Relationships are the heartbeat of the church. Community makes the church healthy. It functions like an organism in which all the parts must relate and connect well for there to be health. A business, though, is more mechanical—even a Christian one. The relationships between co-workers must be, first and foremost, professional.

Nongeographic presbyteries. The strongest response from the executives was that such a change would lead to fragmentation. More than four in five respondents said it would contribute to fragmentation and less connectionalism, and about half said it could lead to rivalries among presbyteries.

The most contentious part of the evening was recommendation 6, to appoint a study committee to “explore and define ‘confession,’” and recommendation 7 to “reconsider the status of the Belhar Confession for adoption” in 2015.

Segregation, like slavery, was shown to be what all human consciences already knew it to be: not just a political injustice or a social inequity (although certainly that) but also a sin against God and neighbor and a repudiation of the gospel. Regenerate hearts ultimately melted before such arguments because in them they heard the voice of their Christ, a voice they’d heard in the Scriptures themselves.

This is why so many Presbyterians treat the Westminster Divines the way most Americans regard the founders — these are the heroic founders of our religious and political institutions. Noting the problems and flaws that haunted these folks is not what most people want to hear. They’d rather contemplate the genius, commitment, and courage that led to the triumph of good over bad

The Presbyterian Church of India “traces its origin to the Welsh Presbyterian Church Mission and is concentrated mainly in the northeastern states. Insurgent underground groups have been active in all except one of the seven states in northeast India, and the church has an important role to play in promoting peace and harmony. Its primary mission focuses are evangelism and church development.”

The Assembly will consider a constitutional amendment clarifying the process whereby a minister may serve beyond the age of 70. The Assembly will be asked to combine the Student Ministries and College Ministries Committees into a single ministry. The Assembly will welcome fraternal guests Reverend Seth Yi representing the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church and Reverend Woody Markett representing the Presbyterian Church in America.

“We will not stand alone. We covenant to work alongside each other and to labor alongside our fellow Christians who hold to the Biblical faith in our effort to confront fallen culture and equip struggling churches.

While neither philosophy nor science leads to God, they are helpful tools to keeping a check on our prejudices and biases. We are wonderfully capable of convincing ourselves that our thoughts are true because we wish them to be so. If we are indeed committed to thinking things through, we need a safe place to do that thinking without fear of being denigrated or misrepresented. …

A KIRK congregation has become the first to split from the Church of Scotland over the issue of gay clergy. (Former pastors of this church include Eric Alexander and Sinclair Ferguson)