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The pastor of First Presbyterian Church on B Street is breaking away from the congregation to start his own non-denominational house of worship that will focus on helping people connect with God through a music-filled service, Bible teachings that apply to contemporary life and community meals. Dave Weidlich, 56, spent seven years leading First Presbyterian, but says he encountered a vision of church elders that was different from the one he had. Now the backpacking and blogging pastor is launching his own church, called The Vine, that will meet in an office building near Auto Row.“The Vine will be different...

A Dunedin pastor recently won a sabbatical grant so she can learn from the ancient Celts and American Indians, according to media reports The Rev. Victoria “Vicki” ByRoade, of the First Presbyterian Church of Dunedin, received a $49,470 grant from The Lilly Endowment Inc. for spiritual learning and renewal that it believes will better her congregation. ByRoade and her congregation are among 158 religious groups across 40 states that learned in October they would win awards through the Lilly Endowment's National Clergy Renewal Program

Four of 60 Presbyterian churches in the Miami Valley recently left their national denomination. Their ministers pointed to changes in the denomination’s constitution that paved the way for openly gay people to become ministers or church leaders, as well as changes to the way the church is governed that could provide for a more top-down leadership in the future. ..“We were concerned,” said Peter Larson, head pastor at Lebanon Presbyterian Church, “that some might see this move as creating a church that’s anti-gay people, or homophobic.” Larson’s church voted to leave the denomination. “That’s just not true. Every person is...

The cause of demonstrators involved in the “Occupy Wall Street” movement would have been supported by John Calvin, the 16th century church reformer who helped shape modern-day Protestantism, says the general secretary of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) “I am sure he would have been in the streets of New York or London with a placard,” says WCRC’s Setri Nyomi of the French lawyer and theologian who wrote extensively about social and economic justice. ...“Calvin expressed opposition to all forms of social oppression resulting from money,” Nyomi says. “Today, it is the global economic systems and practices that...

"Oh Come Let Us Adore Him," a display of more than 100 creches, Nativities and angels, is being held this weekend at the Connellsville Presbyterian Church, in conjunction with "It's A Connellsville Christmas." The hours are 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 3 p.m. Sunday."We are pleased that we get so many new pieces to add each year. We like to make changes and create new arrangements each holiday. New this year, we are adding a Christmas tree to hang the many little Nativity ornaments on. It will look beautiful," said Teri Montgomery, event co-coordinator along with Nancy...

Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church in Gig Harbor voted Sunday to leave the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), primarily because the denomination changed its constitution to allow noncelibate gay men and lesbians to be ordained as clergy and lay leaders. With 1,660 members, Chapel Hill Presbyterian is one of the largest mainline Protestant churches in the South Sound region. The Rev. Mark Toone, senior pastor of Chapel Hill, said his congregation reached a “tipping point” last spring when a majority of regional governing bodies, called presbyteries, voted to change the church’s ordination standards, permitting openly gay people to be ordained. “For 30 years,...

This is no nursery rhyme but rather the cast of characters lining up to appear at the 2012 Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly meeting in Pittsburgh. ACT I: An assault on marriageThe chameleon:  This character will attempt to lead commissioners to see marriage differently than the Church has historically defined it. Separating marriage from the Biblical narrative of creation and the Biblical witness of Jesus' affirmation between one man and one woman, the assembly will be asked to see a "new normal" that is inclusive of gay marriage. Presented plainly, the redefinition of marriage will arrive at the assembly through...

On Saturday, October 8th in Madison, Wisconson, Scott Anderson became the first openly gay ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church. This ordination is especially poignant for Anderson who came out to his California congregation when he was in his late thirties, over twenty years ago. He resigned as a result. Nancy Enderle, the interim executive director of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, told The Associated Press that the ordination was a glorious celebration that touched everyone, especially Anderson. “He’s a very dignified and poised person but you could tell he was deeply moved,” she said “The Episcopalians, the Lutherans, the...

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One of the oldest Presbyterian churches in Syracuse — First Presbyterian Church United – this month decided it will close in April 2012. The Near West Side church, founded in 1826 and located at 620 W. Genesee St. since 1904, will have its last service on Easter, April 8, 2012. The church has been steadily losing members over the years and is financially strapped, said Nancy Wind, associate for congregational life at the church. There are about 100 church members; of those about 40 attend worship services, she said. “We’ve been running a deficit budget for at least a decade...

Before returning to New England for the second time, I served two African American Presbyterian Churches. And during that time I never thought, two decades ago, that the entire church body would change its position on LGBTQ worshippers. But a historic yet bittersweet moment happened on October 8th in the Presbyterian Church (USA). And the moment didn’t happened without a long and arduous struggle against the church’s ecclesiastical heterosexism.After decades of open struggle with the church’s recalcitrant attitude and discrimination against its lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) worshippers who wanted to serve as pastors, elders or deacons, the...

A California minister says another Presbyterian church has withdrawn from the national group because the mainline denomination is departing from the Bible and biblical standards. Sacramento-based Fremont Presbyterian Church recently voted 427-164 to secede from the Presbyterian Church USA due to the group's stance on "gay" clergy. The church is now part of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, a small denominational offshoot that is more conservative. It believes in the infallibility of the Bible, that homosexuals should not serve in the ministry, and that those who are divorced should meet with congregational leaders before joining the church. The church's pastor assures...

Members of First Presbyterian Church of Enid voted 131-69 to leave Presbyterian Church... The Rev. Roy Schneider, senior pastor of the church, announced the vote. Schneider said 200 of the 290 members of the church were present and voted. Prior to the vote, Schneider read a message from the Presbytery, the governing body, saying the vote is non-binding, and any changes in membership will be made after requested by individual members. ..The church had been in tense discussion for several months about issues it faced. Many members have been concerned about the reported liberal stances the national church has been...

Several dozen people partook in a discussion about same-sex marriage Sunday morning at Westminster Presbyterian Church, settling nothing but sharing their opinions openly. It was a part of the church’s series of adult education forums; one last week focused on interfaith marriage. Always a controversial topic, same-sex marriage has become yet more prominent in New York this year since the Legislature passed a law legalizing it. The Ledyard town clerk objected to that law and declined to sign same-sex marriages licenses on religious grounds, thereby putting herself near the center of a nationwide debate and drawing a write-in election challenge....

Dr. Charles A. Wiley III, coordinator for Theology, Worship and Education at PC(USA)’s General Assembly Mission Council, told The Christian Post Tuesday that he hopes Reformation Sunday will help Presbyterians “re-commit” to the message of the Reformation. “I would hope that Presbyterian churches would re-commit themselves to the central insights of the Reformation: grace alone, faith alone, Scripture alone. These watchwords have served the church well to focus us on Jesus Christ,” said Wiley. The celebration will take place not long after Fremont Presbyterian Church, a congregation located in Sacramento, Calif., voted to break away from the PC(USA). The decision...

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) plans to ordain the first openly gay candidate for ordination since the denomination struck down barriers this year to clergy who have same-gender partners. Scott Anderson will be ordained as a teaching elder on Oct. 8 at the Covenant Presbyterian Church in Madison. The new policy won approval from a majority of the denomination's 173 presbyteries, or regional church bodies, and took effect on July 10.The denomination eliminated language in the church constitution requiring that clergy live "in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness." The new...

A man who left the ministry 21 years ago is looking forward to becoming the first openly gay person ordained in the Presbyterian Church USA. At the ceremony Sunday, Scott Anderson, 56, now executive director of the Wisconsin Council of Churches, will take back the stole he wore as pastor of two Presbyterian congregations in California, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. He had donated it to Shower of Stoles, a project meant to demonstrate what the Presbyterian Church had lost by barring homosexuals from the ministry. Anderson, who grew up in California, said he realized he was gay while he...

MILWAUKEE –  A man who left his Presbyterian ministry in California more than 20 years ago after telling his congregation that he is gay was welcomed back into the church leadership on Saturday as its first openly gay ordained minister. In a quavering voice ripe with emotion, 56-year-old Scott Anderson told the hundreds of friends and backers who packed Covenant Presbyterian Church in Madison, Wisconsin for his ordination ceremony that he never thought the day would come. "To the thousands of Presbyterians who have worked and prayed for almost 40 years for this day, I give thanks," Anderson said. "And...

Jesus Christ is now calling Christians everywhere to experience spiritual birth, to store up heavenly riches, to live a divine spiritual life, to join the armies of heaven, to fight for church reform, and to prepare the church for His Second Coming More Information This is a message from Jesus Christ to the Presbyterian Church. “I am the Son of God whose eyes blaze like fire, whose feet shine like polished brass. I know what you do. I know your love, your faithfulness, your service, and your patience. But this is what I have against you: you tolerate those lesbians."...

A Wisconsin man is expected to become the first openly gay candidate ordained in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) since the church opened ordination to gay candidates earlier this year. ...“It’s hard to believe it’s finally happening,” Anderson said in a released statement on Friday. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) officially began allowing the ordination of openly gay and lesbian candidates on July 10. n May, Twin Cities Presbyterians cast the historic vote to allow openly gay and lesbian members to be ordained ministers. Presbyterian leaders say the Twin Cities vote was the action needed to end the 2.1 million-member denomination’s national...