Category Archives: CCAP

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.

Presbyterian News Headlines For The Week Ending October 20, 2013

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Another week on the quiet side in my news stream, and the couple of active items that were there are “works in progress” that I will defer to the next round when there should be something more to report than “the committee is thinking about it.”

So to begin with, a few items from churches in Africa:

Malawi: Domasi CCAP Advises Faithful to Vote – from allAfrica.com; “Domasi Presbytery of CCAP Blantyre Synod has called on all its faithful
that registered for the 2014 Tripartite Elections to exercise their
rights and responsibilities by voting for leaders of their choice.”

M’mbelwa roasts Livingstonia Synod over Kanyika mine – from Nyasa Times; “M’mbelwa district council on Monday took a swipe at  CCAP Livingstonia
Church and Society for frustrating the mining of niobium at Kanyika mine
in Mzimba.”

Presbyterian University College Council inaugurated – from Ghana News Agency; “The
Right-Reverend Professor Emmanuel Martey, Moderator of the General Assembly of
the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, has inaugurated the 5th Presbyterian
University College Council at Akropong.”

A couple of notes from the Church of Scotland:

Have your say on Scotland’s future – from Carrick Gazette; The Church of Scotland is ramping up the discussion sessions ahead of the independence vote.

Church of Scotland proposes changing religious observance in schools to ‘time for reflection’ – from Christian Today; “The Church of Scotland has proposed changing religious observance to a ‘time for reflection’. The Kirk said a time for reflection in schools would help shift the
debate about religious observance in schools from an argument between
opposing views to learning together.”

And finally from the PC(USA) and the Presbytery of Chicago:

Wild patience: Years of discussion lead to signing of covenant between presbytery and Islamic communities in Chicago – from The Presbyterian Outlook

So there is what caught my eye for last week.

Presbyterian News Headlines For The Week Ending August 25, 2013

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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.

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

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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.

Presbyterian News Headlines For The Week Ending June 22, 2013

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With the numerous Assemblies and Synods that have been happening over the last few weeks I have pushed the news headlines off to the side in favor of my following and commenting on the meetings. Having gotten a bit caught up, let me offer a few of the headlines that caught my attention last week and maybe I will later do an omnibus to cover a couple of interesting items that transpired in the earlier weeks.

First, a few interesting items not from a Presbyterian body but other Reformed bodies that have parallels or application to Presbyterians.

From the Christian Reformed Church General Synod:

Join a Faraway Classis If You Must, Synod Tells Churches – The Banner. CRC Churches allowed to join a non-adjoining classis for theological affinity.

Synod Approves New Study on Ministry to Those Who Are Gay – The Banner

And so far from the Reformed Church in America (The meeting is still going on):

Reformed Church Removes ‘Conscience’ Exemption for Women’s Ordination – Christian Post

Problems at the Presbyterian University of East Africa with financial and academic scandals:

Presbyterian University of East Africa given six months to comply with law – Standard Digital News: Need to get a charter or else license will expire

Students expose more rot at troubled Presbyterian University of East Africa University – Standard Digital News

Uhuru Kenyatta’s principal secretary nominee caught in varsity scandals – Standard Digital News: Political nominee was chair of the University Council

From the Mizoram, India, Synod:

Marriage should be between man and woman only: Mizo church – Times of India

Mizoram Presbyterian Church issues dress code for women – Mizonews.net

In other news…

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance receives grant from Red Cross –
Disaster News Network: To coordinate housing for Sandy relief workers

Obituary: Elizabeth Anne Cameron ‘Betty’ Walls, former general secretary of the Overseas Council of the Church of Scotland – The Scotsman

Presbyterian News Headlines For The Week Ending May 4, 2013

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Once again, the business before the Church of Scotland General Assembly makes the headlines but this time the story comes from the Church and Society Council:

Scottish Church denial of Jewish land rights stirs ire – From the Jerusalem Post

This is one of the few stories about this to hit the mainstream media. In the secular media the story has taken off with stories like this:

Church of Scotland Questions Right of Israel to Exist – from The Jewish Press.

Needless to say the blogosphere has taken off as well and I would point you to one of the more noted bloggers, His Grace on the Archbishop Cranmer blog.

If you want to read it for yourself you can read the Church and Society Council report and the study that is causing the commotion: The Inheritance of Abraham? A report on the ‘promised land’

And in the midst of all these issues in the Kirk the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, calls on the church not to divide:

Williams urges Kirk not to split over gay ministers – From The Scotsman

In other news…

Truth Commission hears Canadian abuse stories
– from the Church Times; and a story from the Presbyterian Church in Canada – Moderator John Vissers Addresses the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

PCUSA, Presbyterian Church of Korea Call for ‘Season of Prayer’ for Korean Peninsula – from the Christian Post

First Scots Independent Presbyterian Church officially founded in Beaufort – from the Hilton Head Island Packet

Rev Ted Mwambila dies: Ex-deputy SG [Secretary General] of CCAP Livingstonia Synod – from the Nyasa Times; while the country’s Vice-President used the occasion to speak to the church – Malawi VP Kachali begs Livingstonia CCAP Synod to tone down: Pays tribute to Rev Mwambila

Presbyterian News Headlines For The Week Ending May 26, 2012 — Assemblies, Departures and Arson

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This past week the headlines seemed to be dominated by General Assemblies, particularly the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland

Ministers attending General Assembly told to ‘clock in’ or lose expenses

Scotsman, 19 May 2012 (yes, slightly out of range but I wanted to keep the GA news together)
The Church of Scotland has a new electronic voting system which doubles as an attendance system at each session. Commissioners, not just ministers, must attend 10 sessions to get expenses reimbursed. A motion to change the Standing Rules to make it 12 sessions next year was defeated.

A move to restrict the use of Church of Scotland buildings to activities not in conflict with the religious principles of the Kirk led to a couple of different stories

General Assembly: Church accused of facilitating worship of ‘false idols’

Scotland on Sunday, 20 May 2012

Hindus object labeling of their deities as ‘false idols’ in Church of Scotland assembly

South Asia Mail, 26 May 2012

In other Assembly News…

General Assembly: Cash-strapped congregations told to donate more to Kirk

Scotsman, 25 May 2012
Insurance costs are rising dramatically

General Assembly: Pay day loan firms ‘doing great damage to society’

Scotsman, 22 May 2012
Related to the major economic report presented to the Assembly

At the same time the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland was meeting and their work generated a couple of headlines

Free Church of Scotland study sees same-sex marriage as ‘social experiment’

STV, 22 May 2012
Reporting on the marriage report the Free Church adopted

New ministers admitted to Free Church of Scotland

Stornoway Gazette, 25 May 2012
Two ministers that left the Church of Scotland over the choice of trajectory to move towards the ordination of active homosexuals were received by the Free Church GA.

In other news around the world

Southern Presbyterians Lose Third of Members, But Amicably

Christianity Today, 24 May 2012
In a commentary piece it is noted that in the church dismissals I mentioned last week two presbyteries, Mississippi and Tropical Florida, each graciously dismissed about one third of their membership.

And two high-profile congregational votes to request dismissal

Church votes to join new denomination

WYFF Greenville, 21 May 2012

Texas Presbyterian Church Splits Over Vote to Leave PCUSA

Christian Post, 23 May 2012 – Although in this case there was a large enough minority that a continuing group will be organized

Mixed reactions over Malawi’s plan to repeal anti-gay law

Christian Science Monitor, 21 May 2012
The proposal by the new president of Malawi to repeal laws banning homosexual practice and same-sex marriages is opposed by, among others, the Nkhoma Synod of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian.

Church daycare fire ruled arson

WAVY, 23 May 2012
A fire at Royster Memorial Presbyterian Church of Norfolk, VA, on May 9 was ruled to be arson

Presbyterian News Headlines For The Week Ending April 14, 2012

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Some interesting news items that crossed my screen this past week

Synod of Livingstonia Pledges to Support JB

Nyasa Times, April 10, 2012
In a continuation of the story last week about criticism from the Nkhoma Synod of the President of Malawi – who died of a sudden heart attack at the end of the week – another CCAP synod has spoken up in support of his successor Joyce Banda ( JB ).

Mizo church body issues dress code

Times of India, April 9, 2012
The Synod Executive Committee
of the Presbyterian Church of Mizoram, India, issued guidelines for modest dress for attending worship services and church gatherings. Another, probably updated, Times of India story about it is titled “No revealing, tight clothes in Mizo church“

Her Calling, Now With Ordination

The Herald-Sun, April 12, 2012
One of several stories about the ordination of Katie Ricks as a teaching elder, the first open homosexual woman to be ordained since the passage of PC(USA) Amendment 10-A.

Pitt cuts off some grad applications

Pittsburgh Tribune-Reivew, April 13, 2012
This article is about the University of Pittsburgh cutting applications to certain graduate programs as a potential first step to eliminating programs due to budget considerations. While the article does not mention it there is a Presbyterian connection in that one of the impacted departments, the Department of Religious Studies, has a Ph.D. Cooperative Program in Religion with Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

104-year-old preacher gave up driving, golf, but not the pulpit

wistv.com, April 14, 2012
And the feel-good story of the week about retired professor Dr. Joe Gettys who is about to turn 105 and still ministering at his Presbyterian Home and at the church he attends. The best quote from him is “The Lord left me here for a reason so I try to do something with it.”

Presbyterian News Headlines For The Week Ending April 7, 2012

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In this week’s news articles the most complex come from the country of Malawi and the Nkhoma Synod of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian. It began with a church-wide pastoral letter on Sunday April 1 that was critical of Malawi’s President Mutharika and his government for economic conditions and government corruption.

Blame Mutharika Govt. for Suffering of Malawians –CCAP Nkhoma Synod

Maravi Post, April 1, 2012

The Government responded a couple of days later saying that the church was not acting in good faith, was promoting unrest and was motivated by money because of a K10 million pledge by the government that was not fulfilled.

Govt says Nkhoma Synod crying for K10 million

Malawi Today, April 3, 2012

This story took an unexpected turn at the end of the week when President Mutharika died unexpectedly of a sudden heart attack. (BBC Article)

In other Presbyterian news…

Second Church of Scotland minister quits amid finance probe

Daily Record, April 7, 2012
The Convener of the Church of Scotland’s Mission and Discipleship Council became the second member of that Council to step down as the Kirk conducts an internal inquiry into “issues” regarding that committee which are reported to be related to financial business.

Iconic property sold near Glen Ellen

Press Democrat, April 4, 2012
The Presbytery of San Francisco is reported to have agreed to a sale of a camp property north of the San Francisco area.

More Updates Regarding Blantyre Synod, CCAP

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Well, things are not happening as quickly as they were a few weeks back, but since my last update there have been a couple of important developments in this story.

For those who need to have the details on the background, there is my original post on the story as well as one follow-up.  The short version is that the Moderator of Blantyre Synod of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian spoke out against a pastoral letter by the Roman Catholic bishops and it soon became clear that while he claimed to speak for the Synod the members of the Synod let it be known that they did not agree.  In the aftermath the Synod removed Rev. Mangisa from his position as Moderator and Rev. Chimenya, the deputy general secretary who appeared with the moderator at the press conference, was removed as well.  The Synod also decided that there were problems with the management style of the general secretary, the Rev. Kadawati, and while not removed from office he was informed that he could not request another term.

The first thing that has happened since my last discussion was that the dispute has moved from the ecclesiastical realm to the civil courts with The Nation reporting that Revs. Mangisa and Chimenya have gotten a High Court injunction against the Synod halting their removal from office.  Not much on details supporting the request for an injunction and not much has been mentioned about it in the last two weeks.  The Nyasa Times reports that a group has met to plan a response to the injunction and civil action.  We will have to see where this goes.

It is interesting tracking the arguments at this point.  The original problem was that Rev. Mangisa spoke out unilaterally claiming to represent the Synod.  What he spoke out against was how the Roman Catholic bishops had very publicly inserted themselves in a political debate.  This was actually the 20th time the bishops had done something like this and I’m pretty sure my readers are aware that denominations all over the world do this all the time.  In fact, the Human Rights Consultative Committee of Malawi has issued a report supporting the bishops’ letter.  But this has started at least some discussion in Malawi about the place of religion in the political sphere.  Now with the injunction, the secular has become involved in the ecclesiastical.

The second development is related to the administrative issue, but with an interesting twist.  Coming up next week is a special service and ceremony to unveil and dedicate a mausoleum honoring a former first lady of Malawi, Ethel Mutharika.  The Rev. McDonald Kadawati, the embattled general secretary of the Synod, was to have been the lead minister and master of ceremonies.  Now the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) has asked him to step aside and replaced him with… wait for it… Rev. Mangisa.  The article about this in The Nation has a bit of analysis, but I won’t even attempt any kremlinology or reading the tea leaves on this one.  Probably best to accept the easy explanation that the Mutharika family was no longer comfortable with the Rev. Kadawati.

So the story continues in the Blantyre CCAP Synod.  We will see how it progresses and what additional items of polity is touches on for us to discuss.  Stay tuned…