18 February 2009
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Presbyterians Week Headlines
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[1] PCUSA Charlotte Presbytery Votes to Weaken Fidelity and Chastity Amendment
[2] PCUSA Presbytery of the Western Reserve Holding Special Meeting 2 March 2009 for Presentation and Constitutional Amendment Voting
[3] PCUSA Synod of the Sun Grants Commission Authority to Dissolve Congregations
[4] Presbyterian Foundation and New Covenant Trust Announce Voluntary Early Retirement Program
[5] UCC Shocked and Outraged at Oklahoma House of Representatives Motion to Strike Minister’s Syncretistic Opening Prayer Offered after Introduction of Same-Sex Partner
[6] Nine Pro-Life Demonstrators Arrested for “Criminal Trespass” on Birmingham, Alabama Public Sidewalk
[7] Black Pro-Life Religious Leaders in Oakland, California to Support Pastor Convicted for Talking to Abortion Clinic Patients
[8] PCA 37th General Assembly Will Consider Nine Overtures
[9] Deputy U.S. Attorney General Nominee was Defender of Child Pornography and Abortion
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[1] PCUSA Charlotte Presbytery Votes to Weaken Fidelity and Chastity Amendment
The Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)’s Charlotte (North Carolina) Presbytery on 14 February 2009 reversed their position of prior years, and by a margin of 133-124 with one abstention, voted to weaken section G-6.0106b of the PCUSA Constitution that requires “…fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman (W-4.9001), or chastity in singleness.” for ministers being ordained.
For the amendment to weaken the Fidelity and Chastity Amendment to go into effect, eighty-seven of 173 PCUSA presbyteries would have to approve the weakening amendment by mid-May 2009. As of 14 February 2009, thirty-two presbyteries have voted against the weakening amendment and eighteen have voted for the amendment to weaken section G-6.0106b.
+ The Charlotte Observer, 600 South Tryon Street, Charlotte, North Carolina 28202, 704-358-5000, acaulkins@charlotteobserver.com
+ Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, 888-728-7228, Fax: 502-569-8005
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The Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)’s Presbytery of the Western Reserve is holding a special meeting 2 March 2009 at the Church of the Covenant in Cleveland, Ohio including a presentation by the Rev. Jack Rogers, 213th (2000) General Assembly moderator, professor emeritus of theology at San Francisco Theological Seminary and author of The Bible and Homosexuality.
The meeting will include time for questions and answers with Rogers and voting on some of the proposed amendments to the PCUSA Constitution.
+ Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, 888-728-7228, Fax: 502-569-8005
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[3] PCUSA Synod of the Sun Grants Commission Authority to Dissolve Congregations
The Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) Synod of the Sun (SOS) has granted its administrative commission for the Presbytery of South Louisiana (PSL) authority to dissolve congregations within the presbytery. The synod established the administrative commission in 2008.
The SOS established the commission in reaction to PSL churches attempting to leave the PCUSA because of the PCUSA’s continuing abandonment of biblical doctrine and practices. The SOS commission has effectively removed jurisdiction in church property matters from the traditional role of the presbytery and given it to the synod instead.
On 29 October 2007, the largest congregation in the PSL, First Presbyterian Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, voted 422-60 to leave the PCUSA, and voted for the church to join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church 420-60 with two abstentions.
+ Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, 888-728-7228, Fax: 502-569-8005
+ Evangelical Presbyterian Church, 17197 North Laurel Park Drive Suite 567, Livonia, Michigan 48152, 734-742-2020, Fax: 734-742-2033, webmaster@epc.org
+ Presbyterian Lay Committee, Post Office Box 2210, Lenoir, North Carolina 28645, 828-758-8716, Fax: 828-758-0920, laymanletters@layman.org
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[4] Presbyterian Foundation and New Covenant Trust Announce Voluntary Early Retirement Program
The Presbyterian Foundation and its subsidiary, New Covenant Trust Company, have announced a voluntary early retirement program in an effort to reduce payroll expenses and manage budget cuts.
Employees that are at least fifty-five years old with at least three years of service are eligible for the program, and those taking early retirement will separate effective 23 March 2009.
+ Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, 888-728-7228, Fax: 502-569-8005
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Cathedral of Hope UCC-Oklahoma City (United Church of Christ) pastor the Rev. Scott H. Jones was invited to deliver the opening prayer for the Oklahoma House of Representatives on 11 October 2009 by Rep. Al McAffrey of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Jones preceded the opening prayer by thanking McAffrey for the invitation, then introduced his parents and his same-sex partner, Michael Cich. The prayer began with an acknowledgement of current financial problems and war casualties, and a reading of Isaiah 40:28-31.
Jones continued his prayer by averring that diversity is a part of being made in God’s image; by referring to the poor, powerless, outcast, brokenhearted, captive, and bound of Isaiah 61:1-3; and by asking God for courage and wisdom for the representatives to “be instruments of your peace.”
Jones’ prayer concluded, “And in all your many names, we pray. Amen.”
Following the prayer, McAffrey asked that the prayer be included in the House journal. An objection was raised by Rep. John Wright, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, who called for a vote on the prayer’s inclusion in the official record. After the ensuing chaos was calmed, sixty-four representatives voted to include the prayer in the official record, twenty voted to oppose inclusion of the prayer in the official record, and seventeen abstained from voting.
A 12 February 2009 UCC news release “expressed outrage at the perceived discriminatory treatment of a local UCC pastor by the Oklahoma State House of Representatives.” Other UCC officials expressed dismay at “the message of intolerance,” the “bigotry,” and the “disrespect” shown by those who objected to the prayer.
+ United Church of Christ, 700 Prospect Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115, 216-736-2100, ogm@ucc.org
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[6] Nine Pro-Life Demonstrators Arrested for “Criminal Trespass” on Birmingham, Alabama Public Sidewalk
On 12 February 2009, nine members of the Survivors Campus Life Tour were arrested on a public sidewalk at Parker High School in Birmingham, Alabama while distributing literature to students at the campus.
After being threatened with arrest, the Survivors group contacted their attorney who assured them that their location on the public sidewalk and their free speech activity was legal according to local and state laws.
As the Survivors finished their demonstration and were loading their van, the police handcuffed and arrested all nine Survivors without warning – handcuffing one so tightly that it caused her to cry in pain.
Police confiscated the team’s video cameras and personal belongings, impounded and searched the Campus Life Tour van, and obtained the Survivors’ hotel address in order to search the hotel rooms. After fourteen hours in jail, all nine Survivors were released from custody the morning of 13 February 2009. The confiscated video equipment and tapes were returned to the Survivors on 16 February 2009.
Kortney Blythe, Director of the Survivors Campus Life Tours, told how when she was questioned at the jail, she stated that the U.S. Constitution protected her right to stand on a public sidewalk. The police officers’ response was, “You’re in Alabama now.” Another Survivor arrested, the Rev. Henry “Bud” Shaver, was told that the sidewalk was not public property for “non-citizens of Birmingham.” While jailed, Shaver was informed that some of the jail guards also serve as security guards at a local abortion clinic.
+ Christian News Wire, 2020 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington DC 20006, 202-546-0054, newsdesk@christiannewswire.com
+ Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, Post Office Box 52708, Riverside, California 92517, 951-750-1114, info@survivors.la
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Black pro-life religious leaders including the Rev. Johnny Hunter, president of Life Education and Resources Network (LEARN), an African American pro-family, pro-life organization with members in 27 states, are in Oakland, California to support the Rev. Walter Hoye II, who was convicted 15 January 2009 of two misdemeanor counts of unlawfully approaching abortion clinic patients in violation of Oakland‘s recently enacted ordinance prohibiting any contact with abortion clinic patients within one hundred feet of an abortion clinic. Hoye faces up to two years in prison and US$4 thousand in fines when he is sentenced by California Superior Court Judge Stuart Hing on 19 February 2009.
A 14 April 2008 report by the National Center for Health Statistics states that in 2004, thirty-seven percent of pregnancies for black women ended in surgical abortion, compared with twelve percent for non-Hispanic white women and nineteen percent for Hispanic women. In 2004, 453,000 black babies were aborted while 418,000 white and 269,000 Hispanic babies were aborted, according to the federal report.
Pastor Stephen Broden of Dallas, Texas said, “This is a deliberate attempt to silence the Church and its prophetic role in protecting the innocent lives in our community and especially Black babies. Pastor Hoye represents a legacy of resistance by Black preachers to injustices perpetrated on the beloved community. Prenatal murder of Black babies by the abortion industry should be resisted by every black pastor across this country.”
+ Christian News Wire, 2020 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington DC 20006, 202-546-0054, newsdesk@christiannewswire.com
+ LEARN INC, Post Office Box 9400, Fayetteville, North Carolina 28311, 910-488-9936
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[8] PCA 37th General Assembly Will Consider Nine Overtures
The Administrative Committee of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) has listed nine overtures to be considered at the 37th General Assembly 16-19 June 2009 in Orlando, Florida.
The overtures include an overture from the James River Presbytery to “Appoint Study Committee on Role of Women in the Church,” an overture from Central Carolina Presbytery to “Amend Book of Church Order (BCO) 59-1 and 59-6 and then grant amended Chapter 59, “The Solemnization of Marriage, Full Constitutional Authority,”” and two overtures from Ascension Presbytery to “Amend BCO 13-6 to Clarify the Examinations that Must Be Sustained by Men Coming from Other Denominations” and to “Amend BCO 13-6 to Require that Men Coming from Other Denominations Must Declare and Have Judged by Presbytery Any Differences with [the modified Westminster] The Confession of Faith and Catechisms.”
+ Presbyterian Church in America, 1700 North Brown Road, Suite 105, Lawrenceville, Georgia 30043, 678-825-1000, Fax: 678-825-1001, ac@pcanet.org
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[9] Deputy U.S. Attorney General Nominee was Defender of Child Pornography and Abortion
VirtueOnline columnist Mike McManus in his 11 February 2009 column, “Porn Attorney: #2 at Justice Department?” points out that Deputy U.S. Attorney General Nominee David Ogden for the past twenty-five years has represented such clients as Playboy, Penthouse and the ACLU, arguing against laws limiting pornography and abortion; has opposed filters on library computers to protect children from Internet smut; and has successfully defended the right of pornographers to produce material with underage children.
McManus concludes, “David Ogden is the last man who should be Deputy Attorney General.”
+ VirtueOnline, 1236 Waterford Road, West Chester, Pennsylvania 19380
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