Category Archives: PC(USA)

Third Moderator Candidate For PC(USA) 221st GA (2014) — TE Kelly Allen

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This past week saw the endorsement of a third candidate to stand for the Moderator of the 221st General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) as Mission Presbytery endorsed Teaching Elder Kelly Allen of San Antonio. Rev. Allen has served as pastor of University Presbyterian Church since 2009 having served as the pastor of a United Reformed church in Buckinghamshire, England, and before that the pastor of two churches in Missouri. Her detailed bio on the church web site lists her education including a BA in psychology from Washington University, St. Louis, an M.Div. from Columbia Theological Seminary and a MA in politics and religion from University of Birmingham, England. On that bio page you can also find her Statement of Faith.

At this time she has a range of social media in place including her OnePager basic web page with the dedicated domain name kellyformoderator.com, a Twitter handle (@kellysueallen), and a Kelly Allen for GA Moderator 2014 Facebook page. She also has her regular blog “How I See Things.” And while the basic web page is a good intro to her, by the nature of the web hosting it might change but will not become much more developed. And the RSS feed on the web page is for her regular blog. Right now it appears that the best place to be reading updated thoughts on standing for Moderator will be the Facebook page.

Her tag line is “Hope-filled leadership for today’s church” and on the basic web page she develops this in three areas of “leadership commitments”: 1. A commitment to spiritual practice – the practices in the history of the church that have drawn us closer to God and to one another in communion. 2. A desire to build community among strangers – “our encounters with the ‘other’ reveal much about ourselves” and in meeting others where they are can we see an expression of the Kingdom of God. 3. A willingness to be bold and bodily witnesses to gospel values – how are we as Christians seen and heard in the world around us and who do we partner with to demonstrate the Gospel?

For more of her thoughts there is a three and a half minute video of Rev. Allen on her Facebook page talking about some of these ideas and her thoughts about the call. On a side note, you have to love the strategecially placed PC(USA) logo in stained glass behind her but she does lose style points for the trailing credits which still has the [enter name here] under the credits.

For additional coverage of her announcement there is an article from the Presbyterian Outlook.

And so, we wish Teaching Elder Allen the best as she prepares for the General Assembly meeting and add her name to our prayer list for all the candidates standing for Moderator.

The Diversity Of Dismissals From The PC(USA)

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As regular readers know I have not just been following the many twists and turns of the dismissals of churches from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) as an outside observer but at the level of my own presbytery I have found myself deeply involved in the process. And so it is with a great deal of interest that I have been following the recent news about dismissals of churches elsewhere. And while I have been seeing the mainstream media focusing on the “stay or go” side of the story, because of my level of involvement locally I have a great deal of interest in the fine details of the terms under which the churches are considering dismissal. My intent today is to drill down a bit into that aspect of the story with regards to two recent cases.

First, I did want to reflect for a moment on how dismissals have changed over the last two or three years. I have always been intrigued that before about three years ago the largest churches in the PC(USA) seemed to be staying with the denomination even if they were expressing concern about the direction that the church was headed. From my discussions with others the reasons seem to be two-fold. The first is that they did not see a good place to go. The only destination similar enough to the PC(USA) for most to even consider was the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) and over the years there were a good number of churches that headed in that direction to the extent that now the EPC has more than doubled in size based on the number of congregations. But as the EPC was working through these growing pains it was generally not seen as a good destination for what passes as a mega-church in the PC(USA). With the founding of ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians in 2012 a more suitable destination was available.

To be completely accurate, one of the churches on the list, First Presbyterian Church of Orlando, did transfer to the EPC. But while it was the first on the list of largest churches to depart it was at about the same time that ECO was founded and another church, First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs, began their dismissal process soon after.

The second reason is that the PC(USA) was trying to work out what was meant by Gracious Dismissal. As I will talk about in a minute, it looks like we still are. So while the motion was passed by the 218th General Assembly in 2008 it appears we have reached a point where a number of the kinks have been worked out and there is some greater understanding of what might be involved. This was aided by the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission’s decision in Tom, et al. v. Presbytery of San Francisco (Tom decision) that somewhat clarified the application of the Trust Clause in these matters.

So, we have transitioned from a point where none of the 15 largest churches in the denomination were actively moving towards departure just a few years ago to the point today where several have or are considering it. If we consider the 2011 list of the 15 largest churches in the PC(USA) there are two churches that have now been formally dismissed ( including FPC Orlando to the EPC ) and three more that are in the dismissal process, at least at the beginning of this month…

Which brings us to one of those churches that voted this past Sunday and in doing so decided to stay with the  PC(USA) – First Presbyterian Church of Houston.

As I mentioned above, the media story here has been “stay or go” and while there was a strong majority of the membership that voted to transfer to ECO they fell 36 votes short of the 2/3 supermajority required in the dismissal agreement with Presbytery of New Covenant. This was out of a total of 1,681 members who voted.

One article from the Houston Chronicle gave these thoughts from pastor and head of staff, Teaching Elder Jim Birchfield:

“This is the toughest possible outcome in many people’s minds,” Senior Pastor Jim Birchfield
said. “To fall a few votes short will be very tough for them. I’m a
little bit disappointed. I came out very strongly and passionately in
favor of (the move).”

Birchfield said it was too early to assess the long-term
repercussions of the attempt to switch denominations, and he declined to
predict whether some members will leave the church as a result. He said
his immediate task is to begin smoothing over the differences for the
sake of keeping the 3,100 member church intact.
“We have to begin reconciling the two sides, and that will begin
immediately,” he said. “We’ll also begin reconciling among the
leadership. For the most part, we have had a very gracious debate.”

I would note that there is a longer article from the Chronicle available to digital subscribers.

Other news sources covered similar aspects of the meeting with the Texas Tribune providing this description of the debate:

For more than an hour on Sunday, church members provided testimony for and against leaving PCUSA, some of it tearful.

Those in favor of leaving PCUSA spoke of the national organization’s
“theological drift” and called for a more “Christ-centered theology.”

and

Opponents of the switch argued for theological diversity. PCUSA does
not require churches to ordain openly gay pastors if they choose not to.
They bemoaned what they saw as inevitable fallout from the decision,
and said that appealing to stricter evangelist views would only further
isolate young members from the church.

In particularly fiery testimony, one opposing member said she feared
the switch would make her “a member of a congregation that distinguishes
itself by its homophobia.”

For a more nuanced look at the meeting I would refer you to the article from the Presbyterian Outlook which has a bit more on the process and procedure.

But returning to the Texas Tribune article, one paragraph caught my attention and I want to use it as the starting point to drill down a bit. They describe the property of the church like this:

First Presbyterian of Houston was an obvious target for the fledgling
denomination. The Houston church has roughly 3,100 members, owns
property valued at more than $100 million and boasts an $18 million
endowment. The church is 175 years old.

Now consider the material that was provided by the church from a link that was on it’s Season of Decision web page. The link has now been removed but as of this writing the document with the details of the terms for possible departure is still available. (But could disappear soon.) Besides the rationale for the departure the document has some legal notes, the report of the presbytery team and the details of payments the church would have had to make to the presbytery. I have not figured out which of the two listed options would be used but the larger of the two would have been payments to the presbytery on a five year declining scale totaling $343,236. The rationale for the amount is not given and based upon negotiations in my own presbytery I would not expect it to be so. But for a $100 million property and $18 million endowment it seems like a pretty good deal. This will become more apparent in a minute.

One other item on that page caught my attention, particularly in light of the actual vote tallies, and this could have changed this picture dramatically. While no specifics or formulas are given there is this paragraph about additional payments:

There are two additional payments that might be made to Presbytery. The amounts are not known at this time. If the required majority votes to be dismissed and more than 10% of our congregation vote to remain in PCUSA, and a petition to start a new church is signed by more than 25 members, and Presbytery approves the new church start, we will owe a payment to start a new church. In addition we will likely be required to make a voluntary gift to the Presbytery’s New Church Development Fund.

It is interesting to wonder about the what-ifs had those extra 36 members been there and the vote had gone the other way, but just barely, what the magnitude of these payments would have been. (And I had to smile at the language about being “required to make a voluntary gift…” Probably a required gift of a voluntary amount.)

Let us now turn our attention to another vote, this time at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in San Francisco Presbytery scheduled for this coming weekend. When I started hearing details of this church dismissal I had to think that the presbytery was taking the instructions in the Tom decision very seriously:

When a congregation seeks dismissal under G-11.0103i (now G-3.0301a), it is the responsibility of the presbytery to fulfill its fiduciary duty under the Trust Clause. This fiduciary duty requires that the presbytery exercise due diligence regarding the value of the property of the congregation seeking dismissal. Due diligence, of necessity, includes not only an evaluation of the spiritual needs of the congregation and its circumstances but also financial analysis of the value of the property at stake. Payments for per capita or mission obligations are not satisfactory substitutes for the separate evaluation of the value of the property held in trust.

According to the information on the church web site the payment to the presbytery will be $8.89 million if the congregation votes to accept the terms and request dismissal. Yes, it is 1.5 orders of magnitude larger than the terms that FPC Houston got. In addition, for FPC Houston the quorum requirement was 30% of the membership, it is 50% for Menlo Park. And the required supermajority is 3/4 for Menlo Park while it was the 2/3 for FPC Houston. The differences due to presbytery policy are striking for two churches of very similar size (3,567 members for FPC Houston and 3,382 members for Menlo Park according to the 2012 list). As my title says – The Diversity of Dismissals.

The PC(USA)’s polity places dismissals firmly in the authority of the presbytery and each church was obliged to deal with their presbytery in coming to an agreement about the terms of dismissal. One of the places that Menlo Park discusses the terms of the agreement is in Pastor John Ortberg’s February 2nd sermon. In there he talks about the process of arriving at these numbers saying:

Where did this figure come from, and why is it so high? Sorry for the complexity around this, but we want to be as transparent as we can. From the perspective of our church, part of what is suboptimal in our current denominational system is that there are no clear objective guidelines to arrive at a financial figure in a process like this one.

But regarding this financial number, in looking at a lot of the material on their web site I have not seen a breakdown of where this number actually comes from, if there is per capita, mission, property and new church development built into it.

For more details about the voting process there is a short video clip online from February 16th where Ruling Elder Ken Perez discusses what is coming up. In that discussion he also announces that a 5 year reversionary clause on the main property has been added by the presbytery to the terms of the agreement. The church’s main web page about the dismissal has a lot of information and there is another page devoted to this weekend’s vote.

Let me return to TE Ortberg’s February 2nd sermon for a moment and highlight a couple of the comments he made. In his discussion he talks about the various options the congregation has relative to the large cost of departure. Besides paying the millions of dollars, one option is that they could turn down the offer and stay. Another is that they could walk away from their property. He discusses how neither of these fits the missional vision of the church. The fourth option is litigation and he responds to that option this way:

We could say, “We’ll go to court.” However, we think public litigation would be a bad witness for the church. It’s not good for the bride of Jesus. It’s not what God is calling us to do, and nobody wanted to do that.

While not doubting that this is their rationale in avoiding this path, and respecting them greatly for it, it is also worth noting that based on case law in the State of California, specifically the Episcopal Church Cases decided by the State Supreme Court, they would have an uphill battle in retaining control of the property through civil court.

I want to make two final comments about Menlo Park PC’s missional vision as expressed in a couple of different places. In the church’s online material the argument that is regularly presented for transferring is that the necessity of working with the presbytery is burdensome and getting in the way of their missional vision. As TE Ortberg says in that February 2nd sermon:

As you all know, we have a vision. We believe we have a mission. We want to reach thousands of people for Jesus Christ around this Bay Area that needs him so much. We want to launch new sites to help us do that.

We believe we simply cannot do that effectively if we remain in the denomination.

And this is a sentiment that is echoed in the comments by RE Perez where he talks about the issues they have had with the presbytery. Instead of emphasizing what may be a mismatch in the visions of the two governing bodies it sounds to my listening that he is leaning to a more congregational form of government and he wants to get the presbytery out of the way so the church can have more autonomy and flexibility.

Taking this one step further, as I look at all this material throughout it there is a tendency to speak of problems with the denomination when some of the issues are specifically with the presbytery. Picky polity point I know, but we do work on hierarchical structure where presbyteries do have identities and some autonomy from the synods and the General Assembly. It strikes me that the PC(USA) is getting painted with too broad a brush.

The second item I wanted to mention is a good article from The Almanac titled Changes Ahead for Menlo Park Presbyterian Church. In some ways I think the article does a better job of in explaining the church’s vision than the church’s own online material does. For example, it does discuss the issue of the church wanting to expand as a multi-site church while running up against the limitations of geographic presbyteries. It says:

MPPC Communications Director Nicole Laubscher
said ECO’s 110 churches are organized into nine presbyteries by both
geography and similarity, such as size, as opposed to geography alone as
done by the Presbyterian Church (USA).

“For us it’s about the pace of change,” she
said. ECO offers more flexibility, whereas PCUSA is designed for small
churches in a single location. “It creates tremendous barriers.”

When MPPC first sought to expand outside Menlo
Park, she said, “It was really hard. At the time, we didn’t know if we
would just get a no. Instead of being supported, encouraged and helped,
it was another barrier to hurdle. … it’s just not the right framework
to support a larger, multi-site church.”

In PCUSA, the presbytery, or regional
governing body, is responsible for planning and placing new churches.
Tom Conrad, chair of the PCUSA team selected to deal with the proposed
departure of the Menlo Park church, agreed the concept of opening
multiple sites doesn’t fit well with that organization’s system; as a
result, there are “precious few” multi-site churches.

The article also does a good job of exploring the downside to the dismissal agreement.

Some former and current members of MPPC said
they think the theological differences are influencing the church’s
desire to change organizations.

Debra Holvick, who stopped attending several years ago, got re-involved to be able to participate in the upcoming vote.

“This was the church I was baptized in, I went
to Sunday school there, I was married there, my father’s memorial was
held there, my mother remarried there and my children were raised
there,” she told the Almanac. “That church has been a huge part of my
life, so I felt responsible for it and I don’t want them to take it in
an unchristian-like direction and say this is part of who I am.”

Ms. Holvick said taking a stance against gay
clergy and same-sex marriage may not be a major motivation for changing
denominations, but it does come with the package.

Later on there are comments about whether the almost $9 million buy-out price could be “better spent funding scholarships and buying food for those in need in the local community…”

So we wait for the meeting this Sunday to see how the congregation as a whole discerns the will of God regarding its future affiliations. Stay tuned…

[Ed. note: For the record, I did resist using the cliché “Houston we have a problem” as a subtitle to this post. But yes, another post and its correction did use a variation on it.]

Presbyterian News Headlines For The First Half Of February 2014

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Let me begin today with a bit of the follow-up news to the election of the Moderator for the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. First, concerning the successful nominee, the Rev. Dr. Michael Barry:

New Presbyterian Moderator vows to reach out and serve – from Belfast News Letter

Presbyterian moderator says politicians must find way of dealing with past – from The Irish Times

Just a day after his election, new Presbyterian Church Moderator sparks row by telling gay people to stop having sex – from Belfast Telegraph

And the presence of the Rev. Liz Hughes in the final vote, and falling one vote short, has grabbed some significant media attention as well:

Town-born Liz just misses out in historic bid to become Moderator – from Portadown Times

A female Moderator is surely inevitable – from Portadown Times

In Scotland, the Scottish Parliament approved a same-sex marriage bill with corresponding reaction from the various Scottish churches including the Church of Scotland and the Free Church of Scotland:

Scotland becomes seventeenth country to approve same-sex marriages – from Reuters

Same-sex marriage vote prompts church concerns – from Daily Record

Churches denounce law that legalizes same-sex marriage in Scotland – from Ecumenical News

Although individual pastors are speaking out in favour of the legislation:

Cambuslang minister goes against own church’s view on same sex marriage – from Daily Record

Also from Scotland, the Free Church of Scotland confirmed they had settled a lawsuit a few months back related to the death of a visiting Peruvian boy almost eight years ago. The lawsuit was brought by the boy’s parents:

Free Church of Scotland settles with crash boy’s parents – from the BBC

Finally, it was also announced that the jewelry – ring and cross – that are the signs of the office of the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, have been replaced after they were stolen with a bag at an airport last year:

New ring and cross for Kirk’s Moderator after originals stolen – from STV News

And in Illinois the long-running story of the fate of a Presbyterian camp on Lake Michigan has apparently been settled. While there was hope of saving the camp, with the vote of the Presbytery of Chicago the land was sold to the developer:

Presbyterian group’s plan to sell Michigan campsite meets opposition – from Chicago Sun-Times (Feb 5)

Church votes to sell Saugatuck campground property to developer for $10M – from The Grand Rapids Press (Feb 10)

Sale of 130-acre Presbyterian Camps completed – from Holland Sentinel (Feb 18)

In Mississippi, a celebration and update on a church damaged by a tornado last year:

Year after tornado, damaged Hattiesburg church holds communion – from the Clarion Ledger

From Africa, we first have an op-ed piece the decries some of the steps pastors are taking, including at least one Presbyterian one, to get around laws so they can accumulate more wealth for them and their churches:

Kenya: The Terrorism of Our Modern-Day Pastors – from allAfrica

There were also comments about the economy from the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and suggestion that spending be cut instead of taxes raised:

Imposition of taxes is not the answer – Presby Moderator – from Graphic Online

While from the island of Trinidad a problem at a Presbyterian school has parents and students protesting:

Rats close Erin Road Presbyterian – from Trinidad Express

Also in this time period we had news that Joan Mondale initially entered hospice and died a few days later. Her service was held at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis with music provided by the Macalester College Concert Choir. She was a daughter of the manse and her father, the Rev. John Maxwell Adams, was the chaplain at Macalester for a number of years. One reason that her passing caught my attention is that my father was a student at Macalester at the same time she was and worked closely with Rev. Adams in connection with the chapel services. I believe I had the pleasure of meeting Rev. Adams, probably at the 183rd General Assembly in 1971.

At this point there is a lot of news out there and you may notice a couple of high-profile items missing from this list. I do hope to make time to blog those individually in the next few weeks. In addition, as GA season approaches the news volume will probably be increasing as well. Stay tuned…

Presbyterian News Headlines For The Second Half Of January 2014

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I am going to begin this post with a narrative form more in the style of my regular writing but I am not sure what to do with this otherwise.

In mid-January the BBC in Norther Ireland aired a two-part documentary and interview on Ian Paisley who helped found the Free Presbyterian Church and what is now the Democratic Unionist Party. This TV show has stirred a lot of feelings on all sides involved in the troubled history of that region and Dr. Paisley had some pretty strong things to say, not all of them what you might predict. As one article in the News Letter headlines it, his criticism of both the DUP and Free Presbyterian church were brutal. I will leave the civil politics aside – at least to the extent I am able in a situation where civil and secular are inexorably linked – and just note another article in the Belfast Telegraph that is headlined “It was religion, not politics that drove Ian Paisley.” In the interview, according to the online press reports, he talks about how the elders of his church forced him out. The Sunday following the airing of the programme the media were at the church he had pastored for many years with the Belfast Telegraph getting some reaction from congregants and the News Letter finding the church members “tight-lipped.” Lots more out there about this programme but to wrap this up let me note some published qualified comments from Dr. Paisley in IrishCentral about the Catholics were correct in standing up for their civil rights,  a profile piece on his wife Eileen, and some brief comments about all this from his son Ian, Jr.

And now back to my usual format for this stuff…

In other news from Ireland, these items from the Presbyterian Church in Ireland

Irish Presbyterians back Syrian victims – from Belfast News Letter; “Representatives from churches around the world have been meeting
in Lebanon this week to consult with and give support to churches
working to bring about relief and peace in Syria. The Presbyterian Church in Ireland is represented by its
board of mission overseas convenor the Rev Cheryl Meban at
consultations organised by the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and
Lebanon (NESSL).”

Presbyterian concern on mental health issue – from Belfast News Letter about a conference the church held

From Scotland an exception to the trend that new Church of Scotland ministers are typically second career…

Church of Scotland’s Young Turk ordained aged 25 – from Scottish Express

Turning to Africa, news from Nigeria and Ghana:

Presbyterian Church, Muslim group laud Jonathan over anti-gay law – from The Guardian Nigeria

Nigerian school stakes claim to have set up Africa’s first printing press – from The Guardian; “The Hope Waddell Training Institution, a school in Nigeria founded in 1895 by Presbyterian missionaries, is laying claim to have set up Africa’s oldest press. But could it be so?”

Rev Martey urges Christians to enter politics – from Joy Online; in comments by the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana

In Asia:

Presbyterian Pastor On Trial On Extremism Charges in Kazakhstan – from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

and then two days later

Kazakh Court Drops Extremism Charges Against Pastor – from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; but some lesser charges have not been dropped

From North America:

Presbyterian pastor of NY church dies a month after gas station explosion in Conn. – AP article published by, among others, the Daily Reporter

And that is it for now. A few other things caught my eye in these two weeks but I am holding those for further developments or I might develop them beyond the scope of a headline post.

Where Are The Ruling Elders?

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Fair warning – this probably qualifies as another one of my rants on one of the topics I rant about from time to time – Where are the ruling elders?

In the last few days two documents have come out of agencies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) that seem to overlook the fact that according to our Book of Order “This church shall be governed by presbyters, that is, ruling elders and teaching elders.” (F-3.0202 first part) and the last part of G-2.0301:

Ruling elders, together with teaching elders, exercise leadership, government, spiritual discernment, and discipline and have responsibilities for the life of a congregation as well as the whole church, including ecumenical relationships. When elected by the congregation, they shall serve faithfully as members of the session. When elected as commissioners to higher councils, ruling elders participate and vote with the same authority as teaching elders, and they are eligible for any office.

And your point is…?

The first document to come out was a press release from the Presbyterian Publishing Company (PPC) – one of the six agencies of the PC(USA) – concerning their decision to stop using Cokesbury for distribution to brick and mortar locations and that they would now distribute their products almost exclusively online through their own system. Now that is an interesting development in and of itself and I may return to it. But within the press release was the line:

PPC encourages all PC(USA) clergy, church educational and office
professionals, religious academics, and lay members to support the
denominational publisher by purchasing books and resources through these
websites.

And where are the ruling elders? For those not familiar with Presbyterian polity they do not fall into the category of “lay members.” And this from the publishing house that operates the The Presbyterian Leader imprint. Maybe it is just that the ruling elders are not encouraged to support the denominational publisher.

OK, I was going to let this go as a one-off, an oversight, a press release put together in a hurry. After all, one point does not define a trend. But then we got another point…

In the meeting this morning of another PC(USA) agency board, the Presbyterian Mission Agency, a proposed revision to the Directory for Worship was revealed. The Board agreed to send it to the 221st General Assembly with the recommendation to forward it on to the whole denomination for study. I will have more to say on this document at a later time. For now I will say that there are a number of typos in the document that need to be cleaned up.

But reading through the Rational section I was intreagued and concerned to read about the focus group they put together to get reaction to the document:

A diverse group of scholars, pastors, and mid council leaders provided feedback on the proposed revision…

And where are the ruling elders? Yes, within the scholars and mid-council leaders there probably were ruling elders. But if pastors were invited were ruling elders from churches invited to give feedback on the document and not just ecclesiastical professionals?

As regular readers of my blog know the equal governance of teaching and ruling elders together is an area that I am hyper-sensitive about and when I read documents with that filter things like this jump out at me. I am sure that some of you are thinking that I am blowing this out of proportion. But to me the situation is something to pay attention to. If we are serious about our government structure then we need to be intentional about including ruling elders in the mix the same way we are intentional about including the wide diversity of our membership in the decision making process. Furthermore, the joint decision making by teaching and ruling elders is the genius of our system and provides the means for better decision making (see Landon Whitsitt’s Open Source Church – sorry, could not find it on The Presbyterian Leader to link to) and it is the means to engage a greater cross-section of the church in ministry. Both of these quotes, to me at least, place more emphasis on the institutional side of the church and not it’s wide diversity.

OK, my coffee break is over. Just a few thoughts for now. But I leave you with the famous words of Cynthia Bolbach, the Moderator of the 219th General Assembly…

“Elders Rule!”

Presbyterian News Headlines For The First Half Of January 2014

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I am going to take a break from my research and writing on church property news long enough to highlight a few news headlines. As I have been going back and forth to the headlines over the last few months I am thinking that maybe this model of doing half of a month at a time might be the right balance. We will see. But on to a few of the items that have caught my attention since the first of the year.

A lot happening in Scotland right now but let me mention one new item I have not covered previously — the Scottish Parliament holding hearings on a petition regarding the role of churches in the schools and a recommendation to limit their role.

MSPs hear bid to cut religious influence on schools – from Herald Scotland

Edinburgh secularists challenge religious privilege in Scotland’s education system – from National Secular Society

Church responds to Petitions Committee decision on religious representation on local authority education committees – from Chruch of Scotland

Also related to the Church of Scotland and schools is a program advocated for by the church to help all younger students with school meals

Chewing over the details: what will free school meals mean for Scots pupils? – from The Courier

And a chaplain who was dismissed because of comments he made on Facebook

Church of Scotland minister loses role as chaplain of Glasgow school after calling homosexuality a ‘disorder’ – from The Telegraph

There was also wide coverage of a BBC program that profiled Scottish minister’s wives

In and beyond the Manse – looking at the role of the Minister’s wife – from Stornoway Gazette

Scottish church ministers’ wives set to star in new reality television series – from Scottish Daily Record

And the Church of Scotland Youth program issued an interesting paper

A guide to ethical living from Church of Scotland Youth – from Scottish Christian

On to Africa – a few interesting headlines from there

Ghana: Minister Bemoans Corruption in Churches – from allAfrica

Presidential Authority Is Abused In Ghana-Rev. Martey – from Spy Ghana

Morally Refreshing Leadership from Moderator Martey – from GhanaWeb

BT Synod urges women to contest as independent candidates – from Nyasa Times

I have mentioned this before but here is an update

Paving the way: Lebanon’s first female pastor – from MSN News (although I think the author really does not understand some of the religious subtleties; the earlier story was much better)

And finally, this headline from the PC(USA)

Youth Convince Presbytery to Divest from Fossil Fuel Companies – from Burnsville Patch; this will be an overture from the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area to the 221st General Assembly and it looks like it will be a concurring overture to one already submitted by the Presbytery of Boston. Looking through the supporting materials I personally see some issues and I may elect to return to this for a more detailed discussion at a later time. Among other things a particular quote comes to mind… “One word: Plastics”

That’s it for this time. Back with more in a couple of weeks…

Presbyterian News Headlines For December 2013

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Yes, I am going to attempt to do a whole month at once to get caught up. This does mean that by necessity I will be a bit selective about the headlines included.

The month began with a public safety helicopter crash in Scotland that saw the Church of Scotland on the front line with chaplaincy services and worship services of remembrance:

Chaplains at front line of Glasgow tragedy – from Church of Scotland press release

Prayers for helicopter victims – from BBC News

And in Kenya, ten youths were killed and thirty six more injured in a bus crash as they were returning from a Presbyterian Church in East Africa youth conference:

President mourns Mariakani accident victims – from Standard Digital News

In Louisville it was decided that the resources were not available to reopen the Presbyterian Community Center that had been closed a few months earlier:

No hope of reopening the Presbyterian Community Center in Smoketown, board says – from Courier-Journal

Concerning damage to churches, we have two fires and the theft of copper pipes:

Fire damage closes 900-year-old Aberdour church at Christmas – from Fife Today

160-Year-Old Long Island Church Goes Up In Flames – from CBS New York

Wyoming church recovering after copper pipe theft – from Times Leader, in Pennsylvania

In Africa, words from church leaders to politicians:

Ghana pregnant with bribery, corruption — Moderator – from CitifmOnline

ASUU Strike: Presbyterian Prelate urges government action – from WorldStage News; about a student strike in Nigeria

Two Presbyterian-related schools in the U.S. got court orders exempting them on religious grounds from the Department of Health and Human Services Affordable Care Act Contraception Mandate:

Judge rules Geneva College does not have to provide coverage for contraception – from Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Christian universities and seminary win against HHS mandate in federal court – from examiner.com (Westminster Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania)

And finally, two more articles. The first a gift that allows a Presbyterian camp to continue and the second a new high-profile hire in the Church of Scotland Communications Office:

Woman, 81, leaves church camp $2.5 million from her estate – from WBRC (Birmingham)

BBC’s Rob Flett to join Church of Scotland comms team – from allmedia scotland.com

And with that we close out the year. Best wishes for the new one and back with more headlines in a few days.

Top Ten (Plus) Presbyterian News Topics of 2013

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As we spend this day looking back I thought I would once again post my personal list of the top ten news topics related to Presbyterians around the world from 2013. In this list I deliberately use the term “topics” because, as you will see, there were a number of parallels in the different branches when it came to certain items.

And so here, in no particular order, are my picks for the top ten news topics of 2013…

Elections, Elections, Elections and a Referendum

This fall it seemed that various Presbyterian branches were regularly linked with elections happening in their state or country. The list includes the Presbyterian Synod in Mizoram state in India asking for – and getting – a change in polling dates, CCAP synods defining the terms for political involvement of clergy running for office and commentary from the Presbyterian Church of Ghana on election decisions.

Falling into this category is the work of the Church of Scotland running forums and debates ahead of next year’s Scottish independence referendum.

Disasters

Somehow the natural disasters, and the global Presbyterian response, for this year stick out more than in previous lists and it includes damage done in a tornado outbreak in the central U.S. in May and typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in November.

World Hotspots

The variety that could be included here is pretty large but let me mention Presbyterians speaking out to two of them – the response against attacks on Syria (e.g. PC(USA) ) and those speaking out about the violence in South Sudan (e.g. Presbyterian Church in Ireland).

In a particularly moving story, a Church of Scotland pastor lost many members of his family in an attack on a church in Pakistan and spoke of forgiving the attackers.

New Presbyterian Leaders at Seminaries

Four Presbyterian teaching elders were named, approved and/or installed at seminaries in the Presbyverse: Rev. Dr. Stafford Carson at Union Theological College, Belfast; Rev. Dr. M. Craig Barnes at Princeton Theological Seminary; Rev. Dr. Mark Labberton at Fuller Theological Seminary; Rev. Dr. J. Ligon Duncan at Reformed Theological Seminary.

Church of Scotland General Assembly Middle Way on Same-sex Issues

The Church of Scotland General Assembly dealt with ordination and marriage issues and rather than adopting one of the two options presented by their Special Commission chose a middle option that affirmed past teaching while opening the door to congregations being able to dissent. This led to their speaking against the proposed legislation in the Scottish Parliament that would permit same-sex marriage and asking for robust religious protections. In addition, the compromise solution was not completely satisfactory to the whole church and a few pastors and congregations have left.

Congregational Loss in the PC(USA) and Gracious Dismissal

In the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 2012 Membership Statistics for the first time ever the number of churches transferred out of the denomination (110 churches) was larger than the number of churches dissolved (86 churches).

Associated with this was the emphasis on presbyteries having Gracious Dismissal Policies and fairly generous allowances to be dismissed with property, although there was at least one PJC case and some civil litigation, e.g. Caldwell and Highland Park.

Re-purposing Church Buildings

Along with the dissolution of churches comes the question of what to do with the property? Although to be fair this also may be a question if the church outgrows their existing property. Answers this year include a residence in Scotland, a restaurant in Belfast, and maybe a town hall in Maryland. In addition, there were several, at least, demolished and controversy down under with a presbytery of the Uniting Church proposing to close churches and sell off the buildings to satisfy debts.

With that I have hit all the cross-branch and big-topic themes that I ranked highest and have to decide on the last three from a field of several worthy and interesting candidates. Well, this is my blog and I can adjust the rules so here are five more…

The BBC Northern Ireland produced a documentary on Irish Presbyterians called “An Independent People”

Also from Northern Ireland, there was an agreement that the leaders of the failed Presbyterian Mutual Society would be ineligible to head up other companies and word of at least one bank that declined the offer to take over the failing institution.

The work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission regarding the dark history of native residential schools continues in Canada and this year the Commission was addressed by the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Canada and the church issued a formal apology to Kenora residential school survivors.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last year issued guidelines on what was required to be included in employee health care plans and several Presbyterian-affiliated organizations objected to the contraception mandate. This year at least two, Geneva College and Westminster Theological Seminary, won court cases exempting them from the HHS mandate. Review by the U.S. Supreme Court is expected so this may come back again next year.

And the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation issued a new hymnal, “Glory to God”, but not without a little controversy about one hymn that was originally to be included but deleted when a slight word change was not approved by the authors.

And there you have my suggestions for the top ten twelve Presbyterian news topics of 2013. Your mileage may vary.

So as we look ahead to 2014 – and many of my friends around the world are already there or now busy celebrating Hogmanay – I wish all of you a very Happy New Years and best wishes for the coming year.

Looking Ahead To The 221st General Assembly Of The PC(USA)

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Tomorrow we will reach the six-month point ahead of the meeting of the 221st General Assembly (2014) of the the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). As we look ahead to the meeting of that Assembly a number of things are already in place but so much more is to come.

The GA will meet from June 14-21, 2014, in Detroit, Michigan, and while the city has had some highly publicized problems all concerned with the Assembly are assuring us that the issues will not affect the Assembly. The Office of the General Assembly (OGA) issued a statement of support following the city’s bankruptcy filing and the Committee on the General Assembly (COGA) visited the site this fall and was satisfied with the preparations and location. Regarding the situation with the city, the Rev. Tom Hay, OGA’s associate for assembly operations, made the following analogy in the article:

Detroit has much to teach the church, Hay said. The city is an
institution that trusted in old patterns after they stopped working.

“In many ways, that’s something like us,” he said.

In addition, in a bit of a test run, the Fall Polity Conference was held in Detroit in October. However, that was a much smaller gathering and so was held in a hotel and not in the conference center.

The Committee on Local Arrangements (COLA) is up and running and has a web page on the Presbytery of Detroit site, a Facebook page and a Twitter feed (@DetroitCOLA). They have a 23 minute video, Abound in Hope, that introduces the church to Detroit and the PC(USA) ministries and history of the area.

“Abound in Hope” is the theme of the Assembly and will be reflected in the worship. One of the more interesting and significant changes this year is that the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper will be a part of each daily worship service. In addition, GA Moderator Neal Presa has announced on Facebook the individuals who he has invited to preach at these services:

Delighted that Mark Labberton (President of Fuller Theological Seminary), Anne Emile Zaki (Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Egypt & Calvin Institute for Worship), Luke Powery (Dean of the Chapel, Duke University), and Martha Moore-Keish
(Associate Professor of Theology, Columbia Theological Seminary) have
accepted my invitation to serve as the preachers and presiders at the
daily celebration of the Eucharist at the 221st General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) next June 2014 in Detroit, MI.

The
five of us will preach from the Assembly gathering text Romans 15:13
and theme “Abounding in Hope” with each of us connecting that text to a
Gospel reading.

Jazzed!

Including Mr. Presa, it appears that the list is all Teaching Elders in academia, but it should be good preaching.

The business is accumulating and the PC-Biz system is up and running. It currently lists 31 overtures on the usual wide variety of topics that includes boycotting HP, to a study of drug control policy, to the consultation before redrawing presbytery boundaries. I have so far spotted four overtures related to the definition of marriage in the Directory for Worship and two regarding divestment in companies – one related to involvement in the Middle East and another for fossil fuel producers. There are also those of the “blood on every page” nature suggesting changes to the Book of Order that originated from particular polity issues that have arisen over the last couple of years. I hope to have a closer look as some of those soon.

Along with the overtures the affinity groups are starting to get their priorities together. The one that I have seen published so far is from the Covenant Network. More are sure to come (or I have missed them).

At the present time there are two announced and endorsed candidates standing for Moderator of the 221st General Assembly – RE Heath Rada and TE John Wilkinson. If typical patterns hold there are one or two more waiting in the wings.

A number of special committees and task forces are trying to wrap up their work. Maybe the most closely watched is the Mid-Councils Commission (Continuing) that the last GA rearranged a bit but as of the September meeting it looked like they would be recommending fewer/larger synods but their additional recommendations were still being considered. Likewise, the Special Commission on the Belhar Confession has still not decided on a formal recommendation whether the church should again consider it’s inclusion in the Book of Confessions. It has however produced a study guide, The Bible and Belhar, for the church to look at. In addition, a study document on marriage has been produced and congregations and other groups in the denomination are encouraged to participate in this six-week study ahead of the Assembly. A special committee looking at the Preparation for Ministry Process has released an interim report. These, and a couple other groups, have until February 14 to submit their final reports and recommendations.

Finally, there is a unique video project called Were You There? being curated by Andrew Yeager-Buckley. It is a bit more than Snapchat in that all of us who have been to previous GA’s are invited to share our experiences in up to 60 second videos. As the web site says:

Record a short video on your cell phone or video camera – no more than
60 seconds – that tells what lessons you learned as a commissioner or
advisory delegate. What do you wish someone had told you before the
Assembly, or what would you have done differently during the gathering?
And, don’t forget to tell us your name, presbytery and the Assembly you
attended.

(And the Assembly we attended? For some GA Junkies that could be all 60 seconds. )

Finally, for those of us thinking of going it looks like registration and housing info is not up on the sites yet, but there is a handy link to the tourism site at VisitDetroit.com.

I am personally still mulling over whether I will be there in person but I will certainly be watching as the business and news items build up.  Stay tuned…

UPDATE (12/29/13): An interesting article from the LA Times about Detroit becoming a tourist destination to view the decline and abandoned buildings.

Second Moderator Candidate For PC(USA) 221st GA (2014) – TE John Wilkinson

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After a pause of almost seven months from the endorsement of the first moderator candidate we now have a second candidate endorsed and standing for the position of Moderator of the 221st General Assembly (2014) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). This past Tuesday, 26 November, the Presbytery of Genesee Valley endorsed Teaching Elder John Wilkinson to stand for Moderator of the General Assembly.

TE Wilkinson has been the pastor and head of staff at Third Presbyterian Church of Rochester, New York, for the last dozen years and he previously served as Executive Associate Pastor at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago and as pastor of St. James Presbyterian Church, also in Chicago. The Chicago connection continues back to his M.Div. from McCormick Seminary as well as a Ph.D. from Northwestern.

He currently serves as the Moderator of the Presbytery of Genesee Valley and he is on the leadership teams of the Covenant Network and Next Church. His Moderator curriculum vitae shows extensive service to the denomination at all levels including current service on the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly and his recent service as moderator of that committee, as well as his past service on the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church.

Rev. Wilkinson has his official moderator candidate web site up and running and from that we learn that his theme is “With an urgency born of this hope…”, a phrase taken from the second to last paragraph of the Confession of 1967. For context, the full paragraph is:

With an urgency born of this hope the church applies itself to present tasks and
strives for a better world. It does not identify limited progress with the kingdom of God
on earth, nor does it despair in the face of disappointment and defeat. In steadfast hope
the church looks beyond all partial achievement to the final triumph of God.

He speaks to this theme in one of the three posts currently on the blog section of the web site. Among other things he says “And urgency. Not fear, not anxiety, not panic, but urgency. The work to which we are called matters, and is important.”

On the web site you will also find a narrative bio section and a section called A Shared Vision that includes some links to his writing as well as a Presbyterian News Service article about a linkage of city churches in Rochester. And there is a section called Prayers for the Journey that in addition to the prayer printed there invites you to submit your prayers. And I did take note of the fact that the design was by Cleave Design – another Chicago connection but also a Third Church connection.

If you want to follow along with Rev. Wilkinson’s stand for Moderator, besides the web site he invites you to follow his Moderator page on Facebook. If you are interested he also has a personal Facebook page and a LinkedIn profile. I did not see an RSS feed on the site and there is no mention of a Twitter, or any other social media, account.

Coverage of his endorsement for Moderator has included an article in the local media, the Democrat and Chronicle, as well as the Presbyterian Outlook.

As I read through his material what may be the most unique aspect, in my experience, of his candidacy is the letter the session of Third Presbyterian Church sent to the congregation announcing and explaining his candidacy. In the letter is a paragraph linking this possible election as Moderator to the church stewardship campaign:

In a few days you will receive your annual Stewardship mailing, giving you an opportunity to support the staff and programs of Third Church. Given the potential we now have of national, and even international recognition, we encourage you to think carefully and prayerfully about the support you can provide to your Church.

Well, that is a bit of a unique hook for the annual stewardship campaign.

And so we wish Rev. Wilkinson well as he joins the field of candidates standing for Moderator of the General Assembly. Our prayers are with him as well as all the others currently endorsed and those that are still discerning the call.

Having said that, I will finish up for this evening but will note my eager anticipation of word of more Moderator candidates that should be arriving within the next day or two. Stay tuned…   (UPDATE: And if you are curious here they are)