Just two years after it was launched, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s campus ministry initiative UKirk is helping reclaim the heritage of faith and service at colleges across the country, according to Wayne Meiser, a top administrator at one of the denomination's seminaries.

Since being introduced at the 220th General Assembly (2012), UKirk, or University Church, has developed 66 ministry sites on college campuses around the country and 120 collegiate ministries connected to the UKirk network.

For the second straight day, a group of commissioners to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s 221st General Assembly (2014) heard that post-Christendom life in the United States can be pretty exciting.

“Christendom is over," Lillian Daniel, senior minister of First Congregational Church of Glen Ellyn, Illinois, said Monday at the General Assembly Breakfast. "The denominational market-share no longer exists. And in some ways, that is a beautiful thing.”

As both a pastor and a military service member, a chaplain's life is a balancing act, said Presbyterian Teaching Elder Margaret Kibben, chaplain of the United States Marine Corps and deputy chief of Navy chaplains.

But many people misunderstand the role of a military chaplain – most get asked why they left the ministry, Kibben told Presbyterians Caring for Chaplains and Military Personal Monday at the 221st General Assembly (2014) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) would have fewer, bigger synods under a proposal presented Sunday to commissioners at the 221st General Assembly (2014).

Byron Wade and Ariel Mink, co-chairs of a second commission appointed to study mid councils, walked commissioners through six recommendations.

Rhonda Kruse and Theresa Cho asked commissioners at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s 221st General Assembly Sunday to think back to what was happening in American society in 1983, when the current standing rules for General Assemblies were written at the reunion of the northern and southern branches of the Presbyterian church.

The committee proposes an overhaul of the Assembly's Standing Rules, bringing them more in line with the shift to biennial assemblies and the changes in technology since 1983.

Concern over a variety of issues related to the Middle East dominated Commissioners Resolutions submitted to the 221st General Assembly (2014) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), with eight of the 18 addressing everything from the Syrian civil war to violence against children in the region.

Others ran the gamut from giving presbytery and synod executives an official role in Assemblies to ammunition regulation to establishment of an Evolution Sunday.

It's been two decades since Steve Earl was recruited to the national staff of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to start the Young Adult Volunteer program.

“The goal was simple: to get more young people involved in mission service,” Earl said Sunday night as dozens of former YAVs and friends gathered to celebrate the program's 20th anniversary – and the sending out of more than a thousand volunteers.

What makes a person suitable for ministry? And what will ministry positions look like in the church of the future? These are some of the questions pondered by the Special Committee to Review the Preparation for Ministry Process and Standard Ordination Exams.

Reporting to the 221st General Assembly (2014) on Sunday, committee members noted that four out of 10 pastors in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) are white males past the traditional retirement age. Most of these pastors fulfilled traditional requirements for preparation.

Larissa Kwong Abazia dreams of both safety and substance for the 221st General Assembly (2014).

Her running partner, Heath Rada, was elected General Assembly moderator Saturday night, and Kwong Abazia was unanimously confirmed as vice-moderator Sunday afternoon.

Rather than use their 15 minutes on stage to detail the conclusions of their report, the co-moderators of the Special Committee on the Confession of Belhar chose instead to briefly state their recommendations and allow other voices to speak on behalf of the confession.

“We unanimously recommend that the 221st General Assembly approve the inclusion of the Belhar Confession in the Book of Confessions and that it also approve an accompanying letter and commend it to congregations and presbyteries for consideration as they discern adding the confession,” said ruling elder Matilde Moros of the Presbytery of Hudson River, co-moderator of the special committee along with teaching elder Clifton Kirkpatrick of Presbytery of Mid-Kentucky.