4 November 2009
Presbyterians Week Headlines
[1] Christian Observer Highlights for Reformation Day 2009 and November 2009
[2] Church of Scotland Announces Moderator-Designate for May 2010 General Assembly
[3] Old Dutch Church in Sleepy Hollow, New York, Disallows Halloween-Themed Wedding
[4] Munster CRC to Host Grassfire/Resistnet Talk and Tea Party Movie Trailer Viewing
[5] Stellenbosch University Pressured to Appoint Non-Reformed Theology Dean
[6] Slovakia Increasing Mistreatment of Ethnic Hungarians
[7] Pro-Life Activists on 31 October 2009 Form “71” on White House Lawn to Represent Seventy-One Percent of U.S. Opposed to Taxpayer Funded Abortions in Healthcare
[8] Bryan, Texas, Planned Parenthood Director Becomes Pro-Life and Quits PP after Viewing Ultrasound of Abortion
[9] YouTube Film of Suction Abortion Surpasses One Million Viewings
[10] Pittsburgh Theological Seminary Professor Dr. Robert Gagnon Publishes “Back to the Oppressive Future: Homosexualist Attempts at Suppressing Rational Debate at Bowdoin College and the Maine “Gay Marriage” Referendum”
[11] Iraqi Woman Run Over by Father for being Too Westernized Dies after Two Weeks in Coma
[12] Trinity Foundation Announces Winner of 2009 Christian Worldview Essay Contest
[13] Western Reformed Seminary Website Redesign Announced on Reformation Day 2009
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[1] Christian Observer Highlights for Reformation Day 2009 and November 2009
The Christian Observer, the Presbyterian and Reformed journal of record since 1813, debuted as an Internet-based web publication on Reformation Day 2008.
In honor of the now 196-year-old publication’s one year anniversary on Reformation Day, 31 October 2009, a tribute to long-time Christian Observer Publisher the Rev. Dr. Edwin P. Elliott Jr. was published, which includes excerpts from several of the many touching tributes and testimonies to Edwin received since his temporal death and eternal homegoing on 11 October 2009.
Additionally, a weekly study of the Westminster Shorter Catechism (WSC), based on Assistant Editor Dr. Robert LaMay’s book Disciple the Teacher and Student (available from lulu.com/observer) began 31 October with publication of the Introduction and Contents, and the first of 107 weekly WSC studies debuts today, 4 November 2009, for WSC Question 1 – “Glorify and Enjoy God.”
For November 2009, Contributing Editor Dr. Joe Renfro’s article “Legislated Obedience?” discusses the effects of government control of schools, including the concepts of “No Child Left Behind,” and “Zero Tolerance.”
In addition, Dr. Robert LaMay’s Sabbath School Lessons for November 2009 are studies on 1 and 2 Peter, and T.M. Moore’s daily devotionals continue a new series, “The Preaching and Teaching of God’s Law – A Kingdom Catechism.”
+ Christian Observer, 9400 Fairview Avenue, Manassas, Virginia 20110, christianobserver@christianobserver.org
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[2] Church of Scotland Announces Moderator-Designate for May 2010 General Assembly
The Church of Scotland has named the Reverend John Cairns Christie as moderator of the May 2010 General Assembly (GA) meeting. Christie is currently interim minister for St. Andrew’s Parish Church in West Kilbride, Scotland, and for the Scots Kirk in Lausanne, Switzerland. The moderator is responsible for chairing GA meetings, and serves for one year in what is an honorary role.
+ Church of Scotland, 121 George Street, Edinburgh, Scotland EH2 4YN, 0131-225-5722
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[3] Old Dutch Church in Sleepy Hollow, New York, Disallows Halloween-Themed Wedding
The pastor of the Old Dutch Church (ODC) in Sleepy Hollow, New York, cancelled a wedding at the church scheduled at the church for 31 October 2009 and offered the couple a refund of the church deposit after the couple sent in a request for wedding music including theme music from the television shows “The Addams Family” and “The Munsters.”
ODC pastor the Rev. Jeff Gargano disallowed the requested music for the wedding originally scheduled to be in the historic church built in 1694. Gargano additionally disallowed the couple’s plans for the bride to wear a black cocktail dress with a black veil and carry a flower bouquet adorned with miniature skulls, and for the groom to wear dark slacks, a pirate shirt and a top hat.
The ODC has a congregation of sixty, and meets for worship at the Reformed Church of the Tarrytowns, in Tarrytown, New York, and uses ODC for special events and summer services.
+ LoHud.com, The Journal News, One Gannett Drive, White Plains, New York 10604, 914-694-9300, 914-696-8396
+ Reformed Church in America, 4500 60th Street Southeast, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512, 800-968-6065, questions@rca.org
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[4] Munster CRC to Host Grassfire/Resistnet Talk and Tea Party Movie Trailer Viewing
Jeffrey Cole from Grassfire/Resistnet, on 7 November 2009 at 9:30 a.m. at the Munster Christian Reformed Church in Munster, Indiana, will speak about runaway congressional spending, government bailouts, TARPS, stimulus, and government takeover of businesses, and will screen the trailer from the Tea Party movie.
+ The Shopper Online, 924 East 162nd Street, South Holland, Illinois 60473, 708-333-5901, Fax: 708-333-9630, general@myshopper.biz
+ Grassfire.org, Post Office Box 206, Maxwell, Iowa 50161
+ Christian Reformed Church in North America, 2850 Kalamazoo Avenue Southeast, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49560, 616-241-1691, Fax: 616-224-0803 crcna@crcna.org
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[5] Stellenbosch University Pressured to Appoint Non-Reformed Theology Dean
Former NG Sendingkerk minister and current Anglican Church of South Africa bishop of False Bay, South Africa, Merwyn Castle, in an open letter to rector Russel Botman of Stellenbosch University (SU) in Matieland, South Africa, urges SU to appoint a non-Reformed person to the position of theology dean. Current theology dean Elan Mouton is from a Reformed background, and her term as theology dean completes at the end of 2009. SU has historical links to the Dutch Reformed Church.
Castle writes: “If you appoint another Reformed candidate, the ethos that needs profound change will just continue in its old myopic way reluctantly serving the confessional needs of only one tradition,” reminds Botman that black theological students in South African mainline churches had suffered relative deprivation in the past, asserts that Reformed schools of theology are already plentiful in South Africa, and says that Lutheran, Anglican, Congregational, Methodist, Moravian and Roman Catholic churches have historically had to train their clergy in their own colleges outside the university system.
+ News24, Post Office Box 2271, Cape Town 8000, South Africa, 27-21-468-8000, Fax: 27-1-468-8200
+ Anglican Church of South Africa, Post Office Box 61394, Marshalltown 2107, South Africa, 011-836-5825, Fax: 011-836-5782, publish@anglicanchurchsa.org.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
+ Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa, c/o Professor S.T. Kgatla, 015-296-0005, Fax: 015-296-0005, kgatla@mweb.co.za
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[6] Slovakia Increasing Mistreatment of Ethnic Hungarians
In a 26 October 2009 article in Maclean’s, titled “Second-Rate Citizens: Discrimination of Slovakia’s Hungarian Minority is on the Rise,” writer Anne Porter opens with the story of a student in Nitra, Slovakia, who was beaten and robbed for speaking Hungarian on her cell phone, and was then further abused by Slovakian authorities who accused the student of making up the incident and inflicting injuries upon herself, and was later indicted for perjury. Porter presents the student’s story as a good illustration of how ethnic Hungarians that live in Slovakia are treated poorly by some in the Slovakian majority and by government officials.
Porter relates how the winners of recent Slovakian national political campaigns have made open attacks on the Hungarian minority a common part of their campaign strategies, and how political leader Ján Slota calls Hungarians bandy-legged marauders, and how in one speech Slota incited Slovaks to “get in tanks and level Budapest, [Hungary].”
Porter discusses the implications of Slovakia’s new language laws (see Presbyterians Week 16 September 2009 issue article “[6] Slovakia Outlaws All Languages Other than Slovak”) forbidding the use of Hungarian in many instances, explains that only the ruling political parties are haters of Hungarians, not all Slovakians, and that the Hungarians have hope in the possibilities of the current ruling parties being voted out of office.
The article concludes with news of the student beaten and robbed for speaking Hungarian, who completed her schooling, married her Slovakian boyfriend, and subsequently gave birth to a healthy Slovakian-Hungarian baby boy.
+ Maclean’s Magazine, One Mount Pleasant Road, 11th floor, Toronto, Ontario M4Y 2Y5, Canada, 416-764-1300, Fax: 416-764-1332, service@macleans.ca
Pro-Life activists of the “Abortion is Not Healthcare” campaign on 31 October 2009 lay down and formed a giant “71” on the White House lawn representing the seventy-one percent of Americans opposed to taxpayer funded abortions in healthcare.
Christian Defense Coalition Director and Reformed Presbyterian minister the Rev. Pat Mahoney commented: “…we are coming to the front of the White House to call upon President Obama to affirm human rights and ensure that taxpayer funds are not used to pay for or subsidize abortion. Healthcare should focus on healing, compassion, and mercy, not the killing of innocent children and the diminishing of women. As we lay our lives down on the street in front of the White House, we are first reminding the President to listen to the wisdom of the American people who overwhelmingly oppose public monies being used to pay for abortions in healthcare. We are also being a prophetic witness that as people of faith we are willing to lay down our lives to embrace the heart of Christ and social justice and passionately work to ensure that all human life is honored and protected. We will not be silent. We will not be indifferent. We will sacrifice to end abortion.”
+ 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
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[8] Bryan, Texas, Planned Parenthood Director Becomes Pro-Life and Quits PP after Viewing Ultrasound of Abortion
Bryan, Texas, Planned Parenthood Director Abby Johnson viewed an ultrasound of an abortion, and was soon sitting at her desk, crying, and realizing that she could no longer work where unborn children were being killed. While wondering where to go, she looked out her office window across the street to the Coalition for Life (CFL) office where people were outside praying. Johnson got into her car, drove to the CFL office, and crying, introduced herself and told the surprised CFL people what had happened.
Johnson is currently making the rounds of national media interviews, explaining why she is now a pro-life supporter.
+ KBTX-TV/DT Channel 3, 4141 East 29th Street, Bryan, Texas 77802, 979-846-7777, Fax: 979-846-1490, george@kbtx.com
+ Coalition for Life, 4012 East 29th Street, Bryan, Texas 77802, 979-846-2825, info@coalitionforlife.com
+ Planned Parenthood, 4112 East 29th Street, Suite 200,
Bryan, Texas 77802, 979-846-1744,
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[9] YouTube Film of Suction Abortion Surpasses One Million Viewings
A video placed on YouTube in March 2008 by Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life that uses fetal models and actual abortion instruments to depict a suction abortion has surpassed one million viewings.
Pavone comments: “This is a reason to rejoice, because one of the biggest problems we have regarding abortion is that it’s hidden. Thanks to videos like this, people who think they are pro-choice become fervently pro-life. We receive testimonies literally every day about such conversions. We invite others to spread these videos.”
The suction video can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBOAPleF1t0
+ Christian News Wire, 2020 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington DC 20006, 202-546-0054, newsdesk@christiannewswire.com
+ Priests for Life, Post Office Box 141172, Staten Island, New York 10314, 718-980-4400, Fax: 718-980-6515, mail@priestsforlife.org
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary Associate Professor of New Testament Dr. Robert Gagnon has written an essay titled “Back to the Oppressive Future: Homosexualist Attempts at Suppressing Rational Debate at Bowdoin College and the Maine “Gay Marriage” Referendum,” which is based on the professor’s 30 October 2009 speech at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, at the invitation of the college’s Intervarsity Christian Fellowship chapter.
+ Robert A. Gagnon, 412-441-3304 ext. 2205, gagnon@pts.edu
+ Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, 616 North Highland Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15206, 412-362-5610, Fax: 412-363-3260
+ Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, 888-728-7228, Fax: 502-569-8005
+ InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, 6400 Schroeder Road, Madison, Wisconsin 53707, 608-274-9001, Fax: 608-274-7882, information@intervarsity.org
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[11] Iraqi Woman Run Over by Father for being Too Westernized Dies after Two Weeks in Coma
Noor Faleh Almaleki, 20, died after two weeks in a coma, after on 20 October 2009, being run down by her father Faleh Hassan Almaleki, 48, while walking across the parking lot of a shopping center in Peoria, Arizona with Noor’s boyfriend’s mother, who was also hit by the car.
The father fled as far as Great Britain before being returned to the Atlanta, Georgia airport the weekend of 31 October 2009, where he was arrested. Almaleki allegedly ran over Noor because she had become too “westernized.”
A 26 August 2009 Presbyterians Week article titled “Muslim Honor Killings Come to America,” described several instances where women from Muslim families living in the U.S. were murdered by their fathers in so-called honor killings.
+ Comcast Corporation, One Comcast Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103, 800-266-2278, Contact Form
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[12] Trinity Foundation Announces Winner of 2009 Christian Worldview Essay Contest
The Trinity Foundation’s 2009 Christian Worldview Essay Contest winners are:
First Prize of US$3000 plus fifteen books to Savannah Parker of Greentown, Indiana, for her essay “The Enemy is Within the Gates;” Second Prize of US$2000 plus ten books to Marisa Kobilan of Washougal, Washington, for her essay “The Sword of the Spirit; and Third Prize of US$1000 will be split between Patrick Arnold of Ann Arbor, Michigan, for his essay “In Defense of Revelation,” and Ryan Hedrich of Lawrenceville, Georgia, for his essay “Speculations Hammered: The Word of Truth, Asserted and Vindicated.” Both will receive five books.
+ The Trinity Foundation, Post Office Box 68, Unicoi, Tennessee 37692, 423-743-0199, Fax: 423-743-2005, tjtrinityfound@aol.com
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[13] Western Reformed Seminary Website Redesign Announced on Reformation Day 2009
John A. Battle, Th.D., President of Western Reformed Seminary in Tacoma, Washington, on 31 October 2009 announced:
“On this Reformation Day of 2009, Western Reformed Seminary [WRS] is happy to announce the unveiling of our new, totally redesigned website (www.wrs.edu). WRS, located in Tacoma, Washington, is the approved seminary for the Bible Presbyterian Church for the training of its ministers and other workers. The seminary also serves other Bible-believing Reformed and Presbyterian churches.
In addition to a new design, the website now includes new content and many new features. All past issues of the WRS Journal are available, indexed by author and totally searchable. The seminary also has posted all its course syllabi for public use, including class notes for the entire Bible, theology, and church history curriculum. The seminary’s Catalog, handbooks, and student enrollment forms are available online. The audio section includes all of the Ronald W. Taber Lecture Series in addition to various other conference lectures. A popular feature is a Bible Reading Plan, which divides the Bible into daily readings of similar length, arranged chronologically.
Because of the total redesign, the web addresses of most pages have changed. The best way to reach all the pages is through the home page, www.wrs.edu. For more information, please contact the WRS office, information@wrs.edu, or call 253-272-0417.”
The Christian Observer (CO) did not contact Associate Editor, Higher Creative Design graphic arts mogul, and CO website designer Eric Pastorek for comment.
+ Western Reformed Seminary, 5 South G Street, Tacoma, Washington 98405, 253-272-0417, Fax: 253-627-4882, registrar@wrs.edu
+ Bible Presbyterian Church
+ Higher Creative Design, 865-809-7031, Contact Page
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