More than 500 Presbyterians gathered here July 30, anticipating four days packed with workshops on how to be better pastors, evangelists, church planters and youth and collegiate ministry leaders. And here’s what opening speaker Mark Yaconelli told them: “We’re in danger at a conference like this. You can come to a conference like this and leave worse than you came.”
The Rev. Sally Carlson and Carol Rudesill, a pair of Nebraskans, told people attending a mini-course at Synod of Lakes and Prairies Synod School last week that Presbyterian pilgrimages ― also known by the Roman Catholic term Cursillo ― are now being held in more than a dozen states.
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations on average are smaller and have older, better-educated, and less theologically conservative participants than U.S. congregations as a whole, according to the recently released 2010 Faith Communities Today survey.
Americans’ confidence in organized religion, slowly but steadily declining since the 1970s, slipped to a new low in the latest survey, the Gallup Organization reported.
Patriarch Kirill I of the Russian Orthodox Church spoke at a service on July 15 to consecrate a church near a forest where thousands of Polish army officers and intelligentsia were massacred by Stalin’s secret police in 1940.
When the Rev. Tom Trinidad was summoned out of his committee session at the recent Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly to meet with Assembly Moderator Neal Presa, he expected the worst.
Carol Howard Merritt, keynoter at Synod of Lakes and Prairies’ 59th annual Synod School, held last week at Buena Vista University, said today’s use of social media is just another way of recreating the stories our parents and grandparents told while shucking corn on the front porch.
The World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) is looking for nominees for a prize that rewards efforts to prepare women for leadership positions in church and society. The deadline for entries is Aug. 31, 2012.
More and more, churches are rediscovering Wednesday ― a traditional midweek church night ― as a prime time to gather the flock for casual worship in summer. Early adopters report improved attendance, slightly fatter coffers and invigorated spirituality as curious newcomers drop by and join in.
The Armenian Apostolic Church named Russian filmmaker Alexander Sokurov as the first recipient of its “Let There be Light” award on July 12 in a ceremony held at Gevorkian Theological Seminary near the Armenian capital, Yerevan. The ceremony was part of the Golden Apricot Film Festival running from July 8-15.