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Global Christianity comes to Grand Rapids, Mich., this weekend in the form of the Uniting General Council of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC). Thousands of delegates, exhibitors, and volunteers will gather on the campus of Calvin College to mark the union of two Reformed ecumenical groups, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC). This new global ecumenical body will include 227 denominations in 108 nations worldwide, with over 80 million Christians of broadly Reformed, Congregational, and Presbyterian membership. But the proceedings over the next two weeks will go far beyond mere celebration...

RANCHO BERNARDO, Calif. -- A local Presbyterian church is at the center of a lawsuit that accuses the church of knowingly hiring a sexual predator and keeping it quiet. The lawsuit claimed Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church knew former employee Gregory Starkey was behaving inappropriately with young girls in the choir program, and that the church was negligent in that it did not warn anyone about him. What started in 1966 with 116 charter members and a budget of $44,000, the Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church is one of the largest in San Diego County. According to the lawsuit, Starkey...

We write to express our conviction that you must enact comprehensive immigration reform this year. As people of faith and the leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), we are keenly aware of the devastating effects our broken immigration system has on the lives of individuals, immigrant and non-immigrant families, and our communities. The bigotry, trauma, and fear that will result from the recent new law enacted in Arizona, SB 1070, which criminalizes those who are found "with" undocumented persons and requires law enforcement officers to identify and detain such persons, serves to underscore the necessity of action at the federal...

With the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA scheduled to convene in June for the first time since the 2004 GA passed a notorious anti—Israel divestment resolution, supporters and detractors of divestment are discussing whether the Church's decision was anti—Semitic, or — somehow — anti—Israel without being anti—Semitic. Curiously, despite the storm caused by the divestment vote, most Presbyterians remain unaware of the extent to which the PCUSA leadership has involved itself in old—fashioned theological anti—Semitism. The anti—Semitic alliances undertaken by the national church are particularly surprising in light of the well—known open—minded and unbiased attitudes of the overwhelming...

The Rev. Jane Spahr, a retired Presbyterian minister, faces prosecution by her own church — for the second time in four years — for officiating in the marriages of same-sex couples. “Here we are again,” said Spahr, 67, who was acquitted by the church's highest tribunal in 2008, capping a two-year disciplinary case that started with a trial in Santa Rosa in 2006. Spahr, a former Petaluma resident who lives with her son and 6-year-old granddaughter in San Francisco, freely acknowledges the church's allegations that she married a lesbian couple in June, 2008, and 15 other same-sex couples that year....

The Israel described in the Bible and the modern state of Israel are not the same and should not be understood as such by Christians, states a new paper drafted by the mission council of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The Bible does not provide any clear geographical boundaries of the ancient land of Israel, notes the PC(USA)'s General Assembly Mission Council (GAMC). Therefore, “it is dangerous” to bring the Bible into the debate on how to define the boundaries of Israel or any other modern state, it adds. Presented at the Feb. 24-25 meeting of GAMC, the paper, titled “Christians...

The Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUSA) is about to release a report which denounces Israel as a 'racist' nation which has absolutely no historical, covenantal, or theological right to the Holy Land. The report calls for the United States to withhold financial and military aid to Israel and for boycotts and sanctions against Israel. The report also endorses a Palestinian 'right of return' and 'apologizes to Palestinians for even conceding that Israel has a right to exist.' According to the press release, it also states that Israels history begins only with the Holocaust and that Israel is 'a...

Evangelicals in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have banded together and committed themselves to hold to the biblical faith as their denomination continues to "stumble," as they put it. With the PC(USA) losing churches and conservatives beginning to feel like they have no voice or reason to stay in the denomination, remaining evangelicals have decided to support one another with the formation of the Biblical Presbyterian Network. "[I]t feels as if there is a sense of helplessness within the evangelical community within the PC(USA). The old strategies do not seem to be holding us together and the vision for a renewed...

There is no hospice for congregations facing the end of their days. No advanced directives telling caregivers when to take action and when to let go. Dying people make out wills to direct the inheritance of their remaining possessions, but there is no legal equivalent for a dying church. Jewish tradition directs fathers to write ethical wills that explain the values by which they have led their lives, to be read by their children after they pass. But when a church dies, there is no one left to do the reading. On a chilly Sunday morning, congregants of Eastminster Presbyterian...

The high court of the Presbyterian Church (USA) announced decisions in favor of a lesbian woman and a gay man on Tuesday, Nov. 3. Meeting in Indianapolis, Friday, Oct. 30, the court heard arguments related to Lisa Larges, a lesbian woman who has been a candidate for ordination for more than two decades and Paul Capetz, a gay man whose January 2008 reinstatement by his home Presbytery was challenged. The Larges and Capetz cases are the first cases to use a 2008 compromise voted by the denomination so that, despite a ban on partnered gay and lesbian ministers, Presbyteries could...

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 Churches in the USA; The Episcopal Church; the Evangelical Lutheran Church in...

SAN ANSELMO, CA — Elizabeth Liebert will become the first Roman Catholic sister named as dean of a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) seminary this summer when she takes over the position at San Francisco Theological Seminary (SFTS). With more than two decades of teaching experience at the 138-year-old seminary, Liebert will replace the Rev. Jana Childers, who will step down June 30 after nearly eight years as dean. “We are particularly pleased to be attaining a historic ecumenical milestone,” SFTS President Phil Butin said. “Dr. Liebert's deanship is a sterling example of SFTS's thoroughgoing commitment to ecumenical theological education.” “This seems...

"What if church wasn't just a building, but thousands of doors?" asks a new website launched by the United Methodist Church. "Each of them opening up to a different concept or experience of church. . . . Would you come?" After watching its membership drop nearly 25 percent in recent decades, the United Methodist Church, which is still the nation's largest mainline Protestant denomination, thinks it knows the answer. So it's pouring $20 million into a new marketing campaign, including the website, television advertisements, even street teams in some cities, to rebrand the church from stale destination to "24-7 experience."...

OUR MISSION: Following the risen Christ, and seeking to make the Church a true community of hospitality, the mission of More Light Presbyterians is to work for the full participation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people of faith in the life, ministry and witness of the Presbyterian Church (USA). "God's Whole Family" Conference Registration now open The National Welcoming & Affirming Presbyterian Conference September 4 - 6, 2009: Labor Day Weekend Second Presbyterian Church, Nashville, Tennessee "God's Whole Family" is hosted by Second Presbyterian Church, Nashville and produced by More Light Presbyterians for pro-LGBT Presbyterians, families, friends and allies....

DAVENPORT — Members of the East Iowa Presbytery voted last night in favor of changing the constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to allow the possibility of gay and lesbian ministers. Pastors and ruling elders of the East Iowa Presbytery voted 74-21 in support of an amendment that would change wording in the church constitution that currently requires ministers to adhere to sexual chastity unless they are married. Marriage is legal for same-sex couples in only a handful of states. The amendment would not guarantee that gays and lesbians could become ministers but it would open the possibility, said the...

Unofficially, ordination requirement is affirmed The Layman, Posted Wednesday, April 22, 2009 The “fidelity/chastity” requirement will remain in The Book of Order, according to the unofficial reports of votes by presbyteries in the Presbyterian Church (USA). The April 22 reports raised the number of presbyteries supporting the Biblical ordination standards to 86, the number needed for a majority. Surprisingly, San Francisco, the last presbytery to report its vote on April 22, was the 86th to reject an amendment to G-6.0106b that would have eliminated the language requiring candidates for ordination to maintain fidelity in their marriages and chastity if single....

The Presbyterian Church (USA) and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America both have slashed their 2009 budgets, cutting programs and laying off scores of personnel as denominations continue to suffer from the recession. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in American (ELCA), the nation's largest Lutheran denomination, announced a $5.6-million reduction in its 2009 budget on Tuesday (March 31). The cut was necessary in part because regional synods plan to decrease their contributions to the denomination by $2.4 million this year, church leaders said. Since last November, the ELCA has eliminated more than 23 jobs and cut 12 additional vacant positions. All churchwide...

On a stormy Sunday morning in Charlotte, N.C., latecomers were still shaking off wet umbrellas and streaming into a rented chapel at a local Catholic high school as Anglican minister Filmore Strunk led the congregation in reading Psalm 19: "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, more than much fine gold." For this congregation, those words ring especially true: Less than 15 months ago, the 300-member group was worshipping with more than 1,000 other parishioners in a 22,000-square-foot, gothic-style sanctuary on a prime piece of property in a growing...

Two Protestant groups are moving towards allowing the ordination of homosexuals in long-term monogamous relationships as ministers. The governing council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the largest Lutheran organization, voted this week to have a vote in the national assembly on the issue, The Christian Science Monitor reported. The Presbyterian Church (USA) approved homosexual ordination last year, but it will not take effect unless two-thirds of the presbyteries, the 173 district councils, vote in favor by June. Both groups already allow homosexuals to be ordained if they are celibate.

In a break from the past, North Texas clergy and lay leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have voted to ease the way for ordination of openly gay pastors, deacons and elders. Clergy and lay leaders of Grace Presbytery – the regional body covering 177 churches in North Texas and other parts of the state – voted Saturday to remove constitutional language requiring that ordained officers maintain "fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness." Kathy Collier, pastor of First Presbyterian of Forney, supported the change, saying it was past time for...