On The Occasion of the Vote by theGeneral Conference of the Presbyterian Church (USA)to Overturn the Ban on the Ordination of Lesbians and Gay Men June 30, 2008 STATEMENT: On behalf of the friends and members of Metropolitan Community Churches, we welcome the decision of the national governing body of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to overturn the long-standing ban on the ordination of lesbians and
All week long, I watched the 218th General Assembly. It astounded me how many times people stated that Jesus would do this or say that to bolster their arguments. What a load of baloney! None of us were around with Jesus in New Testament times. We have no earthly idea about what He would do or say with regard to our cultural dilemmas and ecclesiastical issues. We question the authenticity of the G
The Chancel Choir of Worthington Presbyterian Church had a wonderful 2007/2008 year highlighted by the spring service offering of the Gospel Mass by Dr. Robert Ray. The Gospel Mass, heard by over 600 church members and guests, featured more than 60 voices singing accompanied by two pianos and bass guitar. What a treat for singers and parishioners.
Learn more about the Worthington Presbyterian Chu
As you know by now, Barak and Michelle Obama have left their church. It got a little hot in the pulpit. Here is his decision:H/T PonderingsNow that they are fair game, sheep without a shepherd,sinners without a hospital,and probably hefty donors without a congregation to which to give, I hereby invite the Obamas to become members of First Presbyterian Church of Elizabethton! Here is why you s
New Adult StudyProsperity Gospel: Will Jesus Make You Rich? New Adult Study Pack2008 Presbyterian General Assembly Study Pack Special In The News Staff PickWe are terribly saddened to watch news reports of the overwhelming loss of life from natural disasters this past week in Asia. Our hearts go out to so many people we do not know, yet are children loved by God. Surely God’s heart is breaking a
Presbyterian unveils Rio Rancho hospital - New Mexico Business Weekly:: "Presbyterian Healthcare Services laid out its plans Monday for a full-service hospital in Rio Rancho due to be completed by fall 2010"Albuquerque NM Real Estate Search Rio Rancho Real Estate News Albuquerque Real Estate News
We had about 30 people at our screening of Renewal or Ruin? on Sunday. I was pleased with the turnout and to see folks from other congregations there. It was good to meet Rev. Steven D. Martin who shared with us why he made this film. It has been sent to all the commissioners at the United Methodist General Conference that is meeting now in Fort Worth. I asked Steven about the possibility of a making a Presbyterian version of this film. He is interested and would like to interview Presbyterians who have had run-ins with the IRD. Perhaps something could be made in time for the General Assembly in June. Well, Presbys, anyone interested? Contact Steven. You can find him here.
Rev. Sterling Freeman will be the guest minister at Allison Presbyterian Church on Wright Avenue tonight at 7:00pm each night. The church is located at 922 Wright Avenue at the corner of Wright Avenue and Chester Sts. Sterling is from Little Rock,graduated from Hall High School and Davidson College in North Carolina where he was a outstanding student and basketball player. If any of you have been
Drew of Notes from Off-Center tagged me with a presbymeme. It brought a tear. I have never been tagged before for one of these things. This one was started by candidate for moderator of the PC(USA), Bruce Reyes-Chow. The rules are pretty basic in about 25 words each, answer the following five questions;tag five presbyterian bloggers and send them a note to let them know they were tagged;be sure to link or send a trackback to this post; What is your earliest memory of being distinctly Presbyterian? I became a Presbyterian when I was adult. I followed my lovely spouse to the church she was attending in Auburn, Washington, White River Presbyterian. It felt like a natural fit. The pastor was Rev. Francis Horner. He became my mentor through my candidacy for ministry. Quote from Lovel
Channel 5, WCYB, came to Elizabethton this morning for a story about Creating a Culture of Peace. They tell us you can catch the story tonight at 6 and 11 on WCYB and at 10 on Fox-Tri-Cities. The Johnson City Press will be here tomorrow. This means that slots will be filling up quickly for our two remaining workshops, April 4-6 and April 18-20. If you have not sent in your registration, you oughtta hop on that, partner. In other peace news, I mentioned that we are hosting a prayer vigil on March 19th. Plus, bloggers can participate in the March 19th Blogswarm.
The Witherspoon Society posted An Open Letter to the Presbyterian Church (USA). This is a powerful, heartfelt letter. Date: March 2008 From: Your Candidates and Inquirers for the Ministry of Word and Sacrament who are Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Re: Bush vs. Presbytery of Pittsburgh PJC Ruling Regarding Ordination Standards and G-6.0106b We, your sisters and brothers in Christ, your colleagues in ministry, faithful members of Presbyterian churches are saddened by the recent ruling of the Permanent Judicial Commission (PJC) which singles out the requirement of fidelity in heterosexual marriage and chastity in singleness as an essential tenet of Reformed faith. This ruling contradicts some of the most important work of the Pe
I am giving up my Presbyterian ministerial credentials and becoming a Pastafarian priestess. I believe God is showing me the true path. I have also decided to fight the so-called scientific establishment with their evilutionary ways. I now know the truth.Anyone can open their eyes and see it. It is their blindness that keeps them from seeing and knowing the truth. We are created beings.Our creator is the Flying Spaghetti Monster.I doubted at first. I was cynical. I was wrapped up in my Enlightenment ideology with its "science." But the more I investigated and listened to the voices that had been muted by the establishment, I realized that the Pastafarians were speaking truth.Don't believe me. Investigate for yourself. Look at the evidence.Read the Gospel.Check out the guide.Then ask yourself, "Is it right to deny this view to our children?"Of course it isn't! We Pastafarians are not asking to remove Evilution, nor are we asking to remove Intelligent Design by well-meaning
Ok...one more entry before Thanksgiving!The National Network of Presbyterian College Women (NNPCW) is a PCUSA entity. Here is what they are about:We are young women in college connected by our belief in God, seeking to understand what it means to claim a Christian faith that empowers women. Rooted in the Reformed tradition, we desire to nurture young women's spiritual development through study, discussion, prayer and action. Honoring the movement of the Spirit in the lives of young women, we encourage and celebrate their theological, liturgical and ethical contributions.And...We commit ourselves to use theology informed by women's perspectives, feminism, diversity, peace and justice, evangelism, ecumenism, education, honest questioning and dialogue, and women's issues, locally, nationally and globally.If you are a woman in college or if you know of a woma
Ephesians 6:10-20One of the biggest problems that the Church is facing right now is in trying to be nice and pleasing to everyone. We seem to have bought into this mentality that if we’re all nice to each other, God will reward us for being courteous and pleasant, amiable and friendly. If you take a look at most adverts for churches in the newspaper, radio, or TV, you’ll see something to effect that says: “Come and join us, we’re really friendly people.”Somehow, we’ve managed to become social chameleons who want to fit in with everyone. If someone were to write a motto for the Christian church in America today, it would read something like this: “We love you when you like us.”I don’t think Paul would have recognized our idea of church with that of his own. He would see us as religious friendship societies or Christian Country Clubs, who go along with the crowd in order to get along in the community. His idea of church was nothing like what we believe it to be today.
130 years old – and still growing strongDespite being a part of the liberal PCUSA, Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville is still growing. Why? It’s because we preach and practice the Gospel. The denomination may be trying to appease the politically correct and losing its identity through endorsing multi-cultural beliefs, but we hold dear the basics of Presbyterian and Reformed Christianity: that Christ is our Lord; we are all sinners; and Jesus is the only Savior of the world. Other churches may go down the slippery slope of placating current trends and adopting worldly ways, but Erin’s Scots-Irish tenacity enables it to stay the course that Christ requires.Interested? Come and join us this Sunday at 11.00am. We’re just off Kingston Pike at Lockett Road, diagonally across from the junction at Papermill Drive.
West Knoxville’s oldest Scots-Irish church, Erin Presbyterian, off Lockett Rd at Kingston Pike, near Papermill Drive, celebrates 130 years of preaching the Gospel today. It was chartered on Sunday September 30, 1877 and was originally situated where Kingston Pike meets Northshore Road.
‘Erin’ is the old Irish name for Ireland and means ‘the beautiful isle.’ The current pastor of the church is
West Knoxville’s oldest Scots-Irish church, Erin Presbyterian, off Lockett Rd at Kingston Pike, near Papermill Drive, celebrates 130 years of preaching the Gospel today. It was chartered on Sunday September 30, 1877 and was originally situated where Kingston Pike meets Northshore Road.‘Erin’ is the old Irish name for Ireland and means ‘the beautiful isle.’ The current pastor of the church is native Scotsman Rev. John Stuart. He has been preaching to the congregation in his Scottish brogue for the past twelve years. Today, he’ll be welcoming visitors and members with two traditional Scots-Irish Gaelic greetings: ‘Ceud Mhille Failte’ (a hundred thousand welcomes) and “Erin Go Bragh” (Ireland Forever).Everyone is welcome to attend the church at 11.00am for the worship service. During the service, young Ella Grace Levering, whose family goes back six generations to the beginning of the church, will be baptized. An anniversary reception with birthday cake will take place
There's a balloonfest at Pellissippi; a Greekfest on Kingston Pike; and in the Bearden community, Erin Presbyterian celebrates 130 years.All friends and members of Erin, all families who have a connection to Erin are welcome to attend the special celebration during worship on Sunday Sep 30, 2007 at 11.00am. Ella Grace Levering will be baptized, whose family includes six generations of Erin church members.
I recently made my first visit to the local Orthodox Presbyterian Church for their evening service. This was quite a new experience, since the church that I have attended for the past 5 years is much more laid back to say the least. Heavily structured and quite formal is probably the best description for this church. This is not necessarily a bad thing either; for me however, it was a major shock to the system.The service started out with a hymn, and followed with a recitation about the ten commandments. It was a group confessions of each of the commandments in a generic way that no one can really deny. This was probably one of my favorite parts. I liked how they dealt with sin as the first issue. I think a big reason for spiritual immaturity and immorality among Christians is simply due to a failure to address sin as a church. You think this would be obvious being that we are all sinners, but it feels like this issue is kind of pushed to the side.A recitiation of the Nicene Creed was
If you are a Baptist, rather than the Westminster confession, you are probably more familiar with the 1689 London Confession. The two are very similar and have read word for word in many places. You can find a side by side comparison of the two confessions here:http://www.rblist.org/1689vWCF.html
The upshot of the argument that I have been making over the past week is nearly identical to what the Presbyterian Church (USA) already teaches and promotes.The church says that homosexuals are welcome in all offices of the church, and should be protected in civil society.The church teaches that in God's plan for human beings the gift of sex is only properly expressed in marriage (of a man and a woman). Celibacy is a good though difficult discipline. We all have impulses to sex outside of marriage, including homosexual acts, but they are not part of God's plan for us. We should try to control them, and ask for help to do so. We should repent of our lapses. This applies to everyone, regardless of act or orientation.The one point not yet clarified is whether it is better to try to curb those impulses within a committed relationship, or whether that is already too much of a structure of temptation. The church has already accepted this kind of unmarried but committed relationship as a go
By Mimi Rothschild
This month’s issue of the Heartland Institute’s School Reform News included an interesting article by Grove City College professor Michael Coulter regarding Bruce Shortt’s crusade against the public school system.
This particular piece takes note of an encouraging development in the movement.
The Rev. Steven Warhurst, associate pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Kingsport, Tennessee, has taken up a similar cause in his own denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). With more than 1,200 churches and 300,000 members, the PCA is the largest of the seven conservative Presbyterian denominations.
The two largest protestant church organizations now have factions pushing for a move away from government-run schools. At last year’s General Assembly, the Presbyterian equivalent to the Southern Baptist Convention, Warhurst and his supporters introduced the possibility of a church-wide push for homeschooling and Christian private
In the late 90's, an on-line satire site, The Presbyterian Gayman, spoofing the very real Presbyterian Layman, offered solace and humor to those of us discouraged by the right turn in our denomination. Unless you are informed about Presbyterian politics and what was going on at that time, most of it will slip by you. It's kind of like reading the book of Revelation 2000 years after the fact. The creators remained anonymous and I still do not know who they are. My hunch is that they were seminary students at the time. In 2004, after the General Assembly in Richmond, it resurrected for a brief period only to go silent once again. The resurrected PG wasn't quite as good as the original, but hey, I'm not complaining.So what happened to the creators of PG? Two speculations:The cynical view: They graduated from seminary and with their M. Div.'s in hand and optimism in their shiny pupils were called to a little country church in Indiana. They became brave enough one Sunday to
I just got the word from Rick Simerly. Put a big circle around March 24th and 25th on your calendar. Milligan College professor and world-class (no exaggeration) jazz trombonist Rick Simerly and friends will play a jazz concert for us Saturday night March 24th at First Presbyterian, Elizabethton.It will be a quintet with trombone, alto saxophone, guitar, bass and drums. It will start at 7:30 and end around 8:45 with a reception in Martin Hall. Then on Sunday, Rick and friends will provide the music for a jazz worship service at 11:00 a.m. Rick is offering his services gratis, but there will be some kind of admission to pay for the band. More information on that to come.Meanwhile catch The Gospel According to Jazz this Saturday (Feb. 3) or Monday (Feb. 5) at Milligan College. This is a big deal for the college and the music and drama department.Back to Rick. Check out his web page and listen to samples from his album Obscurity and Simple Complexity. Check out the bands wi
Today is Fat Tuesday, so party hearty. Tomorrow you can repent. First Pres. is a full service church. We will help you with your sinning and your repenting. We really are going to have an Ash Wednesday service tomorrow night from 6:30 - 7:15. The theme is preparing for peace. Jim Benelisha, owner of the Acoustic Coffeehouse is going to play cello for us. We will have ashes and everything. Plus, a tune by Kansas. Guess which one. Afterward if you would like to hang around, we have yoga meditation from 7:30 to 8:45 every Wednesday night. We are an eclectic little bunch.I think of Ash Wednesday as Reality Day. No delusions or illusions. Get real and get with life while you got life."Remember, man, that you are dustAnd unto dust you shall return."
