There is no turning back from the radical changes sweeping over the church and world, so the challenge facing the church, said the Rev. Mindy Douglas Adams, is to “continue to stand on the essential teachings of our church while at the same time training leaders how to serve people of the 21st century.”
United Methodists concluded their General Conference May 4 without voting on gay clergy or same-sex marriage, a surprising end to a disappointing week for gay activists.
As the May 4-10 meeting of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) drew to a close, participants emphasized the importance of social witness and openness in ecumenical dialogue.
In a world that operates as if creation’s resources are scarce, Christians know better, the Rev. Craig Dykstra, senior vice-president for religion at the Lilly Endowment, told a crowd of more than 200 at the third of Union Presbyterian Seminary’s four Sprunt Lectures May 8.
The sign outside the polling station at Devon Park United Methodist Church in Wilmington, N.C., exemplified the struggle with an amendment to the state’s constitution that bans same-sex marriage.
Three new church developments will receive $25,000 each in Mission Program Grants from the Evangelism and Church Growth ministry area of the General Assembly Mission Council (GAMC).
The longtime Presbyterian tradition of “calling for the order of the day” is needed to return the church to its central task of “seeking God’s justice and mercy,” the Rev. Katie Geneva Cannon told an electrified crowd of more than 250 at the second of Union Presbyterian Seminary’s annual Sprunt Lectures here May 8.
“Romeo Langlois is well-known by Colombians and by Colombianos por la Paz (Colombians for Peace),” said Gloria Cuartas, a member of that civil society group which helped broker the release of 30 civilian and military hostages held for years by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and which got the rebel group to promise in February to stop kidnapping civilians for ransom.
The name Jesus Christ doesn’t appear in “The Voice,” a new translation of the Bible.
The Geneva-based Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA) on April 25 urged the World Bank, under newly-appointed president Jim Yong Kim, to include faith-based organizations in its decisions and listen to “those most affected by poverty, hunger, disease and injustice.”