Presbyterians Week Headlines
[1] April 2009 Christian Observer Highlights
[2] Great Britain’s National Secular Society Supplying De-Baptism Certificates
[3] Lutheran World Federation Meeting Explores Universalism and Pantheism
[4] United Church of Christ HIV and AIDS Network Issues Statement Encouraging Condom Distribution at Places of Worship
[5] U.S. District Court Judge Orders Abortifacient ‘Morning-After Pill’ Plan B Be Made Available to Seventeen-Year Olds
[6] PCUSA Synod of the Pacific Permanent Judicial Commission Rescinds Decision by San Francisco Presbytery that Open Lesbian Ministerial Candidate is Ready for Examination
[7] Presbyterian Coalition Newsletter Explains Amendment B’s Intent to Remove Scriptural Authority from PCUSA
[8] New Robert Gagnon Essay “What the Evidence Really Says about Scripture and Homosexual Practice: Five Issues” on Web
[9] UCC Faithful and Welcoming Fellowship and Association for Church Renewal to Meet in Chicago in 2010
[10] Tainan Theological College and Seminary Holds Seminar on the Relationship Between the Old Testament and the New Testament
[11] GPTS 2009 Calvin Conference Lectures by Joel Beeke and Joseph Pipa Available on Web in Audio and Video
[12] Church of Scotland General Assembly to Decide Fate of Homosexual Minister
[13] Inverness, Scotland Boys’ Brigade Celebrates 100th Anniversary
[1] April 2009 Christian Observer Highlights
New Christian Observer articles for April 2009 include:
Church Discipline: An Act of Love by the Rev. Michael Willemse
Equal Opportunity in Education by Dr. Joe Renfro
Along with Sabbath School lessons for April 2009 by Dr. Robert LaMay, and daily devotionals from T.M. Moore’s In the Gates.
+ Christian Observer, 9400 Fairview Avenue, Manassas, Virginia 20110, 703-335-2844, christianobserver@christianobserver.org
[2] Great Britain’s National Secular Society Supplying De-Baptism Certificates
More than 100 thousand Britons have downloaded De-Baptism Certificates from the atheistic National Secular Society (NSS), and the NSS has sold 1500 parchment De-Baptism Certificates for the equivalent of US$4.35 each.
Spain and Italy already have court decisions in place allowing de-baptism.
+ Breitbart.com, 149 South Barrington Avenue #401, Los Angeles, California 90049
[3] Lutheran World Federation Meeting Explores Universalism and Pantheism
At a consultation titled “Theology in the Lives of Lutheran Churches – Transformative Perspectives and Practices,” on 28 March 2009 at the meeting of the Lutheran World Federation in Augsburg, Germany, Associate Professor for Systematic Theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the Rev. Dr. Kristin Johnston Largen asked, “If Christ has gone even there, to the deepest pit of existence, what of ‘hell’ is left?”, and later stated, “the very fact of God’s relationship with creation is salvific.”
Dr. Niels Henrik Gregersen from the Theological Faculty of Copenhagen University, Denmark asserted, “In Christ, God is conjoining all creatures and takes part in the very biological tissue of creation. God becomes Jesus, and in him God becomes human, sparrow, and grass, soil.”
+ The Lutheran World Federation, 150 route de Ferney, Post Office Box 2100, CH-1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland, 41-22-791-61-11, Fax:
41-22-791-66-30, info@lutheranworld.org
+ Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 8765 West Higgins Road,
Chicago, Illinois 60631, 773-380-2700, Fax: 773-380-1465, info@elca.org
[4] United Church of Christ HIV and AIDS Network Issues Statement Encouraging Condom Distribution at Places of Worship
The United Church of Christ HIV and AIDS Network (UCAN) at the United Church of Christ (UCC)’s Wider Church Ministries joint board meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, on 19 March 2009 issued a statement that encourages condom distribution at places of worship and faith-based educational settings.
The UCAN statement cited sub-Saharan Africa’s 22 million people infected with HIV, accounting for two-thirds of the world’s HIV infections, and where three-quarters of all AIDS deaths worldwide occurred in 2007.
The UCAN statement further said that “sex is a gift from God,” that, “there is no evidence that making condoms available promotes sexual activity,” that “condom availability does not undermine abstinence, monogamy or fidelity,” and that abstinence programs are akin to, “put[ting] our heads in the sand.”
+ National Council of Churches, 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 880, New York, New York 10115
+ United Church of Christ, 700 Prospect Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115, 216-736-2100, ogm@ucc.org
[5] U.S. District Court Judge Orders Abortifacient ‘Morning-After Pill’ Plan B Be Made Available to Seventeen-Year Olds
US District Judge for the Eastern District of New York, Edward R. Korman, on 23 March 2009 ordered that the abortifacient ‘morning-after pill’ Plan B be made available to seventeen-year olds without a prescription, and Korman ordered the Food and Drug Administration to reconsider whether to make the drug available to girls of all ages without a prescription.
President of the Roman Catholic Union of Italian Pharmacists, Pietro Uroda, called the ‘morning after pill’ "a sort of hormonal bomb" that "cures nothing." "It is a pharmaceutical product that is for killing an eventual embryo," i.e. a fertilized human egg not yet implanted in the womb.
Judge Korman was appointed to the federal bench in 1985 by then-US President Ronald Reagan.
+ Christian News Wire, 2020 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington DC 20006, 202-546-0054, newsdesk@christiannewswire.com
[6] PCUSA Synod of the Pacific Permanent Judicial Commission Rescinds Decision by San Francisco Presbytery that Open Lesbian Ministerial Candidate is Ready for Examination
The Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) Synod of the Pacific’s Permanent Judicial Commission (SPPJC) on 25 March 2009 rescinded a January 2008 decision by the San Francisco Presbytery that open lesbian ministerial candidate Lisa Larges is “ready for examination [for ordination] with a departure.”
The SPPJC ruled that the San Francisco Presbytery erred by prematurely considering Larges’ declaration of a conscientious objection or “scruple” to the PCUSA Constitution’s Fidelity and Chastity Amendment G-6.0106b ― which requires of church officers “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness.”
The SPPJC ruling said: “The examination for ordination is the proper time for (the) Presbytery to determine whether or not a candidate's departure constitutes a failure to adhere to the essentials of Reformed faith and polity.”
+ Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, 888-728-7228, Fax: 502-569-8005
[7] Presbyterian Coalition Newsletter Explains Amendment B’s Intent to Remove Scriptural Authority from PCUSA
The 24 March 2009 Presbyterian Coalition newsletter explains that the proponents of Amendment B, which would weaken the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) Constitution’s Fidelity and Chastity Amendment G-6.0106b ― requiring of church officers “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness,” are attempting to free the PCUSA “from the Jesus of Scripture, so that [the PCUSA] may more easily succumb to cultural norms of behavior, including sexual practices.”
As of 28 March 2009, sixty-two PCUSA presbyteries have voted in favor of the weakening amendment and eighty-one PCUSA presbyteries have voted against the weakening amendment.
+ Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, 888-728-7228, Fax: 502-569-8005
+ The Presbyterian Coalition, 4604 Grove Avenue, Richmond, Virginia 23226, 804-615-3243, office@presbycoalition.org
[8] New Robert Gagnon Essay “What the Evidence Really Says about Scripture and Homosexual Practice: Five Issues” on Web
Dr. Robert A. J. Gagnon, Associate Professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, has published an essay titled, “What the Evidence Really Says about Scripture and Homosexual Practice: Five Issues” for Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) presbyteries to use in the current discussions about the proposed amendment to remove the male-female sexuality standard in the PCUSA and elsewhere. The five issues are: Jesus, Eunuchs, Romans 1:24-27 and the Erroneous Exploitation Argument, Analogies, and Significance.
+ Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, 888-728-7228, Fax: 502-569-8005
[9] UCC Faithful and Welcoming Fellowship and Association for Church Renewal to Meet in Chicago in 2010
At the lead and invitation of the United Church of Christ’s Faithful and Welcoming Fellowship (FWF), the Association For Church Renewal has announced plans for a national event “Calling the Next Generation to Reform the Church” in August 2010 in the Chicago, Illinois area to encourage God's call to a new generation of leadership for ministry in the historic mainline churches.
The ACR decision at its March meeting came in recognition that the crisis and confusion of the mainline denominations has become the crisis of the entire North American church. All of the mainline churches face a crisis of leadership.
The ACR says that prayer for reformation and a new generation of Evangelical, Conservative, Orthodox, Traditional (ECOT[FWF-coined acronym]) leadership must intensify now with the hope that God in his grace will call many over the next year and a half to come to the 2010 meeting.
+ Association For Church Renewal, Post Office Box 102, 182 High Street, Candia, New Hampshire 03034, 603-867-7711, Renewall.acr@gmail.com
+ Faithful and Welcoming Churches in the United Church of Christ,
Post Office Box 5382, Hickory, North Carolina 28603
+ Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, 888-728-7228, Fax: 502-569-8005
+ United Church of Christ, 700 Prospect Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115, 216-736-2100, ogm@ucc.org
[10] Tainan Theological College and Seminary Holds Seminar on the Relationship Between the Old Testament and the New Testament
A seminar held 17-18 March 2009 at Tainan Theological College and Seminary focused on the relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The featured speaker was pastor and Bible Scholar the Rev. Jou Hong-Yi who leads a church in the United States.
Jou describes the relationship between the Old and New Testaments as being like two halves of a whole, with each testament relying upon the other to make it whole. Jou said that Bible scholarship of the past two centuries tended toward one of the two Testaments to the exclusion of the other, and thus a sense of disconnect between the Testaments developed in many believers.
Jou credits the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and an increased interaction among Christian and Jewish scholars in recent years for clarifying the relationship and connection between the two Testaments.
Jou said that pastors need to listen patiently to their church members’ personal interpretation of God’s word, and not be quick to judge and correct, because these personal interpretations are oftentimes very helpful in solving life’s problems.
+ Presbyterian Church in Taiwan
+ Tainan Theological College and Seminary, 117 Tung-men Road, Section 1, Tainan, Taiwan, 886-6-237-1291, Fax: 886-6-234-6060, ttcs@mail.ttcs.org.tw
[11] GPTS 2009 Calvin Conference Lectures by Joel Beeke and Joseph Pipa Available on Web in Audio and Video
Audio and video of several lectures delivered at the 2009 Calvin Conference, hosted by Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary (GPTS), are now available online.
Available for audio download are Joel Beeke’s lecture Calvin the Theologian of the Holy Spirit, and Joseph Pipa’s lecture Calvin the Preacher.
Videos of the lectures are available via Calvin the Theologian of the Holy Spirit, and Calvin the Preacher.
+ Feeding on Christ
[12] Church of Scotland General Assembly to Decide Fate of Homosexual Minister
The Church of Scotland Commission of Assembly on 25 March 2009 voted forty-two to forty-one to pass to the General Assembly in May 2009 for further scrutiny the appeal by homosexual pastor the Rev. Scott Rennie, whose appointment as minister at Aberdeen, Scotland’s Queen’s Cross Church in January 2009 was blocked following a complaint from about a dozen dissenting members of Aberdeen Presbytery on the grounds that they objected to his lifestyle.
+ Daily Express, The Northern & Shell Building, Number 10 Lower Thames Street, London EC3R 6EN, England, 0871-434-1010, expressletters@express.co.uk
+ Church of Scotland, 121 George Street, Edinburgh, Scotland EH2 4YN, 0131-225-5722
[13] Inverness, Scotland Boys’ Brigade Celebrates 100th Anniversary
The 6th and 7th Inverness (Scotland) companies of the Boys’ Brigade celebrated their 100th anniversary on 22 March 2009 by leading a march through the city’s Merkinch Community. Boys’ Brigade companies from other communities in the Scottish Highlands also took part in the march, which ended at Trinity Church with a service led by the Rev. Alan Main, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and a former Boys’ Brigade president.
+ Press and Journal, Lang Stracht, Mastrick, Aberdeen AB15 6DF, Scotland, 01224-343311, pj.newsdesk@ajl.co.uk
+ Church of Scotland, 121 George Street, Edinburgh, Scotland EH2 4YN, 0131-225-5722
