Sing the Good News

A refrain lifted from our Call to Covenant Community wove through all the worship services at the Covenant Conference:

“The good news of the gospel
is that all those who are near
and those who were far off are invited.”

With permission from the composer, Thomas Pavlechko, we invite your congregation to use it during Advent or at any appropriate time.

Please click here to download a pdf of the words and music.

The One We Follow is Far Ahead

February 19, 2006

John M. Buchanan
Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church

"The world has changed. Our culture has changed. The traditional old churches, Walter Brueggemann says, are in a kind of exile, and Walter reminds us that it’s not a bad place to be, that God seems inclined to exiled, sidelined, captive people. The danger, as always, is that we’ll be caught looking backward, expending all our energy and resources in a desperate attempt to create the good old days; fighting one another, blaming one another—the politics of “nostalgia and resentment,” Marty calls it."

To read more, please click here

Epiphany on Brokeback Mountain

Dr. David Jenkins
Candler School of Theology,
Emory University, in Atlanta.

"Quick on the heels of Christmas, Epiphany takes its seat between the Slaughter of the Innocents and Ash Wednesday. It’s a skinny season of immensely hopeful proportion.  During these brief winter days of Epiphany we celebrate the surprise  -  no, the shock, like the first lightening bolt from an unexpected storm  -  of the manifestation of God’s good news to the gentiles.

"It is doubtful that Annie Proulx, author of the 1997 short story, Brokeback Mountain, ever imagined her story could be an apt sermon illustration for an Epiphany homily, let alone provide the narrative for the triumphant movie, but I’d like to make a case for it. " To read more, please click here

Rebuilding after Katrina - Experiencing Christ

Anitra Kitts Rasmussen
Director of Communications,
Covenant Network of Presbyterians

On January 8, I traveled with four others from the San Francisco Theological Seminary as a Presbyterian Disaster Assistance work team assigned to D'Iberville, Mississippi. Our journey lasted eight days. What we experienced will last a lifetime.

To read more, please click here

Joanna M. Adams

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Annual Commemorative Service

I grew up in Mississippi at a time when the water fountains at the railroad station had signs over them that read “colored” and “white”

To read more, please click here

Night Vision -

A Christmas Eve Sermon

Jon Walton
First Presbyterian Church
of New York City

Please click here for a PDF file

National Covenant Network Conference
November 3-5, 2005

Idlewild Presbyterian Church,
Memphis, Tennessee

Presentations and Sermons:
(pdf files are available for downloading and ease in printing)

• Graceful Practices - Amy Plantinga Pauw (pdf)
• What Are You Looking For? - Doug Nave (pdf)
• The Public Face of Discipleship - Larry Rasmussen (pdf)
• Marriage as a Discipline of Sanctification - Eugene F. Rogers, Jr. (pdf)
• When the Wind Blows - Margaret Aymer (pdf)
• A Home at the End of the World - Nora Tubbs Tisdale (pdf)
• Just...In Time - Thomas Long (pdf)

Order audio versions of the Presentations through the Covenant Network E-store.

please click on the photo for images of the conference

Northwest Regional Conference A Success

One-hundred and 60 people gathered on Saturday, October 15, 2005 at the Newport Presbyterian Church in Bellevue, WA, for the Northwest Regional Covenant Network Conference. The full and rich day included opening and closing worship services, a dozen thought-provoking workshops, and a powerful keynote address by Susan Andrews, pastor of Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, MD, and Moderator of the 215th G.A.

• Address by Susan R. Andrews:
  A New Way for a New Day:
  Reframing the Dialogue on Sexuality in the Church

• Read the conference summary by Kirsten Kingdon

Where Words Come From

A Sermon from The Rev. Richard E. Spalding Chaplain of Williams College
Williamstown, Massachusetts

"Where do words come from?

"Do they gestate in the wombs of dictionaries and thesauruses, to be midwived into this world by the gentle hands of English teachers? Do they ebb and flow through cables and gush out of screens? Do words precipitate out of the very air we breathe, full as it is with radio waves and television signals and cell phone calls? …Or do they keep their watch over us silently, like stars, sometimes invisible, sometimes sharp and clear as beacons?"

To read more, please click here

How My Mind has Evolved

A Personal Reflection on Faith, Biblical Interpretation, and Homosexuality
Steve Montgomery

To read more, please click here.

Preaching at a time like this

9/4 - God and Katrina - A sermon by John C. Bush, Interim Pastor
First Presbyterian Church; Birmingham, Alabama

9/11 - The Waters of Deliverance - A sermon by Chris Tuttle, Pastor, Faith Presbyterian Church, Greensboro, North Carolina

Two Sermons About God (and Us)

Essay

HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE BIBLE:
A Consideration of Pertinent Passages

The Rev. Dr. Charles D. Myers, Jr.
Associate Professor, Religious Studies  - Gettysburg College

The emotionally-charged topic of homosexuality has not only been the subject of significant debate at the national church level.  Laypersons and clergypersons in local churches have been and are continuing to wrestle with this issue as well.  Most people have definite opinions on this subject, and those opinions are often defended with great passion.  For the time being, however, I ask the reader to suspend her or his personal feelings in order to look specifically at what the Bible says (and does not say) about the subject. The impact of the biblical witness on discussions about homosexuality then and now cannot be underestimated, for this topic raises many questions about how the Bible will be read and appropriated by all Christians at the dawn of a new millennium. 

Charles D. Myers, Jr., earned a B.A. degree at Duke University before he attended Princeton Theological Seminary, where he earned an M.Div. degree and a Ph.D. in New Testament language and literature.  Before he was hired at Gettysburg College in 1986, Dr. Myers taught religion courses at Princeton Seminary, at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, and at Swarthmore College.  For the past ten years Dr. Myers has served as Chair of the Religion Department at Gettysburg College. 

For ten years Dr. Myers served as Recording Secretary for the Revised Standard Version Bible Committee whose work culminated in the 1989 publication of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.  His published work appears in scholarly journals and in the Anchor Bible Dictionary, a multi-volume reference work.  He is also co-editor of and contributor to Biblical Theology: Problems and Prospects (Atlanta: Abingdon, 1995).  Dr. Myers is an ordained Presbyterian minister who lives in Camp Hill, PA, with his wife and two daughters. 

To view and print a PDF version of this essay, please click here (size 180k)

Sermon - July17, 2005

The Rev. Dr. Joanna M. Adams

Pastor of Morningside Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, Georgia,
guest preacher Georgia Major State Day
Washington National Cathedral

What I don’t like about this parable, I’ll just confess to you, is the master’s instruction to the servants. “Don’t mess with the weeds.” I really want to mess with the weeds. I really would like to put on my garden gloves and head out with my bottle of Roundup. I’m pretty sure I know what’s useful to God and what isn’t. Don’t you think you have some clarity about that yourself? Perhaps you belong to a Christian denomination that is divided these days. It’s hard to find one that’s not arguing about something. When you’re in the middle of one of those wrangles, do you ever think maybe it would be better if those other people who are so wrong-headed and argumentative would just go somewhere else? Let’s get rid of the weeds. There’s something in us that does not like a weed.

Please click here to read the full sermon.

Here is a sermon from the Ghost Ranch July gathering of A Church for Our Time:

"The Freedom to Live by Faith Alone"
Paul E. Capetz

These questions are important to ask in order to determine whether our churches today still proclaim the gospel of freedom. In other words, claiming to be “Protestants” is pointless so long as we do not understand the events of the 16th century and their import. If we claim to be a “Reformed” tradition, then we have to ask whether the gospel is rightly preached by us today. And the way to answer this question is to gain clarity regarding what this gospel of freedom is all about that was at stake in the Middle Ages and that is still at stake today.

To read more, please click here

“New Creation is Everything”
Galatians 6:1-16

Christopher A. Joiner
First Presbyterian Church,
Franklin, Tennessee

If the American project is about discovering how to turn differences into blessing, it is not the first movement to take on this task. One can properly argue, and Sacks does, that the Christian Church and the Judaism out of which it sprang, found itself confronted by a God who, their texts said, loved the world, the whole world. Much of the history of Judaism and Christianity is the struggle of these covenant people with this covenant God. That is, of course, the meaning of the word Israel, “God-struggler.” And this struggle is certainly at the heart of the cross. We are, all of us who claim to live within this tradition, constantly having to do with, as Walter Brueggemann says, “texts that linger, and words that explode.” These words explode all boundaries, all isms, and all attempts to cordon off and limit the scope of God’s love.

To read the whole sermon, please click here.

A Graceful Dialogue in Grace

Grace Presbytery includes a period of planned theological discussion in every presbytery meeting. Looking ahead to the forthcoming release of the report of the Task Force on Peace, Unity, & Purity of the Church, they have chosen to focus on the meaning(s) of peace, unity, and purity in three successive presbytery meetings. In June the presbytery will reflect together on unity. Two papers from pastors of different theological perspectives will serve as resources and discussion starters for the presbyteries. With their permission, we share them here.

To read "Synonyms: Unity & Uniformity?" by the Rev. Dale W. Patterson, please click here.

To read, "Jesus, Son of God—Bringer of Unity, Preserver of Persons" by The Rev. Warner M. Bailey, H.R., please click here.

A Thorn in the Flesh

Isaiah 40; 27-31; II Corinthians 12:1-10
Presbytery of Southern New England
May 12, 2005

A sermon delivered by John C. B. Webster

I suspect that by this time the preachers here know exactly where this sermon is going and are patiently waiting for me to catch up to them. Yes, the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Presbytery of Southern New England do have a thorn in the flesh, but let us be clear about what that thorn is. The thorn is not active homosexuality in our church or our society. The thorn is not Amendment B. The thorn is the conflict which those have generated. If there were a consensus in the Church either around the moral acceptance of homosexual activity among church leaders, say within a lifelong committed relationship like marriage, or around Amendment B which prohibits that, there would be no thorn, no torment. Life could go on as always. But we have got a thorn in our flesh as a Church.

To read the whole sermon, please click here

He Prayed for the Unity of the Church

An excerpt from a sermon preached May 8 by
Randy Riggs
Pastor
First Presbyterian Church
Lancaster, PA

We spent the next hour and a half talking about a lot of different things: our families, our calls to the ministry, the places where we had served.  We also talked about where we were the same and where we differed on some pretty significant issues, and in the end we agreed that we would probably never share the same point of view on some fairly major issues before the church.  However, we also agreed that this should not keep us from honoring each other’s faith and working together on the things we could agree upon.  And we agreed that this should not keep us from acknowledging the fact that though we held different points of view, we were still brothers in Christ. 

To read the whole excerpt, please click here

Just As We Are

Sunday, May 1, 2005

John M. Buchanan
Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church

Psalm 66:8–20
John 21:1–17

" It is so complex, so deeply implicated in our hearts and psyches, in our sense of our self-worth or non-worth, our relationship with parents and family and lovers, and memories of failures and expectations not met. And it is so simple. Jesus Christ came to show us that God loves and wants us in spite of who we are or what we have done or left undone. Jesus Christ came to show that God loves and wants us just as we are."

To read the rest of the sermon, please click here

Covenant Network
Southeast
Regional
Conference

250 Southerners Join to Explore “Challenges Confronting the Church”

A report from the Covenant Network Southeast Regional Conference

Joanna Adams, pastor of Morningside Presbyterian Church in Atlanta and former Co-Moderator of Covenant Network: “What Will It Take to Win?”

Kim Richter, pastor of Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church in Asheville, NC, and Covenant Network Co-Moderator: “Just What Do You Think God Is Up To?”

Jake Young, North Anderson Community Church in Anderson, SC: “Standing on the Outside Looking In.”

---

 

Passing Understanding

Cynthia M. Campbell
President, McCormick Theological Seminary

Closing Sermon at “A Call to Prayer and Repentance”
Houston, TX
March 19, 2005

How can this be? How can those who know each other as “others,” as outsiders, as those who have differences that are almost by definition irreconcilable be brought together into “one new humanity?” How can the broken human family be at peace? It is the work of God, and it surpasses our understanding.

To read more, please click here.

Worship Service -
San Gabrial Covenant Network Chapter

The Covenant Network Chapter in the Presbytery of San Gabriel holds three general meetings each year. They frame their meetings with worship. Posted here is a worship service from their recent meeting in February which included dinner and and the Rev. Janie Spahr

To view the PDF of the Worship Service, please click here

Life Beyond the Comma

The Reverend Dr. Erin Swenson

Accepting the 2005 Lazarus Project Award at the Lazarus Banquet

It is no simple victory, however, for there are many who continue to be afraid. This is why this award tonight is so important to all of us, for it signifies your willingness to help the church stop using commas to hide uncomfortable truth. In the ten years since my gender transition literally hundreds of transgender Christians have contacted me to find out if it’s really true. “Yes,” I tell them, but with hesitation. “The church was willing to accept me, but it’s not so simple.” We as a denomination continue to be uncomfortable with people whose gender identities are non-normative. I think of this as the church’s struggle not with people like me, but with itself as the church. Our denominational resources continue to be devoid of any distinctively transgender materials for pastoral care. When the word transgender is brought to the floor of our General Assembly, commissioners still rise to question what that really means. And our own statements about ordination standards and marriage speak exclusively to humanity lived in the binary identities of male or female. There is no room for people like me, whose identities cannot be so easily categorized.

To read more, please click here

Agriculture and Grace

A Sermon
April 20, 2004
Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43
Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary

The Rev. Tricia Dykers Koenig

I’m more comfortable digging in the Word than in the dirt.  Still, I don’t think that the instructions of the householder in Jesus’ parable would be applauded as sound farming practice.  If Jesus used parables to surprise his listeners into a different perspective, I’ll bet this one got their attention.  Let the weeds grow unmolested till the harvest?  Not a conventional method for increased yield per acre. Please click here to read more

A MOMENT OF RECOGNITION

Matthew 17:1-9
February 6, 2005; The Transfiguration of the Lord

Stephen R. Montgomery
Idlewild Presbyterian Church, Memphis Tennessee

Right at the very end, right as some of us were getting fairly discouraged, he dropped a tiny ray of hope. It wasn’t that the faith communities would begin deeper interfaith dialogue; it wasn’t a call for an international summit of some kind. The hope was to be found in something that was not a particular event, but rather a recurring one, what he called “a moment of recognition.” A moment when one sees a glimpse of the future, sees what God has in mind for us, a particularly poignant moment which gives us hope, but also makes new and unsettling demands upon us in the present. Nothing can happen, Dr. Bellah said, until that moment: A moment of recognition.

To read more, please click here

Epiphany, Tsunamis and God

For the past few weeks, preachers all over the world have approached the pulpit with the front page of the newspaper firmly placed alongside their Bibles. Here are a handful of those sermons:

Star Struck - Rev. Susan R. Andrews,
Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church, Bethesda

I like all of you have been heart sick at the tragedies in southeast Asia - of devastation so vast - of pain so deep - of desperation so agonizing - that my soul is still weeping.

Where Is God When Disaster Strikes? - Rev. John M. Buchanan, Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago

God is in nature. God reigns over nature, the oldest part of our faith tradition maintains. But how, exactly? How, particularly when nature becomes lethal to human life?

Change is Coming - Intern Anitra Kitts Rasmussen, St. John's Presbyterian Church, Berkeley

Change is coming. Its always coming. Sometimes we know what it looks like and we can plan for it, schedule it, control it… or at least - like Herod - think we can but sometimes change happens without warning

Two Advent Sermons

Ethics and Eschatology

Matthew 24:36-44
Shelton Chapel, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
Theodore J. Wardlaw, President

All of this, as if the chief gift we pastors offer the world is tact.

Cracks in the Old Creation

Luke 22:14-23
Stewart Chapel, San Francisco Theological Seminary
Heather Reichgott, Senior

...for the first time in history the baby Jesus is born in the Holiday Inn of Bethlehem, tended to lovingly by a homeless man.

Highlights of The 2004 Covenant Conference

Over 600 Presbyterians sang, prayed, ate, studied, planned for the future, worshiped and talked together about God's good gifts.

Please read:

Rick Spalding's Thursday evening sermon, Speaking the Name

Amy Miracle's Friday morning sermon: "Are you Saved?"

Jack Stott's Friday morning plenary presentation, In the Beginning Was the Relationship

Stephanie Paulsell's Friday afternoon plenary presentation, Honoring the Sexual Body

Susan Andrew's Friday evening sermon, Eros and Ethics

Luke Timothy Johnson's Saturday presention, Sexuality and the Holiness of the Church

Gene Bay's Saturday sermon, Don't Give Up

Welcoming Remarks, John M. Buchanan, Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church

A Memorial Tribute to Shirley C. Guthrie, Kimberly Clayton Richter

Tapes of the presentations and sermons may be ordered here

You may find the following reports informative:

Sexual questions, few answers at Covenant meeting - Leslie Scanlon, Presbyterian Outlook

Covenant Network Conference talks about sex - Gene TeSelle, Witherspoon Issues Analyst

James Berkley writes for Presbyterians for Renewal, an advocacy group within the PC(USA) which supports the current ordination standards. He attended our conference, and presents a different point of view:

Covenant Network Thinks about Sex—Theologically (Thursday)

Sex and the Windy City (Friday)

Irony and Disconnect with the Covenant Network (Saturday)

Dining with Jesus

Sermon for Old First Presbyterian Church
August 29, 2004

Pamela Byers
Elder, First Presbyterian Church, San Francisco
Executive Director, Covenant Network of Presbyterians

The function of our worship – indeed the function of the church – is to give some glimpse of the Kingdom or reign of God. We try to show in our life together what it would mean – what it does mean – if God is in charge in our lives. One of the things it means, it seems to me, is that we don’t get to choose who we hang out with. God does the inviting. And fortunately God’s imagination is much better than ours! (click here to read more)

Sermon, August 22, 2004

Blessed Rule Breaking

The Rev. Dr. David A. Van Dyke

Pastor Broad Street Presbyterian Church,
Columbus, Ohio

Maybe there are some rules that are meant to be broken? In fact, maybe there are some rules that are crying out to be broken? And maybe any good society---any society worth living in is worth living in because throughout its history it has had its share of rule breakers? It has given birth to certain people who displayed great courage and conviction in standing up to institutions and regimes, sometimes sparking entire movements but getting our attention nonetheless, reminding us of loftier goals and more noble pursuits, and in the process, helping to make some of the rough places in society smooth, like a plain.

216th General Assembly (2004)

Richmond, Virginia
June 26-July 3, 2004

Strong Medicine - Dr. Brian Blount, Princeton New Testament Professor Address to the Covenant Network GA Luncheon

Just What Is God Up To? - Kimberly C. Richter, Pastor, Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, Asheville, NC & Incoming Co-Moderator of the Covenant Network

Scripture Clearly Teaches. . . ? -Albert C. Winn, Moderator of the 109th G.A, PCUS, and President Emeritus and Professor of Doctrinal Theology, Louisville Theological Presbyterian Seminary

Testimony from the Floor of the 216th General Assembly - Jane Young; Minister Commissioner from the Presbytery of Eastern Virginia

... But what changed my heart more than anything else was the morning I left my hotel, rolled down a ramp that is not to code and therefore not safe, and crossed the street to go to my committee to do the work my church has called me to do -- and lo and behold I couldn't get in. I sat in front of the door, on the outside, waiting for someone to not only walk by, but to see me and open the door so that I could go in...

Do You Mind Dogs? - Chris Glaser, Sermon, July 3, 2004

Abundant Abundance - Susan R. Andrews, Moderator of the 215th General Assembly
Sermon, June 27, 2004

The Last Will Be First - Jin S. Kim, Pastor, Church of All Nations, Minneapolis; Sermon June 29, 2004

Seeing is Believing - J. Barrie Shepherd

Memorial Minute - Dorothy Gaskill Barnard, February 28, 1925 – February 25, 2004 - Gay Mothershead

Dare to Be Gamaliel - Isabel Rogers, Professor Emerita of Applied Christianity, Presbyterian School of Christian Education, and Moderator of the 199th General Assembly; Commissioners’ Convocation Dinner, 25 June 2004

For all the Covenant Network articles, sermons, photos and links relating to the 216th General Assembly, click here.

Why This?

Pete Peery
First Presbyterian Church, Asheville
Acts 11:1-18

Peter.

He stayed with that certain Simon, a tanner, in Joppa. And as I said last week no devout person who considered him or herself to be a part of the people of God would stay with a tanner. For tanners handled the carcasses of animals.And by the law of Moses - Scripture itself - they were unclean.

I wonder how uncomfortable it was for Peter to stay with Simon the tanner? But from that very house, Peter found himself enmeshed in the most incendiary controversy the church had ever faced. Perhaps the church has never since faced such an explosive issue.

From what happened at Simon the tanner’s house, Peter ended up baptizing into the church, the very Body of Christ, Gentiles!

- To read the whole sermon, please click here to view a PDF file version of this sermon. (92k)

Thanksgiving in a Time of Trouble

The Rev. Erwin Barron
Prayer of the People

We thank you, O loving God, for poetry like this that lifts us from the everyday drudgery and too frequent terrors to again discover the unimaginable in you... to discover that peace can come that justice can be made right and your unimaginable love will conquer in our lives and our world

For the entire prayer, click here

Con – spiracy

A sermon by The Rev. Richard E. Spalding, Chaplain, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts.

"My U.C.C. and Episcopalian friends always marvel at the audacity of the final trial we Presbyterians put our candidates for ordination to the ministry through: we dare them to improve upon the Apostles’ Creed. We put one blank sheet of paper before them, and ask for an original statement of faith that is both as utterly fresh and unique as we hope each of them is, and yet that is also recognizably orthodox and comfortably congruent with the theology that bears our stamp. Some of those persistent questions are always about scripture: what is it, how does it do what it does, and what’s your relationship to it? By now we ought to have become a denomination of Alice Walkers – a church of poets – because we expect them to distill an answer into a few lines that both put us deeply at ease in the embrace of familiar truths and also startle us awake to the breathtaking new things that God is doing. That’s the work of poets."

For the rest of the sermon, please click here

Jesus Interprets the Scriptures -

A sermon on Mark 10:2-9 by by Rev. L. William Countryman

"Jesus, in this morning's Gospel, is caught up in a religious conflict about sexuality with some people who quote Scripture at him. Does this sound familiar? Maybe it'll be worthwhile to watch and see how he deals with that.

"To start with, it's worth noticing that people in the first century were already fighting about the meaning of the Bible. Even then it was hard to figure it out. On the matter of divorce, the Torah actually had very little to say. It only mentions it once in passing, while dealing with a related issue (Deut. 24:1-3). And we know from other sources that first-century Jewish experts disagreed about the grounds of divorce. Could a husband divorce his wife just because he felt like it? Or only if she had committed some serious fault? Jesus was being asked to take sides in that argument. That way, one side or the other—or both—could find fault with his answer. Academic communities—the more they change the more they stay the same! "

To read more, please click here

FROM RICHMOND TO RICHMOND

A Gathering of the Covenant Network - March 28, 2004
Stephen R. Montgomery

...Second, there are times when I, and perhaps you, get so tired of the struggle, tired of the constant wrangling. What has it led to? We have driven from the leadership of the church good and faithful leaders. We have become intolerant of one another. We have disillusioned a whole generation of young people who learned that song "They'll know we are Christians by our love" and now have turned away in frustration. And we have resorted to taking difficult biblical, theological, and pastoral issues and made them a political football... "judicial cannibalism" someone called it.

Add to that the fact that 6 million children die each year, mostly from hunger related causes. 12 million children in this country alone have to skip a meal to make ends meet. [6] And we are fighting two wars right now. There are times when I think God has more important things on God's mind. Shouldn't we be about the "real" business of the church?

The full text can be found here

Two Sermons of Interest

One day, Jesus taught a parable: A father has two sons. The elder stayed close to home and walked a steady, reliable path. The younger spun out into chaos until he realized that what has been can not be so any longer. Homecoming became his only hope.

In What We Believe about Jesus - 3. His Message, John Buchanan of Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago, considers who is lost and how we allow ourselves to be found.

Jon Walton of The First Presbyterian Church in New York City suggests that we Presbyterians can easily find ourselves in this story, There was a Man who had Two Sons.

  "Return of the Prodigal" by Frank Wesley (India, 20th century). Public domain art from United Methodist Women's Parables slide set(out of print) http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/bible/prodigal.stm

In Witness to the Resurrection

We recently received a note from J. Christy Wareham which we wanted to share with you.

The Tale of Euodia and Syntyche

Carlos E. Wilton

A sermon preached at the Point Pleasant Presbyterian Church,
Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey

What I'm hoping we will all take away from this place, whatever side of the controversy we find ourselves on, is a new awareness of the complexity of this issue - and how desperately Presbyterians all across the church need to discover that common mind: to find a way to "rejoice in the Lord" together, letting their "gentleness," their epieikeia, "be known to everyone.

To read the entire sermon, please click here

For Massachusetts, A Chance and a Choice

BY PETER J. GOMES

...To extend the civil right of marriage to homosexuals will neither solve nor complicate the problems already inherent in marriage, but what it will do is permit a whole class of persons, our fellow citizens under the law heretofore irrationally deprived of a civil right, both to benefit from and participate in a valuable yet vulnerable institution which in our changing society needs all the help it can get...

Peter J. Gomes is the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church at Harvard University. He is an American Baptist minister.

Acts 9:36-43
Saints and Widows

A sermon by The Rev. Dr. Laurie Ann Kraus

We know the world is like this. Full of people too important, too busy, too distracted to notice the little lives around them. People who value the lives of others little, or who, more sadly, regard their own lives as being of little consequence. In their own minds, as in the world that disregards them, they are not "saints," merely something else, beneath Naming- Existing in the category "Other."

St Patrick's Episcopal Church

A Parish in the Diocese of Atlanta

Rector Gray Temple addresses the controversy that has kept the Episcopal Church in the news lately in an address he made at Holy Innocents Episcopal Church.

"The Biblical Case in Favor of Gene Robinson's Election, Confirmation, and Consecration" (PDF 193 mg)

Sunday 1 February 2004
Candlemas / The presentation of Christ in the temple
CHORAL EUCHARIST
Southwark Cathedral
Preacher: Archbishop Desmond Tutu

The Jesus I worship is not likely to collaborate with those who vilify and persecute an already oppressed minority. I myself could not have opposed the injustice of penalizing people for something about which they could do nothing - their race - and then have kept quiet as women were being penalized for something they could do nothing about - their gender, and hence my support inter alia, for the ordination of women to the priesthood and the episcopate.

And equally, I could not myself keep quiet whilst people were being penalized for something about which they could do nothing, their sexuality. For it is so improbable that any sane, normal person would deliberately choose a lifestyle exposing him or her to so much vilification, opprobrium and physical abuse, even death. To discriminate against our sisters and brothers who are lesbian or gay on grounds of their sexual orientation for me is as totally unacceptable and unjust as Apartheid ever was.

Read the whole sermon here

Where the Bible leads me
By Barbara Brown Taylor

During the fourth century, at the height of the Arian controversy in Constantinople, one Christian wrote that it was impossible to go into a bakery for a loaf of bread without debating the nature of Christ. Was he the eternal Son of the eternal Father or was there a time when he was not? With bishops physically assaulting other bishops over this question and emperors changing sides on a regular basis, the debate spilled out of the church into the streets, where the Athanasians favored passages from John's Gospel and the Arians shot back with passages from Mark.

When I read this chapter of early church history, I thanked God for letting me live in a later one. Then I got back to planning classes and grading papers. That was before the 2003 General Convention of the Episcopal Church, however, when a majority of delegates from across the United States confirmed the election of the Rev. Gene Robinson as the first openly gay bishop in the Anglican Communion.

Please click here to read more

World Aids Day
(December 1)

2003 Covenant Network Conference

Covenant Network Conference Challenged and Renewed 600 Participants

Presbyterians of all ages and regions came to New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC to listen to challenging and thoughtful plenary sessions, participate in workshops and small group conversations, and join in renewing worship services. The dialogue between Barbara Wheeler, President of Auburn Seminary, and Richard Mouw, President of Fuller Seminary, modeled how people of integrity and intelligence can reason together in respect and compassion. Patrick Henry's presentation was so compelling that the room was deeply and attentively silent as he spoke, even though it was one of the last events of the three day conference. Bruce Reyes-Chow talked about the complexities facing young adults in the United States today and expertly demonstrated effective uses of technology as enhancements to communication. Jana Childers, Barrie Shepherd, Ken Kovacs, and Chris Glaser preached the Word from an historic pulpit. Please read our summary for more detailed information.

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Address - Susan Andrews, Moderator of the 215th General Assembly (PCUSA)
That Our Joy May Be Complete - Jana Childers
The Church Isn’t Jesus- Chris Glaser
Theological Reflections on Yogi Berra's "The Future Ain't What it Used to Be" -Patrick Henry
A Chaos of Uncalculating Love - Ken Kovacs
Hold On and Let Go: Being Faithful in a Post-Modern, Culturally Creative World - Bruce Reyes-Chow
Poirot or Corot: On Asking the Right Questions - J. Barrie Shepherd
Strangers: a Dialogue about the Church - Richard Mouw and Barbara Wheeler

Never Turn Away - A hymn inspired by the 2002 Covenant Network Conference and sung at the 2003 Conference

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2003 NorthWest Regional Covenant Conference
Seattle, WA
October 11,2003

How I Changed My Mind on Homosexuality
Jack B. Rogers, Professor of Theology Emeritus, San Francisco Theological Seminary, and
Moderator of the 213th General Assembly

Moving Ahead Together in Faith: Our Vision for the Church
Pamela Byers, Elder, Old First Presbyterian Church, San Francisco, and Executive Director, Covenant Network of Presbyterians

Sermons

More Immediate Concerns
Laurie Ann Kraus, Pastor, Riviera Presbyterian Church. Miami, FL

The Builder
John M. Buchanan, Co-Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago

The Bread of Life (and the Bread Crumbs)
Sheila Gustafson, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Santa Fe

The Body
Amy Miracle, Associate Pastor, Central Presbyterian Church, Denver

Struggling to Love
Doug Nave, Member, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church

A Flock of Sermons for Pentecost

Can These Bones Live? Yes!As Presbyterians celebrated the birthday of the Christian church this past Sunday, many pastors took the opportunity to reflect on where God is calling the church, both globally and in specific congregational settings.

"Pentecost," says Bert Campbell, was "the official start of new ways of looking at one another as God's creations."
As part of its call to "bring the Spirit to the world," says Harrell Davis, "It is the church's job to bring the Spirit to bear on old orthodoxies and tired, worn-out prejudices." Jon Walton offers images of those "slightly singed disciples" now "enlivened, empowered to go out into the world as ambassadors bearing a powerful message of life." Kim Richter tells confirmands and other members that they have a role in "what God is doing and will do to re-form and renew the church so that it participates in the purposes of God. It is both safe and not safe to be involved in such an adventure." Tim Hart-Andersen reminds us that "Pentecost marks the ending of the exile of the people of God not only from Jerusalem but, more importantly, from one another." Noting that the church is wholly dependent on the Spirit for its life, John Wilkinson observes that "every time the soul of the church is shaken and put down in a new place . . . is a Pentecostal occasion."

''Twas the Night Before Pentecost
Robert J. (Bert) Campbell, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church,Washington, PA

Bringing the Spirit into the World
Harrell Davis, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Lakewood, Colorado

What Do You See?
Jon M. Walton, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church in the City of New York

Is the Church Safe?
Kimberly C. Richter, Pastor, Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, Asheville, NC

Can These Bones Live?
Timothy Hart-Andersen, Pastor, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Minneapolis

Too Deep for Words
John Wilkinson, Pastor, Third Presbyterian Church, Rochester, NY

Addresses from the 215th G.A.

This Is Our Time
Timothy Hart-Andersen, Pastor, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Minneapolis

What Unties Presbyterians?
Deborah A. Block, Pastor, Immanuel Presbyterian Church, Milwaukee

Creating a Climate for Change
Joanna M. Adams, Co-Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago, and Co-Moderator, Covenant Network of Presbyterians

Tribute to James Costen and Harry Smith
Theodore "Ted" Wardlaw, President of Austin Seminary

Papers and Sermons from the
2002 Covenant Network Conference

"Confessing Christ Today: Seeking Common Ground."

Evangelism in a Pluralistic Society: A Reformed Perspective
Shirley Guthrie, Professor of Theology Emeritus, Columbia Theological Seminary

Response by Rabbi Joseph Edelheit, Temple Israel, Minneapolis

Reconciliation Matters: C67 Now and Then
John Wilkinson, Pastor, Third Presbyterian Church, Rochester, NY

Who Do You Say That I Am? Believing in Jesus Christ in the 21st Century
Anna Case-Winters, Associate Professor of Theology, McCormick Theological Seminary

Response by Paul Capetz, Associate Professor of Historical Theology, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities

Struck Down But Not Destroyed
Curtis Jones, Pastor, Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, Baltimore

Even to the Gentiles
Andrew Foster Connors, Associate Pastor, Idlewild Presbyterian Church, Memphis

God's Private Arrangements
Cynthia Jarvis, Pastor, Chestnut Hill Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia

A Little Night Music
Linda Loving, Pastor, House of Hope Presbyterian Church, St. Paul

Litany for the Church
John Wilkinson, Pastor, Third Presbyterian Church, Rochester, NY

Litany for the Church
Susan Ashton, Minister Member of San Francisco Presbytery

Addresses from the 214th G.A.

Is Anything Too Wonderful for Our God?
Jon Walton, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church in the City of New York

The Liberalism of the Reformed Tradition
John M. Buchanan, Co-Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago

Confessions of an Evangelical Liberal
Susan R. Andrews, Pastor, Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church, Bethesda, MD

Who? What? Why?
Deborah A. Block, Pastor, Immanuel Presbyterian Church, Milwaukee

Covenant Network -- Moving Ahead
Eugene C. Bay, Pastor, Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, Bryn Mawr, PA, and Co-Moderator, Covenant Network of Presbyterians

A Tribute to J. Randolph Taylor
Joseph Harvard III, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Durham, NC

More Great Sermons

A Good Word for Foolishness
Theodore J. Wardlaw, Pastor, Central Presbyterian Church, Atlanta

It Doth Not Yet Appear
Jana Childers, Professor of Preaching and Acting Dean, San Francisco Theological Seminary

Can "The Weak" and "The Strong" Share the PC(USA)?
Stephen W. Minnema, Pastor, Covenant Presbyterian Church, Madison, WI

Rumors of Angels
Sermon by Barbara Anderson, Co-Pastor, Pasadena Presbyterian Church

Missing Ingredient: Why Spirituality Needs Jesus"
Eugene H. Peterson, pastor, teacher, and author

Abrahams's Faithfulness: Two Sermons
James D. Brown, Pastor, Market Square Presbyterian Church, Harrisburg, PA

Papers and Sermons from the 2001 Covenant Conference

"Christ Transforming Culture: Why the Church Matters in the 21st Century"

Paradise Postponed: Or, What Do We Do 'Til Then?
Peter J. Gomes, Plummer Professor and Preacher to Harvard University

Jesus Christ, God's Welcome
Letty Russell, Professor of Theology Emerita, Yale University

Christ and Culture Revisited
Jack Stotts, President Emeritus, Austin Theological Seminary

Missional Questions
Cynthia Campbell, President, McCormick TheologicalSeminary

The Church We Are Called to Be
Jack Rogers, Professor of Theology Emeritus, San Francisco Theological Seminary, and Moderator of the 213th General Assembly

Sermon: Add Another Leaf to the Table
Barbara Anderson, Co-Pastor, Pasadena [CA] Presbyterian Church

Sermon: Accepted and Rejected
Mauricio Chacon, Pastor, Iglesia Presbiteriana de la Mision, San Francisco

Sermon: Jesus Transforming the Culture and the Church
Jean Kim, Founding Pastor, Church of the Magdalene, Seattle

Sermon: What Makes You Cry?
J. Oscar McCloud, Associate Pastor, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church

Addresses from the 213th G.A.

What Sign Shall We Wear?
Address to the Covenant Network Luncheon
Joanna M. Adams, Pastor, Trinity Presbyterian Church, Atlanta

What Would Jesus Do?
Address to the Covenant Network Commissioner Convocation Dinner
Freda Gardner, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Moderator, 211th G.A.

Trusting the Sovereignty of God
Address to the Covenant Network Commissioner Convocation Dinner
Douglas Oldenburg, Past President, Columbia Theological Seminary, and Moderator, 210th G.A.

Resources on Biblical Interpretation

Statements to Presbyteries against proposed Amendment 00-O

The Constitutional Case Against G-6.0106b
Peter Oddleifson, Attorney and Elder, Downtown United Presbyterian Church, Rochester, NY

Guidelines for Biblical Interpretation in the Book of Confessions

Rules for Biblical Interpretation in the Reformed Tradition
Compiled by Shirley Guthrie, Professor Emeritus, Columbia Theological Seminary

The Whole Bible for the Whole Human Family
Biblical faculty at Presbyterian seminaries

What Does the Bible Tell Us About Sexuality?
Tricia Dykers Koenig, National Organizer, Covenant Network

Bible Study Used in Synod of the Trinity
Donald R. Repsher, Honorably Retired, Lehigh Presbytery

Sermons

The Start of Something New
Timothy Hart-Andersen, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Minneapolis

Papers and Sermons from the 2000 Covenant Conference

"Biblical Authority and the Church"

Biblical Authority: A Personal Reflection
Walter Bruegggemann, Professor of Old Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary

Struggling with Scripture
William Placher, Professor of Religion, Wabash College

The Last Word on Biblical Authority
Brian Blount, Associate Professor of New Testament, Princeton Theological Seminary

Sermon: Red Tulips, Arise!
Angela Ying, Pastor, Bethany United Church of Christ, Seattle

Sermon: Homecoming
Agnes Norfleet, Pastor, North Decatur Presbyterian Church, Decatur, GA

Sermon: Coloring Outside the Lines
Tom Tewell, Pastor, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York City

Sermon: It's Waiting
Scott Anderson, Executive Director, California Council of Churches

Sermon, day after Covenant Conference: Knowing What's Important as We Interpret Scripture
Pamela Byers, Executive Director, Covenant Network

Scripture that Speaks to Me
Douglas Nave, Trustee, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York City

Why We Do What We Do: "Loopholes"
Hugh Swaney, Deacon, Old First Presbyterian Church, San Francisco

212th G.A. Covenant Network Luncheon Address

Theology Matters
Introduction to the new book, Renewing the Vision: Reformed Faith for the 21st Century
Cynthia M. Campbell, President, McCormick Theological Seminary

Table of Contents of this book

The Blessing of Abraham: What We Can Be
Lewis S. Mudge, Stuart Professor of Systematic Theology, San Francisco Theological Seminary

Special Resources for Unity in Diversity conferences

Historic Principles, Conscience and Church Government: A Perspective 17 Years Later
Howard Rice, Professor of Ministry Emeritus, SFTS; Chair of the Special Committee (1999) HTML

On Having, and Not Having, the Truth
Reinhold Niebuhr, excerpted from The Nature and Destiny of Man

Guidelines for Biblical Interpretation in the Book of Confessions

The Whole Bible for the Whole Human Family
Biblical faculty at Presbyterian seminaries

Papers and Sermons from the 1999 Covenant Conference

"Jesus Christ and the Church"

Confessing Christ in a Post-Christendom Context
Douglas John Hall, Professor of Theology Emeritus, McGill University

The Church: Beyond the Christian Religion
Douglas John Hall, Professor of Theology Emeritus, McGill University

True Confession: A Presbyterian Dissenter Thinks About the Church
Barbara Wheeler, President, Auburn Theological Seminary

Sermon: The Narrow Door
Jon Walton, Pastor, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Wilmington, DE

Sermon: Holding On (But Not to Jesus)
Anna Carter Florence, Instructor in Preaching, Columbia Theological Seminary

Sermon: WWPD?
Deborah Block, Pastor, Immanuel Presbyterian Church, Milwaukee

211th G.A. Covenant Network Luncheon Address

Beyond the Human Point of View - A Covenant Network Classic
Peter J. Gomes, Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church, Harvard University

God Includes the Outsiders: Remarks to the Covenant Network G.A. Luncheon
John M. Buchanan, Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago

More great sermons, a transcript and a poem!

Responding to Grace
Transcript of An Evening with Anne Lamott

Poem: "Tryst (Amidst a lovers' quarrel)"
J. Barrie Shepherd, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church in the City of New York

Sermon: "Full of Grace and Truth"
Susan Andrews, Pastor, Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church, Bethesda, MD

Explosive Issues and Emotional Disarmament
Carl S. Dudley, Professor of Church & Community, Hartford Seminary, and
Hugh H. Halverstadt, Professor of Ministry, McCormick Theological Seminary

Papers and sermons from the 1998 Covenant Conference

Living Faithfully in the Church When We Disagree

Guided by the Confessions: A Conversation Over Time
Cynthia Campbell, President, McCormick Theological Seminary

Can Unity Survive the Battle between Peace and Purity? Ordination as a Test Case for Denominational Identity
Fred Holper, Professor of Preaching and Worship, McCormick Theological Seminary

Fostering Theological Inquiry When We Disagree: A Dispatch from the Front
Douglas Ottati, Professor of Theology & Ethics, Union Theological Seminary (Richmond)

Reading the Bible: The Presbyterian Way
Jack Rogers, Vice President, Professor of Theology, San Francisco Theological Seminary

Sermon: "Old Grain, New Grace"
Joanna Adams, Pastor, Trinity Presbyterian Church, Atlanta

Sermon: "Becoming the Body"
John Buchanan, Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago

Sermon: "(Some) Pharisees, Gnats, and Weighty Matters"
Michael Livingston, Campus Pastor and Director of the Chapel, Princeton Theological Seminary

Sermon: "When You Don't Know What to Do"
Douglas Oldenburg, President, Columbia Theological Seminary, and Moderator of the 210th General Assembly

Prayers of the People
Pamela Byers, Executive Director, Covenant Network of Presbyterians

Analysis

210th G.A. Covenant Network Luncheon Address

Unity and Diversity: An Enduring Agenda
Jack Stotts, President Emeritus of Austin Theological Seminary and former President of McCormick Theological Seminary

Sermons

Integrity in All Relationships of Life
Lewis S. Mudge, Professor of Theology, San Francisco Theological Seminary

How We Interpret Scripture
Jack Rogers, Vice President, Professor of Theology, San Francisco Theological Seminary

Amendment A Better States "Abiding Authorities"
Laird J. Stuart, Pastor, Calvary Presbyterian Church, San Francisco

The Constitutional and Legal Rationale for Amendment A
Peter Oddleifson, Senior Partner, Rochester law firm, and Elder,
Downtown United Church, Rochester, NY

Who Will Gain? The Hidden Benefit of Amendment A
Barbara Wheeler, President, Auburn Theological Seminary

Where Do We Go From Here?
Pamela Byers, Executive Director, Covenant Network of Presbyterians