PCUSA: Jesus Wins Bout Over Sophia [You can't make this stuff up]

Presbyterians-Week is a product of the Christian Observer Foundation,
publisher of the oldest international Presbyterian and Reformed
periodical. Dr. Edwin P. Elliott, Jr., Editor


In this issue:

[    ] Texan Leads PCA
[    ] Cumberlands Assemble in Paducah
[    ] Christ Edges Out Sophia in Presbyterian Church (USA)
[    ] Archbishop Calls for Anglican Unity
[    } Bible League Attacked in India
[    ] Remember Those in Prison
[    ] Trouble Brewing in Papua
[    ] Short Term, Long Term
[    ] Synods and Assemblies

Texan Leads PCA

The Presbyterian Church in America's 30th General Assembly elected the
Rev. Joseph "Skip" Ryan moderator at its opening convocation on June 18.
Ryan, pastor of Park Cities Presbyterian Church in Dallas, Texas, was
elected moderator of the 300,000-member denomination on the first
ballot.

Over 1,600 delegates are attending the PCA General Assembly, which is
meeting at the 3,500-member Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham.

Ryan has been pastor of the 5,000-member Park Cities Presbyterian Church
since 1992. Previous to that he was the pastor of Trinity Presbyterian
Church in Charlottesville, Virginia.

In accepting the position of moderator, Ryan said, "The world is
watching our common union-a family in the Lord Jesus. Let me urge us to
express this common union by the way we talk to one another, and in this
way to express that we are brothers."

+ Dr. Dominic Aquila, Presbyterian Church in America, 1700 N. Brown
Road, Suite 105, Lawrenceville, GA 30043 (678) 825-1000

Cumberlands Assemble in Paducah

The 172nd General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church opened
June 16. The Assembly elected Rev. Bert Owen, Jr. of Covenant Presbytery
as its Moderator. Rev. Roosevelt Baugh of Red River Presbytery was
elected Vice-Moderator.

Plans are being developed to hold a concurrent assembly with the
Presbyterian Church (USA) in Birmingham, Alabama, in 2006.

+ Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 1978 Union Avenue, Memphis, TN 38104


Christ Edges Out Sophia in Presbyterian Church (USA)

A six-page paper on the lordship of Christ and the salvific work of a
sovereign God was unanimously approved by the Assembly Committee on
Confessions and Christology (ACCC) on June 17. The committee scuttled
attempts to have it adopt more succinct Christological statements for
study in the church and to issue an "authoritative interpretation" of
the denomination's first ordination vow.

Jane Adams Spahr, widely regarded as the One Voice of Sophia in the
Presbyterian Church (USA), told a breakfast audience on June 18 about
the many times she has encountered Sophia and heard her many voices.
"Meeting Sophia is like hearing the 'swish' sound of the basketball
through the net," she said. "No 'still small voice.' The sound is big,
yet soft like the 'swish.'"

Spahr said that, when she "first met Sophia," she "felt known, like
knowing God in a deeper way; and in that knowing, I felt free, alive,
ready to be me in a whole new way."

Spahr stated, "I am stunned by a Presbyterian church so wrapped up now
in the lordship of Jesus Christ that we forget how many ways, traditions
and cultures God comes to us," she told her audience of more than 600.
"But Sophia shows up, crying out to a church that is rule-led rather
than Spirit -fed. It is Sophia's voice we hear crying, 'I am the wisdom
of God who created you. You cannot confine me. I am the breath of the
power of God.'"

The Assembly committee on church orders and ministry voted to recommend
approval of most of the report of a task force favoring the ordination
of Christian educators.

The measure would permit candidates who meet certain standards to be
ordained as ministers of Word and Sacrament with a concentration in
Christian education. Candidates would have to earn degrees and
demonstrate teaching skills.

One part of the task force's report was not approved: a section that
would permit a CCE approved for ordination to serve as an associate
pastor within the same congregation he or she serves as an educator. At
press time, some committee members were planning to seek a
reconsideration of that decision.

By a vote of 33-13, the Assembly committee on General Assembly meetings
voted to recommend that the Presbyterian Church (USA) hold its annual
national legislative gatherings only every other year. The change would
go into effect after the 216th Assembly in Richmond, Virginia, in 2004.
If the recommendation is adopted by this year's Assembly, 2005 will be
the first year since 1789 not to include a General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church.

A typical Assembly costs about US$5 million. Officials from the Office
of the General Assembly have warned that per-capita contributions will
have to be raised substantially if the meetings are to continue on an
annual basis.

The Assembly committee on church orders and ministry voted to
recommending approval of most of the report of a task force favoring the
ordination of Christian educators. The measure would permit candidates
who meet certain standards to be ordained as ministers of Word and
Sacrament with a concentration in Christian education. Candidates would
have to earn degrees and demonstrate teaching skills.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) has elected the Rev. Fahed Abu-Akel, 58, a
Palestinian-American pastor from Atlanta, moderator of the Assembly for
the coming year. Abu-Akel was elected on the second ballot, gleaning the
votes of 269 of 520 commissioners - 57 percent.

Abu-Akel had spoken movingly of his memory of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war,
when he was a 4-year-old child living in the Galilean village of
Kuffer-Yassif, when Israeli troops drove his family from their home. As
his father led the seven children away from their village, young Fahed
looked back and saw his mother on the roof of their house, waving. She
stayed behind while her husband and their children journeyed to a
mountain refugee camp.

When they eventually returned, finding her alive, they asked her why she
had not come with them, Fahed recalled. She told her husband: "This is
our home, our land, and our church. If they want to kill me, they will
need to kill me in my own home."

+ Presbyterian News,100 Witherspoon St., Louisville, KY 402021396

Archbishop Calls for Anglican Unity

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. George Carey, has appealed to
Anglicans in a Canadian diocese to continue to work together over a
dispute involving the blessing of same-sex unions.

Dr. Carey was responding to an appeal from the Dr. Trevor Walters, a
priest on the Anglican diocese of New Westminster, following a decision
by his diocese to provide a liturgical form for the blessing of same-sex
unions. Some clergy opposed to this move walked out of the Synod meeting
and have called on Dr. Carey and other Anglican Primates to intervene.

In his open letter of reply, Dr .Carey acknowledges the pain and
distress involved – but counsels them against breaking away, urging
them to stay involved in the debate. He also states his intention of
raising the matter with the Anglican Consultative Council in September
and with the Primates' standing committee.

+ Episcopal Church Center, 815 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10017 (212)
867-8400

Bible League Attacked in India

One of the Bible League's key ministry partners in India is in hiding,
fearing violent treatment from authorities and Hindu extremists. Two
other Christians associated with the Bible League have already been
jailed. The official has been accused of raping and kidnapping the niece
of an influential Hindu man--a patently false charge. Additionally, the
man and his colleagues are being falsely accused of forcing conversions,
bribing new converts, and speaking against the Hindu gods.

Bible League staff in Western India have been training more than 200
Indian Christians to establish new churches in that region's previously
unreached villages. According to the All India Christian Council (AICC),
there is an attack against Christian workers or churches every 36 hours
somewhere in India.

+ The Bible League, PO Box 28000, Chicago, IL 60628

Remember Those in Prison

Pakistan’s blasphemy law was already the subject of international
concern because it is a capital crime with vague standards of proof, but
the latest development signals expanded danger for anyone accused under
the law.

A Muslim convicted of blasphemy was shot dead June 11 by a fellow
prisoner in a jail in Lahore, with some indications that the murder was
abetted by authorities. At least 75 others are known to be imprisoned on
allegations of blasphemy in Pakistan, including a handful of Christians.
Two of them, Rasheed and Saleem Masih, were to have had their appeals
heard by the Lahore High Court on the day of the murder.

With the Pakistan government’s crackdown on international terrorism,
blasphemy prisoners now find themselves sharing cells with Al Qaeda
members. “They threaten and beat the [accused blasphemers] whenever they
get the opportunity,” the Lahore-based Center for Legal Aid Assistance
and Settlement said June 6.

+ Compass Direct, 949-862-0314; compassdirect@earthlink.net

Trouble Brewing in Papua

Indonesia’s leading Muslim organizations are attempting to rally mass
support of their absolute radical Islamic agenda, according to Steve
Snyder of International Christian Concern. He cites a June 6 supplement
to the Jakarta newspaper Republika, as evidence that leading Muslim
organizations support Indonesia’s radical jihad groups.

In the supplement, two mainline Jakarta-based Islamic groups — the
Muhammadiyah and the Nahdatul Ulama, together representing 69 million
Muslims — declared their support for all the radical Islamic jihad
groups of Indonesia. Leading “Figures of the Islamic Struggle” are
featured on the back page spread, some of whom are in jail, others of
whom are wanted by the police.

Although the two leaders of NU and Muhammadiyah claim that all the
groups that follow the featured “Figures” are purely domestic in nature,
in another article in the same supplement every one of them is linked to
overseas organizations.

Despite evidence that weapons “leak” profusely from government to
private hands in Indonesia, the Bush administration allows sale of
non-lethal arms to Indonesia, regarded as a reward for joining the war
on terrorism

During two separate fact finding trips to Indonesia last year, ICC
leaders concluded that Indonesian troops had participated alongside
Muslim jihad forces in carrying out violence against Christian
communities and that military arms and ammunition have in fact made
their way into the hands of Muslim terrorists.

ICC has received reliable reports that large numbers of the Laskar Jihad
are moving into West Papua, with as many as 3,000 Jihad fighters already
poised to attack civilians, where hitherto all communities have lived in
religious harmony.

The Laskar Jihad has already been blamed for the conflict between the
Muslim and Christian communities in the Moluccas islands, where large
numbers from both sides have been killed, and in Sulawesi. The Laskar
Jihad could not operate in West Papua without the knowledge and consent
of the Indonesian government and military.

Mr. Snyder says that Indonesia is a largely ignored incubator of
terrorism, not only internally, but worldwide. The government has so far
failed to hold accountable those responsible for the killing of
civilians in the islands of Maluku, Sulawesi and in East Timor.

+ Steve Snyder, International Christian Concern, Washington, DC;
iccsteve@att.net or iccusa@comcast.net; 301-989-1708. Via Templar News
Digest, 6-7-2002.

Short Term, Long Term

“What the New Christian Right [circa 1981] discovered, to its naïve
amazement, is what I told Forrest Mars of M&M candy fame, who was worth
$500 million at the time (1971):

"Sir, we did not lose this country in one generation, and we cannot win
it back in one generation.’

“He responded with the words that can serve as the tombstone for the New
Christian Right: ‘I never give money to any cause that cannot win in my
lifetime.’

“My response to him [was]: ‘Then you had better save your money.’ He
did. When he died a few years ago, he was worth over $4 billion. There
is no trace of any cause that he bankrolled.”

+ Gary North, “What Ever Happened to Theonomy?” 5-31-2002, Institute for
Christian Economics; newsletter subscription:
ice@add.postmastergeneral.com.

Synods and Assemblies

Full coverage of the 2002 synods and assemblies of Reformed Churches in
North America will appear in the print edition of the Christian
Observer.
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