Retired & Thinking

Bravery in Sacramento Sacramento Presbytery took an unprecedented step toward reclaiming the Protestant faith in the actions taken this past Saturday. At a called Presbytery meeting five hours of very difficult dicussion was held on four very difficult and important provisions. All of them passed. They were: To promote the peace, unity, and purity of our presbytery, we resolve that the Sacramento Presbytery holds that all candidates for ordination, installation, and/or membership in this Presbytery shall comply with all standards for ordination set forth in the Constitution of the (PCUSA) (G-1.0500), or shall be ineligible for ordination, installation, and/or membership. To promote the peace, unity, and purity of our presbytery, we resolve that the Sacramento Presbytery shall not receive into membership, nor recognize as a member, anyone who has been ordained or installed under a scruple (that is taking exception to any of the ordination standards as set forth in the Constitution of th...

I'm back from Hawai'i , part fun and part sadness, as we left our youngest over there to attend the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. Go Warriors!! Part of me is still on Hawai'i time and part of me is focused on a wedding this weekend; Kenton's Fellowship Camp next weekend and a trip to England at the end of the month for the same wedding celebration. Yet the rest of the world won't hold still so here's where my thinking has been lately. First off if you haven't read what has been going on with Kirk of the Hills in Tulsa you need to check out Tom's Blog http://tomgrayofthekirk.blogspot.com/2006/08/meeting.html . This is the one from Thursday so to get the whole story you'll have to read a few before as well. Their discussion with Eastern Oklahoma Presbytery is far from over I am certain but nonetheless they took a major step with their move to disaffiliate themselves with the PCUSA. My take on this is that I am sorry th...

Oh my goodness…. Do you know what brought down President Nixon? It was his failure to admit that he had interfered with the investigation. Do you know what made President Clinton a joke? It was the fact that everyone one knew he was lying and he just wouldn't own up to it. Now we have Davis Perkins explanation as to why the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation trying to explain publishing Griffen's book by saying, " the arguments supporting those claims merit careful consideration by serious-minded Christians and Americans concerned with truth and the meaning of their faith ." Did Perkins even read the " Venus Project " website in which Griffen explains where he got his interesting view of 9/11? And so more than 1/3rd of Americans polled believed that " federal officials assisted in the 9/11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them " that out of 1,010 people polled . I imagine a third of the people believe we never landed on the moon; that ...

Not having written for a while I was intrigued with a couple of items which passed through the web pipeline and across my desk. The first is Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Push the "About us" button and you'll read the following: Building on the Reformed tradition, the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation seeks to glorify God by contributing to the spiritual and intellectual vitality of Christ's church. To that end, PPC publishes resources that advance religious scholarship, stimulate conversation about moral values, and inspire faithful living. " I would suggest they amend it to read "Ignoring our Reformed tradition, the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation seeks to undermine the spiritual and intellectual vitality of Christ's church. To that end, PPC publishes resources that advance speculative (at best) religious scholarship, push aside traditional moral values, and seek to derail any sense of faithfulness in following Jesus." Need an example...

Tomorrow morning early… did I say early? We, I and two elders, head off to the warm country of Oklahoma to try to discern what is to happen within the Presbyterian Church. Kenton's Session endorsed the New Wineskins proposal a couple of months ago. We've read material, prayed about what is going on and chose to step out in faith and we believe obedience. What will happen? I honestly don't have a clue. What I hope happens is that God shows up and those of us who are there are captured by God's vision for His Holiness and what it means to follow His Son.  In fact, that's what I expect to happen.   What will that mean for our little spot in the kingdom here in North Portland?  I honestly don't have a clue. I imagine we will be challenged by the Holy Spirit to meet the needs of the world around us and preach Christ. DUH!! I also hope that those of us there will be able to express what God has done in and with us to those who weren't able to be there. What do YO...

Listen up Ladies … Check out the Chicago Sun-Times article and then look for the information that you'll see around Kenton for your own Women of Faith conference. More information may be obtained from Pat Wheeler. The dates for Portland are October 13-14.

WOW. I never thought I'd get so much from a MLP* sermon but as Bear Ride reminisced about returning to her family homestead I couldn't help but notice how her observations gave to me a real theological treat as well. In her discussion about Butterfield she mentions a store called "Butterfield Bible and Bait". She wrote, " Right here, in Butterfield, I knew that somewhere between the Bibles and the bait - a truly peculiar interpretation of the Gospel was taking shape: half a verse here and half a verse there – and pretty soon, voila! They had knit themselves a nice little theology and a dandy set of life’s priorities. …Might not actually bear any semblance to the core values of our faith or even a peripheral theme therein…but there you have it… ever-so-carefully gleaned from random portions of scripture: life’s priorities brought to you by those who 'Ran the Store': fishing and capitalism ." Thank you Ms. Ride because that's exactly how I view th...