Presbyterians Week Headlines
[1] Presbyterian Church in Ireland to Pay UK£1 Million towards Bailout of Presbyterian Mutual Society
[2] ARPTalk Issue Twenty-Eight Analyzes, through Inconvenient Truths and Scriptural Mind Renewal, Erskine College and Theological Seminary’s Overarching Conformation to the World
[3] Covenant College Chemistry Professor, Alumna, and Student Develop Cheaper, Safer Method of Ketone Reduction
[4] Haitian Senate Commends Mission to North America and El Shaddai Ministries International, Inc., for Earthquake Relief
[5] PCA Administrative Committee Approves Strategic Plan
[6] United Church of Christ President Ascribes Racism and Homophobia to Protesting Opponents of Health Care Bill
[7] Former Church of Scotland in Rutherglen becoming Hindu Temple
[8] PCUSA Pastor Offers Blessing at Hindu Baccalaureate Service at the University of Nevada-Reno
[9] ACLU Litigates Anti-Christian Court Case Close to a Year after Now-Former Plaintiffs Lost Standing
[10] Christian Beijing Olympics Demonstrators Arrested Twice and Deported from China to Protest Visit to U.S. of Chinese President
[11] Western Reformed Seminary 2010 Tabor Lecture Series to Feature Brazilian Reformed Educator Solano Portela
[12] Annual Youth Essay Contest for Fundamental Presbyterian Publications
[13] Addendum - Ready Reserve Health Corps – extended article
[1] Presbyterian Church in Ireland to Pay UK£1 Million towards Bailout of Presbyterian Mutual Society
A 13 April 2010 BBC News article titled “Church to Pay [UK]£1 [Million] for Presbyterian Mutual Bailout” reports that the Presbyterian Church in Ireland has agreed to contribute UK£1 Million to the hardship fund for the bailout of the bankrupt Presbyterian Mutual Society (PMS), with the remaining funds supplied by United Kingdom taxpayers.
The proposed hardship fund for smaller PMS investors is to be funded UK£25 Million from the United Kingdom Treasury and UK£25 Million from United Kingdom Finance Minister Sammy Wilson’s budget.
The major portion of bailout funds for large PMS investors is proposed to come from a UK£175 Million loan from the United Kingdom Treasury, which is expected to be recouped when PMS is sold by its Administrator after a hoped-for financial market recovery.
+ BBC, 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TS, England, Fax: 020-8008-2398
+ Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Church House, Belfast BT1 6DW, Northern Ireland, 028-9032-2284, Fax: 028-9041-7301, Info@PresbyterianIreland.org
+ Presbyterian Mutual Society, Glengall Exchange, Glengall Street,
Belfast BT12 5AB, Northern Ireland, 028-9031-1232, Fax: 028-9031-1441, pms@arthurboyd.co.uk
[2] ARPTalk Issue Twenty-Eight Analyzes, through Inconvenient Truths and Scriptural Mind Renewal, Erskine College and Theological Seminary’s Overarching Conformation to the World
The 13 April 2010 ARPTalk Issue Twenty-Eight features three articles by the editor, the Rev. Dr. Charles W. Wilson, analyzing Erskine College and Theological Seminary’s overarching conformation to the world during recent events and for the past several decades, through three articles describing inconvenient truths about the Erskine supporters’ deft navigation of the secular judiciary, the lack of effective oversight of Erskine in recent decades by the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARP) General Synod, and through a scriptural view of the inherent idolatry and indifference to God’s Law at the heart of the Erskine situation.
The three articles are:
-- “A Response to the Ruling by Judge Griffith and a Challenge to the ARP Church” – by Charles W. Wilson
-- “Idolatry: The Cult of the Baal of Erskine” – by Charles W. Wilson
-- “The Voices of the Baal of Erskine” – Postings taken mainly from Facebook that leave one speechless.
+ ARPTalk Blog, 864-882-6337, wilson6114@bellsouth.net
+ Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, 1 Cleveland Street Suite 110, Greenville, South Carolina, 29601, 864-232-8297, Fax: 864-271-3729
+ Erskine College and Theological Seminary, Post Office Box 668, Due West, South Carolina, 800-770-6936, gaston@erskine.edu
[3] Covenant College Chemistry Professor, Alumna, and Student Develop Cheaper, Safer Method of Ketone Reduction
Covenant College chemistry professor Dr. Dan Zuidema, alumna Katie Wert, class of 2008, and student Sarah Williams, class of 2010, have discovered a new organic chemistry process of ketone reduction using relatively inexpensive and safer isopropanol (rubbing alcohol) and sodium hydroxide (lye) instead of the conventional materials of flammable hydrogen gas, extremely flammable or explosive reagents, and/or expensive catalysts.
The results of the trio’s research was published recently in Volume 40 - Issue 8 – 2010 of the peer-reviewed journal Synthetic Communications.
Ms. Williams described her academic endeavors on this project, saying: “Getting to do this research with Dr. Zuidema was such an honor….Often, we would sit and talk over the finer details of the research, how things worked, and why certain byproducts were made.”
+ Presbyterian Church in America, 1700 North Brown Road, Suite 105, Lawrenceville, Georgia 30043, 678-825-1000, Fax: 678-825-1001, ac@pcanet.org
+ Covenant College, 14049 Scenic Highway, Lookout Mountain, Georgia 30750, 706-820-1560, info@covenant.edu
+ Informa, Gubelstrasse 11, CH-6300, Zug, Switzerland, 41-0-444-1344, Fax: 41-0-444-1355, headoffice@informa.com
[4] Haitian Senate Commends Mission to North America and El Shaddai Ministries International, Inc., for Earthquake Relief
The Senate of Haiti, on 29 March 2010, recognized Mission to North America and El Shaddai Ministries International, Inc., with an award “for their relief efforts in the days and weeks following the tragic earthquake on January 11, 2010. Haiti was at her greatest need ever. Thank you for your intervention, medically, socially, and economically.”
+ Presbyterian Church in America, 1700 North Brown Road, Suite 105, Lawrenceville, Georgia 30043, 678-825-1000, Fax: 678-825-1001, ac@pcanet.org
+ El Shaddai Ministries International, Inc., 13651 South Biscayne River Drive, Miami, Florida 33161, 786-543-2004, dstgermain@pca.net
[5] PCA Administrative Committee Approves Strategic Plan
The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA)’s Administrative Committee on 8 April 2010 unanimously approved the “PCA Strategic Plan (PSP),” which was commissioned by the Cooperative Ministries Committee to address slowed growth within the PCA and a shifting cultural landscape, and with the hope of creating a roadmap to future cohesion and growth within the PCA.
The Cooperative Ministries Committee will submit the PSP for approval at 38th PCA General Assembly, to be held 29 June-2 July 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee. If passed, portions of the PSP that require Book of Church Order amendment will go to the PCA presbyteries for approval.
+ Presbyterian Church in America, 1700 North Brown Road, Suite 105, Lawrenceville, Georgia 30043, 678-825-1000, Fax: 678-825-1001, ac@pcanet.org
[6] United Church of Christ President Ascribes Racism and Homophobia to Protesting Opponents of Health Care Bill
A 1 April 2010 article titled “Religious Left Targets Tea Party “Hate”” by Institute on Religion and Democracy President Mark Tooley describes the attacks being made by United Church of Christ and United Methodist Church officials on the demonstrators outside the U.S. Capitol who were protesting the 21 March 2010 vote on the Health Care Bill.
United Church of Christ President the Rev. Geoffrey A. Black attributes racism and homophobia as two of the underlying motives of the Health Care Bill protesters. UCC President Black additionally condemned the Health Care Bill protestors because they “spit upon” Missouri Representative Emanuel Cleaver, and because the Health Care Bill protesters “shouted names that we have not heard in the public square since the days of the Civil Rights movement.” UCC President Black characterized the protests as a “disgrace to our nation’s civility.”
A multitude of videos taken of the protests have produced no evidence of the alleged name-calling, and show one protester who produced what IRD President Tooley described as “an effusion of spittle from shouting,” from whom Representative Cleaver termed a man “who allowed saliva to hit my face.”
UCC President Black called upon his “brothers and sisters in the United Church of Christ and our faith partners to resist entering into dialog or debate with such demonstrations of hate that go against our Christian understanding to love our neighbors.”
Though UCC President Black infers the Second Table of the Law when citing “our Christian understanding to love our neighbors,” the implications of the Ninth Commandment seem to have escaped the UCC president regarding the making of broad allegations of evil against an entire group of people based only upon very questionable evidence about one person, or non-existent evidence.
+ Institute on Religion and Democracy, 1023 15th Street Northwest, Suite 601, Washington DC 20005-2601, 202-682-4131, Fax: 202-682-4136, info@theird.org
+ United Church of Christ, 700 Prospect Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115, 216-736-2100, ogm@ucc.org
+ United Methodist Church, 7178 Columbia Gateway Drive, Columbia, Maryland 21046, 410-309-3400
[7] Former Church of Scotland in Rutherglen becoming Hindu Temple
A 7 April 2010 article in the Rutherglen Reformer by Will Henshaw titled “Rutherglen Church to be Transformed into Hindu Temple” reports that after UK£10,000 of renovations, former Church of Scotland Wardlawhill Church in Rutherglen, Scotland, is reopening at the end of April 2010 as the Hindu Sri Sundara Ganapathi Temple.
The church building was purchased by the Hindus from the Church of Scotland in November 2009, and was mortgaged by the South Indian Cultural Centre of Scotland.
+ Rutherglen Reformer, Campbell Street, Hamilton ML3 6AX, Scotland, 0141 647 2271, jrowbotham@s-un.co.uk
+ Church of Scotland, 121 George Street, Edinburgh EH2 4YN, Scotland, 0131-225-5722
[8] PCUSA Pastor Offers Blessing at Hindu Baccalaureate Service at the University of Nevada-Reno
The Third Annual Hindu Baccalaureate Service of the University of Nevada-Reno was held 11 April 2010.
The service began with the lighting of a traditional lamp before the statue of the goddess Saraswati, Hindu patron of learning and the arts, and included blessing of the upcoming graduates with wisdom from the Hindu scriptures Vedas, Upanishads, and Bhagavad-Gita.
Blessings were offered to the graduates from Roman Catholic, Mormon, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, Baha’i, and Confucian clergy, and from Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) pastor the Rev. Bruce Taylor of the Spanish Springs Presbyterian Church in Sparks, Nevada.
+ Press Release Log, Contact Page
+ Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, 888-728-7228, Fax: 502-569-8005
[9] ACLU Litigates Anti-Christian Court Case Close to a Year after Now-Former Plaintiffs Lost Standing
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Santa Rosa County, Florida, School District face possible court sanctions after court documents submitted 7 April 2010 by the ACLU and the school district showed that the two anonymous Plaintiffs represented by the ACLU in efforts to quash any form of Christian expression by faculty, administration, and staff in the county schools, graduated from Pace High School in May 2009, and the ACLU, with the cooperation of the school board, has been litigating without clients ever since.
Additionally, the Santa Rosa County, Florida, School District will now have to justify to Santa Rosa County taxpayers its decision to enter into a Consent Decree in May 2009 and to pay the ACLU US$200,000 in attorney’s fees, when it could have simply waited three more weeks for Plaintiffs to graduate and for their claims to automatically become moot by operation of law.
+ Liberty Counsel, Post Office Box 540774, Orlando, Florida 32854, 800-671-1776, Liberty@LC.org
+ American Civil Liberties Union, 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor, New York New York 10004, 212-549-2500, Contact Page
[10] Christian Beijing Olympics Demonstrators Arrested Twice and Deported from China to Protest Visit to U.S. of Chinese President
Two of the three protestors at the 2008 Beijing Olympics who were twice arrested, then deported from China for unfurling in Tiananmen Square a banner reading “Jesus Christ is King,” on 12 April 2010 demonstrated in front of the White House in Washington DC on the occasion of the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao to the United States.
Christian Defense Coalition Director and Reformed Presbyterian pastor the Rev. Pat Mahoney and Michael McMonagle prayed and spoke out against China’s repression of human rights and religious liberty, calling attention to the "moral and national disgrace" that President Barack Hussein Obama has not been a more vocal and outspoken critic of the human rights abuses by the Chinese government while at the same time the Obama Administration is giving billions of dollars to the Chinese government to pay off the U.S. debt while China continues to brutalize their own people.
For background information, please see article “[10] Missionary Team Arrested in China Back in USA” in the 13 August 2008 Presbyterians Week.
+ Christian News Wire, 2020 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington DC 20006, 202-546-0054, newsdesk@christiannewswire.com
+ Christian Defense Coalition, Post Office Box 77168, Washington DC 20013, 202-547-1735, ChristianDefense@gmail.com
[11] Western Reformed Seminary 2010 Tabor Lecture Series to Feature Brazilian Reformed Educator Solano Portela
Western Reformed Seminary’s 2010 Tabor Lecture Series is scheduled for 19-20 and 22-23 April 2010 at the seminary, and features author and speaker Solano Portela, an expert in Christian education and a leader in the burgeoning Christian school movement in Brazil. The lectures are entitled: “Christian Education–A Reformed Imperative.”
Mr. Portela has written articles and books in both English and Portuguese dealing with the Reformed faith and its application in the education of our children. Mr. Portela is a leader in the Association of Christian Schools International in Brazil, and has served in various administrative positions in the Mackenzie Presbyterian Schools and Universities, with 47,000 students.
The topics for each evening are:
Monday, April 19: “The Need for a Reformed World and Life View – Guiding our thoughts with Psalm 19″
The Christian Weltanschauung, defining it from Psalm 19; demonstrating the biblical world and life view; this worldview applied to several areas of knowledge (economics, government, history, and so on), showing that there is a difference in how Christians should approach and teach each one of these areas.
Tuesday, April 20: “Distinctive Characteristics of Christian Education”
An explanation of Christian school education, building on the biblical worldview, comparing it to secular education, stressing the role of teachers and parents in this process.
Thursday, April 22, “Christian Education and Culture”
The Christian view of culture, showing how the Bible uses aspects of human culture as an expression of God’s common grace; demonstrated in the tabernacle, in the temple, and in Revelation; the dilemma between flesh and spirit, not matter and spirit, as an ethical divider; the different approaches suggested by Niebuhr and Machen (stressing the latter); the relation of Christian education and culture in the role of the Christian School.
Friday, April 23, “Doing Christian Education in a non-Christian Setting”
The amazing work of God going on in Brazil; the setting and experiences of Mackenzie Schools and Universities; the progress of Reformed Christian teaching in a non-Christian setting (75% of parents and students are from a non-evangelical Christian background); lessons in developing text-books with a Christian worldview.
+ Western Reformed Seminary, 5 South G Street, Tacoma, Washington 98405, 253-272-0417, Fax: 253-627-4882, registrar@wrs.edu
+ Bible Presbyterian Church
[12] Annual Youth Essay Contest for Fundamental Presbyterian Publications
Fundamental Presbyterian Publications, the publishing arm of the Bible Presbyterian Church, is holding a youth essay contest open to all Christian young people. This year's topic is on the biblical meaning of PRAYER.
The contest is broken into three age groups:
-- Ages 10-12 will develop the Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 98 on “What Is Prayer?”
Prize: $50 for the winning essay
-- Ages 13-17 will develop the Westminster Larger Catechism Questions 180-181 on Prayer
Prize: $100 for the winning essay
-- Ages 18-21 will develop the question, “Should we pray the Lord’s Prayer today?”
Prize: $200 for the winning essay
See details on the terms of the contest at www.fppublications.org/2010-youth-essay-contest. All entries must be submitted by May 31, 2010.
+ Fundamental Presbyterian Publications, Post Office Box 26164, Charlotte, North Carolina 28221, fpp@bpc.org
+ Bible Presbyterian Church
[13] Addendum - Ready Reserve Health Corps – extended article
In response to the 7 April 2010 Presbyterians Week article [3] U.S. Health Care Bill Recently Enacted Creates 6,000 Member Ready Reserve Health Corps that will Train with the U.S. Military and will be at Given Military Powers at the Discretion of the U.S. President, a correspondent who is a preventive-public health physician wrote, saying that Fox News Senior Judicial Analyst, Judge Andrew Napolitano’s analysis of the 6,000 member Ready Reserve Health Corps (RRHC) in the Health Care Bill is wrong, is irresponsible, and that the RRHC is no threat to liberty.
The correspondent states that the goal of the 6,000 member RRHC is to augment with volunteers the Public Health Service in the event of a major emergency. The correspondent additionally states that the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (PHSCC) is a uniformed service, but is not the military, are under the authority of Health and Human Services; and that PHSCC members already train with military and fill Coast Guard billets among many other duties including activities with the Indian Health Service, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control.
The correspondent additionally states that the military can assist civilians during an emergency, but has to follow a request from the governor of the state and that there be a Presidentially declared state of emergency, adding that the military is forbidden to perform domestic operations under the Posse Comitatus act of 1878.
One of the points made by Judge Napolitano in his 3 April 2010 Fox News Business Alert broadcast is that the Health Care Bill now lets the U.S. President for the first time take authority over National Guard units away from state governors, against the will of state governors, during peacetime. One wonders, under the same Health Care Bill provisions, if the same is true about the RRHC and the PHSCC.
The editor urges readers to exercise due diligence about these matters, with the goal of determining what governmental powers have been granted to whom by the Health Care Bill, and thereby what are the good and necessary consequences upon the nation and the individual citizen that may be deduced. Several resources that may be useful in this endeavor are as follows:
-- Obama’s Private Army
-- Obama’s Ready Reserve Corp within the Healthcare Bill – Explained (No Civilian Security Force…Yet)
-- Ready Reserve Corps Mention in Health Care Bill (Senate Version)
-- Obama’s “Private Army”
+ Christian Observer, Post Office Box 1371, Lexington, Virginia 20110, christianobserver@christianobserver.org
+ Fox News, 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10036, 888-369-4762, Fax: 212-462-6127, yourquestions@foxnews.com
+ U.S. Public Health Service, 1101 Wootton Parkway, Plaza Level, Rockville, Maryland 20852, 800–279–1605, Contact Page
