Though the story is unfolding in 2013, it actually began a few years back.
In 2010, a church in Poughkeepsie — within Hudson River Presbytery — closed. The members wanted money from the building’s sale to fund creative and transformational ministries.
In a recent solidarity visit to Bangladesh, an ecumenical delegation was updated about the on-going persecution and attacks against religious minorities occurring in the country since early March of this year.
Sunday mornings at Houston Oasis may have the look and feel of a church, but there’s no cross, Bible, hymnal or stained glass depictions of Jesus. There’s also nary a trace of doctrine, dogma or theology.
Leaders of the Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK) and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have recommitted to partnership and collaboration in “common mission” that focuses on three key areas of ministry together: evangelism, poverty and healing and reconciliation.
On Day 2 (April 26) of the Board of Pensions’ (BOP) 2013 Western/Central Regional Benefits Consultation (RBC), the spotlight again fell on the “Changing Church.”
Conservative and liberal religious leaders may not agree on much, but both are expressing displeasure with the Boy Scouts' proposal to accept gay members but reject gay leaders.
At the request of the 220th General Assembly (2012), the office of Theology and Worship has produced a study on marriage, which is now ready for congregational and presbytery use.
The study is designed to help the entire church move into a time of serious study and discernment concerning its definition of marriage and whether or not same-gender relationships fit into the Reformed understanding of Christian marriage.
When she was co-pastor with her husband of a mission church in rural Alaska, the Rev. Heidi Worthen Gamble hosted many short-term mission trips from Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations elsewhere. “As time went on we struggled to continue to find work projects for these groups,” Gamble told the Moderator’s Colloquium on Ecclesiology Wednesday (April 24) at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary (APTS). “We began to ask whether it wouldn’t be more beneficial to create jobs in the village rather than mission projects for church groups.”
The Rev. Bob Edgar, a Democratic congressman and United Methodist minister who went on to lead the National Council of Churches through a painful series of restructuring cuts, died suddenly April 23 at age 69.
The Rev. Ben F. McAnally, Jr. died March 8 in Tyler, Texas, after a long struggle with Parkinson’s Disease.
The Rev. H. Russel Botman, rector and vice chancellor of Stellenbosch University in South Africa, has been named recipient of Princeton Theological Seminary’s 2013 Abraham Kuyper Prize for Excellence in Reformed Theology and Public Life.
Carol Rose Ikeler, 92, one of the first women ministers in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), died Feb. 16 after a brief struggle with cancer.
The churches lament the excessive force used by the police authorities against the 29 campesinos in San Rafael Las Flores, who were peacefully protesting against the establishing of the El Escobal mining project there.