for apostasy (abandonment of a religion) and evangelizing Muslims.
The Rev. Neal D. Presa, pastor of Middlesex (NJ) Presbyterian Church has been endorsed by the Presbytery of Elizabeth in New Jersey as the first candidate for moderator of the 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
The assembly will be held June 30-July 7, 2012 in Pittsburgh.
“We are proud to present Dr. Presa as a candidate for moderator of the General Assembly. He is the first person to be nominated by Elizabeth Presbytery for this office in its nearly 200-year history,” said the Rev. Greg Albert, interim executive presbyter. “He is an exceptional pastor, leader, and theologian. I can’t imagine anyone better qualified.”
Eleven international peacemakers from different countries around the world will visit congregations and presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) from Sept. 23-Oct. 18.
They will share their stories about church-based ministries in their countries that seek peace justice and pursue peace in the name of Jesus Christ. This year’s international peacemakers come from Bangladesh, Egypt, Guatemala, India, Iraq, Israel/Palestine, Jordan, Madagascar, Mexico, Russia and Sudan.
The International Peacemaker program is sponsored by the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program.
The role of the diverse U.S. faith community in debates about the future of the United States is essentially unsettled right now due to partisan politics, says a prominent broadcast journalist and former White House communications director.
Speaking Sept. 28 to members of the National Council of Churches Communication Commission, George Stephanopoulos of ABC News said that the Christian religious right is only one strand of the larger Tea Party movement, a conservative movement that has opposed many of the policies of the administration of President Barack Obama.
White evangelicals and Tea Party members are less likely to believe in evolution and climate change than most Americans, a finding that could pose a particular problem for Republican presidential hopefuls.
A new poll released Sept. 22 also showed that a majority of Americans (57 percent) believes in evolution, and an even larger majority (69 percent) believes in climate change ― though many still disagree that the phenomenon is based on human activity.
But most Americans do not insist that their presidential candidates share their views on these issues, nor do they believe scientists have come to a consensus on them, according to the poll conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute in partnership with Religion News Service.
Eleven international peacemakers from different countries around the world will visit congregations and presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) from Sept. 23-Oct. 18.
They will share their stories about church-based ministries in their countries that seek peace justice and pursue peace in the name of Jesus Christ. This year’s international peacemakers come from Bangladesh, Egypt, Guatemala, India, Iraq, Israel/Palestine, Jordan, Madagascar, Mexico, Russia and Sudan.
The International Peacemaker program is sponsored by the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program.
The saying goes that when God closes a door, he opens a window.
So when the Borders bookstore chain ― the nation’s second-largest ― finishes closing all of its stores this month, Christian retailers see a window of opportunity in the death of a mega-competitor that once threatened to put them out of business.
With 70 percent of Christian retailers reporting flat or declining sales last year, and overall sales dropping 3 percent according to the Christian retail association CBA, proactive Christian booksellers, marketing agencies and the 1,200-member CBA are taking any opportunities they can.
To mark Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Germany later this month, an exhibition in Dresden has reunited two of the Renaissance’s most important Madonna and Child paintings for the first time in almost 500 years.
Raphael, a key figure in Renaissance art, completed the Madonna di Foligno (named after the Italian town of Foligno, where it resided for two centuries) in 1512. The artist was commissioned by Pope Julius II to create the Sistine Madonna in the same year. (It hung in the monastery of San Sisto, in Piacenza.) The two altarpieces are thought to have stood side-by-side in Raphael’s workshop.
The Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare Association (PHEWA) is seeking nominations for seven ministry awards that will be celebrated during the 220th General Assembly in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, July 2012.
PHEWA, part of the Compassion, Peace & Justice Ministry of the General Assembly Mission Council, is a voluntary membership organization dedicated to social welfare and justice ministries. Ten networks are currently part of PHEWA, organized for grassroots implementation of General Assembly policies in the areas of community ministries and faith-based community organizing, addictions, domestic violence, HIV and AIDS, reproductive options, specialized pastoral ministries, child advocacy, disabilities, health and wholeness, and serious mental illness.
Eleven international peacemakers from different countries around the world will visit congregations and presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) from Sept. 23-Oct. 18.
They will share their stories about church-based ministries in their countries that seek peace justice and pursue peace in the name of Jesus Christ. This year’s international peacemakers come from Bangladesh, Egypt, Guatemala, India, Iraq, Israel/Palestine, Jordan, Madagascar, Mexico, Russia and Sudan.
The International Peacemaker program is sponsored by the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program.