Election of leaders of two of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s six agencies was endorsed Monday and sent to the 221st General Assembly (2014) for confirmation.
Frank Spencer's election as new president for the PC(USA) Board of Pensions and the re-election of Tom Taylor to a second four-year term as president of the Presbyterian Foundation were endorsed by the Assembly committee reviewing business related to the BOP, Foundation, Presbyterian Investment and Loan Program and Presbyterian Publishing Corporation.
Peace activists challenged two proposals under consideration Monday by the 221st General Assembly (2014)'s Committee on Peacemaking and International Issues, not because the proposals did not advance peace, but because they did not go far enough.
Both proposals come from the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy. The first asks the Assembly to initiate a second stage of peace discernment, inviting presbyteries to consider five “affirmations” related to the church’s commitment to peacemaking and nonviolence in the world. The second proposal asks the church to engage in a public conversation about the moral use of drones in national security, urge the United States Congress to pass legislation governing their use and condemn targeted killing without due process and oversight.
A new immigrant advocacy group within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) would be recognized if the 221st General Assembly (2014) adopts a recommendation from the Committee on Immigration and Environmental Issues.
The recommendation, approved Monday by a vote of 49-8, recognizes a new grassroots group, the Presbyterian Immigrant Defense Initiative, and directs the Office of the General Assembly to facilitate the group’s efforts. That responsibility would fall to a vacant position the office is seeking to fill.
Teaching elders in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) would be asked to "assume the moral responsibility" of paying per capita if a recommendation of the Committee on General Assembly Procedures is adopted by the 221st General Assembly (2104).
The committee narrowly approved, by a 32-25 vote, the overture from the Presbytery of Albany.
How small is too small?
The Church Polity and Ordered Ministry Committee of the 221st General Assembly (2014) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) decided Monday that some presbyteries may drop down below the 10-church minimum for sessions and pastors, so long as they have synod and General Assembly permission.
Despite pleas to give the Presbytery of Hanmi more time to solve its many issues, the Mid Councils Issues Committee of the 221st General Assembly (2014) voted overwhelmingly Monday to recommend that the Korean-American nongeographic presbytery be dissolved.
The committee voted 63-4 to approve the request from the Synod of Southern California and Hawaii. While an administrative commission has been working with the presbytery for about 15 years, the overture cited a number of problems remaining within the presbytery.
A revised Directory for Worship of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) took another step toward adoption Monday as the 221st General Assembly (2014)'s Committee on Theological Issues and Institutions voted unanimously to recommend study of the revised document prepared by the denomination's Office of Theology and Worship.
The process began in 2004 when the 216th General Assembly directed that the directory, contained in the Book of Order, be evaluated; then two years later, the Assembly directed it be rewritten and updated.
Por segundo día consecutivo, un grupo de comisionados de la 221a Asamblea General (2014) de la Iglesia Presbiteriana (EE.UU.) escucho que la vida después del post-cristianismo en los Estados Unidos puede ser muy emocionante.
«La cristiandad ha terminado», Lillian Daniel, la ministra principal de la Primera Iglesia Congregacional de Glen Ellyn, Illinois, dijo el lunes en el desayuno de la Asamblea General. «El mercado de la denominación ya no existe. Y en cierto modo, esto es algo bueno».
제 221차 미국 장로교 총회의 총대들은 이틀 동안 계속해서 포스트 기독교 국가의 삶은 매우 흥미로울 수 있다는 말을 들었다.
일리노이 주 엘렌 글렌에 위치한 First Congregational Church의 담임 목사인 다니엘(Lillian Daniel)은 월요일 GA 아침 식사에서“미국은 더 이상 기독교 국가가 아닙니다. 교단의 시장 점유율은 더 이상 존재하지 않습니다. 그리고 어떤 면에서, 이것은 매우 좋은 현상입니다”라고 말했다.
It only took a couple of minutes before diametrically opposed positions were laid out Monday before the Committee on Civil Union and Marriage Issues of the 221st General Assembly (2014) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
“The Book of Genesis establishes a majority pattern of marriage between a man and a woman,” but there are other patterns in the Bible as well, “and the witness of the entire Bible” is to a more expansive pattern of loving relationships, said theologian and Teaching Elder Mark Achtemeier of the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, who has recently written a book supporting same-gender marriage.