Category Archives: news

Police Raid the Offices of the General Assembly of Korean Presbyterian Church

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It is being reported (in English) by The Dong-A Ilbo on dongA.com that police have raided the offices of the Korean Presbyterian Church near Seoul.  A pastor who is reported as being “part of the general assembly” (I don’t know if that means staff, commissioner, or something else) made accusations of mis-management of money and property.  Specifically, Pastor Lee accused three “executive members” of selling land at below market rates and using disaster assistance donations for private uses.  He also made accusations of criminal wrong-doing in the forging of documents for illegal loans.  The article reports that at a press conference GA officials described how the property issues were legal and ethical.  The property alleged to be sold at below market value was in an undesirable location and the price was fair.  The church property mortgaged to purchase another church building was completely within reasonable use for the first property as it was “subscribed” to the “foundation” and the loan has been repaid.  The article reports no official response to the allegation of personal use of corporate money.

Church of Scotland News: Part 2 – Ecumenical efforts to halt sectarian violence in Scotland

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This news story has been reported very widely in Scotland.

The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland spoke yesterday at a summit on sectarianism convened by the Scottish Executive.  While the Rt. Rev. Alan McDonald’s remarks were brief and straight-forward, one aspect of them was picked up and much more widely publicized than the rest of the speech.  Rev. McDonald had suggested to the Scottish Roman Catholic Cardinal O’Brien that in a show of ecumenical unity they should attend a Rangers Football Club (soccer for the Americans) game together.  It turned out that while the cardinal and the football club were up for it, stadium security and the local police were afraid that it would raise tempers in the stadium.  So the idea was scrapped until Rev. McDonald mentioned it yesterday in the speech and now there seems to be a change of opinion and police now say the two religious leaders could do it and it would not incite the crowd.

The Church of Scotland has posted Rev. McDonald’s comments at the summit and the remarks by Cardinal O’Brien a couple of weeks ago after the release of a report on sectarian incidents.

Selected press coverage of the football controversy from the icLanarkshire and The Herald.

Church of Scotland News: Part 1 – Same-sex unions resolution defeated by presbyteries

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It is being reported by several news sources (such as The Herald and Scotsman.com but not the Church of Scotland news page yet) that the resolution to allow ministers to bless same-sex unions has been defeated by the presbyteries.  With 42 of 46 presbyteries having voted 36 have voted against the resolution.  Six presbyteries ( the mostly urban presbyteries of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, England, Europe, St Andrews and Melrose & Peebles) have voted in favor.  One of the articles says that it is not expected to come up again at the 2007 GA.

First woman to serve in Presbytery/District leadership in Presbyterian Church of Ghana

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The news web site allAfrica.com is reporting that The Reverend Esther Abam Adjetey has been inducted as the clerk of the Ga Presbytery and the District Minister of the Kaajaano District.  She becomes the first woman to serve in these positions in the Presbyterian Church of Ghana.  Rev. Adjetey is a teacher by training but has been active in the church earning a Special Ministerial Training Certificate, serving on church boards and attending international conferences.  In her acceptance remarks she is quoted:

I know that behind the seemingly chaotic and indiscriminate events of
my life, a bigger story, a divine story is being written. The divine
author, I am convinced, misses nothing.

I have never found an official web site for the Presbyterian Church of Ghana with information on their polity and church structure, but the web site for the Association of Churches and Missions in South Western Germany has information on their partner churches including the Presbyterian Church of Ghana.  Based on that information it is interesting to know that individual churches are staffed by a catachist and a District Minister oversees up to 15 of these parish churches.  In PC(USA) terminology these would be churches staffed by a Commissioned Lay Pastor which are mentored and supervised by an ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament.

Our congratulations to Rev. Adjetey and our prayers and best wishes for her new ministry.

Mizoram Synod of the Presbyterian Church of India to preach against birth control

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At the meeting of the Mizoram Synod of the Presbyterian Church of India, which concluded today in the city of Aizawl, the Synod Assembly approved a measure to preach against the government birth control policies.  The concern is that at the present rates of population increase the mizos ethnic group is in danger of becoming outnumbered and that birth rate should be increased.

The Newslink English Daily reports on the meeting which began on December 8.  Among the other interesting resolutions was one which said that a pastor’s wife may not hold a government job since that would not give her enought time to support her husband.  The Synod web site does have non-English agendas and summaries available.

So where is the PC(USA) in the ordination standards debate?

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With a growing number of presbyteries discussing the adoption of policies affirming the Book of Order wording, specifically G-6.0106b, as their standards for ordination I have not been keeping this blog up-to-date on these happenings.  I will comment on two specific and noteworthy developments in a moment.  However, if you want to keep up on what is happening the Layman Online has been following this closely and is compiling a table showing the status of these resolutions in the different presbyteries (Current table embedded in today’s article).  According to the Layman’s count as of today the topic has been raised in 36 presbyteries with 16 “affirming constitutional standards,” three disapproving, one disapproving but to vote again, and the rest still in process.

In new developments, I wanted to note that the affirmative decisions by five of these presbyteries have been challenged as remedial cases in Synod PJC’s.  Specifically the actions of Sacramento Presbytery (mentioned in the summary of their December 5th presbytery meeting) and Presbytery of San Joaquin have been appealed to the PJC of the Synod of the Pacific.  The actions of the Presbytery of the Mid-South have been appealed to the Synod of Living Waters.  And a case has been filed with the Synod of the Trinity over Pittsburgh Presbytery’s actions and with the Synod of Alaska-Northwest over Presbytery of Olympia’s action (mentioned in the Full Court Presbyterian blog).  In the case of Pittsburgh Presbytery the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette mentions in their article on the refiling of charges in the Edwards case that the Synod PJC has issued an injunction stopping enforcement of the policy.

On the opposite end of the activity, we have a refreshing second or third-hand report of planned non-action.  In the article from the PC(USA) news service about the confirmation of the Rev. Tom Taylor as Deputy Executive Director of GAC for Mission there is the following paragraph:

(GAC Executive Committee Members) Asked… about the efforts of some presbyteries to adopt
their own “essential tenets,” including in San Gabriel’s neighboring
San Diego Presbytery, Taylor said such a list has not come to floor of
San Gabriel. “One pastor was trying to push it, but a group of us
evangelicals don’t agree and told him so it’s dead in the water.”

So at least for the moment there appears to be one presbytery, San Gabriel, where essential tenets will not be brought up for debate and a vote.

Pittsburgh Presbytery same-sex marriage case trying to be re-filed

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Upset with the PJC case against the Rev. Janet Edwards being dismissed on a technicality, there are press reports that a group is trying to get the charges refiled.  Just to review, Rev. Edwards was initially charged with conducting a marriage ceremony for two women on June 25, 2005, and went to trial with the Pittsburgh Presbytery PJC on November 15.  After deliberation the PJC unanimously decided to dismiss the case because the investigating committee filed the charges four days after their deadline.

Now it is reported (such as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) that the Rev. James Yearsley, who filed the original charges, is collecting signatures to file the charges again.  He says that this is not double jeopardy since there was no decision in the first case.  While the Rev. Yearsley was formerly a member of Pittsburgh Presbytery he is now pastor of Village Presbyterian Church, Tampa, Florida, in the Presbytery of Tampa Bay.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article says:

Mr. Yearsley said he had considered filing a complaint against
Pittsburgh Presbytery for mishandling the case but concluded he did not
have evidence of deliberate misbehavior. “Suspicions are not a
sufficient reason to paint with such a large brush,” he said.

Moderator Designate for Free Church of Scotland 2007 General Assembly

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The Free Church of Scotland has announced its Moderator Designate for its 2007 General Assembly.  The committee has selected the Rev. Dr. John S. Ross currently serving at Greyfriars Free Church, Inverness.  He served four years as a missionary in Nigeria beginning in 1972 and has since served in a variety of churches and in a variety of ways for the denomination.  He holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Evangelism.

The Free Church of Scotland has issued a press release and there is a more detailed article from the Inverness Courier.

He stirred up controversy last Sunday in his sermon when he “accused the Government of forcing sexual orientation regulations through Parliament with ‘reckless speed'”.  He also said that the Government was not showing respect for freedom of conscience and the religious beliefs of Christians.  Gay rights leaders have accused Rev. Ross of inaccuracies in his statements and wanting to deny individuals of basic civil rights.   The article in the Inverness Courier has been picked up by many other news outlets.

Ordination Standards: Conservative Jewish Council goes for “local option”

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The announcement yesterday that the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly (the international organization of conservative rabbis) adopted three position papers (technically “answers” or “teshuvot“) on gay ordination and same-sex unions has been widely reported and I do not intend to recycle the news in a general sense.  In presbyterian teams the rabbis adopted what in PC(USA) jargon has become known as a “middle way” or “local option.”  The three statements are at odds with each other and one of the three permits gay ordination while prohibiting the sexual act of sodomy.  Which, if any, position to adopt is left up to the local rabbi or seminary.  If you want to read some of the coverage I have found detailed articles from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, The Combined Jewish Philanthropies, and the Jerusalem Post.

Now then, some comments from a presbyterian perspective:

First, if you are not familiar with the branches of Judaism, the “Conservative” branch is actually moderate as opposed to the traditional (and what would normally be thought of as conservative) “Orthodox” branch as opposed to the liberal “Reformed” branch.  Unlike presbyterians where orthodox is conservative and we are all reformed.  (I see a “Who’s On First” routine in here somewhere.)

Second, the Conservative branch has been losing members and whether they admit it or not there is a lot of buzz in the news stories and the blogs that this decision was influenced by that.

Third, the old “two jews three opinions” situation.  On this committee of 25 it only takes 6 affirmative votes to adopt an answer which is advisory to seminaries and congregations.  Two of the interpretations were adopted by 13 votes and the third by the six vote minimum.  You want something binding?  That would be a takanah, or an amendment to Jewish Law, as opposed to the teshuva, or interpretation.  If it takes six members to adopt an interpretation it takes the rest of the committee plus one, that is twenty, to adopt takanah.

Finally, after the meeting four rabbis opposed to gay ordination resigned from the committee and there is talk about this splitting that branch of Judaism.  There have also been interviews with prospective seminary students who are waiting for the new standards to pass and the seminaries to then adopt them so they can apply.

Reading through some of this the similarities to the situation in the PC(USA) is striking.  Did he have the PC(USA) and the Episcopals in mind when one of the pro-gay ordination members, Rabbi Elliot Dorff, president of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, said:
“We would hope that this would be a model for other
religions to learn how to deal with this topic seriously and be able to
agree to be one and yet have disagreements”
(Quoted in the Jerusalem Post article)

Updates on December 8
The Rabbinical Assembly has issued a press release on the meeting.  (Be warned, it is an MS Word file.)

The Jewish Chronicle of Pittsburgh has posted a news article which includes comments by Rabbi Alvin Berkun, president of the Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative movement, who was present for the discussion but not a voting member of the committee.