(By Stephen Salyards, The Presbyterian Outlook). The cycle of [Presbyterian Church (USA)] General Assemblies bring with them a certain rhythm. And as we reach the midway point between the last GA and the next, we mark the completion of the presbyteries’ amendment voting process and the publication of a new Book of Order with the approved…
(Board of Pensions press release.) In its continuing work of environmental stewardship, the Board of Pensions will make a global environmental fund available to investors in the Retirement Savings Plan of the Presbyterian Church (USA) (RSP) effective January 1, 2017. The Investment Committee of the Board of Directors of the Board of Pensions on Friday approved…
By Lisa Demer, Alaska Dispatch News. For the first time, a church organization has apologized to the Alaska Federation of Natives for its treatment of Native people and especially for abuses in boarding schools. The Presbyterian Church’s national general assembly agreed in June, at the prompting of Alaskans, to issue an apology to all Native…
By Toya Richards, Office of the General Assembly. Appointments have been made for two General Assembly created bodies charged with helping the Presbyterian Church (USA) chart a way forward as a denomination. Twelve people have been named to the Way Forward Commission and fifteen individuals have been named to the 2020 Vision Team, both of which were actions…
Presbyterian Church (USA) presbyteries will be voting to ratify 16 amendments to the denomination’s constitution which were approved by the 222nd General Assembly that met this past June in Portland, Ore. The most controversial issue is the General Assembly’s decision to decouple baptism from the Lord’s Supper by removing the requirement of baptism for admission to the…
By Jan Blazek, Presbyterian Outlook. CHICAGO – The executive committee of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board, meeting in Chicago July 27-29 for its annual retreat, spent part of that time reviewing decisions of the 2016 General Assembly, and discussing what steps the board might take in response to the report of the Committee to Review…
By Alan F.H. Wisdom, The Layman Perhaps the most significant action of the 2016 Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly was final approval of the Belhar Confession for inclusion in the denomination’s Book of Confessions. The 1980s liberation theology manifesto exercised an influence that was already apparent in the Portland assembly’s other business—especially its discussions of…
By Eva Stimson, Office of the General Assembly. One of the most closely watched debates at the last two Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assemblies concerned whether or not the church should stop investing in fossil fuel companies. In June the 222nd General Assembly (2016) rejected an overture calling for immediate divestment, voting instead to continue…
By T. Denise Anderson, The Presbyterian Outlook. Last week after we’d learned about a second extrajudicial killing of an African-American man, I put the following plea on social media to white friends who were in lament and wanted to know how much longer we’d have to hear these stories: “White people, you have heard it…
By Dionne Gleaton, The Times and Democrat, Orangeburg, S.C. The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson regards his hometown of Orangeburg as the place where he received the spiritual nurturing and development that propelled him to be elected the top ecclesiastical leader of the Presbyterian Church (USA). The son of the late James Herbert Nelson and…