31 March 2010
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Presbyterians Week Headlines
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[1] The Erskine College and Theological Seminary Empire Continues to Strike Back (Extended Article)
[8] Blogger Reports on Missions Conference in Doornpoort, South Africa
[12] March 2010 Articles on the Presbyterian Mission Union Website
[14] Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary Makes Available Online Puritan Electronic Research Tool
[15] Hungarian Reformed Church Youth Camp 18-24 July 2010 in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania
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[1] The Erskine College and Theological Seminary Empire Continues to Strike Back (Extended Article)
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARP) Teaching Elder the Rev. Dr. Charles W. Wilson, in the 27 March 2010 Email Three on Dr. Wilson’s ARPTalk Blog, reported that the presiding judge in the 25 March 2010 hearing concerning the restraining order filed by Erskine College and Theological Seminary alumni against the ARP General Synod (ARP-GS) continued the restraining order for an additional ten days so that summations can be written and submitted to the judge, who will then render a decision regarding whether or not a permanent injunction will be made against the changes to the Erskine Board of Trustees made by the ARP-GS at the called meeting of 2-3 March 2010.
In ARPTalk Issue Twenty-Seven dated 23 March 2010, Dr. Wilson published an email message received from Erskine College English professor Dr. William Crenshaw concerning the following item listed in the 13 March 2010 ARPTalk Email One in a list of findings of the ARP Moderator’s Commission on Erskine College and Theological Seminary:
“8. An English professor who openly acknowledges that he stands in defiance of the Erskine Mission and evangelical Christian faith, who tells students to go to “hell” and other such disgraceful things, who publicly mocks the Christian faith of a colleague in the colleague’s classroom at Erskine, and then smugly denies that there is a “culture of intimidation” at Erskine;”
Dr. Crenshaw’s email to Dr. Wilson says that the above item is inaccurate, and that if there are any adverse actions to Dr. Crenshaw because of the above item, that Dr. Crenshaw will sue Dr. Wilson for slander and libel. Dr. Crenshaw additionally claims that there will be no problem raising funds for a lawsuit because of the “legions…of people eager to see your hide tacked on a legal wall. You’ve made far too many enemies over the years, my friend, and the arena is about to change.”
Dr. Wilson’s response to Dr. Crenshaw defines a new word “lawsuiting,” of which Dr. Wilson’s definition includes “any threat of or actual legal action by those who have ignored and circumvented the mission of Erskine College and Seminary to obstruct those seeking the implementation of the mission of Erskine College and Seminary.”
ARPTalk Issue Twenty-Seven additionally includes excerpts from the Alumni for Erskine Facebook group, including a comparison of the ARPs to the Taliban, an anonymous post calling ARP Moderator the Rev. Dr. John de Witt the “Pope” and Dr. de Witt’s church the “Vatican,” a description of the ARPs as “FAR RIGHT NEO NAZI JERKS,” and various other name calling and flights of factual and theological fancy.
Dr. Wilson ends ARPTalk Issue Twenty-Seven with the following prayer:
“Through the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit we come to thee, our God and our Father: Blessed is thy great name, for thou hast made the heavens and the earth and hast come to sinful men in mercy and grace to redeem from us a people to be thine own dear children.
“We are sinners who are unworthy of thy favor. We have not watched over those things that thou hast entrusted to our stewardship. We have been careless in honoring thy Word – thy Word which is Truth. We have walked in willful ways and treated thy commandments and injunctions as though they were mere suggestions. Have mercy and forgive us. Grant to us a repentance of the heart and not simply of high-sounding rhetoric. And, if it be thy will, grant to us a new beginning and new hearts, washed and revived, to serve thee in joy and faithfulness.
“O Lord, for too long we have halted between two opinions. We have made unworthy our name, the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. We have polluted our sense of family, our sacred traditions, and our institutions by allowing them to become idols. No wonder we are poor and small and weak and sick and dying and a laughingstock! Our orthodoxy is only words and our practice is betrayal by compromise and accommodation, for we have so long harbored Achans in our camp, and thou hast sent thine angel to oppose us.
“O Lord, by thy Spirit, bring to us the works of reclamation and renewal and reformation in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church and Erskine College and Seminary. Thou, God of the Bible is mighty and strong, for thine own name and the cause of thine own dear children, work, we pray, the fires of renewal in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church and all her agencies. Remove and dismay those who would dress the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in the soiled rags and dying flesh of unbelief. Father, bring down the idolatry of secular academia that covers its hatred of the God of the Bible and the church of the Lord Jesus with the high sounding platitudes of academic freedom and inquiry as they assiduously seek to undermine the faith of our covenant children and those others to whom we have been given charge. Send thine angel to guard those who are bold for Truth. Honor thy Word written and Jesus thy living Word, and the cause of thy church as she is represented by the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church with a new day of faithfulness and integrity and reformation and refreshing so that we may be an effective arm for the redemptive work of the Lord of the universe, Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen.”
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+ ARPTalk Blog, wilson6114@bellsouth.net
+ Associate Reformed Presbyterian Center, 1 Cleveland Street Suite 110, Greenville, South Carolina, 29601, 864-232-8297, Fax: 864-271-3729
+ Erskine College and Theological Seminary, Post Office Box 668, Due West, South Carolina, 800-770-6936, gaston@erskine.edu
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The Fifth Anniversary of the judicially-sanctioned murder of Terri Schiavo on 31 March 2005 by starvation and dehydration is being recognized today at 11:00 a.m. EDT in Washington DC by the Christian Defense Coalition, Faith and Action in the Nation’s Capital, and Generation Life, by the placement of a single rose and prayer in front of the White House.
The leaders of the three organizations will additionally hold a news conference to discuss the legacy of Terri Schiavo‘s life and death and the impact it has on the current healthcare debate concerning end of life issues and the controversy over “death panels.”
The leaders will draw attention to President Barack Hussein Obama‘s lack of commitment to human rights and the disabled community in America, and will especially focus on his comments during the Presidential campaign when then-Senator Barack Hussein Obama stated that it was a mistake for the U.S. Senate intervening to help Terri Schiavo.
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+ Christian News Wire, 2020 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington DC 20006, 202-546-0054, newsdesk@christiannewswire.com
+ Christian Defense Coalition, Post Office Box 77168, Washington DC 20013, 202-547-1735, ChristianDefense@gmail.com
+ Faith and Action in the Nation’s Capital, 109 Second Avenue Northeast, Washington DC 20002, 202-546-8329, Fax: 202-546-6864, Info@FaithAndAction.org
+ Generation Life, 590 Snyder Avenue, West Chester, Pennsylvania 19382, 215-885-8760, Mail@GenerationLife.org
+ United States Senate, Washington DC 20510, 202-224-3121, ahazen@aoc.gov
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A 24 March 2010 article in the Belfast Telegraph titled “Reduced Payout of Cold Comfort to PMS Investors” reports that savers with the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI)’s bankrupt Presbyterian Mutual Society (PMS) with investments of at least UK£20,000 will receive UKp12 per UK£ invested by the end of May 2010, while savers with less than UK£20,000 will receive nothing.
The Moderator of the PCI reported being contacted by a widow who cannot afford to pay for her late husband’s funeral, and by a single mother of two who faces losing their home because her less-than UK£20,000 savings were invested in the PMS. The PCI moderator is hoping for a buyout of the PMS by a larger financial entity so that the smaller PMS investors would again get access to their savings.
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+ Belfast Telegraph, 124-144 Royal Avenue, Belfast BT1 1EB, Northern Ireland, 028-9026-4000, writeback@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
+ Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Church House, Belfast BT1 6DW, Northern Ireland, 028-9032-2284, Fax: 028-9041-7301, Info@PresbyterianIreland.org
+ Presbyterian Mutual Society, Glengall Exchange, Glengall Street,
Belfast BT12 5AB, Northern Ireland, 028-9031-1232, Fax: 028-9031-1441, pms@arthurboyd.co.uk
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A 25 March 2010 BBC article reports that the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland (GOLI) is urging citizens of the United Kingdom and members of the Orange Order to demonstrate against the upcoming visit to the United Kingdom of Roman Catholic pontiff Pope Benedict XVI.
A statement by the GOLI says: “We take this opportunity to call on all the people of our land to examine the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, especially on the matter of eternal salvation, to see that the teaching of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church is at total variance with the Biblical message that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone….At the same time, we call on all members of the Loyal Orange Institution to refrain from any uncharitable acts or sentiments against our Roman Catholic fellow countrymen…anyone welcoming Pope Benedict is in danger of appearing to acknowledge his primacy and universal supremacy as Vicar of Christ on earth. ”
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+ BBC, 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TS, England, Fax: 020-8008-2398
+ Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, Schomberg House, 368 Cregagh Road, Belfast BT6 9YE, Northern Ireland, 028-9070-1122, Fax: 028-9040-3700, info@grandorangelodge.co.uk
+ The Vatican, Città del Vaticano, Rome, Italy, 39-6-69-88-35-11, Fax: 39-6-69-88-54-47, Contact Page
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A 29 March 2010 article by Peter Smith in The Courier-Journal titled “Hit by Economy, Presbyterian Council Plans Further Cuts,” reports that Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)’s General Assembly Mission Council has offered severance packages to thirty employees in the PCUSA headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky, as part of an effort to shrink the headquarters budget twenty percent by 2012.
The PCUSA since 2002 has eliminated 250 positions in five separate actions, 186 of these by layoff, and is expecting a nineteen percent drop in yearly revenue in 2012 compared to the projected 2010 revenue.
The most recent thirty employees offered severance packages have until 3 May 2010 to respond to the offers.
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+ The Courier-Journal, 525 West Broadway, Post Office Box 740031, Louisville, Kentucky, 40201-7431, 502-582-4011, publisher@courier-journal.com
+ Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, 888-728-7228, Fax: 502-569-8005
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A 25 March 2010 article by Lillian Kwon in The Christian Post titled “Multi-Site Church Cleared to Leave [PCUSA],” reports that First Presbyterian Church of Beaver, Pennsylvania, has agreed to pay the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)’s Beaver-Butler Presbytery US$133,700 to retain their church property and join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
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+ The Christian Post, National Press Building, 529 14th Street Northwest, Suite 420, Washington DC 20045, 202-347-7734, info@christianpost.com
+ Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, 888-728-7228, Fax: 502-569-8005
+ Beaver-Butler Presbytery, 134-B South Main Street, Zelienople, Pennsylvania 16063, 724-452-7515, Fax: 724-452-7522, office@beaverbutler.org
+ Evangelical Presbyterian Church, 17197 North Laurel Park Drive Suite 567, Livonia, Michigan 48152, 734-742-2020, Fax: 734-742-2033, webmaster@epc.org
A 22 March 2010 article in The Layman Online by Edward Terry titled “Congregation Wins Back Property at Auction” reports that the majority of the former members of a Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) church in Oakfield, New York, that in 2009 left the Oakfield Independent Presbyterian Church to form the Oakfield Community Bible Church, on 18 March 2010 won back their former church property at auction from the PCUSA’s Presbytery of the Genesee Valley for a winning bid of US$50,000, equivalent to twelve and one-half percent of the church property’s US$400,000 assessed value.
The Oakfield Independent Presbyterian Church was formed in 2007 by those who left the PCUSA church, then lost the majority of their members in 2009 when they left to form the Oakfield Community Bible Church. The majority of the congregation left Oakfield Independent Presbyterian Church after the Presbytery of the Genesee Valley was awarded the church property in a court decision, leaving only about a dozen church members. The remnant congregation lost a court appeal in May 2009.
The Oakfield Community Bible Church is hoping that the remnant members of the Oakfield Independent Presbyterian Church will rejoin them for worship in their once-former church.
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+ Presbyterian Lay Committee, Post Office Box 2210, Lenoir, North Carolina 28645, 828-758-8716, Fax: 828-758-0920, laymanletters@layman.org
+ Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, 888-728-7228, Fax: 502-569-8005
+ Presbytery of the Genesee Valley, 1190 Winton Road South, Rochester, New York 14618, 585-242-0080, Fax: 585-242-0086, office@pbygenval.org
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[8] Blogger Reports on Missions Conference in Doornpoort, South Africa
Steve Hayes published an article 25 March 2010 on his Khanya Blog titled “Mission Conference” where he reported on a 24 March 2010 missions conference he attended at the NG Kerk in Doornpoort, South Africa.
One of the speakers Mr. Hayes described was Nico Botha, “who spoke about the lack of mission consciousness in the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA).” Botha said that several evangelism programs had been tried, including Evangelism Explosion III and Alpha courses, “but there was no mission consciousness, and instead an attitude of neocolonial dependence.” Botha said that many of the URCSA churches are still financially supported by their “mother” church, the Dutch Reformed Church (NGK), and that “[p]erhaps postcolonial theory could help them to deal with that situation.”
Mr. Hayes described the conference attendees as overwhelmingly “pale and male,” as only four of the forty attendees were women, and Mr. Botha was the only black attendee.
Marius Nel spoke about the mostly Dutch Reformed Southern African Partnership of Missional Churches, whose three key spiritual practices are:
— Dwelling in the World – where people focus for seven days on their interactions with strangers and acquaintances;
— Plunging – where people try to enter the world of people with whom they don’t normally interact; and,
— Dwelling in the Word – where people read the Bible together, listening to the Scripture and trying to hear what it is saying to them and to those with whom they have been interacting.
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+ Khanya Blog, shayes@dunelm.org.uk
+ Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa, c/o Professor S.T. Kgatla, 015-296-0005, Fax: 015-296-0005, kgatla@mweb.co.za
+ Dutch Reformed Church, Posbus 13528, Hatfield 0028, Pretoria, South Africa, 27-0-12-342-0092, Fax: 27-0-12-342-0380, algemenesinode@ngkerk.org.za
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Reformed Theological Seminary has entered into an agreement with Christ Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas, to establish an extension campus at the church, which becomes the sixth campus of RTS.
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+ Evangelical Presbyterian Church, 17197 North Laurel Park Drive Suite 567, Livonia, Michigan 48152, 734-742-2020, Fax: 734-742-2033, webmaster@epc.org
+ Reformed Theological Seminary – Charlotte, 2101 Carmel Road, Charlotte, North Carolina 28226, 704-366-5066, Fax: 704-366-9295, rts.charlotte@rts.edu
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The Biblical Worldview Student Conference will be held 31 May – 5 June 2010 at Milligan College in Johnson City, Tennessee.
Conference costs, including room and board, are a maximum of US$350, with discounts for early registration and for chaperones.
Registration information is available at:
http://www.westminsterkpt.org/bwsc/registration/registration.htm
The conference is sponsored by Westminster Presbyterian Church (Presbyterian Church in America) in Kingsport, Tennessee.
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+ 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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A 25 March 2010 news release by the Family Research Institute (FRI) titled “Relax Enforcement When Gays Commit Ten Percent of Military-on-Military Assaults?” references U.S. Department of Defense reports showing that ten percent of military-on-military assaults are committed by homosexuals, meaning that in 2009, a homosexual male was eight times more likely to assault a serviceman than was a heterosexual serviceman likely to assault a servicewoman, and a homosexual woman was thirty times more likely to assault a servicewoman than was a heterosexual servicewoman likely to assault a serviceman.
The FRI concludes that “[m]aking military service easier for those most apt to assault doesn’t demonstrate ‘common decency’ or ‘common sense.'”
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which describes itself as “dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry,” lists the FRI among Colorado-based “hate groups” including the Aryan Nations Revival, the Nation of Islam, the National Socialist Movement [Nazis], and the United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
The SPLC additionally designates as hate groups Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, the Massachusetts citizen’s group Mass Resistance, the Illinois Family Institute, and the Traditional Values Coalition.
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+ American Family Association, Post Office Drawer 2440, Tupelo, Mississippi 38803, 662-844-5036
+ Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, Post Office Box 5522, Naperville, Illinois 60567, 630-717-7631, Contact Page
+ Family Research Institute, Post Office Box 62640, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80962, 303-681-3113, Contact Page
+ Mass Resistance, Post Office Box 1612, Waltham, Massachusetts 02454, 781-890-6001, Contact Page
+ Illinois Family Institute, Post Office Box 88848, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188, 708-781-9328, Fax: 708-781-9376, Contact Page
+ Traditional Values Coalition, 139 “C” Street Southeast, Washington DC 20003, 202-547-8570, Fax: 202-546-6403, mail@traditionalvalues.org
+ Southern Poverty Law Center, 400 Washington Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama 36104, 334-956-8200, Contact Page
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[12] March 2010 Articles on the Presbyterian Mission Union Website
New articles for March 2010 on the Presbyterian Missionary Union website include:
— Partnering in Ministry with Myanmar;
— God’s Blessings Come Down with the Rain;
— Introducing Team Timothy New York City 2010; and,
— Missionaries in the Home Office .
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+ Presbyterian Missionary Union, 1650 Love Road, Grand Island, New York 14072, 716-775-0442, office@presbyterianmissions.org
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A Flickr photo and article about St. Peter’s German Evangelical Church, now Free Magyar Reformed Church of Staten Island, New York, New York, provides the history of the church built in 1883 for German immigrants, where a Magyar Reformed congregation that shared the church was established in 1915, and soon acquired the church to serve the growing Hungarian population of the area called Kreischerville.
The interesting and unusual architecture of the church features what the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission describes as an “unusual porch that is domestic in scale and form, and by the emphasis on verticality provided by the tall spire and rows of small gabled dormers in the steeply-pitched gable roof.”
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+ Yahoo! Inc., 701 First Avenue, Sunnyvale, California 94089, 408-349-3300, Fax: 408-349-3301
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[14] Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary Makes Available Online Puritan Electronic Research Tool
Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary (PRTS) is in the process of scanning all 65,000 library volumes for use with the Puritan Electronic Research Tool (PERT), a tool designed at PRTS for use by pastors, students, and laypeople to help find Scripture references and related commentary that may be buried within a book.
PERT is available for use, entirely free, at:
http://pert.puritanseminary.org/index.aspx.
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+ Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, 2965 Leonard Street Northeast, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49525, 616-977-0599, Fax: 616-285-3246, info@puritanseminary.org
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[15] Hungarian Reformed Church Youth Camp 18-24 July 2010 in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania
The Hungarian Reformed Church Youth Camp for 2010 is scheduled for 18-24 July at the Laurelville Mennonite Church Center in Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania.
The camp theme is “The B.I.B.L.E. ~ That’s the Book for Me! From Genesis to Revelation, His Truth Revealed!” or in Hungarian, “A BIBLIA ~ Ez aztán a nekem való Könyv! Mózest?l a Jelenésekig: minden lapja az Úr szava!”
For further information, please call Gabe Csapó at 609-758-5113 or
Les Török at 614-497-1026.
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+ Calvin Synod, C/O Rt. Rev. Koloman K. Ludwig, Bishop, 7319 Tapper Avenue, Hammond, Indiana 46324, 219-931-4321, kkludwig@aol.com
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John Lofton conducted a radio interview with Dr. Anthony B. Bradley on Lofton’s The American View titled: “Dr. Anthony B. Bradley Re: The Need To Liberate Black Theology From Its Racist Victimology,” which is available here:
http://www.theamericanview.com/index.php?id=1613
John Lofton’s and co-host Michael Anthony Peroutka’s The American View can be heard daily, live, from 11 a.m. to noon eastern time on NationalProlifeRadio.net. Archives of The American View radio programs are available at:
http://www.theamericanview.com/index.php?id=5
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+ The American View, 8028 Ritchie Highway Suite 303, Pasadena, Maryland 21122, 410-766-8592, jlof@aol.com
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