Presbyterians Aim to Revive Mainline Denomination at Annual Meeting

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Presbyterians Aim to Revive Mainline Denomination at Annual Meeting


Presbyterians Aim to Revive Mainline Denomination at Annual Meeting


As the Presbyterian Church (USA) prepares for its biennial General Assembly in St. Louis beginning Saturday (June 16), many PCUSA leaders are hoping to address several contentious issues during the weeklong meeting — and to bring reform to the dwindling mainline Protestant denomination.


Items before the assembly include divestment from fossil fuels, a number of resolutions regarding the Middle East, longer parental leave for PCUSA employees and new ways to ordain leaders of immigrant congregations.


Immigration also is “sure to be addressed at the Assembly,” according to a post on the PCUSA website. Recent meetings of both the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Southern Baptist Convention have addressed the Trump administration’s immigration policies, and Cindy Kohlmann of the Presbytery of Boston, who is in the running for co-moderator of the assembly, tweeted there was talk of proposing a resolution calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to stop separating children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border.

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Nine years in prison for Asia Bibi

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Nine years in prison for Asia Bibi

British Pakistani Christian Association (BPCA) held a gathering on Wednesday in honour of Asia Bibi and presented a narration of her arrest and the incident leading up to her blasphemy conviction.

Young boys held signs saying, “Asia Bibi Pakistani Christians are with you,” and “We are praying for Asia Bibi.”

 

Wilson Chowdhry, chairman of BPCA told Premier’s News Hour Bibi has been the victim of intense persecution.

“She spoke about the wonderful sacrifice Christ made of his life for us and asked the simple question, ‘What has Mohammed done for you?’ For that, this torture, this beating, this isolation, attempts to assassinate her…

“We’ve never heard of such animosity that would result in, in essence, the whole country being against her. It has been really awful; she’s been separated from her five children for the whole period of that time.

Chowdry said it’s very unlikely she’ll be set free, but all her supporters are still praying for a miracle.

In an interview from 2015, Bibi’s husband Ashiq talked about her decision to stand firm in her faith.

He said: “Asia believes she will be set free and her face is unquestionable, unshakeable! She is extremely proud of her Christian faith and would never deny the God.

“We have received offers of asylum in several western nations, and I will not regret leaving Pakistan, the land of my ancestors, as we have seen too much…

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Surveys Show ‘Sharp Differences’ between Jews in US and Israel

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Surveys Show ‘Sharp Differences’ between Jews in US and Israel


Surveys Show ‘Sharp Differences’ between Jews in US and Israel


In January 2016, Mollie Shichman, a liberal Jew from Fairfax, Va., celebrated the Israeli government’s decision to create the first-ever government-funded pluralistic prayer space at the southern end of the Western Wall.


“To me, being egalitarian is extremely important,” Shichman, a college student, said of the proposed mixed-gender prayer space.


But excitement turned to disappointment when, in June 2017, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backtracked on the plan due to pressure from ultra-Orthodox lawmakers.


In Israel this week (June 10-13) to attend the American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum, Shichman, who wears a kippah (yarmulke), a head covering traditionally worn by Jewish men, recalled being “accosted” by an Orthodox woman at the Western Wall for what the woman considered Shichman’s “immodest” clothing at the Western Wall plaza, a plaza behind the men’s and women’s prayer sections that isn’t used for prayer.


“I was at the far end of the plaza and took off my skirt” after visiting the Western Wall. “I had my shorts on underneath, but she called me a ‘goy,’” Shichman said of the Hebrew word for non-Jew, which the woman hurled as an insult.


“It was very hurtful to me. I’m just as much of a Jew as she is,” Shichman said.


While most Israeli Jews recognize the Jewishness of their American counterparts, the majority…

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Stars attend Stephen Hawking service at Westminster Abbey

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Stars attend Stephen Hawking service at Westminster Abbey

TV personalities David Walliams and Piers Morgan, musician Nile Rodgers and Professor Brian Cox joined members of the public to celebrate the life of the renowned physicist.

Prof Hawking’s voice will be beamed into space, towards the nearest black hole, as his ashes are interred following the service of thanksgiving.

 

The late scientist’s words have been set to an original piece of music, composed by Vangelis, offering a message of peace and hope, his daughter Lucy said.

Prof Hawking’s children have expressed their gratitude to Westminster Abbey for allowing their father to have a “distinguished” final resting place between the graves of Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin.

The broadcast in space will take place following a service featuring readings from Benedict Cumberbatch, who played the physicist in a BBC drama, and astronaut Tim Peake.

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An address will be given by Astronomer Royal Martin Rees, while Prof Hawking’s collaborator and Nobel prize winner Kip Thorne will give a tribute.

One thousand members of the public, from more than 100 countries, were offered the opportunity to attend the thanksgiving service after a ballot attracted 25,000 applications for tickets.

They were welcomed to the abbey in central London by volunteers from the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Paralympic Games.

Prof Hawking, who was…

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Coventry Cathedral named among top places which tell England’s creative story

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Coventry Cathedral named among top places which tell England’s creative story

The ten sites also include the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Park, at the artist’s home and studio at St Ives, Cornwall, and the Minack Theatre perched on cliffs at Porthcurno, Penzance, Cornwall.

They form part of heritage agency Historic England’s campaign and podcast series Irreplaceable: A History of England in 100 Places.

The full list:

– Angel of the North, Gateshead

– Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield

– Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Park, St Ives

– St Paul’s Cathedral

– Kelmscott Manor, Kelmscott, Oxfordshire

– Chatsworth House, Bakewell, Derbyshire

– Tate Modern, London

– Sutton Hoo, Suffolk

– Coventry Cathedral, West Midlands

– The Minack Theatre, Porthcurno, Penzance

 

Art, architecture and sculpture is the ninth out of 10 categories unveiled, which also include science and discovery, sport and leisure, faith and belief and industry, trade and commerce, with details about the latest sites in a new podcast.

A final category, “power, protest and progress”, is still yet to be revealed.

The sites which tell the history of England’s art, architecture and sculpture have been selected by BBC arts editor Will Gompertz, from hundreds of public nominations.

They include Anglo-Saxon treasures in a boat burial at Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, designer William Morris’ Cotswold retreat and source of inspiration, Kelmscott Manor, Oxfordshire, and the magnificent…

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What to Do If You Are Exhausted from Doing Ministry – Rainer on Leadership #441

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Podcast Episode #441

SUBSCRIBE: iTunes • RSS • Stitcher • TuneIn Radio • Google Play • iHeart Radio

Ministry never stops. Because of this, it can be quite exhausting. Today, we discuss how to combat this exhaustion.

Some highlights from today’s episode include:

  • Try to do more things that energize you in ministry and fewer things that drain you.
  • Too many pastors are people pleasers and spend too much time dealing with the squeaky wheels in ministry.
  • Pastors and church staff should try to spend 20% of their time training others to do ministry.
  • When you’re on vacation, visit other churches to get ideas and encouragement.

The eight potential solutions we discuss today are:

  1. Take a break.
  2. Make certain you are spending time on those things for which you are passionate.
  3. Make certain you are not spending too much time on those things that drain you.
  4. Be cautious about the “energy vampires.”
  5. Allocate 20% of your time to equipping the saints.
  6. Visit other churches.
  7. Spend more time in prayer and the Word.
  8. Ask your spouse to give you guidance.

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Methodist Church calls Universal Credit roll out a ‘car crash’

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Methodist Church calls Universal Credit roll out a ‘car crash’

The National Audit Office (NAO) said the scheme had not delivered value for money, it had caused hardship for many people and its roll out was happening more slowly than intended.

Adding his criticism, policy adviser at The Methodist Church, Paul Morrison said: “What we’ve been watching is a slow car crash of a benefit roll out.

 

“The problem is that the people who are trapped in that car crash – the people who are being damaged – are not being listened to and are, at times, being straightforwardly ignored.”

A spokesman at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) insisted that UC is “good value for money”, adding that evidence shows claimants are “getting into work faster and staying in work longer”.

Emma Revie from the Trussell Trust charity – which supports hundreds of church-run foodbanks – told Premier 70 per cent of people they spoke to fell into debt making the switch to UC.

 She added: “In our experience, it’s taking too long to sort and – whilst it’s being sorted out – hundreds of thousands of being are being affected adversely.

“Many of them are ending up at our foodbanks requiring emergency food…”

The NAO said UC – which is replacing six payments including job seeker’s allowance, tax credit and housing benefit – cost more to administer than the previous benefits.

The DWP spokesman said: “Previous…

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Man pushes woman home after her wheelchair breaks; video goes viral

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Man pushes woman home after her wheelchair breaks; video goes viral

Bilal Quintyne of Smyrna, Georgia, was headed out for a morning jog with a friend. He came upon a woman in an electric wheelchair stranded on the side of the road. Her chair’s engine had died, leaving one wheel on the busy street and the other on the sidewalk.

Quintyne took off his shirt in deference to the heat and pushed the woman for thirty minutes until they arrived at her home. His friend shot a video of the incident. As of this morning, it has been viewed more than three million times.

Why does this story resonate with so many people? I think its hero explained it best: “There’s so much hatred in the world and it costs nothing to love someone.”

How Muslims earn joy

The Muslim observance of Ramadan began this year on May 16. Since that time, observant Muslims around the world have abstained from eating, drinking, and sexual relations from sunup to sundown.

Ramadan ended yesterday with the celebration of Eid al-Fitr (“feast of breaking the fast”) that began at sundown and continues until this evening. Different countries and sects observe the holiday in different ways. Most include family and social gatherings, traditional sweet dishes, feasting, wearing new clothes, shopping, and gift-giving.

As a result, today is one of the most celebratory days of the Islamic year. But there’s more to the story.

I could find the word joy only five times in the Qur’an. The first citation states, “Those who believe and do right: joy is for them, and bliss (their) journey’s end” (13:29). Abdullah Yusuf Ali’s commentary on this verse explains that this joy “reflects itself in the life of the good man, through good and ill fortune, through good report and evil.”

Such joy is Allah’s future reward for present obedience: “No soul knoweth what is kept hid for them of joy, as a reward for what they used to do” (32:17). It comes only to the “righteous” (76:5), for whom “Allah hath warded off from them the evil of that day, and…

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Lord Alderdice quits Presbyterian Church after leaders issue same-sex relationships rebuke

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Lord Alderdice quits Presbyterian Church after leaders issue same-sex relationships rebuke

Lord Alderdice, the former speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly, has left the Presbyterian Church of Ireland in opposition at leaders rebuking a sister church in Scotland over attitudes towards same-sex relationships.

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Teens Open Heavens 15 June 2018 – Link To A Miracle

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Teens Open Heavens 15 June 2018 – Link To A Miracle

Topic: Link To A Miracle [Teens Open Heavens 15, June 2018]

Memorise: Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: 1 Peter 1:10

Read: 2 Kings 5:1-5 (KJV)

1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:

3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.

4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.

Bible In One Year: Ezra 9-10, Acts 1

MESSAGE:

A slave girl brought into Naaman’s house from Israel. She wondered why out of all the adults in Israel, it was her that had been captured. She frequently pondered on this while she did her domestic chores. Then one day she mistakenly stumbled on her master, Naaman, going through his depressive mood flanked by his wife and others. She found out that her master was a leper. It was then that it occurred to be that God could have brought her through slavery into Naaman’s house to be the link to his miracle.

Do you know that you can be a link to someone’s blessing? In fact, if you can take away your eyes from the negative aspect of your predicament, you will most likely discover God’s purpose and fulfil it. Have you discovered those that you are meant to link to their blessings? Go ahead and be the link. If not, ask God to show you.

Action Point: Help anyone you have the opportunity to help

If you missed yesterday devotional, please click to read “Teen Open Heavens Daily Devotional by Pastor Adeboye’’ 

Hymn 13:

1. Is your life a channel of blessing?
Is the love of God flowing through you?
Are you telling the lost of the Savior?
Are you ready His service to do?

Chorus:
Make me a channel of blessing today,
Make me a channel of blessing, I pray;
My life possessing, my service blessing,
Make me a channel of blessing today.

2. Is your life a channel of blessing?
Are you burdened for those that are lost?
Have you urged upon those who are straying
The Savior who died on the cross?

3. Is your life a channel of blessing?
Is it a daily telling for Him?
Have you spoken the word of salvation
To those who are dying in sin?

4. We cannot be channels of blessing
If our lives are not free from known sin;
We will barriers be and a hindrance
To those we are trying to win.

Daily Devotional for Teen’s guide was written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, one of the largest evangelical church in the world and also the President of Christ the Redeemer’s Ministries.

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