17 August 2011

Presbyterians Week Headlines

[1] Christian Observer Article – “Did the Presbyterian Church in America Stated Clerk And Administrative Committee Have A Role in the Establishment of the Presbyterian Investors Fund /Cornerstone Ministries Investments and It’s Eventual Bankruptcy?”

[2] Court of Session in Edinburg, Scotland, Rules that Isle of Skye’s Broadford Church Belongs to the Free Church of Scotland

[3] Kolomna, Russia, Police Break Up Youth Worship Service

---

[1] Christian Observer Article – “Did the Presbyterian Church in America Stated Clerk And Administrative Committee Have A Role in the Establishment of the Presbyterian Investors Fund /Cornerstone Ministries Investments and It’s Eventual Bankruptcy?”

In a new Christian Observer article for August 2011, Bob Wildrick, a Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) member and one of 3500 investors who lost the majority of their savings in the US$142 million February 2008 Chapter 11 Bankruptcy of Cornerstone Ministries Investments (CMI), uses PCA General Assembly Minutes from 1985 to 1994 to review the founding of the Investors Fund for Building and Development, which later became the Presbyterian Investors Fund, then CMI, to answer the article title’s question.


+ Christian Observer, Post Office Box 1371, Lexington, Virginia 20110, christianobserver@christianobserver.org

+ Presbyterian Church in America, 1700 North Brown Road, Suite 105, Lawrenceville, Georgia 30043, 678-825-1000, Fax: 678-825-1001, ac@pcanet.org


[2] Court of Session in Edinburg, Scotland, Rules that Isle of Skye’s Broadford Church Belongs to the Free Church of Scotland

A 12 August 2011 BBC article titled “Judge Asks Free Church Groups to End Skye Dispute” reports that the Court of Session in Edinburg, Scotland, has upheld a 2009 lower court decision giving ownership of the Broadford Church on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, to the Free Church of Scotland, thus taking the church from the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) congregation that has worshiped there since 2007.

The Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) separated from the Free Church of Scotland in 2000 after the majority declined to pursue church discipline against Free Church College Professor Donald Macleod, who was alleged to have committed six charges of indecent assault involving five women between 1985 and 1992, and was acquitted of the charges after a trial in the Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

Lord Drummond Young, one of three appeals court judges, concluded the court’s written opinion with a recommendation to both parties:

“May I, in conclusion, respectfully suggest that this is a case where such an arrangement might be reached? It is true that the right to the Broadford property belongs to the congregation who adhere to the structures of the pre-2000 Free Church, and that the minister and communicants of that congregation must be members of the Free Church as governed by those structures. Nevertheless, I can find nothing in the trust that prevents the congregation so determined from permitting the use of the church to other bodies of Christians who follow similar doctrines and forms of worship. The defenders appear to me to be such a body. In this respect, the exhortation to longsuffering, forbearance and unity of the spirit within a congregation may be as relevant to Broadford and other communities in Scotland in the twenty first century as it was to Ephesus in the first century.”


+ BBC, 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TS, England, Fax: 020-8008-2398

+ Free Church of Scotland, 15 North Bank Street, The Mound, Edinburgh, Scotland EH1 2LS, 0131-226-5286, Fax: 0131-220-0597, catherine@freechurchofscotland.org.uk

+ Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), Rev. John MacLeod, Free Church Manse, Portmahomack, Ross-shire, Scotland, principalclerk@fccontinuing.org


[3] Kolomna, Russia, Police Break Up Youth Worship Service

Alfred McCroskey of Bibles for Russia, Inc. (BRI) reports that on 9 August 2011, police in Kolomna, Russia, located approx. sixty miles southeast of Moscow, came into a church during a youth service, broke up the service, and took the youth pastor conducting the service to a police station where the pastor was threatened and ordered to leave the town because the pastor was from Moscow.

Mr. McCroskey says that the police action did not reflect a national policy for Russia, but that there are increasing instances of this type of police harassment depending upon local leadership.

BRI is sending a team to Russia at the end of September 2011, and is looking for others who may be interested in being a part of the team. If so, please contact BRI immediately.


+ Bibles for Russia, Inc., Post Office Box 69, Florence, Alabama 35631, 256-718-3660, Fax: 256-718-3662, info@biblesforrussia.org