My friends from Seminary, many of them, are posting from #GA222 in Portland. Reading their posts, I feel like such a dog in the manger. “They’re happy. Why can’t you be happy for them?” I ask myself. The reason is the same reason I wouldn’t be happy if someone had cancer and they were treating … Continue reading »
Tagged with pcusa …
Good grief. The brain trust at World HQ published the PC(USA) Book of Confessions as a PDF without a table of contents. Way to move (cautiously) into the 1990s!
Sexual Relationships — Theory and Practice
In view of all the changes to the PC(USA)’s Book of Order, it’s worthwhile to look at what its Book of Confessions says it believes. We wouldn’t want our practice to get ahead of our theology, after all: d. The relationship between man and woman exemplifies in a basic way God’s ordering of the interpersonal … Continue reading »
Will the Last Congregation to Leave…
…turn out the lights? Another one bolts for the exit. I don’t think they’re going to be the last. The church in Richland became one of 20 southwestern Pennsylvania congregations to vote to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA) and join the EPC. Of the 400 members who voted Sunday, 368 voted to leave; only 31 … Continue reading »
Issue Advocacy Funding
Just awesome: I’m helping to fund a tool Presbyterians can use to pressure congress without the effort of writing a real email of their own. (Bonus: it uses Flash.) Just take a look at the items in the “Legislative Alerts” tab. Good grief. That’s what the PC(USA)’s Presbyterian Mission Agency (i.e. the GA Council, lately … Continue reading »
GA Update
I’ve been too busy to follow the GA closely, but I’ll post a few items that I noticed over the weekend. (By the way: the only way to get timely information about GA seems to be by following Twitter or the RSS feeds for the Christian Post. Our denomination’s official sources are either unnavigable or … Continue reading »
High-Percentage Tithing “Accelerators”
Here’s an article about some things that are found in Presbyterian churches with a higher-than-average proportion of people who contribute a high percentage of their income to the church. (Did you get that? These are factors that, when you find them in a church, give you grounds to predict that the church will have a … Continue reading »
Calvin on Tradition
Preparing for my last sermon, I found some choice quotes from Calvin on submitting to traditions. (These are from the Institutes 3.19.7-11, with tiny modifications for readability). We are not bound before God to any observance of external things which are in themselves indifferent (“adiafora”), but that we are now at full liberty either to … Continue reading »
More smaller churches – but not in a good way
There’s nothing to rejoice over in this report from the PC(USA)’s Research Services unit. Since reunification, the denomination has lost an average of 40,541 members a year (net) and we’re down about a third, from about three million down to a hair over two. The headline (“Fewer members = smaller congregations”) says what might be … Continue reading »
Apparently We Don’t Believe Anything
Another problem with the new PC(USA) web site: apparently we don’t believe anything anymore. Or, if we do, those beliefs are carefully hidden. Now, I’m on record as liking the new look of our denomination’s website. And I’ve already commented, negatively, about a particularly smarmy “reasons I’m a Presbyterian” badge posted there. But I was … Continue reading »