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I recently finished re-reading Benson Bobrick's Wide as the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution it Inspired. Although I had read it ten years ago, I wanted to read it again in this 400th anniversay of the King James Version. Bobrick does an outstanding job of weaving together philological, theological, ecclesiastical, and political threads in the story of the translation of the Bible into English. I remember well getting a black leather KJV for Christmas in high school. For much of our time off from school, I read it, devouring its words and message. I love...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Even in the midst of the upheaval of the Protestant Reformation in Germany, St. Peter Canisius knew how to defend Catholic doctrine without launching personal attacks on those who disagreed, Pope Benedict XVI said. St. Peter, a 15th-century Jesuit sent on mission to Germany, knew how to "harmoniously combine fidelity to dogmatic principles with the respect due to each person," the pope said Feb. 9 at his weekly general audience. The pope was beginning a series of audience talks about "doctors of the church," who are theologians and saints who made important contributions to Catholic understanding...

Are we witnessing the death of America's Christian denominations? Studies conducted by secular and Christian organizations indicate that we are. Fewer and fewer American Christians, especially Protestants, strongly identify with a particular religious communion—Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, etc. According to the Baylor Survey on Religion, nondenominational churches now represent the second largest group of Protestant churches in America, and they are also the fastest growing...

Amid jubilant preaching and singing, the Rev. Dr. Flora Wilson Bridges was installed Sunday evening as senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, affectionately called First Church. Dr. Bridges is the 15th senior minister in the congregation’s 189-year history, and the first woman to be called as senior pastor at this church after a nationwide search lasting over three years. Elder Effie Bynum, Moderator-Elect of the Presbytery of New York City, presided at Sunday’s animated service. The Rev. Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson, who ordained Bridges to the ministry more than 30 years ago, preached an impassioned sermon about the...

The Journey Home with Marcus Grodi LIVE - Mondays 8 PM ET Encore – Tuesday 1 AM ET & 9 AM ET, Thursday 2 PM ET, Saturday 11 PM ET This exciting call-in program examines why so many people, including fallen away Catholics and individuals from other denominations, are being drawn home to the Catholic Church. January 31 Eben Emerson Former Church of Christ Minister

Papias“Papias [A.D. 120], who is now mentioned by us, affirms that he received the sayings of the apostles from those who accompanied them, and he, moreover, asserts that he heard in person Aristion and the presbyter John. Accordingly, he mentions them frequently by name, and in his writings gives their traditions [concerning Jesus]. . . . [There are] other passages of his in which he relates some miraculous deeds, stating that he acquired the knowledge of them from tradition” (fragment in Eusebius, Church History 3:39 [A.D. 312]).Eusebius of Caesarea“At that time [A.D. 150] there flourished in the Church Hegesippus, whom...

After the Black Rascal and Bear Creek homeless encampments were closed in October, some of the homeless were offered a place to live at the Sierra Presbyterian Church. But since then, neighbors living near the church on M Street have complained about the encampments being so close to their homes. Some have repeatedly asked the Merced City Council for help. Now they may get their wish. The homeless who have been living at the Presbyterian Church in North Merced have been asked to find new living arrangements. The church has given them until Sunday to leave. The eight or nine...

We ought to understand that while God knows all things beforehand, yet He does not predetermine all things. For He knows beforehand those things that are in our power, but He does not predetermine them. For it is not His will that there should be wickedness nor does He choose to compel virtue. So that predetermination is the work of the divine command based on fore-knowledge. But on the other hand God predetermines those things which are not within our power in accordance with His prescience. For already God in His prescience has prejudged all things in accordance with His...

"Het Mekka van Calvijn" (Calvin's Mecca) is the name of the work created by the Moroccan artist Aziz Bekkaoui. It is a cube measuring 4 by 4 by 4 metres, consisting entirely of reflective glass. The cube apparently refers to the Kaaba, the sacred central building in the courtyard of the Great Mosque in the Islamic place of pilgrimage, Mecca in Saudi Arabia....

The First Presbyterian Church of Rutherford has partnered with the Interfaith Dialog Center (IDC) of New Jersey to present a unique educational opportunity for the community to read the Qur'an in an environment designed to promote respect and mutual understanding of all faiths and cultures. Participants will read the Qur'an from cover to cover over a period of 10 weeks and are invited and encouraged to attend weekly one-hour discussions led by IDC experts on the assigned surahs (or chapters). The sessions are designed to review the week's readings, explore similarities and differences with the Bible and foster meaningful discussion....

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit alleging it failed to prevent the sexual abuse of a teenager by an older teen at an African mission boarding house in 1988. The Louisville-based denomination says the suit should be barred under the statute of limitations because it happened so long ago — a stance the plaintiff's lawyer calls "hypocritical," following a church commission's recommendation that the church lobby against such statutes. Meanwhile, federal authorities in Florida have filed child-pornography charges against the alleged perpetrator in the lawsuit. Samuel Shamba Warlick, 39, of Oviedo, Fla., was charged Jan....

Featured Term (selected at random):PRESBYTERIANS Members of various Protestant bodies, following in the tradition of John Calvin (1509-64) and his Scottish disciple John Knox (1513-72). The essential structural feature of historic Presbyterianism was that the Church's government should be in the hands of presbyters. Today, however, many Presbyterians hold that the Church founded by Christ contained episcopal and congregational, as well as presbyterian, elements. A typical Presbyterian church is governed by a hierarchy of authorities, each in the nature of a court: session, presbytery, synod, and general assembly, having clearly defined functions and specific directors. The substance of Presbyterian belief...

...This brings us to the Presbyterian Church, which has historically held that the gift of tongues was limited to the generation of Christ’s apostles and has since then ceased ....The Presbyterian position on tongues, as well as the “sensational gifts” (interpretation of tongues, healing, prophecy, miracles, etc…) differs sharply from the Pentecostal view at a fundamental philosophical level...Unlike Pentecostals, Presbyterians do not look at the events of Acts as being normative for what the church should expect to experience in every generation. To the contrary, Presbyterians interpret Acts as the history of the birth of the church, not a pattern...

The Presbyterian Church in America commissioned a report, which was given to their 28th General Assembly in 2000. The report considered several possible interpretations of the days in Genesis 1, including: Calendar-Day view (6 literal consecutive 24-hour days) Day-Age view (each "day" represents a long period of time) Framework (the 6 "days" are a framework for portraying God's creative work) Analogic (similar to the day-age view, but not identical to it) Each of these were considered in detail, and the report gives the strength of each view, and the objections to each. A few other views were considered briefly. The...

Did Martin Luther Act Infallibly in Defining What Books Belong in the Bible? If Luther did not act infallibly: - How can Protestants be certain that they have an infallible collection of Books in Holy Scripture? - How can the Bible be the sole rule of faith, if no one knows with certainty which books belong in the Bible? If Luther acted infallibly: - How do you know?

Report: Mainline Protestant Churches Face Rockier Future By Audrey Barrick|Christian Post Reporter   Mainline Protestant churches seem to have weathered the past decade better than many people have assumed, but the future is raising serious challenges to continued stability, said a Christian pollster. George Barna analyzed data for The Barna Group's latest report examining mainline denominations. Weekend attendance at mainline churches has remained relatively stable, ranging from 89 to 100, over the past decade but the report suggests that they may be "on the precipice of a period of decline."Mainline bodies – which the research group identifies as American Baptist...

On New Year's Day, three Church of England bishops were received into the Catholic Church. John Broadhurst, Keith Newton, and Andrew Burnham were joined by two retired bishops, David Silk and Edwin Barnes. All five had been ministering to those Anglican clergy and people who had stood apart from the liberal innovations in the Anglican Church. Broadhurst, Newton, and Burnham were termed "provincial episcopal visitors," or "flying bishops," because their jurisdiction was wider than a normal geographical diocese. Under a provision established in the mid-1990s, when women were first ordained to the Anglican priesthood, clergy and congregations could decline the...

The Anglican bishop of Massachusetts, the Rt Revd M Thomas Shaw SSJE, witnesses the "marriage" of the Very Reverend Katherine Hancock Ragsdale and Mally Lloyd, Canon to the Ordinary on New Year's Day 2011.By Father James Bradley of St John the Baptist Church, Sevenoaks, Kent who, by the way, are using the Evangelium course to learn about the Catholic Faith.

Back in the 1980s, I was involved with a group that produced a booklet looking at the future of the Church in Britain. We were assured -- and repeated, without really thinking about it very deeply -- that the downward trend of baptisms, confirmations, marriages, and ordinations to the priesthood meant that there would be very little left of the Church by the early years of the 21st century. In fact, as I recall, we said that the Church would have virtually disappeared.How wrong we were. In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI visited Britain, greeted by the queen and vast...

Parishioners at the Presbyterian Church of Mount Kisco yesterday were coming to grips with revelations that their former pastor was charged by the presbytery with sexually abusing eight boys Richard Farrell, 69, a church member, couldn't miss the headlines in newspapers or the stories on television over allegations against Jack Miller that the Hudson River Presbytery announced Tuesday. "I can't comment on them because they're allegations," said Farrell, a former chairman of the church's board of trustees. "I do not condone the alleged actions, but I'm not about to turn my back on an individual, no matter who he or...