DALLAS – The General Assembly Mid-Councils Commission is calling for reviews of the denomination's top-level agencies and its racial ethnic ministry.

The Rev. Janet Edwards, a nationally prominent advocate for same-sex couples in a presbytery that consistently opposes gay ordination and gay marriage, tried and failed to obtain Pittsburgh Presbytery's endorsement for her to seek one of the two highest offices in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Read full story 

DALLAS – The General Assembly Mid-Councils Commission has voted 15-5 to permit non-geographic, “provisional presbyteries” as part of a “designated season of reflective experimentation” in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

DALLAS – The General Assembly Mid-Councils Commission made a key decision last fall: it would recommend to the 2012 General Assembly that synods would no longer exist in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) as councils with ecclesiastical responsibility.

Louisville, Ky. The Special Offerings Advisory Task Force, commissioned by the 218th General Assembly (2008), is recommending a new vision for special offerings – $20 million in receipts by 2020. Seeking to tap the full potential of special offerings, the task force is also recommending one new offering and revisions in each of the other offerings.

Louisville, Ky. (PNS) The Presbyterian Publishing Corporation has released the cover design of “Glory to God,” the new Presbyterian hymnal to be published in the fall of 2013.

As a student at Princeton Theological Seminary, the Rev. Pam Driesell was surprised to hear about a professor who was hard on people who asked questions.

Orlando, Fla. (GAMC) Teenagers are commonly understood as angry, socially alienated and difficult.

Louisville (PNS) Presbyterians, along with other Christians from across the country, will gather in Washington March 23-26 for the 10th annual Ecumenical Advocacy Days, an event that mobilizes participants around a central issue through worship, education and lobbying.

Feeling out of alignment with the direction being taken by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), a large Florida congregation has voted to leave the PC(USA) to join the more conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

Asira Al-Qibliya, West Bank, (ENInews) The homes at the edge of this Palestinian village are located a few hundred meters from houses in the Jewish settlement of Yitzhar. But the relationship is anything but neighborly.

(ENInews) Christian and Muslim leaders worldwide are being urged to act together to address the violence being unleashed in northern Nigeria

that has been blamed on Boko Haram, a self-proclaimed Islamist group.

Museum of Modern Art, Fort Worth, Texas

January 8, 2012

Ron Salfen: What was surprising to you about this film?

Coming soon: News from other sources (news links from all different kinds of sources)

Evangelical Tod Bolsinger, chair of the Mid-Councils Commission shared his heart in anticipation of the Fellowship of Presbyterians conference, held recently in Orlando, Fla.

“Like many who will gather in Orlando, I share many concerns about the state of our denomination. But,

(ENInews) Churches in India have decried the verdict of an Islamic court in Kashmir that ordered the expulsion of Christians, including a Protestant pastor and a Dutch Catholic missionary, and recommended government control of Christian schools.

(ENInews) North Korean Christian leader the Rev. Kang Young-sup, 80, who worked for the reunification of North and South Korea, died Jan. 21, according to Chosen Tongshin Sa, a North Korean

news agency.

(ENInews) As Egyptians gathered this week in Cairo's Tahrir Square to mark the first anniversary of the "Egyptian Revolution," nearby Jasr El Dobara Church continued to be a bridge-builder between communities of faith.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (PNS) “Learning is perhaps an accumulation of moments that form us,” the Rev. Pam Driesell told the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Disciple-Making Church Conference here Jan. 17.

Ronald Salfen for The Presbyterian Outlook

Interview with Glenn Close, star of "Albert Nobbs":

Museum of Modern Art, Fort Worth, Texas, Jan. 8

Ronald Salfen: I just have one question. In order to play a man, did you have to take a stupid pill?

Louisville

Yes, there has been some serious discussion of “union presbyteries” in these past months. However, may I respectfully say to Rev. McAtee that “these are not your daddy’s union presbyteries”. They are not envisioned to address the same issues that created the first such presbyteries, nor will they necessarily take the same form.

ORLANDO, Fla. – While the Fellowship of Presbyterians has launched a new denomination, called the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians (or ECO for short), some folks still have questions about exactly how things will work.

The Presbyterian Foundation Group (which includes the Presbyterian Foundation, New Covenant Trust Company, NA and New Covenant Funds), which provides financial support to church-related institutions and causes, plans to retain two outside investment firms to help manage its assets and will cut positions on its staff to effectuate the changes.