Blog Entries

Getting reconnected

info@pres-outlook.org — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0100

it's good to get reconnected with the outlook! i have subscribed from time to time over the last few years, but it takes so long for the hard copy to arrive at my p.o. box here in guatemala city that i let myself get discouraged. too much of a news junkie, i guess. so, here we go with this cyber version. . .

A New Year’s Resolution

webmaster@pres-outlook.org — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 18:29:01 +0100

Where better to turn for a source of New Year’s resolutions than the Ten Commandments? Martin Luther’s exposition of the Eighth Commandment* contains a bit of practical Christian wisdom that one could hope would find wide observance in the life of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in the coming year.

Explaining what it means to refrain from bearing false witness against our neighbors, Luther in his Small Catechism says this means “we are to come to their defense, speak well of them, and int [...]

Love for Jesus Can Bring Christians, Muslims Together

webmaster@pres-outlook.org — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:30:51 +0100

“Behold! The angels said: ‘O Mary! God giveth thee glad tidings of a Word from Him. His name will be Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, held in honor in this world and the Hereafter and in (the company of) those nearest to God.’”

Before searching for this quote in the New Testament, you might first ask your Muslim co-worker, friend or neighbor for a copy of the Quran, Islam’s revealed text. The quote is from verse 45 of chapter 3 in the Quran.

It is well known, particularly [...]

A charge addressed to all of us, myself included

webmaster@pres-outlook.org — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 21:38:02 +0100

Last weekend I delivered the installation charge of my old friend Scott Black Johnston as he officially assumed the position of senior pastor of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City. A minister and member of the Presbytery of New York in the congregation that day suggested I share it with other colleagues so I decided to make it this week’s BLOG.

Scott, your charge started with the death of John Leonard, the critic and former editor of The New York Times Book Review. While I wa [...]

An Advent Reflection

webmaster@pres-outlook.org — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:22:48 +0100

As I have gotten older, I have shifted one hundred eighty degrees in my attitude toward the penitential seasons of Advent and Lent. For many years the prospect of several weeks spent dwelling on matters of sin and repentance struck me as akin to taking very bad-tasting medicine as a child: necessary perhaps for spiritual health, but not the kind of thing one looks forward to.

These days however I find myself grateful that my home congregation is willing to linger over the Advent texts and dis [...]

Re-reading the research

webmaster@pres-outlook.org — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0100

The recent three-part series of Outlook articles by Erwin Barron has generated a number of letters to the editor and lit up the Presbyterian blogosphere unlike any we have published in a long time. Both his articles and many of those letters have showcased a depth of theological reflection that can make any Presbyterian proud.

These articles, a distillation of a 300-page Ph.D. dissertation, provide an insightful glimpse into two Presbyterian congregations who hold oppos [...]

Stewardship for tough times

webmaster@pres-outlook.org — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 07:48:02 +0100

Recently a colleague responded to a comment I made about the current economic situation by asking, “So, you’re saying that this economic crisis could be a blessing in disguise.” To which I answered, “Well, sort of. Granted, it’s a really good disguise, but there’s also a real blessing here.”

This doesn’t mean that the economic curse is not real also.

There’s plenty of hardship and heartbreak to go around these days, and the human costs of the financial crisis we� [...]

Beyond the Labels

webmaster@pres-outlook.org — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 20:06:01 +0100

A friend and colleague in ministry with whom I share a number of theological and cultural differences recently commented that I was most surely a “liberal” and that we would never agree on certain things that he held of deep value as a “conservative.” He went on to argue that the divisions within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) seemed beyond bridging the gap from his perspective, and perhaps the best we could do was to acknowledge how we disagree and live as peacefully with one anoth [...]

One church has left and another is threatening to do so.

webmaster@pres-outlook.org — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:31:10 +0100

One church in our presbytery has left the denomination and another is threatening to do so. The bitterness, the suspicion, the anger that often accompanies such a divorce (on both sides) can cause one to wonder how the good news of grace can be preached or heard from Sunday to Sunday in the midst of such rancor and discord.
After delivering some lectures at a church this past summer on the fundamentalist-modernist controversy of the early 20th century, someone as [...]

Reporter's tragic death

webmaster@pres-outlook.org — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:37:19 +0100

I'm stunned by news of the death of reporter Evan Silverstein, a friend and colleague from Presbyterian News Service whom I've known for eight years. Evan died at age 42 at his home in Louisville on Sunday of natural causes, the news service reported today.

We often covered the same events involving the Louisville-based Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). While our employers were different -- his a denominational news service, mine the secular hometown paper -- we shared the goal of reporti [...]

Reading people we disagree with

webmaster@pres-outlook.org — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:18:26 +0100

Welcome to my rant!

I’ve been down this road before, but here we go again.

A couple of years ago someone did a study which found that Americans do not tend to read or listen to people they disagree with.

This is on my mind today because I recently read the most wonderful counterpoint to this ideological myopia. The New Yorker published a selection of Norman Mailer’s letters, the best of which were letters to his friend and political rival William F. Buckley, Jr. [...]

A church doesn’t move forward by running from its past.

webmaster@pres-outlook.org — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 18:32:37 +0100

Recently a Catholic friend asked me about the state of the Presbyterian Church. She said that, for her, Presbyterianism has always represented a thinking person’s Protestantism, and that this historic role is more needed today than it has been for a long time.

Thinking, education, intellectualism, or, as our Reformed forebears put it, the life of the mind in the service of God, are no less under assault today in the Presbyterian Church than in society at large.

There are many in [...]

Church Unbound

aarondoll@frontiernet.net — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0100

David LaMotte sings, "There isn't much you get to keep. Keep the Change."

Change may be good or bad, or good AND bad, but it IS what renews life. The Church Unbound conference at Montreat last week is still rattling around in my bones. It was personally a clarion call to renewal in Christ and re-evaluation of my particular calling in the church. "Busy" is a four letter word I hear all to often.

Post GA: There is Hard Work to be Done

cleave@gmail.com — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Photo by Joseph Williams

It's been a long week here at GA; the plenary finally ended last night around 11.45pm and I think commissioners and advisory delegates were very ready to head back to their rooms. Yesterday was the day when we hit all the hot-button issues: gay ordination, same-sex marriage, the Iraq war, Israel-Palestine issues and abortion. While the assembly vo [...]

GA218 Summary Bulletin Insert

cleave@gmail.com — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

The following message is from Jack Haberer, the Presbyterian Outlook's Editor:

"General Assembly is winding down to an end, and now the task of interpreting the actions of it falls upon the shoulders of folks like you. Friends will be hearing about it from newspaper reports (your email inbox may already be filling up). I have just put the finishing touches on a bulletin insert that will be made available for purchase on our Web site TODAY by 1PM Pacific time, 4PM eastern t [...]

Blog Comments

cleave@gmail.com — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Just a quick comment on leaving comments on this website. It is an open forum and we do encourage you to leave comments. However, neither Charis (the other Outlook blogger) or myself have the capabilities to approve the comments. Those belong to the Webmasters of the site - and they are doing their best to get them approved.

I just wanted to make sure readers knew that we weren't censoring or purposely avoiding your comments.

Don't Forget About...

ck1225@messiah.edu — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

It has been less than three hours since the decision of the general assembly to start the process to allow GLBT ministers to be ordained and already we can see the divisive responses. People proudly wearing rainbow scarves waited until they were outside the convention hall to start celebrating with hugs and singing. Soon after, the Presbyterian Renewal Network passed out a press release noting that "This is a day for grieving." Really though, I do no [...]

A Battle-Cry of Fear

cleave@gmail.com — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Today is a big day. We'll be hearing a lot during the plenary business meetings today, and we'll be hearing from some of the most controversial committees - those that dealt with issues of ordination and Israel & Palestine. As I sat in these committees, and as I heard Overture Advocates, commissioners, advisory delegates and those in the open hearings all speak to these issues, I noticed one tactic being used that stood out over all others: a tactic of fear.

There is a general [...]

YAAD Haikus

cleave@gmail.com — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Last night, it seemed that plenary would never end (although, it did, finally, around 11pm). We seemed to continue to get caught in parliamentary circles: never-ending amending, motioning and calling for the question. Back at the press tables, we had to keep asking each other, "What in the world are we doing now?"

Apparently some of the YAADs were getting a little frustrated by some of the procedures as well, and some started putting together some haikus in honor of the Genera [...]

Chocolate Eclaire, Mango Mousse and Unity in Community

ck1225@messiah.edu — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Tonight I had the pleasure of sharing desert and conversation with three lovely women from my presbytery. The topic? A Shared Future.

At Stanford University Alexandra Lusak, Pastor of First United Presbyterian Church in Troy, NY, had heard a lecture by Byron Bland. Apparently he had spoken not on a shared vision, but on a vision of a shared future. He has a good point. Whether we have the same vision or not we still have to live with each other.&n [...]