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Church moderator cites unity over controversy Presbyterians told to decide issues on local level The Rev. Susan Andrews, head of the Presbyterian Church (USA), said yesterday that she believes the denomination's commitment to unity and honest dialogue that brought about changes in its policies on slavery, divorce, and the ordination of women eventually will allow the ordination of homosexual clergy. Ms. Andrews, elected moderator of the General Assembly in May, 2003, said members of the 2.5 million-member mainline Protestant denomination must abide by church law while "working to change things from within." In an interview at First Presbyterian Church of...

The congregation of First Presbyterian Church in Charleston, Miss., has voted 75-1 to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA) and affiliate with the Presbyterian Church in America. The Charleston congregation became the fourth PCUSA church to leave the denomination because of their disagreements with the decisions and statements of denominational leaders and the higher governing bodies. All four congregations – First in Charleston, Circleville in Circleville, N.Y., Rivermont in Lynchburg, Va., and Norcrest in Findlay, Ohio – were affiliated with the Confessing Church Movement within the PCUSA. The Circleville, Lynchburg and Norcrest congregations affiliated with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. The Presbytery...

<p>A Presbyterian activist who may be stripped of his ministerial credentials this month for suggesting church conservatives withhold funds from denominational coffers will speak tomorrow at National Presbyterian Church in Northwest.</p> <p>Parker T. Williamson, 63, the chief executive officer of the Presbyterian Lay Committee, a conservative lobby group that urges Presbyterians to withhold their contributions, is in hot water with a denomination he says has gone soft on homosexuality and abortion.</p>

A Presbyterian activist could be stripped of his ordination after suggesting that conservative churches should withhold funds from the denomination. Church officials voted to recommend that the Rev. Parker Williamson, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) denomination, be placed on "inactive status" in the Western North Carolina Presbytery. Williamson is executive director of the Presbyterian Lay Committee and editor of its newspaper, The Layman. Both organizations are based in Lenoir. On Oct. 18, the lay committee adopted a "Declaration of Conscience" that urged churches to "prayerfully consider" denying money to the national church because of its policies on homosexuality...

A Bible-believing minister in the Presbyterian Church USA may be stripped of his ordination credentials for criticizing leaders in his denomination and accusing them of denying the authority of scripture. "We have criticized the leadership of this denomination for its abandonment of scripture as the authority for the church's faith and life," the pastor says, "and they are having a hard time tolerating the existence of the critic." * * * The Presbytery of Western North Carolina's Committee on Ministry voted in a closed session on December 9 to approve a recommendation to withdraw its validation of Williamson's ministry. Next...

By Paula R. Kincaid The Layman Online Friday, November 21, 2003 Back on July 30, 2001, during a Presbyterian Coalition meeting held in Denver, evangelicals held a "conversation" with Moderator Jack B. Rogers. The evangelicals criticized his theological orientation, his commitment to ordination of self-affirming, practicing homosexuals and his redefinition of marriage to include same-sex couples and his outburst against the Confessing Church within the Presbyterian Church (USA). During that meeting, Harold E. Kurtz, senior associate of Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship and one of the denomination's experts on world missions, told Rogers "I'm concerned about what this General Assembly has done...

Clifton Kirkpatrick, the stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA), has coaxed his allies in the National Council of Churches to join the PCUSA's boycott of Taco Bell. "Any time a Christian community comes together and seeks to exercise economic justice in this way, it is because there is a very serious injustice that cannot be resolved in any other way," said the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, one of leaders of the social-activist ecumenical body which held its annual assembly in Jackson, Miss., on Nov. 6-8. Kirkpatrick introduced the resolution calling on the NCC to join a tomato-picker's labor union in...

BLUE ASH, Ohio -Presbyterian Church (USA) officials convicted a minister Monday of violating church law for marrying same-sex couples. In the church's first trial on the practice, the court rebuked the Rev. Stephen Van Kuiken but refrained from suspending him or removing him from ministry. The court acquitted Van Kuiken on another charge of ordaining gays who won't adhere to a Presbyterian requirement of chastity. Van Kuiken, 44, pastor of Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church in nearby Cincinnati, has acknowledged performing the ceremonies and ordaining gays. He says the church is facing a crisis of theological intolerance. He has said he...

Minister rebuked for same-sex marriages Tuesday, April 22, 2003 BY JOHN NOLAN Associated Press BLUE ASH, Ohio -- A court of Presbyterian Church (USA) officials convicted a minister yesterday of violating church law by marrying same-sex couples. In the church's first trial on the practice, the court rebuked the Rev. Stephen Van Kuiken but refrained from suspending him or removing him from ministry. It also acquitted Van Kuiken on another charge accusing him of ordaining gays who won't adhere to a Presbyterian requirement of chastity. Van Kuiken, 44, pastor of Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church in nearby Cincinnati, has acknowledged performing...

SAN ANTONIO – Mary, the mother of God, was "a co-redeemer with Jesus Christ" because she "took on the suffering" of marginalization and liberated women, the keynote speaker told nearly 200 participants at the biennial conference of the Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare Association. In his keynote address Jan. 24, the Rev. Virgilio Elizondo sketched out a liberation theology scenario in which Mary, both as a Galilean and a woman, was marginalized within her society. Galilee, he said, was "a crossroads to everywhere, a center of nowhere" that had been invaded numerous times, much like San Antonio. Elizondo, director of...

The Rev. Howard Edington, who in two decades as pastor more than tripled the downtown congregation of First Presbyterian Church of Orlando, announced his retirement Wednesday in the wake of a controversy sparked by his conservative views on the role of gays in the denomination. The 60-year-old Edington's vocal opposition to ordaining gay ministers and blessing same-sex unions -- together with a sermon opposing the Orlando City Council's recently passed ordinance protecting gays from discrimination -- had roiled his congregation. At least two elders resigned. At one point, the minister was urged to take a six-month sabbatical, an offer he...

Chester congregation passes into history LOIS PUGLIONESI, Times Correspondent April 08, 2002 CHESTER -- Martha and Larry Wood met, fell in love, and in 1954 were married at the First Presbyterian Church of Chester.Three of their children were baptized there, and all three were married beneath its white arches and vaulted ceiling. Yesterday, they were there again - for the last time. Because of its dwindling congregation - down to 55 members, from a high of 575 in the early 1960s - church leaders decided to disband. "We're sorry.There's a lot of history here," said Mrs. Wood, whose husband is...