Introduction The Presbyterian Church (USA) has been engaged in a decade-long struggle to divest from companies that are profiting from the Israeli
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Ark of Escape or Community of Reconciliation? When I teach the Reformed Confessions to students at Union Presbyterian Seminary, I like to point out that one of the benefits of belonging to our communion is belonging to a tradition with
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To Our Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Brothers and Sisters September 6, 2016 Dear Colleagues Across our Church: We are prompted to write by the tragically early death of our brother in Christ, the Rev. Eugene “Freedom” Blackwell, pastor of House of Manna in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Eugene joined the church triumphant on August 29th,
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Working for Peace in the Middle East at the 222nd General Assembly About a month ago, I was sitting in a large ballroom adjacent to other commissioners and delegates to the 222nd General Assembly, anxiously waiting for the work of the Committee on Middle East Issues (Committee 8) to begin.
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Opening Editorial for an Advent and Christmas Issue on Middle East Struggles Former President Jimmy Carter has recently made public that stage four melanoma is no longer present in his 91-year-old body. Thus he maintains as strong a pace as he can, a prescient productivity which by any measure has
MoreA Closing Editorial What would an initiative look like that helped children become loving persons AND helped congregations gain a sense of themselves as mission centers—not just hospitals or even schools, but places of outreach and engagement? What about an education initiative to help fund more childcare, nursery, afterschool, and
MoreA Response to the Foothills Presbytery Overtures I try to avoid getting bogged down in the details of church polity. Generally, this is because I think it leads us to spend too much time looking inward and debating minutia when that time and effort would be better spent looking outward,
MoreThe Growth of Missional Language Missio-Logio: The Many Languages of Mission The theme of the 2015 annual meeting American Society of Missiology (ASM) was “Missio-Logoi: The Many Languages of Mission.” It was a fascinating conference, with missionaries and scholars from across denominations and from many traditions meeting in Wheaton, Illinois.
MoreI was teaching youth and college Sunday school a few years ago, and we were discussing the Apostles’ Creed, particularly the part where Christians confess belief in the ‘holy and catholic church’. One student spoke up and asked what the Creed meant by ‘catholic’. Without much thought, I rattled off
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Ark of Escape or Community of Reconciliation? When I teach the Reformed Confessions to students at Union Presbyterian Seminary, I like to point out that one of the benefits of belonging to our communion is belonging to a tradition with a dynamic understanding of confessionalism. Unlike the Lutheran tradition, which
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I was sitting around a table with a group of colleagues in young adult ministries about a year and a half ago. We had been tasked with coming up with a name for a new initiative to the PC(USA)’s 221st General Assembly, an initiative that would eventually be known as
MoreAddiction, Drug Policy, and the Body of Christ Past Approaches and Present Concerns Re-Examining our Nation’s Responses to Drugs, Rev. Gordon Edwards and John Lindsay-Poland A Biblical and Theological Reflection on Consumption, Addiction, and Prejudicial Drug Policy, Rev. Max Lynn Amethyst Church: An Opening Editorial, Rev. Dr. Chris Iosso Addiction: A
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