Monthly Archives: August 2013

Presbyterian News Headlines For The Week Ending August 25, 2013


A bit of a busy week for me but I will try to crank this out before I settle in for the holiday weekend here in the states…

When last we heard from the Church of Scotland concerning their staff and changes to their benefits, there seemed to be a bit of confusion about the actual terms of the deal. This week brought reports of the workers considering the news:

Kirk workers to meet in row over pensions – from Herald Scotland

Church criticised by union over pension letter – from Herald Scotland

And the Church of Scotland has announced it is modernizing its Sunday School curriculum:

Church of Scotland to modernise Sunday school – from the BBC

A couple of headlines related to the Free Church as well:

Church joins pleas for an end to carnage on the A9 – from Scottish Express: One of several articles about the Free Church asking for improvements to a dangerous stretch of highway.

Inside Track: Free Church signals its determination to be heard – from Herald Scotland: a column about the Free Church now publicly engaging the wider world with the A9 improvements as an example.

From Ghana we have reports from two General Assemblies that outline a number of the actions taken at each but with an emphasis, at least in the media, on issues that involve the country as a whole:

E.P. Church requests return of property – from Ghana Business news: The Evangelical Presbyterian Church requesting to have some property in Accra returned so they can build offices in the capital as well as talk about partnering more closely with the government on hospitals and universities.

President Mahama lauds E.P. Church – from Ghana Business News: And they got some kind words back from the president

Ghana’s democracy will be strengthened by the SCV– Presby Church – from SPY Ghana: A review of the Presbyterian Church Assembly that highlights their hopes for positive change from the party in power.

And two more headlines from the week that are interesting for the cultural insights they give. First from the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian:

Religious madness! Livingstonia Synod to force Ngoni chiefs back to CCAP – from The Maravi Post: “MZUZU(MaraPost)—Livingstonia Synod general secretary the Reverend Levi
Nyondo has said that all Mzimba Ngoni chiefs belong to the Church of
Central African Presbyterian (CCAP) and those chiefs going to other
churches are wasting their time and declared that his synod will bring
all Ngoni chiefs who have gone to other denominations back to their
mother church, CCAP.” This is based on a 1978 treaty.

And from Mizoram Province of Northern India:

Mizo church may do away with infant burial taboo – from The Times of India: “AIZAWL:
The Presbyterian Church of India, Mizoram Synod, the largest church in
the state, is likely to do away with one of the oldest traditional
taboos associated with infant deaths. In Mizo tradition, infants
below three months are not accorded a decent burial like adults in
village cemeteries. Instead, they are buried in kitchen gardens of the
bereaved families. This practice is called ‘Hlamzuih’.”

So that’s it for this week. See you next week.

8th Assembly Of The International Conference Of Reformed Churches

A conference that begins tomorrow gives me a chance to highlight one of the international bodies of Reformed churches. Most of my readers are probably familiar with the relatively giant World Communion of Reformed Churches that has a membership of 230 Protestant churches around the world. And a number of my North American readers are no doubt aware of the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council which has a membership of 12 churches and which the PCA has had some discussion about leaving.

In between these two is the International Conference of Reformed Churches, a 30 member international body that is to my knowledge the second largest association of Presbyterian and Reformed churches in the world. And to be clear, membership in ICRC and NAPARC is not exclusive of each other and many of the NAPARC churches are members of the ICRC.

The ICRC begins its 8th Assembly tomorrow in Cardiff, Wales, UK, and it will run for the next week. Their Assemblies are held every four years and this one is being hosted by the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in England and Wales which has their own local arrangements web page for the meeting. The meeting will be at the Glamorgan Conference Center at the University of South Wales. The name has changed from the posted University of Glamorgan due to a recently completed merger.

The theme of the meeting is “Preach the word” based on 2 Timothy 4:2 and will be discussed in three subheadings throughout the meeting. In particular, the one on “The practice of preaching (in today’s non-literary cultures)” got my attention. Don’t know if audio or text will be posted after the meeting but I would be interested if it is. I am hopeful because Resources from the 2009 Conference are available on the ICRC web site.

I have no strong recommendations for following the Assembly on social media, particularly since searching on ICRC will get a flood of tweets about another well known organization with those initials. Looking at the list of member churches I see the Free Church of Scotland which has an active Twitter stream (@FreeChurchScot) to keep an eye on for possible updates. I will update here if I find anything once the meeting is underway.

But from a business point of view there will be minutes posted at some later date so we will be able to catch up with the business. So we wish the delegates well in their discussions and reflections, discernment and decision making. Our prayers for them during their Assembly.

Presbyterian News Headlines For The Two Weeks Ending August 18, 2013


I am going to take a bold step and cover the last two weeks so I get this listing caught up through the time I was off with a family event.

Here are a few of the interesting items that caught my eye since my last set of headlines:

First the controversy about the non-inclusion of a hymn in the new Presbyterian hymnal continues at only a slightly less active rate than a couple of weeks ago. Much of what I have seen covers the well-trod territory but two new twists have emerged. First, the discussion has spilled over to the Baptists:

Editorial Ignites Atonement Debate – from ABP News

And another article that takes the chair of the hymnal committee to task for shifting the focus of the discussion, whether for clarity or cover-up:

Committee Head Covers Up “In Christ Alone” Controversy – from First Things

And Keith Getty, the co-author, spoke with the Belfast Telegraph

My song of praise was dropped from a US hymn book …all because of one word

On to other news…

Two stories from New Zealand:

Presbyterian head seeks gay-wedding ban for unity’s sake – from New Zealand Herald as same-sex marriages become recognized in that country

Sad and excited Mayman heading to Sydney – from GayNZ, talking about one of the church’s progressive advocates who is moving to a new call with the Uniting Church in Australia

Three stories from The Presbyterian Chuch of Ghana:

Presbyterian Church to hold General Assembly – from Ghana Web, 16-22 August in Abetifi-Kwahu

Presbyterian Church commissions 41 new ministers – from Ghana Web

Presby church of Ghana inaugurates branch in Atlanta – from Ghana Web

From Scotland:

Kirk care staff caught up in zero-hours contracts row – from Herald Scotland; this is regarding Crossreach, the care arm of the Church of Scotland. In a statement the church said it was only for their relief staff who are employed on an as-needed basis to fill vacancies.

Kirk tells workers accept deal or face being sacked – from Herald Scotland; for Kirk staff in its main offices to take a pension cut. UPDATE: A response from the Convener of the Central Services Committee published saying the facts were wrong

Thomas Chalmers memorial unveiled in Anstruther – from The Courier; a garden in memory of the leading figure in the formation of the Free Church of Scotland

Cameron Highlanders veterans fall in line for special events – from Highland News; a new memorial area is dedicated to the former regiment at Old High Church, Inverness, which was the regimental church

From Canada:

Church apologizes to Kenora residential school survivors – from CBC; “The Presbyterian Church issued a specific apology on Wednesday to former students of a residential school in Kenora, Ont., where medical and nutritional experiments had taken place.”

Community ministries struggling in the US:

Chester ministry reluctantly curtails operations – from The Inquirer; a ministry of the Presbytery of Philadelphia

Presbyterian Community Center closing Aug. 30 over financial problems – from Louisville Courier-Journal

A major announcement over the weekend related to theological education:

Reformed Theological Seminary Appoints Dr. J. Ligon Duncan as New Chancellor – from Crossmap

And a Presbyterian church in Northern Ireland hosts a royal wedding for one of its own as a local girl who is working in a school in Nigeria marries a co-worker… who happens to be the Crown Prince of Lagos:

Royal wedding makes Loughgall girl a princess – from the Belfast News Letter

I am now done with the crazy part of my summer schedule and anticipate that blogging activity will become more regular. And I have a pretty good backlog of interesting stuff to comment on.

National Youth Assembly 2013 – Church Of Scotland

As I am writing this the 2013 edition of the National Youth Assembly of the Church of Scotland is getting under way. This is a program of the Church of Scotland Youth ministry (COSY).

Regular readers know that I think highly of this event because of the way that it has engaged the young people of the church in substantive discussions about topics important to them, to the Kirk and to Scotland.

This year is a bit different and I am looking forward to how it works out. Instead of three or four topics related to church and society, this year’s theme is “Who do you say I am?” The specific topics to be discussed include: What is it do be me? What is it to be in The Church of Scotland? What is it to be Scottish?

I don’t know if this will be developed into deliverances for the next CofS General Assembly in the Spring, but I look forward to following the process. The COSY NYA page does say that the format will be a bit different: “For NYA 2013 our focus will be shifting from debates to other forms of learning and decision making.”

The Assembly begins at 5 PM local time on Friday 16 August at the West Park Conference Centre in Dundee. It will conclude about 5 PM on Monday 19 August.

There is a web page in the COSY area on the NYA Moderator RE Lynsey Martin and Clerk Esther Nisbet. (I wrote bit on both of them earlier in the spring) There is also a Kirk news article about the Assembly that was released today.

One fact that reinforces that this will be a different sort of NYA is the minimum amount of advanced information posted on the internet. In the past the COSY Blog is the best source of information but it has not been updated since the final deliverances were posted after the last NYA.

Often there is live streaming of the NYA but I have not seen a link for this year’s Assembly yet. I will update here if I find it but with the format changes it may have been eliminated if the number of good streaming opportunities is minimal.

So we shall keep an eye on Twitter for the action, developments, commentary and links. It appears that both #nya13 and #nya2013 are in use for this meeting — the former follows the pattern from previous years while the latter is being used by official types. The official Twitter account is @cosy_nya and the main church feed is @churchscotland. In addition, the Moderator of the General Assembly, the Rt. Rev. Lorna Hood (@moderatorchurch), will be leading worship on Monday and she has been retweeting some NYA related info. I will update with others as the meeting develops.

Finally, one interesting feature of this meeting is a bit of a discussion that has developed around it.  Yesterday, Michael Mair, a candidate for the ministry who anticipates being ordained shortly and becoming the youngest minister in the Church of Scotland, wrote a column in the Herald Scotland about the lack of young people in the Kirk and about how the NYA should help the church take young people seriously. It carried the implication that taking young people seriously would help bring more of them back to the Church of Scotland. He says of the Assembly:

Therefore, I am pleading with the Church. Take these young people and
their ideas seriously. The National Youth Assembly is not important
merely because it is a meeting place for young Christians. In addition
it is a melting pot from which wonderful insightful and brilliant ideas
are born. They deserve to be heard.

His column got a response from Free Church of Scotland minister David Robertson in a piece published on the Free Church website. While not directly commenting on the NYA, Rev. Robertson challenged soon-to-be-Rev. Mair’s basic premise about the lack of youth and instead argued that the problem is systemic to the Kirk and derives from the fact “…that it is committing a not so slow suicide by drinking the Kool-Aid of liberal theology and poisoning itself to death.”

Well, I have found NYA to be an important and relevant event in the life of the Kirk even if there are larger issues to be dealt with. So, my best wishes to the young people participating in the NYA this weekend and I am looking forward to hearing how this year’s event goes and what comes out of it.

On Saturday I Took My Daughter For A Short Walk…


…Down the aisle of the church.


No profound reflections for today on the event — I am still enjoying and not analyzing the day. Sometime I might have processed it enough to make some more comments. I will simply add that it was a beautiful ceremony using the traditional liturgy that honored and praised God. As a bonus almost everything went as planned.

So my summer distractions will be over shortly and hopefully my blogging will return to normal, whatever that may be. And thank you for allowing me to go a bit off-topic and share this personal note.

My congratulations to Rebecca and Isaac.* May God bless your marriage giving you many happy years together and we are very pleased to have our family expand.

*[Notes: (1) The biblical parallels of the names are not missed by us and others. (2) Pictures by my son Philip and his friend Rachel.]

77th General Synod Of The Bible Presbyterian Church

I have been remiss in not mentioning the the 77th General Synod of the Bible Presbyterian Church which got underway last Thursday, August 1, and will conclude tomorrow.  The Synod is meeting at Grand Island Bible Presbyterian Church in Grand Island, NY.

This is typically a pretty quiet meeting while it is under way and so far I have not seen any updates through mainstream or social media.

There is one place you can get some of the flavor of the meeting and that is through the talks and sermons that the host church is posting on its web site.

Sometime following the meeting we can expect important business items to be posted on the News and Resolutions page.

And if you want to check out their constitutional documents, their confessional and polity documents can be found on their Our Beliefs page.

So we wish them well for their Synod and offer our prayers for God’s guidance in their deliberations and discernment. And we look forward to the updates following the meeting.

Presbyterian News Headlines For The Week (Plus Some) Ending August 4, 2013

This past week was an eventful one for Presbyterians and here are some of the relevant news headlines that caught my attention. I have added a couple of days since I am about to become preoccupied with a family event and may not get this post out next week. There is also one headline not included that I am hoping to blog on separately.

The PC(USA) held their Big Tent event and there were a couple of headlines that came out of that, at least in the hometown paper.

Presbyterians in the ‘Big Tent,’ thinking out of the box – from the Louisville Courier-Journal

Faith & Works | Presbyterians talk renewal – from the Louisville Courier-Journal

At the same time a discussion in the PC(USA) — a discussion that actually started a few months ago — went viral and hit the mainstream media. The discussion is about one particular hymn, In Christ Alone, not appearing in the new hymnal because the authors would not agree to an alteration in one line.

Presbyterians’ decision to drop hymn stirs debate – from USA Today

Mainline Protestants Abandon Orthodoxy, Exhibit XXXVI – from National Review Online

And news about a PC(USA) affiliated school

Montreat College plans merger with Point University – from Asheville Citizen-Times

Across the pond a headline concerning the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland visiting a now-closed infamous prison as development of the site is considered:

Top Presbyterian set to visit Maze site – from News Letter

And next door – the Moderator of the Church of Scotland begins tweeting and quickly has something to tweet about from her holiday in Spain:

Moderator’s tweet success on first day – from Herald Scotland

Holidaying Moderator tweets about bag theft on Barcelona beach – from Herald Scotland

Finally, three headlines about African Presbyterians:

Ghana: Let’s Seek God’s Face On National Challenges – Moderator – from allAfrica

CCAP Nkhoma Synod warns Malawi govt. against legalizing abortion – The Maravi Post

Nigeria: Presbyterian Church Lauds National Assembly for Criminalising Same-Sex Marriage – from allAfrica

That’s it for now. Have a good week.