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These latest additions are posted from just outside St. Paul, Minnesota -- where the Republicans are coming in just a couple days.  We have spent the last couple weeks (or is it years?) packing, driving from Georgia to Minnesota, unpacking -- and still we're trying to find things, and once we find them, trying to find places to put them.  So that's why the long silence.  But we are making progress again the chaos, and here are a few things that I want to share right now.

In October, 2006, the Anchorage Daily News reported on Republican Sarah Palin’s affirmation that creationism should be taught alongside evolution in the state's public classrooms.   Here's the story >>

Waste Management workers deserve the right to organize!

Forty years after Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood with workers in their historic strike in Memphis, sanitation workers in the solid waste industry are still fighting for decent wages, safe working conditions and respect.

Waste Management workers across the country are seeking to improve their working condition and wages by organizing with the Teamsters union. Workers are facing Waste Management's fierce anti-union tactics, including captive audience meetings, letters and firings.

Sanitation workers at Waste Management deserve the right to organize in an environment free from intimidation and threats of job loss. A huge proportion of sanitation workers are Latino and African American, just as in Dr. King’s day.

As people of faith, we stand in support of these workers and encourage Waste Management to immediately stop these practices. Our religious teachings say that we are to treat others as we wish to be treated, and that laborers deserve their just reward.

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Foundation’s Institute for Welcoming Resources (IWR) and five partner organizations have been awarded a total of $1.2 million from the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund to work jointly to expand the number of churches that are welcoming and affirming of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and to strengthen their internal capacities. This funding is significant not only because of its dollar amount, but also because it marks a breakthrough in secular foundation support for LGBT faith organizing efforts.

The recipients are the Task Force’s Institute for Welcoming Resources, which works with the welcoming church movement in 30 Christian denominations; Integrity, which works within the Episcopal Church; Lutherans Concerned/North America, which works within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada; More Light Presbyterians, which works within the Presbyterian Church (USA); Reconciling Ministries Network, which works within the United Methodist Church; and the United Church of Christ Coalition for LGBT Concerns.

The Hospitality of Housing Policy

Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house? - Isaiah 58:6-7a

The stories of the Hebrew Bible place a tremendous emphasis on the idea of place – of having a place to call home. It is not such a surprise, really – it is a collection of stories produced by the descendants of people who wandered in the wilderness for forty years. Of course home was important to them. And likewise, the concept of hospitality, of inviting others into their homes, was a foundation of society, because they had once been strangers / sojourners / resident aliens / immigrants / refugees, and they knew what it felt like to be strangers in a strange land.

Likewise, hospitality returns as a central theme in the ministry of Jesus, the length of which is marked by acts of hospitality. His hospitality knows no bounds as he welcomes those at the margins of society. He shares meals and communes with those to whom no one else will even speak. The conduct of his own ministry is dependent upon the hospitality of others. Think of all the events that take place in people’s homes. Both the hospitality of Jesus and the hospitality that Jesus receives are pervasive and enabling throughout the Gospels.

The Rationale for the 218th General Assembly’s (2008) new statement, “From Homelessness to Hope” discusses God’s hospitality:

God makes a home and a place for all at the table, but humans, through sin, have excluded particular groups of people… Due to human sin, hospitality too often becomes a matter of sharing our crumbs rather than offering an abundant loaf… In contrast, true hospitality is equated with justice. Each person is provided not only a chair and a meal, but a bed and a place of shelter, indeed the opportunity to become an ongoing part of the community. True hospitality requires emancipation of slaves and economic redistribution, so all may find a place to be at home.    Click here for the full GA statement >> 

Certainly, the question of hospitality for the stranger is a question for the church, but what about U.S. national policy? The question of U.S. hospitality is the concern of this Washington Report to Presbyterians. Whether the issues concern immigration and family reunification, refugee policy, or the homelessness and affordable housing crisis at home, U.S. policies have much for which to answer when it comes to hospitality.

The July-August issue of Washington Report to Presbyterians provides very helpful surveys of three areas in which Christians are discerning the call to welcome the stranger and the homeless:

Also -- plan for this event:

ECUMENICAL ADVOCACY DAYS – "Enough for All Creation”

The program for Ecumenical Advocacy Days (March 13-16, 2009) will focus on the world’s abundance and how it can be allocated to address concerns regarding climate change, immigration and migration, and poverty. Religious advocates and activists will gather in Washington DC for worship, issue briefings, workshops, advocacy skills training, and lobbying with Congress. Information and registration forms will be available soon at www.advocacydays.org.

And -- join the Washington Report e-list!

The Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of Lakes and Prairies Tuesday, Aug. 12, dismissed a remedial case filed against the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area that sought to nullify the presbytery’s Jan. 26 action that restored the Rev. Paul Capetz, an openly gay man, to the exercise of ordained ministry.   The full report >>

The Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches USA, has issued a statement calling the recent Russian invasion of Georgia “a disheartening reminder that the 21st century remains a primitive age of fanatical nationalism and military bullying.”

He adds that “Political leaders in Russia and Georgia -- indeed in many other nations including our own -- seek to justify military interventions on the grounds of national interest or public security. In general the churches of Christ reject such puerile political rationalizations.”

The full text of the letter >>

Also —

PC(USA) and RCA send letter to churches in Georgia and Russia

As the conflict in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia continues, the Rev. Gradye Parsons, stated clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), has joined with the Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, general secretary of the Reformed Church in America (RCA), in sending a letter of concern and solidarity to church partners in Georgia and Russia.

Presbyterian World Mission seeks candidates for international service

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission leaders are asking the church to help them identify qualified candidates for international mission service.

“The General Assembly Council developed a budget, which in June was approved by the General Assembly, that enables the church to reverse a 50-year trend of decline in the number of mission co-workers serving internationally,” says Hunter Farrell, the church’s director of World Mission. “We are seeking to increase the number from fewer than 200 today to 215 in 2009 and 220 in 2010.” Currently, 18 mission positions are posted on the Mission Service Recruitment office’s Web site [www.pcusa.org/msr].

They are scattered around the world and call for a variety of skills and gifts. “Both the World Mission staff and our international partners agree that all these positions meet critical needs,” Farrell says. “Our partners have been requesting some of these positions for several years.” The church, however, lacks candidates for some positions and that is why World Mission is asking individual Presbyterians to consider their own call and giftedness for mission service and encourage others to do likewise, he adds.

“Many times people hear a call to service after somebody has affirmed their giftedness,” Farrell says. “I would like Presbyterians to think about individuals who worship in the pew behind them on Sunday mornings, who serve on the congregation’s Mission Committee with them, or who work with them on presbytery projects and in other areas of ministry.”

Some of the openings include:
-A Christian educator/evangelist in the Democratic Republic of Congo
-An English teacher in Indonesia
-A health coordinator in Sudan
-A women’s leadership facilitator in Guatemala

For more information about mission service, email the Mission Service Recruitment office [msr@pcusa.org] or call toll-free (888) 728 7228, x2530.

We Are Family

The Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow, Moderator of the 218^th General Assembly (2008) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), offers his reflections on his experience of the church over the few weeks since he was elected as Moderator.

He tells of hearing many voices across the church, reflecting the fact that “a great many realties exist in our church. A number of individuals and communities are filled with pain, frustration, anger, sadness, resignation, and righteous indignation over GA actions.”

Yet, he says, as in a family, “When we are at our most faithful, we will hope more than we could ever imagine that the other will grow fully into who God hopes that person to become.”    His full letter >>

Judge mulling whether plastic jugs intended for illegal immigrants are litter

Presbyterian News Service reports that a volunteer with a faith-based humanitarian aid group in Arizona – the No More Deaths organization – that receives support from Presbyterians is facing jail time or a fine after leaving 25 water jugs in the desert for undocumented border-crossers.

Expanded group will revise the report presented to this year’s GA

from Sharon Youngs, Communications Coordinator, Office of the General Assembly

The Form of Government Task Force (FOGTF), expanded in size and loaded with comments from this year’s General Assembly, is scheduled to meet for the first time since the 218th General Assembly adjourned in June to begin revising the original task force’s report.

Three new members will join the original nine when they gather Aug. 21-22, 2008, at First Presbyterian Church in Arlington, VA: Elder Carol Hunley (Pittsburgh Presbytery) and the Revs. Grace Bowen (New York City Presbytery) and Dan Williams (Shenandoah Presbytery).

Jerry L. Van Marter, of Presbyterian News Service, reported on August 6, 2008:

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed civil fraud charges against Stanley W. Anderson, a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) elder from Colorado who made a dramatic pledge of $150 million to the denomination at the 2006 General Assembly.

The SEC charges that Anderson, 63, and four partners offered short-term returns of up to 1,000 percent through trades in notes issued by European banks. In reality, the agency says, the five conducted a Ponzi scheme, taking more than $5 million from investors and losing it all. Nearly $3 million was used for Ponzi-style payments — where early investors are paid from the money provided by later investors — or was misappropriated, according to the Rocky Mountain News.

For items from
Earlier in August
All of July, 2008
June, 2008
May, 2008
April, 2008
March, 2008
February, 2008
January, 2008
December, 2007
November, 2007
October, 2007
September, 2007
August, 2007

Check earlier months through the general archive page.

For an index of all our reports on the Witherspoon Conference

The 2006 General Assembly
 
Some of our more important recent reports are still listed below.

The Rev. Dr. Jack Rogers, Moderator of the 213^th General Assembly, has just posted a thoughtful and helpful essay observing that the actions of the 218^th GA, this past June, offers a new way “for all of us to move forward together in mission as one church.”

He notes that there were two main themes of the Assembly’s actions: becoming more fully a “missional church,” and becoming more inclusive by granting “ equal rights to our church members who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT).”

While one theme may seem the concern of conservatives, and the other the focus of progressive support, in fact they can be mutually supportive. He writes: “Think about it – if the goal is for the church to be woven into the very fabric of society – we can’t have preconceived notions about our neighbors. We have to go out with open hearts to preach and practice the message that we are to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves. Affirming the equality of all God’s people is a prerequisite for reaching out in Christian service to all God’s people. So the GA approved overtures to grant equal rights to people who are LGBT and also approved steps to create a more missional church. In so doing, I believe the Assembly found a new way forward.”

So the new version of G-6.0106b will not only advance the cause of fairness and love in our church; it will also be a vital step toward becoming a truly missional church as well.

Words really can kill     [8-8-08]

The New York Times condemns the action as " 'The Jungle,' again."  The editorial concludes:

By treating illegal low-wage workers as a de facto criminal class, the government is trying to inflate the menace they pose to a level that justifies its rabid efforts to capture and punish them. That is a fraudulent exercise, and a national disgrace.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association elaborates on the violations of judicial process, calling the whole action "a travesty of justice."

Stephen G. Brown, an elder at First Presbyterian Church of Haines City, Florida, is chairman of the Board of Directors and chief executive officer of the Presbyterian Lay Committee. He has just published on the Layman website one of the clearest and most detailed guides for separation we have yet seen from the Presbyterian Right.

After listing what he regards as the offenses committed by the 218^th General Assembly, he makes very specific suggestions for action, including:

 * Form close alliances with other like-minded churches in your presbytery. ...

 * Support the renewal groups by sending letters of encouragement, and giving financial support and your time.

 * Don't send any per capita or mission funds to the GA, your presbytery or the synod, unless you are 100% sure of how the money will be spent. ...

 * Have legal counsel experienced in church property disputes review your property documents. Contact the Presbyterian Lay Committee office if you need a lawyer referral. ...

He concludes: “Only through prayer and a united effort will there be peace in this denomination. Presbyterians have divided many times before and sometimes it has happened in a respectful and civil way. Let's pray for another peaceful process.”

This statement appears under the headline “Peace will follow unity.” But in fact, it seems that for Mr. Brown, peace will come to the PC(USA) only when the Presbyterian Right is allowed to split ... on its own terms.

Moderator Bruce Reyes-Chow sent this e-mail on July 29.

We in the Witherspoon Society encourage you to consider submitting your name (or a friend's!) to serve on one of these committees.

As many of you know, one of the privileges and responsibilities of the moderator as a result of most General Assemblies is to appoint people to the various Task Forces, Study Groups and other bodies created by each General Assembly. Coming out of the 218th General Assembly I will have the sole or shared responsibility to appoint members of eight different committees or task forces totally nearly 100 people.

Peacemakers hear about global food crisis
 [8-1-08]

Some 270 participants came together from around the globe for the 2008 Intergenerational Peacemaking Conference of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), on the campus of Chapman University in Orange, California, July 15-18.

Focusing on the theme, “Sowing Mustard Seeds: Working for God’s Justice — Confronting Poverty,” the group heard from keynote speaker Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the Oakland Institute, a policy think tank on social, economic and environmental issues. She emphasized that confronting poverty means confronting the international trade policies being imposed on developing nations by the United States, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The "Ordination Question" in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)    [7-28-08]

As Presbyterians prepare to consider in their presbyteries the proposed amendment to the Book of Order, which would broaden and deepen the notion of conditions for ordination – and would eliminate the narrow ban on homosexuality which was put in place in 1997 – it may help to have a sense of the long and winding path the church has followed in dealing with the question of sexuality and ordination.

Let’s help the PC(USA) move through those doors!
[7-23-08]

Gene TeSelle, Witherspoon Issues Analyst, writes:  "The actions of the 2008 General Assembly suggest that the tide has turned in the Presbyterian Church. ..."

He analyzes the significant steps toward making the ordination process more open and fair, looks at the announced plans of the Presbyterian Right to oppose those steps, and suggests ways we might move forward to bring a truly inclusive church closer to reality during the months ahead, as presbyteries will be considering their responses to the proposed amendments to the Book of Order.

A Special Report on the 2008 General Assembly    [7-5-08]

This is being sent (in a shorter version, in print) to Witherspoon Society Members and Friends

Gene TeSelle, Witherspoon Society Issues Analyst, begins his customary wrap-up on the Assembly:

The previous General Assembly, in 2006, was relatively cautious, electing a middle-of-the-road Moderator and adopting the recommendations of the Theological Task Force (specifically its interpretation of G-6.0108) by a close margin.

This Assembly indicates a turning of the tide. It elected a Moderator who was clearly progressive and forward-looking, and most of the moderatorial candidates assumed that the framework of discussion was the pluralism encouraged by the last Assembly's action. It approved a number of measures that move the church ahead, including several changes to the Book of Order, though it is also clear that these will be highly contested in the presbyteries. It elected a new Stated Clerk who decried "fear" inside and outside the church; he represents continuity and a reaffirmation of the Kirkpatrick approach. A strong social witness was also affirmed, including a new "Social Creed for the 21st Century."

Read the full report >>

Just wander through earlier headlines and links:

And go to the Archive index page for items from 1999 through the latest month.

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A major
Ghost Ranch event this summer!

July 28 - August 3, 2008

Paths toward Peace and Justice:
Spirituality, Earth-Care, and the Prophetic Word in a time of Violence

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