Denomination’s bait and switch The Layman June 2002 Volume 35, Number 3, June 3, 2002 The Presbyterian Church (USA) has gone through a cost-cutting frenzy that includes eliminating 34 missionary jobs and laying off the denomination’s director of evangelism, one of 66 staff jobs shut down in the Presbyterian Center in Louisville. But don’t worry,…
Sessions, presbyteries ignore PCUSA ordination standard By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, May 29, 2002 Local church sessions and, in some cases, entire presbyteries continue to ignore the constitutional standard that requires fidelity in marriage and chastity in singleness for officers in the Presbyterian Church (USA). One of the latest to join that league…
Clerk’s report on dissent case doesn’t mention noncompliance By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, May 29, 2002
Two PCUSA bodies ambush overture on paying per-capita By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, May 24, 2002 Constitutional advisers in the Presbyterian Church (USA) are trying to shoot down an overture that affirms an historic Presbyterian principle: that local church sessions have absolute control over how they spend the tithes and offerings in their…
Chicago Presbytery case needs a public resolution By James Tony, pastor, Palos Park Presbyterian Church,Presbytery of Chicago, May 22, 2002 Sexual misconduct among the clergy has been much in the news lately. Sexual misconduct is never to be condoned, excused or tolerated. That must be said at the outset. And sexual misconduct with minors in…
Two complaints challenging lesbian’s ordination dismissed The Layman Online, May 21, 2002 Without hearing the facts in the case, a church court dismissed two complaints charging that the Presbytery of Redwoods was wrong to ordain the Rev. Kathleen Morrison, a lesbian who says she is in a sexually active relationship. The Permanent Judicial Commission of…
Presbytery, PCUSA Foundation named in sexual-abuse lawsuit The Layman Online, May 20, 2002 The Presbytery of Chicago and the $2-billion Presbyterian Foundation have been named as defendants in a lawsuit in which a Presbyterian youth minister in Chicago allegedly abused four minor boys in the 1990s. The youth minister, identified as Douglas R. Mason, now…
N.Y. congregation must pay $112,500 to leave PCUSA By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, May 20, 2002 The Presbytery of Hudson River has ordered Circleville Presbyterian Church in Circleville, N.Y., to pay a $112,500 quitclaim before it can leave the Presbyterian Church (USA) and join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. That figure – equal to…
Washington Office director opposes Bush’s marriage plan The Layman Online, May 17, 2002 President George W. Bush wants Congress to authorize $300 million in federal grants to promote marriage among single mothers who are welfare recipients, but Eleanor Giddings Ivory, executive director of the Washington Office of the Presbyterian Church (USA), disagrees. Speaking as a…