Presbyterian Headlines For The Week Ending September 29, 2013

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Well, this was a bit slower week for Presbyterian news but here are a couple of things that caught my attention.

Let’s start off with the PC(USA) and two headlines of note for the week:

Whitworth enters into new partnerships with Presbyterian church – from Whitworth University News; “Last week, Whitworth President Beck A. Taylor strengthened
Whitworth’s relationship with the Presbyterian church by entering into
formal partnerships with the Association of Presbyterian Colleges and
Universities, the North Puget Sound Presbytery, and the Presbytery of
the Inland Northwest. All three entities are a part of the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.).”

Presbytery of Boise files lawsuit over Caldwell church – from Idaho Press-Tribune; “The Presbytery of Boise of the Presbyterian
Church USA filed legal action this afternoon in Canyon County to recover
Boone Memorial Presbyterian Church in Caldwell.“

Moving on to the Church of Scotland, a wide variety of headlines for the week:

Grangemouth-based minister mourns family Peshawar victims – from BBC News; “A Church of Scotland minister who lost several family members in
Sunday’s bomb attack on a church in Peshawar has taken part in a
memorial service at the Pakistani city’s cathedral.”

Kirk anti-poverty work wins European award – from Ekklesia;
“The Priority Areas Committee of the Church of Scotland has won the
European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) Award 2013 for their role in
transnational inspiration and learning in the fight against poverty and
social exclusion.”

Church to meet over preacher’s lectures – from Herald Scotland; “PLANS for two Scottish lectures by a controversial
American preacher are to be discussed by Church of Scotland figures at a
meeting next week. Glasgow Presbytery is expected to seek to address
concerns raised by some Church figures over the booking of Bishop Jack
Spong – an Episcopalian who rejects the idea of a supernatural God and
does not believe Christ died for man’s sins – at Cairns Church,
Milngavie, and Orchardhill Parish Church in Giffnock.”

Unions join Kirk in plea for free meals – from Herald Scotland;
“TRADE unions and the Church of Scotland have joined a
call for all children in primaries one, two and three in Scotland to
receive free school meals. Scotland’s biggest teaching union, the EIS, public sector union
Unison, and the STUC joined children’s charities and anti-poverty
campaigners urging the Scottish Government to adopt plans for English
schools.”

Right at the end of the week there were a variety of headlines and statements from the Presbyterian Mizoram Synod in northeast India in advance of their elections. That spilled over into the next week so I will move those into my next installment.

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

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

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

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

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

This led the Kirk to issue its own clarification

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

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

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

Ministers face legal warning over gay marriage – from The Scotsman

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

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

Moving to the other side of the world:

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

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

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

In the PC(USA):

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

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

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

Ballston church keeps the faith through two fires – from YNN

Firefighters extinguish massive flames at Walhalla Church – from Fox Carolina

And a few others:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In other news from Ghana

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In New Zealand a disciplinary case is making the news:

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

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

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

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

Knox was not so monstrous – from Herald Scotland

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

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

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

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

Much, much more on this in the coming week.

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

2013 General Assembly Of The Presbyterian Church Of Australia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

8th Assembly Of The International Conference Of Reformed Churches

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Editorial Ignites Atonement Debate – from ABP News

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

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

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

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

On to other news…

Two stories from New Zealand:

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

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

Three stories from The Presbyterian Chuch of Ghana:

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

Presbyterian Church commissions 41 new ministers – from Ghana Web

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

From Scotland:

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

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

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

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

From Canada:

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

Community ministries struggling in the US:

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

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

A major announcement over the weekend related to theological education:

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

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

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

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

National Youth Assembly 2013 – Church Of Scotland

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On Saturday I Took My Daughter For A Short Walk…

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…Down the aisle of the church.


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

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

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

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

77th General Synod Of The Bible Presbyterian Church

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

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

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

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

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

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