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In January Dr. Paul Capetz, professor of theology at United Theological Seminary in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, was restored to the exercise of ordained ministry by action of the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area. As a gay man, he had laid aside his ordination in 2000, in response to the adoption of the “fidelity and chastity” requirement.   Background >>

A greater threat than terrorism

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, writing for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, tells of his many recent encounters with the food crisis around the world, but especially in Africa.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is issuing an appeal through Presbyterian Disaster Assistance to support recovery efforts from the cyclone that struck Myanmar.

PDA is responding in Myanmar in partnership with Action by Churches Together (ACT) International and Church World Service. Both entities have local partners in Myanmar and will have representatives to help in the provision of relief items to cyclone survivors.

Attempts are being made to be in conversation with our partner churches in the area including the Presbyterian Church of Myanmar (located in northeastern Thailand), our PC(USA) regional liaison located in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Christian Conference of Asia, and Myanmar Council of Churches.

UN and Church World Services officials have reported that close to one million people are homeless and priority needs are for water purification tablets, plastic sheeting, basic medical kits, bed nets and food. Power and water supply have been disconnected, and the price of food has multiplied since the storm. Current estimates indicate tens of thousands of lives have been lost, with tens of thousands still missing.

Our church's generous gifts will help us stand with our brothers and sisters in long term recovery efforts as their broken lives and communities begin to heal.

From Presbyterian Disaster Assistance:

Situation Report on the Myanmar/Burma Cyclone

May 5, 2008

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) is readying to provide emergency assistance to survivors of the devastating cyclone in Myanmar that killed more than 22,000 people and left thousands more missing.

Tropical Cyclone Nargis, a storm with winds of 190 kph (120 mph), hit the Irrawaddy delta over the weekend.  The Irrawaddy Delta is the rice bowl for the impoverished Southeast Asian country of 53 million.

The full story so far -- with links for contributions, and more reports

Presbyterians and farmworkers deliver petitions to Burger King

A May 6 report from Presbyterian News Service begins: A delegation of Presbyterians joined a group of farmworker advocates in delivering 85,000 signatures to Burger King’s Miami headquarters last week urging the fast-food giant to join McDonald’s Corp. and Taco Bell to help increase the wages of Florida tomato pickers and improve working conditions in the growing fields.

The signatures from all 50 states and 42 countries were gathered as part of a national petition campaign launched in February by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a community-based labor rights group in Immokalee, FL that works in partnership with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and other faith-based, human-rights and student organizations.

The Rev. Ralph G. Clingan sent us a sermon he has prepared for Pentecost Sunday, for a congregation that he describes as having been “mortally wounded by a homophobic fundamentalist fellow Presbyterian minister.”

He traces the meaning of the gift of the Spirit as helping us to overcome “Past Hurts, Low Self Esteem, Grudges, and Resentments,” and helping others to do the same.

My Spiritual Pilgrimage toward Universalism:
Finding God’s All-embracing Love in Scripture

I was born, baptized, and nurtured in the Presbyterian Church in the United States (the old “Southern”). My church nurtured me in the faith of my forebears, but it assumed without question the culture of the South: white supremacist, 100% segregated, male dominant and female subordinate, prejudiced against Catholics and Jews, and against homosexuals. My pilgrimage of faith has been a steady growth away from all those cultural presuppositions, one after another. I have been “born again” several times as my growing understanding of Scripture has challenged and impelled me to move beyond. As a Presbyterian I think of my theology and my practical Christianity as being reformed and continually being reformed.

Another element in the Christian religion in which I grew up was the belief that without faith in Christ as Savior, no one could be saved.

His life has taken him through 30 years teaching as a missionary in Japan, travels in China and many other places, study of the Reformed tradition and the Bible, and wrestling with the human experiences of suffering and evil and much more.

Taylor tells of his struggles with the classic issues of free will, human evil, the place of Israel and Judaism in this universal view of God’s grace, as well as the place of other religions.

And his solid conclusion is best summed up thus:

In the light of my life-long study of God’s word in Scripture, and my experience as a preacher, teacher, and missionary, I have reached the deep conviction that God truly does include everyone in the gracious purpose of reconciliation. (p. 25 f.)

For a printable version in PDF format, click here.

He concludes:

The only way to have an agree to disagree answer to this question is to remove discriminatory language and create a level playing field. That is why I support removing the AI at this General Assembly and sending to presbyteries the removal or modification of G-6.0106b.

Then we will be free to agree to disagree in thought and in practice.

The Office of the General Assembly has now posted lists (in PDF format) of:

Gene TeSelle, Witherspoon Society Issues Analyst, views the recent PJC decision on same-sex marriage as a "late-breaking issue" that will doubtless create much heat and, we hope, a bit of light in the coming General Assembly.  Spahr had conducted two same-gender services in 2004 and 2005. In response to a complaint, the PJC of the Synod of the Pacific directed Redwoods Presbytery to issue a rebuke to her.  The GA PJC ruled that, because the Book of Order defines marriage as between one man and one woman, there is no such thing as same-sex marriage. Therefore Spahr's alleged violation was not actionable, because  the act she was accused of doesn't exist.

TeSelle explores some of the ramifications of the decision, some early reactions to it, and possible ways that progressives may want to respond.

For two differing reactions from Bruce Reyes-Chow, who is standing for Moderator, and conservative pastor Bob Davis, click here.

And for earlier reports on the decision >>

What do you think?

Should we approach the 208^th General Assembly seeking ways to “agree to disagree,” or is some more definitive action needed, one way or another?

Grants will support congregation-based community programs
[5-2-08]

From Presbyterian News Service — The Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP) in partnership with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Small Church and Community Ministry office, recently allocated $214,000 to 39 congregation-based community organizations (CBCOs) in urban and rural areas across the country.

They are among the hundreds of Presbyterian U.S. congregations making a difference in their local communities through CBCOs.

CBCOs are broad-based coalitions of congregations working in partnership with other community organizations that address quality of life issues such as affordable housing, public healthcare for children, living wage and public education.

Grants are provided to support training for lay leaders, pastors, middle governing bodies staff and seminarians to develop the skills for congregational-based community organizing. “Presbyterian congregations and their leaders are working together through congregational-based community organizations with other churches and faith communities to effectively address poverty-related issues impacting their larger communities,” said the Rev. Phil Tom, associate for the PC(USA)’s Small Church and Community Ministry office.

The funds are from the Community Development portion of the One Great Hour of Sharing offering. Recipients were chosen during a March 14 meeting of the Presbyterian Hunger Program Advisory Committee.

Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama has lifted up the subject of community organizing since he worked as a community organizer on the Southside of Chicago in the mid-1980's. The community organizing movement was pioneered in Chicago in the late 1930's by Saul Alinksy. The PC(USA) has been a supporter of the community organizing movement since the 1950's.

History Will Not Absolve Us

George Hunsinger, professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, founder of the Religious Coalition Against Torture, and author of the forthcoming book Torture Is a Moral Issue, offers sharp reflections on the recent revelations of the Bush administration’s deep involvement in decisions taken beginning in 2002 to approve and further the use of torture.

He begins:

According to an explosive ABC News report on April 9, dozens of top-secret meetings took place in the White House, beginning in 2002, in which the president’s top advisors approved the use of torture. Those involved were members of the National Security Council’s “Principals Committee” — Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, George Tenet, and John Ashcroft. Unfortunately, however, these dramatic revelations have been largely ignored by the media and the public. Yet we now know more clearly than ever before that it is because of these senior officials — and not just Animal House on the night shift — that America is regarded around the world as a Torture Nation.

Noting that “no one up the chain of command has been prosecuted for the torture,” he urges that accountability must be required if the U.S. is ever to recover from this moral stain within its own life.

GAPJC rules that by definition, same-sex ‘marriage’ cannot be performed

Presbyterian News Service reports from Louisville: In a reversal of a lower church court ruling, the Rev. Jane Adams Spahr has been found not guilty of violating the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s constitution by performing same-sex ‘marriages’ for two lesbian couples.

The complicated verdict of the Permanent Judicial Commission of the General Assembly (GAPJC) — the church’s highest court — was released on Monday (April 29).

It found that Spahr, who conducted two same-gender marriages in 2004 and 2005, could not be “found guilty of doing that which, by definition, cannot be done.”

The ruling reverses a decision by the PJC of the Synod of the Pacific, which on appeal had ordered the PJC of Redwoods Presbytery to “rebuke” Spahr for conducting the ceremonies after the presbytery’s court had found her “not guilty.”

The full news report >>

For the full text of the GAPJC decision (about ten pages in PDF format)

Just added:

For an index of all our reports on the Witherspoon Conference

For items from earlier in April
For all items from March, 2008
February, 2008
January, 2008
December, 2007
November, 2007
October, 2007
September, 2007
August, 2007
July, 2007
June, 2007
May, 2007
April, 2007
March, 2007
February, 2007
January, 2007
2006 General Assembly
Check earlier months through the general archive page.
Some of our more important recent reports are still listed below.

Can there be any question that, since the invasion of 2003, Iraq has been unraveling? And here's the curious thing: Despite a lack of decent information and analysis on crucial aspects of the Iraqi catastrophe, despite the way much of the Iraq story fell off newspaper front pages and out of the TV news in the last year, despite so many reports on the "success" of the President's surge strategy, Americans sense this perfectly well. In the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll, 56% of Americans "say the United States should withdraw its military forces to avoid further casualties" and this has, as the Post notes, been a majority position since January 2007, the month that the surge was first announced. Imagine what might happen if the American public knew more about the actual state of affairs in Iraq – and of thinking in Washington. So, here, in an attempt to unravel the situation in ever-unraveling Iraq are twelve answers to questions which should be asked far more often in this country:

Engelhardt’s top five reasons (for each of which, along with the other seven, he gives careful explanations and evidence):

Projections include no downsizings, increased mission personnel and new environmental ministries office   [4-25-08]

From Presbyterian News Service, Louisville – April 25, 2008 – The General Assembly Council (GAC) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) today (April 25) approved General Assembly Mission Budgets totaling $110.3 million for 2009 and $107.6 million for 2010.

The budgets, which now go to the upcoming 218th General Assembly in San Jose, CA, in June for adoption, call for no GAC staff cuts, create a new Environmental Ministries office, and for the first time in 50 years increase the number of overseas mission co-workers — from 196 this year to 215 in 2009 and 220 in 2010.

The budgets will utilize $3.5 million in Presbyterian Mission Program Fund reserves each year, which will still leave the GAC’s cash reserve levels nearly $5 million above GA requirements at the end of 2010.

The Presbyterian Layman has recently posted an article by their retired editor, John H. Adams, describing Douglas Ottati as “a self-described ‘progressive’ theologian, which essentially means believing anything and adhering to nothing...”

Ottati has been a much-appreciated speaker at Witherspoon events and has written frequently for Network News. We encourage you to look at a few of his recent essays, and see whether he believes just any old thing, or is in fact articulating a strong, socially conscious understanding of the Christian faith and life.

But first, here’s a little longer sample of Mr. Adams’ view of Ottati:

The headline reads: “Professor who shuns Reformed orthodoxy hired to teach it at Davidson College”

 ... Dr. Douglas Ottati, a Presbyterian elder (not minister) ... came to Davidson this academic year as part of a deal cut by the college's trustees in 2006. In exchange for abandoning Davidson's requirement that all trustees of the 1,700-student, Presbyterian college be Christians, the board sought to assuage the traditionalists by seeking money for a professor who would specialize in Reformed theology. They got the cash and hired Ottati away from Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Va. Their new specialist is a self-described "progressive" theologian, which essentially means believing anything and adhering to nothing...

The rest of the Layman's story >>

And now why not try this:

Read Ottati’s address to the 2002 Witherspoon General Assembly luncheon – the whole thing, instead of Adams’ carefully selected snippets.

He also reflected (theologically, we think!) in 2003 on the perpetual Presbyterian issue of “why we shouldn’t wait.”

There, he offers such shocking thoughts as this: “that we belong to the God of grace and that, therefore, we have little reason to exclude either ourselves or anyone else from the scope of redemption.”

There’s lots more. Just click here to Google “Ottati” and see what else you find. We promise it’ll be good stuff.

Witherspoon treasurer Darcy Hawk reports that Pittsburgh Presbytery, on April 17, passed by a vote of 112 to 95 an overture which calls on 218^th General Assembly “to advocate for, educate about, and work toward single-payer universal health care reform through national health insurance that is privately provided (improved Medicare for all in principle) and publicly financed.”

Arguments against passage of this overture generally cited instances where the British, French, or Canadian systems have catastrophically failed individuals. These arguments overlook the social benefits of universal health care and obscure the devastation our current system visits on people of limited means, through bankruptcies, denial of service for the underinsured, and the reluctance of people to seek treatment because of the cost.

Furthermore, unlike other national health systems, this overture recommends leaving the private sector providers, physicians and hospitals, intact. A national insurance pool brings low risk people into the system to balance costs. It removes the burden of healthcare from business, reducing labor costs. In terms of Christian ethics it provides for a fairer, more equitable sharing of health care resources. I am pleased to report my presbytery passed the overture making it available for consideration in San Jose this summer.

Coordinator of ACSWP summarizes what's coming
[4-17-08]

The Rev. Dr. Christian T. Iosso, on behalf of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy which he staffs, has sent a letter to an e-list of interested people around the church, detailing the reports that ACSWP will be submitting to the Assembly, a little more fully than we have done previously. He has graciously agreed for us to share it here.   He begins:

Dear Friends interested in Social Justice and Social Witness Policy:

At tax time, with a recession taking hold – in the midst of a very exciting political primary season—with two wars grinding on – and before Pentecost, I write to share with you information on a number of items going to this year’s General Assembly and on several other matters. We use links rather than attachments and I urge you to look at the resources made available, especially posted copies of the policies themselves. The core of all this effort is the conviction that the Church must speak and act on matters of grave social concern as part of our witness to Jesus Christ.

A Wake Up Call for New Policies to Eradicate Hunger
[4-16-08]

The Oakland Institute, "a progressive policy think tank working to increase public participation and promote fair debate on critical social, economic, environmental and foreign policy issues." takes note of the current crisis and the many countries where emergency measures are being taken. But they add:

It is however essential to understand the underpinnings of this food crisis before rushing to adopt policy solutions. Over the last few decades liberalization of agriculture, dismantling of state run institutions like marketing boards, and specialization of developing countries in exportable cash crops such as coffee, cocoa, cotton, and even flowers, encouraged by international financial institutions backed by rich countries like the U.S., has driven the poorest countries into a downward spiral, directly threatening food security and economic sustainability.

Note that Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director of the Institute, will be one of the main presenters at the Presbyterian Peacemaking Conference this summer, July 15-19, in Orange, California, on the theme “Sowing Mustard Seeds: Working for God's Justice – Confronting Poverty.”

Celebrate More Light Sunday – Tell the PCUSA "It's About Time!"
[4-16-08]

More Light churches and other supportive congregations across the country are getting ready for a special celebration of the gifts of LGBT Presbyterians. The annual More Light Sunday – set for June 1 – is a wonderful time of worship. It is a chance to lift up what being a More Light church means to your congregation. And this year, since More Light Sunday comes three weeks before General Assembly, there will be perfect opportunities for your congregation to send supportive messages directly to the Assembly, saying "It's About Time" for the church to embrace LGBT people as fully as you do.

Gun Violence and Gospel Values
Stony Point Center
September 15 - 17

[4-10-08]

Sponsored by Stony Point, the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program, and the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, this colloquium will explore ways in which the church must respond to growing gun violence in communities across the United States. Save the dates; stay tuned for more information!

We’re looking for a few good volunteers
... to help staff the Witherspoon booth at General Assembly
 [4-5-08]

Just wander through earlier headlines and links:

And go to the Archive index page for items from 1999 through the latest month.

Can't find what you want? 
Click here to run a Google search.

A major
Ghost Ranch event this summer!

July 28 - August 3, 2008

Paths toward Peace and Justice:
Spirituality, Earth-Care, and the Prophetic Word in a time of Violence

More info >>

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