Monthly Archives: September 2013

Presbyterian Headlines For The Two Weeks Ending Sept. 22, 2013

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Well, the crazy part of my life continues, so here are two weeks worth of selected headlines related to Presbyterians around the world.

When we left Scotland last time there was great anticipation of the hearings before the Equal Opportunities Committee of the Scottish Parliament regarding the Marriage and Civil Unions Bill. While the Free Church of Scotland also testified, the media focused on statements by the Church of Scotland representative that due to potential legal challenges to their position of not preforming same-sex marriages they “may stop conducting marriages” all together.

Church of Scotland ‘may stop conducting marriages’ – from BBC News

Church of Scotland May Stop Performing Weddings to Avoid Gay Marriage Battles – from Charisma News

This led the Kirk to issue its own clarification

Marriage: Business as usual for the Church – Church of Scotland press release

Church of Scotland clarifies ‘there are no plans to stop weddings’ over same-sex marriage dispute – from PinkNews

And a major point of the legislation is the legal protection for conscience and religious viewpoints on the issue, and this also got some media coverage:

Ministers face legal warning over gay marriage – from The Scotsman

Scotland: Legal experts agree that a legal challenge against churches over equal marriage is unlikely – from PinkNews

Church of Scotland calls for ‘robust’ protection over gay marriage – From Christian Today

Moving to the other side of the world:

Drinking to the Gospel: Presbyterian Church in New Zealand Embraces Alcohol to Evangelize, Attract Members, Make Money – from Christian Post

Knox Church rebuild plan signed – from 3News NZ; “The landmark triple-gabled Knox Presbyterian Church
in Christchurch is to be rebuilt with a new lightweight cladding to
better withstand earthquakes. The brick and limestone building on the corner of
Victoria St and Bealey Ave was severely damaged in the February 2011
earthquake.”

Accuser backs church sex inquiry– from NZ Herald; in an ongoing church disciplinary case “The woman at the centre of a sexual misconduct complaint against a
Korean Presbyterian pastor is standing by her claims and is backing a
church investigation which found him guilty after a criminal court
cleared him of any wrongdoing.”

In the PC(USA):

Catholic, Presbyterian leaders oppose attack on Syria – from the Louisville Courier-Journal

Largest Presbyterian Church in Texas Filing Suit to Keep Property Should They Leave Denomination – from The Christian Post

And a couple of church fires, the first in the ARPC and second in the PC(USA):

Ballston church keeps the faith through two fires – from YNN

Firefighters extinguish massive flames at Walhalla Church – from Fox Carolina

And a few others:

Vanuatu church group here with helping hand – from Solomon Star; “A MEN’S fellowship group from [Sea Side Paama Presbyterian church in] Vanuatu is currently assisting Magdala
South Seas Evangelical Church (SSEC) in Honiara with the construction of
their new church building.”

Women’s group sends comfort to residential school survivors – from Kamloops The Daily News; “A group of compassionate Kamloops women
is hoping to lend comfort during emotional testimony at the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission in Vancouver this week. The St. Andrew’s
Presbyterian Church group members have been knitting prayer shawls that
will be brought to Vancouver and handed out to victims and families
impacted by the residential school system.”

Finally, a news article with a couple of familiar names from Scotland…

The Rev. John Chalmers, Principle Clerk of the Church of Scotland General Assembly, was inducted as a new Chaplain to the Queen and The Very Rev Ian Torrance, former Moderator of the Church of Scotland General Assembly and past President of Princeton Theological Seminary, was inducted as Dean of the Chapel Royal:

New Dean of the Chapel Royal and Queen’s Chaplain inducted – from Christian Today

There were a number of interesting articles in these two weeks that were interesting but here is what made the cut. I will try to keep it down to one week spans for a while.

Presbyterian News Headlines For The Two Weeks Ending September 8, 2013

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Well I have once again gotten behind in sharing a few of these headlines so I will again do two weeks worth and will be a bit more selective in what I include.

Let me begin by noting a couple of churches that have comments on economic issues. First, the Church of Scotland has initiatives for both local economic justice as well as for elsewhere in the world.

Church of Scotland concern over 36% Wonga profit – from The Scotsman; “Church of Scotland leaders today expressed concern over the antics of
“legal loan sharks” after pay day lender Wonga’s profits rocketed to
more than £1 million a week.” And later in the article “The Church of England is working with the Church of Scotland to
establish a churches mutual credit union as an alternative to such
firms.”

Churches call on shoppers to support Bangladeshi garment workers – from Ekklesia

And comments from the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana

Restructure economy – Presby Church – from GhanaWeb; “The Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG) has entreated government to
restructure the economy through well thought-out policies and implement
pragmatic plans and programmes for a turnaround of the economy.”

In other news from Ghana

Churches are also corrupt – Murtala Mohammed – from GhanaWeb; The Deputy Minister of Information agreed with the PCG that there was government corruption to be cleaned up, but continued that the church has some cleaning to do too as well.

And headlines coming out of the CCAP Synod Assembly meetings from both Blantyre and Livingstonia Synods regarding mixing political and religious careers:

CCAP Church ministers with political ambitions asked to step down – from The Mavari Post; Blantyre Synod

CCAP Livingstonia Synod okays clergy to join front-line politics: Offers three options – from Nyasa Times; the three options are retire, resign or take a support position in the church

In my last set of headlines I mentioned the work of the Free Church of Scotland to try to improve a local highway for the safety of the motorists. They had a meeting with Scottish politicians and there is yet no movement to do the upgrades sooner:

Clergy ‘disappointed’ after meeting Minister over dualling of A9 – from STV News

In Northern Ireland there was a celebration of the 400th anniversary of the city walls of Derry. A local Presbyterian minister preached at an interdenominational service on the deeper meaning of walls in that part of the world:

‘Walls have divided city and its people‘ – from Derry Journal; “

In New Zealand a disciplinary case is making the news:

Pastor defiant in face of ban – from New Zealand Herald; “David Ock-Youn Jang was struck off the ministerial roll last Friday
after a church investigation found him guilty of sexual misconduct and abuse. But yesterday, he led a service – and says he will continue to do so with the backing of the parish council and congregation at his West Auckland church.”

Going back to Scotland the Moderator of the General Assembly got quite a discussion going concerning the place of women in the church, particularly in leadership roles. It began with an interview where she talked about the view of John Knox:

Women in charge of Kirk? Not if Knox had his way – from The Scotsman

There is a letter to the editor of the Herald Scotland defending Knox

Knox was not so monstrous – from Herald Scotland

But the Moderator continued her theme at the meeting of the Guild this past weekend:

Church of Scotland sexism ‘hindering women’ in office, moderator warns – from BBC News

In preview of Scottish Parliament hearings this week there were headlines related to the proposed Marriage and Civil Partnership Bill:

Scotland: 50,000 sign petition against redefining marriage – from The Christian Institute

Much, much more on this in the coming week.

Finally, it was announced – or at least made the media – the Rev. John L. Bell of the Iona Community will be awarded the Community of Christ International Peace Award next month.

2013 General Assembly Of The Presbyterian Church Of Australia

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Earlier today the 28th Session of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia convened in Sydney.

This is a triennial meeting that brings together the six state churches to consider matters of national scope in mission, ministry and polity.

On the one hand, there is not a significant amount of online information about the details of the meeting so we will have to wait for an official summary afterwards. If you want to see the polity documents, the Code Book is available online.

On the other hand, we have the Rev. Gary Ware who is attending the meeting as the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of South Australia and is serving as one of the Chaplains to the incoming Moderator-General, the Rev. David Cook. Gary has already given us a great review with pictures of the opening service and I expect that we will have some more informative updates from him on his blog.

In terms of social media, there is a little traffic on the church’s Facebook page. Similarly there is a small bit of chatter on Twitter. Rev. Ware (@gjware) suggests that the official hashtag be #GAAus13.

If you do the search on that hashtag you will notice a familiar, yet in this context somewhat unexpected, contributor — Teaching Elder J. Ligon Duncon (@LigonDuncan). The incoming Chancellor of Reformed Theological Seminary was the featured speaker at a Pre-Assembly conference on What Should Evangelicals Think that was hosted by the Presbyterian Theological Centre CORRECTION Presbyterian Theological College. On the Facebook page there is the suggestion that his talks will be available on the PTC website in the near future.

And so we wish the Presbyterian Church of Australia well as its General Assembly gets down to work and our prayers for the commissioners and leadership of that Assembly.