The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) is over. So, let’s do the math. During the week, the assembly approved items of business with financial implications for the denomination’s two budgets – the mission budget and per-capita budget. Additions to the mission budget were: $52,087 for 2010, $295,861 for 2011 and $207,683 for 2012.... Continue Reading

Four versus 57. Numbers talk. Great Commission versus Cultural Mandate. That was the ratio of General Assembly business items dealing with evangelism or church planting (four) versus the number of business items (57) in five committees tasked with social-witness business. Between the evangelistic mandate to make disciples and the cultural mandate to make the world... Continue Reading

Legislation clearing the way for women bishops in the Church of England has passed a key hurdle in spite of fears of a walkout by traditionalists. Members of the Church’s national assembly, the General Synod, rejected calls for further delay in the progress of a draft law paving the way for women to be made... Continue Reading

Archbishop of Canterbury admits to ‘desperately difficult’ process. The Archbishop of Canterbury has assured traditionalists that the Church of England remains committed to finding a way for them to stay within the fold despite the defeat of a compromise measure in General Synod on Saturday. Synod, currently meeting in York, voted Monday morning in favour... Continue Reading

Anglo-Catholics and conservative evangelicals who object to women bishops have threatened to leave the Church after claiming that current plans do not meet their demands. The Archbishop of Canterbury has urged the General Synod of the Church of England not to stall the progress of legislation to introduce women bishops. Dr Rowan Williams said the... Continue Reading

In a highly-charged debate at the General Synod, the Church’s parliament, members rejected a compromise deal put forward by the archbishops of Canterbury and York which would have averted a schism. The archbishops’ plans would have seen the creation of a new class of male-only bishops to look after conservative evangelical and Anglo-Catholic parishes opposed... Continue Reading

There were fresh calls for unity in the Church of England as traditionalists prepared to lobby for a compromise on the ordination of women as bishops while also warning of the risk of defection over the issue. Traditionalists, made up of two separate groups – Anglo-Catholics and conservative evangelicals – were locked in high-level meetings... Continue Reading

The OPC is meeting through Wednesday on the campus of Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, Illinois (a community about 30 minutes south of Chicago). Returning to the work left over from Friday night concerning an overture coming out of the Presbytery of Michigan and Ontario regarding a defined period of probation for licensed candidates... Continue Reading

Doug Nave told…how he had to “come out of the closet” twice. He “came out” as a gay man, and in…the Presbyterian tradition. As the keynote speaker at the Covenant Network of Presbyterians General Assembly Commissioners Convocation, Doug Nave told the packed sanctuary at Westminster Presbyterian Church how he had to “come out of the... Continue Reading

The OPC is meeting through next Wednesday on the campus of Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, Illinois (a community about 30 minutes south of Chicago). The Assembly returned to its business from the previous night with the Committee on Home Missions and Church Extension. The Rev. DeLacy A. Andrews, Jr., regional home missionary for... Continue Reading