Immigration is not an issue only in cities and towns near the United States’ northern and southern borders. Presbyteries across the country are frequently contacted by churches for advice and referrals to resources to help address immigration problems at the local level.
At the 218th General Assembly (2008), held in San Jose, California, several resolutions were approved. Through these actions the General Assembly has tried to create a way for local churches to become educated and take action on this important issue. The information in these resolutions and the actions they suggest will go a long way in helping us …
The Assistance Program of the Board of Pensions joined with San Jose Presbytery to help a long-serving missionary meet his wife’s funeral expenses.
The General Assembly Special Committee on the Confession of Belhar has made available The Bible and Belhar, a new resource co-authored by Stephen Hayner and Mark Labberton which addresses the biblical basis of the confession. The 220th General Assembly (2012) voted to begin the process of amending The Book of Confessions to include the Confession of Belhar, and Moderator Neal D. Presa appointed the special committee to study the confession and provide education throughout the church.
Read about the Blue Corn Mothers Alliance in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Examine a biblical call passage, consider the personal struggles and the empowering of one called by God and relate the passage to one’s own sense of call.
While this 26 page basic resource manual was last updated in 2000 and is now out of print, this partnership between PSMIN, the then PC(USA) Office of Human Services, and Pathways to Promise contains much timeless information for getting started in this ministry on a congregational level. Worship aids and education models for the congregation are included.
Those who face reproductive problems tend to focus their lives almost totally on the desperate desire to bear children. Those who vehemently oppose abortion in the name of the fetus's "right to life" elevate the significance of fetal life to the exclusion of any other factor or person in the particular situation of pregnancy. Physicians, confronted with a tiny premature newborn, may struggle more with competitiveness than compassion to salvage the fragile life, despite almost certain and catastrophic impairment should they "succeed." Life is sacred, but its sanctity lies not in its biological basis but in its source: God."
How shall Christians confess their faith in the midst of people whose beliefs are different? What is the shape of the faith that Christians confess? What should be the church's stance toward other faith traditions? The Office of Theology and Worship wishes to contribute to the church's consideration of the issue by making available to Presbyterians a superb theological paper from the Commission on Theology of the Reformed Church in America.
Divestment of holdings in a particular firm or class of firms is both part of the normal management of funds and potentially an occasion for Christian witness to God's call for justice and the renewal of society.
This report is one of four study papers, commissioned in order to better understand the human consequences of globalization. It attribues the current acceleration of globalization to corporate mergers and the rise of neoliberal ideology. It sees negative effects of globalization in terms of increased income and wealth disparities within and between nations and the loss of democratic control of economic policy and regulation, as nations race to the bottom with efforts to attract international capital investment. While fewer trade restrictions tend to motivate increased economic efficiency in the long run, there are shorter run costs of transition, and these …