SAN JOSE — Equipping seminary students “to go out to equip others” is critical, the Rev. Sara Covin Juengst told a group of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) seminary leaders and others gathered for the Committee on Theological Education [www.pcusa.org/seminaries/cote.htm] (COTE) Breakfast on June 26.

SAN JOSE — Reclaiming the power of the gospel will greatly help with one of the most difficult challenges Presbyterians face— evangelism, according to the Rev. Eric Hoey, director of evangelism and church growth [www.pcusa.org/goodnews], who spoke at the evangelism breakfast June 26 at the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Commissioners and guests arriving at the PC(USA)‚s 218th General Assembly in San Jose, Calif., encountered John Calvin —— lots and lots of John Calvins.

SAN JOSE — When the 218th General Assembly voted to send out a proposed amendment to presbyteries to delete the “fidelity and chastity” ordination standard and replace it with a new version, a handful of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)‚s executive presbyters felt a need to gather for prayer.

June 28, 2008

 To Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations

 Grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

 The 218th General Assembly adjourned just a few short hours ago. Even now, 973 commissioners and advisory delegates are making their way back home from San Jose, CA, where they worshiped daily, discussed and debated overtures, and celebrated the countless ways Presbyterians are engaged in ministry near and very far away—all with a focus on discerning the mind of Christ for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and seeking ways to live out this assembly’s theme: “Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with our God” (Micah 6:8).

SAN JOSE — Commissioners to the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) “stayed the course” of being peacemakers around the world.

Shaking and Moving The 218th General Assembly of the PC(USA)

In San Jose, California, close to the San Andreas fault, the 218th General Assembly, though resting on the solid rock of Jesus Christ, felt tremors of change and shifts in the denominational ground.

SAN JOSE -- “There is hardly any family or congregation that is not touched by serious mental illness,” says the Rev. B. Gordon Edwards, who was instrumental in bringing “Comfort My People: A Policy Statement on Serious Mental Illness” to the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for adoption on June 27.

SAN JOSE -- By a 5-to-1 margin, the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on Friday (June 27) approved “A Social Creed for the 21st Century,” exactly 100 years after the “Social Creed” of 1908 spoke to the harshness of industrial life at the turn of the last century.

SAN JOSE -- After much docket delay, the Church Polity Committee gave its report to the 218thGeneral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) late Friday afternoon (June 27).

SAN JOSE – An amendment to a resolution on homelessness adopted by the 218th General Assembly on Friday asks PC(USA) members to forgo one meal per week “as an act of worship and humility.” The amendment requests that the value of the skipped meal be pledged to feeding those in need in a manner of the donor’s choice. 

SAN JOSE – Just hours after voting to recommend that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) change its rules to make it easier for gays and lesbians to be ordained, the 218th General Assembly turned down a overture that would have changed the definition of marriage in the church’s constitution, to say that marriage is between “two people” rather than a between a man and a woman.

SAN JOSE – An amendment to a resolution on homelessness adopted by the 218th General Assembly on Friday asks PC(USA) members to forgo one meal per week “as an act of worship and humility.”

SAN JOSE, Cal. – “We are called to be involved and engaged in the world that God cares deeply about,” said Rev. Nancy Kahaian, moderator of the Committee on Peacemaking and International Issues. “I believe that Presbyterians can truly lead the way,” she continued in a press conference Friday afternoon.

SAN JOSE -- Gradye Parsons has been elected Stated Clerk on the first ballot at the 218th General Assembly meeting here today (June 27).

SAN JOSE – “It is no accident that the Committee on Peacemaking and International Issues takes so much time,” said Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick.

SAN JOSE -- The 218th General Assembly on Thursday (June 26) rejected by a five-to-one margin a recommendation from its Mission Coordination and Budgets Committee that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) institute a fifth church-wide special offering to support mission personnel.

SAN JOSE --Not everybody gets what they want at General Assembly.  But the 17 youth and their six chaperones from Atlanta’s Central Church got a measure of satisfaction knowing that they may have smoothed the way for future youth groups to attend — and help out — at future Assemblies.

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) today (June 27) approved a resolution in support of the Presbyterian Church in Zimbabwe.

         SAN JOSE – In a vote reflecting how divided the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) continues to be, the 218th General Assembly recommended by a narrow margin that the denomination change its constitution to remove the impediments that have been disallowing the ordination of sexually-active gays and lesbians.