One casualty of the General Assembly Mission Council’s recent budget reduction was the Office of Collegiate Ministries.

Some may think of the summers between Presbyterian General Assemblies – the off years – as a quiet, sultry, relaxing time. Best not to say that out loud.

The dust has settled on another effort to remove G-6.0106b from the Church’s constitution.

Well, it’s all over but for the sighing. Some walked away thinking they were winners, and some hung their heads feeling like losers.

For the past six years the Presbytery of Baltimore has been exploring a simple question, “How do we want to live together so that we can focus on and advance the ministry to which God is calling us?” Many far beyond the boundaries of our presbytery are exploring this question. 

Surrounded as we are by oxymoronic phrases, a prize should go to those who coined “gracious separation.” Some discerned that it meant, “You be gracious, so that we can separate.” Others noted an irony in the phrase implying that those separating were not gracious.

“Dad, tell your colleagues not to mess up the church too much before my generation has a chance to lead.” So exhorted my 19-year-old daughter(YAD at GA in San Jose) as I headed out last week to a synod general/executive presbyter forum. I told her I would try …  

Editor’s Note: This is the author’s third essay addressing why the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) needs a major revision of the current/1983 PC(USA) Form of Government.

The issue of human trafficking worldwide is of growing concern and Presbyterians are taking action to address it.

Fifteen appointed members and two national staff members met last March in Louisville to begin consideration of the overture that originated from the Presbytery of Newark on “correcting translation problems of the Heidelberg Catechism.”

PTL      

One of the great privileges of my life is the ongoing conversation I enjoy with tens of thousands of readers via my columns in The Tampa Tribune.

Sometime this summer, four things need to happen:

A set of principles developed by persons from the Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Church was sent recently to the presbyteries in hopes that some of the barriers that have divided us may be removed, or at least, modified in the spirit of Christian cooperation.

(ABP) — Dear Jesus, Everyone seems to be talking about the poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

We all have the right to clutch at straws.

Religion in America used to be a landslide for Protestants. No more. Recent surveys show that we Protestants are no more than 50 percent of the population.

After seven months of consulting with a large Presbyterian congregation in North Carolina, I finally got a chance to worship with them on Mothers Day.