Free Republic

LOUISVILLE – No one could escape the somber atmosphere enshrouding last week’s General Assembly Council meeting, which culminated Friday in a $4 million budget cut and pink slips for 14 staffers. But among those involved in denominational politics, the week proved especially trying for left-leaning activists committed to social causes and minority issues. For them, a series of recent developments – from organizational restructuring to GAC bylaw changes – triggered calls to action and concerns that the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s “prophetic” wing wasn’t receiving a fair shake. “Folks on the left are scared,” observed GAC member Thomas Gillespie as the...

Members of a committee in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will gather this week to consider proposed changes, including the removal of a negative reference to homosexual behavior, to a historic document. The General Assembly Special Committee on Correcting Translation Problems of the Heidelberg Catechism is scheduled to begin a two-day meeting on March 27. Last June, the General Assembly, which is the highest governing body of the denomination, approved a proposal to begin revising the Heidelberg Catechism – a document of the Reformed Christian faith that is part of the PC(USA)'s constitution. Presbyterians at the biennial meeting debated the current...

San Francisco, CA (AP) -- A lesbian Presbyterian deacon's application for ordination has been stopped, at least for now. A church commission Wednesday rejected the process used by the Presbytery of San Francisco to approve 45-year-old Lisa Larges' candidacy for ordination.

Not long ago Presbyterian congregations that promoted conserving resources were considered progressive. Now, in a time of soaring energy costs and a declining economy, such actions might be seen more as conservationist — as in conserving the environment and sometimes even protecting church budgets. From small congregations (of which there are many) to big-steeple churches, Presbyterians are becoming more interested in “going green.” It’s a term that some critics say is over-used, but whatever the motivation, more churches are doing it. “Presbyterians are getting involved, asking questions, asking for resources at a much higher rate,” says Rebecca Barnes-Davies, former coordinator...

This following report comes to us from Christian Post: Members of a committee in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will gather this week to consider proposed changes, including the removal of a negative reference to homosexual behavior, to a historic document. The General Assembly Special Committee on Correcting Translation Problems of the Heidelberg Catechism is scheduled to begin a two-day meeting on March 27… Much of the controversy revolved around a reference to “homosexual perversion” among a list of sinful behaviors that is not found in the original German text. Opponents of the current translation argued that the original text and...

Leaders of Pittsburgh Presbytery believe religious liberty is endangered because civil courts are preventing presbyteries from exercising religious authority over congregations that want to take property out of the denomination. In response they have organized a convocation, "Our Freedom of Religion at Risk -- A Presbyterian Crisis," for Thursday, from 2 to 5:30 p.m., in Beulah Presbyterian Church, Churchhill. Attendance is free, but a live Webcast for long-distance viewing costs $10. Registration is at www.presbyterianconvocation.org. Over the past two years, dozens of the 10,000 congregations in the Presbyterian Church (USA), including three in Pittsburgh Presbytery, left for the more theologically...

The largest Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation in Arkansas on Sunday elected a homosexual as deacon... The vote comes one day after the Presbytery of Arkansas voted to remove restrictions on homosexual ordination from the national church's Book of Order... Upson is a bell choir member and oversees the acolyte program. A Second Presbyterian member since 2001, he also has taught Sunday School, volunteered for Vacation Bible School and served as a lay leader...

NEW YORK (AP) — Membership in the nation's two largest Christian church bodies, the Roman Catholic Church and Southern Baptist Convention, declined slightly in 2007, according to the latest edition of the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches. The Catholic church remains the largest body of believers in the U.S., with 67 million members, the yearbook said. But from 2006 to 2007 the church shed 398,000 members in the U.S. — a 0.59 percent drop. Southern Baptists reported 16.2 million members for a decline of 0.24 percent, or a loss of nearly 40,000 members. Although the declines are relatively small,...

Two mainline denominations have announced decisions indicating a further move away from Bible-based Christianity. In Michigan, the new bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan is an ordained Zen Buddhist. Northern Michigan's Episcopal congregations and delegates overwhelmingly elected the Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester at their convention on Saturday. The diocesan website says Thew Forrester "has practiced Zen meditation for almost a decade," and the Buddhist community welcomed his commitment by granting him "lay ordination." The website also says Northern Michigan's new bishop "resonates deeply" with "his own interfaith dialogue with Buddhism and meditative practice." Meanwhile, Presbyterian Church (USA) representatives...

Another Presbyterian Church (USA) is set to close its doors this spring. West Presbyterian Church of Wilmington, Del., has announced that it will hold its last worship service in its historic Gothic church building on April 26. ... In the ‘90s, it became a More Light Presbyterians governing body member by ascribing to their mission statement: "Following the risen Christ, and seeking to make the Church a true community of hospitality, the mission of More Light Presbyterians is the full participation of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people of faith in the life, ministry, and witness of the Presbyterian Church...

Responding to a recent document released by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) that attempted to clarify the denomination's stance on debated issues, conservative Presbyterian leaders say the arguments are irrelevant. "We think there is an unfortunate but clear distinction between what is on paper and what is the working theology of the denomination," said the Rev. Dr. D. Dean Weaver, senior pastor of Memorial Park Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh and co-moderator of the New Wineskins Association of Churches – a network of dissident Presbyterians. PC(USA)'s stated clerk, the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, and General Assembly Council executive director, Linda Valentine, addressed a...

Gradye Parsons, the stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA), has added a new twist to the messianic aura that seemed to surround the presidential campaign of Barack Obama. “Mr. President,” he said, “before you save us, let us have a chance to profess our ills.” -snip- John Thomas, the president of the United Church of Christ, expressed his appreciation that Obama had been “schooled by a preacher named Jeremiah” to serve as a “public theologian who shapes the way people understand their relationship to God,” RNS reported.

The Presbytery of Chicago has borrowed money to settle a multi-million-dollar civil suit by four men who say they were sexually molested by a presbytery youth minister when they were children. It is still trying to figure out how to repay the loan. The cost of the settlement has not been disclosed. But it is known that the presbytery is having to sell off some its property. The presbytery has already sold a portion of a retreat in Saugatuck, Mich., and there are plans to sell the presbytery’s headquarters in Chicago. The presbytery has its offices in a converted warehouse...

A Tulsa, Okla., megachurch lost a two-year property battle in court Tuesday when the county district judge ruled in favor of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Judge Jefferson Sellers ruled that the the Kirk of the Hills church property belongs to the PC(USA) and the Eastern Oklahoma Presbytery, a regional body of the denomination, and not the local congregation. The 2,400-member Kirk of the Hills congregation, which was the second largest church in the regional presbytery, has been in legal battle over the property since it split from the PC(USA) in August 2006. After an overwhelming vote to leave the denomination,...

In a move that echoes a division in the Episcopal church, at least three Valley Presbyterian churches are taking steps to move to another denomination over differences about the Bible and homosexuality. Officials at Valley congregations say they are at odds with Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the nation's largest Presbyterian denomination, over its decision to drop a church standard that potential ministers, deacons and elders live in "fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness."

Tulsa, Okla., September 9, 2008 – Tulsa County District Judge Jefferson Sellers ruled today that the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) and the Eastern Oklahoma Presbytery of the PCUSA (EOP) own the Kirk of the Hills property at 4102 E. 61st Street, under the denomination’s constitution... The Kirk of the Hills paid for the property over the last four decades and the deeds are in the Kirk Corporation’s name. ... The Kirk has been in a legal battle over this property since the Kirk withdrew from PCUSA denomination in August 2006. ...

A third lawsuit has been filed involving Peters Creek United Presbyterian Church, whose members voted 207-26 last year to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA) for the more theologically conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church. On Monday the minority, who Washington Presbytery has declared the "true church," sued the majority, asking the Washington County Common Pleas Court to remove the officers of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and return all property to control of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Last year the majority sued Washington Presbytery, the local governing body of the Presbyterian Church (USA), for the right to keep all property. Last month Washington...

Clovis native Rebecca Sitterly registered to vote soon after returning to her native state in 1979 and jumped right into Democratic politics about the same time. So the former Bernalillo County district judge was surprised to get a July 3 call from a community nonprofit that was checking on her new registration. When Sitterly said she hadn't filled out a registration form (indeed, she'd been regularly voting in the same place on Mountain Road NW in Albuquerque for nearly 20 years) a supervisor with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now promised to destroy the card, Sitterly said in...

This year, in addition to Woodland Presbyterian Church in New Orleans, more than a dozen PCUSA congregations have left with their property from the denomination, or are seeking dismissal.

Bruce Reyes-Chow "PCUSA" is a "mainline" denomination of 2.3 million members. This is the spirit of the times (zeitgeist): certainly not the Holy Spirit. According to a story from the Catholic News Agency: San Jose, CA., Jul 8, 2008 / 11:57 pm (CNA).- Reaction continues to the decisions of the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA), which took place between June 21 and June 28. The assembly nullified proscriptions against sexual behavior outside of marriage and called for a vote to delete the church’s constitutional standard requiring fidelity in marriage and chastity in singleness. It also...