Greetings,

No, I have not fallen off the face of the earth.  But over the holidays it has been fairly slow with the hard news in the little niche I'm interested in so I have just taken the advice of Mark 13:37 - "What I say to you, I say to everyone: 'Watch!' "

What are we waiting and watching for?  There are at least four big events on the horizon.

• The report of the examination of the Rev. Steve Wilkins by the Louisiana Presbytery regarding his theological beliefs on covenant theology commonly refereed to as "Federal Vision Theology."  I have previously discussed the examination and response and the report is expected at the January 20 presbytery meeting.
• New Wineskins Conference February 8-9, 2007 in Orlando, Florida.  This got more interesting when the Evangelical Presbyterian Church leadership disclosed that they had been in conversation with New Wineskins leaders.
• The PC(USA) Middle Governing Body conversation on the future of middle governing bodies February 14-16 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  It is not clear what will come of this but the New Mexican presbyteries and synod have felt particular pressure over their viability.
• The PC(USA) Form of Government Task Force will meet February 22-24. The Task Force met last week but word is that the next drafts will be released after the February meeting.

There has been a bit of recent news:  The PC(USA) Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare Association met this past weekend in New Orleans for the 2007 "Social Justice Biennial Conference."  I found it interesting how much discussion there seemed to be at a social sustice meeting about the future of the denomination.  The PC(USA) news service has an article written at the beginning of the conference about the conference and comments by Bill Quigley, director of the law clinic and the Gillis Long Poverty Law Center at Loyola University of New Orleans.  The Layman Online covered the meeting and they have posted several articles about the conference on their news page.  The coverage of conference speakers includes the comments by PC(USA) Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, comments about the PC(USA) having to face reality by the Rev. Curtis A. Kearns, Jr., General Assembly Council Executive Administrator, and two articles about comments by the Rev. Robert Linthicum, a para-church consultant, one on transformation and the other on church mission structure.