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The national PC(USA) news —official and unofficial, from left to right— Come here first, it is the quick and easy way to miss nothing Something we may have overlooked? Please, tell us!

Theological and historical reflections on the role of women in ministry – by Mary Sickels / VOW
	"The first woman to be ordained in a Protestant church in America was Antoinette Brown, who was ordained by the Congregational Church at South Butler, New York in 1853. Antoinette’s journey toward ordination was one of great struggle and intense determination. After graduation from Oberlin College, she sought admission to Oberlin’s School of Theology. The theology department faculty, uncertain of how to handle this request, permitted her to take classes but did not consider her an official student. She successfully completed the theological course in 1850, but the faculty refused to grant her the degree... "Antoinette Brown, however, was convinced that the Bible granted authority for women’s ordination. Proving that conviction became her life’s mission, and for years she pursued biblical studies and exegesis toward this end..."

A third Presbytery overtures GA to lift ban on the ordination of practicing homosexuals / MLP
	Last night, the Presbytery of Detroit passed the overture 120-77. Detroit Presbytery's voting history on this ban: 1996/1997 against putting it in the Book of Order (103-153) 1997/1998 in favor of removing it (152-74) 2001/2002 opposed to removing it (102-111) The other presbyteries having adopted a similar overture are Heartland and Cascades.

Back to the future with Howard – Column by Robert R. Kopp
	"...Dr. [Howard] Bryant has always been one of my heroes; and hardly because he took out Billy Martin in a baseball brawl back in 1942 or left Arminianism for Reformed Theology in the late 60s. "Succinctly, he models Jesus for me. "Despite persecution in church as well as society by pulpiteers and pewsitters who discriminate in a Christian kind of way because of color without regard to character's content, Dr. Bryant may be the most inviting, welcoming, and inclusive pastor without sacrificing confessional integrity to cross my path..."

Paul Crane dies at 86 A missionary-surgeon who “preached… with his hands”
	A renaissance man, Crane was a respected linguist who translated for U.S. presidents on three occasions, helped develop a medical treatment for a debilitating parasite, assisted in establishing universities in Korea and served as both a teacher and a surgeon in Korea for more than 20 years.

Scripture lessons for today from the lectionary Today in the Yearbook for Mission and Study: Romania and Slovakia
	Mary Ferris serves in Tulcea, Romania, in partnership with New Opportunities for Romania’s Orphaned Children. She writes about Costica, a young man who grew up in a Romanian orphanage. “...Costica has paved the way for others.” In the town of Pardubice, Slovakia, the Ecumenical Council of Churches has set up a preschool for Roma children.


News of all churches, in the USA and worldwide, and their interaction with the world around them. Included: opinions, resources Voices from the entire spectrum

WCC condemns Zimbabwe mass evictions / ENI
	The World Council of Churches has condemned the Zimbabwe government's programme of house demolitions and mass forced evictions that have left hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans homeless. The council called for an immediate end to the crackdown. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan's special envoy, Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, arrived in Zimbabwe on 26 June to assess the campaign which has rendered more than one million people homeless over the past month.

Churches hail Sri Lanka's pact with rebels for joint tsunami relief
	Senior government officials and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) signed a memorandum of understanding on 24 June to establish a "joint mechanism" despite protests from groups and parties representing the majority Sinhalaese population. "This is another step for peace," said the Rev. Jayasiri Peiris, general secretary of the National Christian Council of Sri Lanka, which groups Sri Lanka's eight major Protestant churches.

Churches join to urge aid to Africa Evangelicals unite with liberal and moderate religious groups to press President Bush to increase spending on development efforts. By Warren Vieth / Los Angeles Times
	In an uncommon display of political unity, leaders of the U.S. evangelical movement joined with moderate and liberal religious groups Monday to urge President Bush to boost development aid to Africa. Evangelical leaders said they hoped their participation would increase pressure on the president to announce a significant increase in U.S. aid before or during next week's summit of the world's wealthiest nations in Gleneagles, Scotland. "We would like to see the Bush administration turn a good record on Africa into a great record on Africa," Richard Cizik, vice president of the National Assn. of Evangelicals, told reporters. "We are lending our voice to this cause in a way never before done." "Anybody who follows religion and has for some time would be pretty impressed and amazed," said Jim Wallis, executive director of Sojourners, a liberal-leaning Christian ministry based in Washington. "There is complete unity on this question across a spectrum that's been divided, and still is, on many other issues."

Bush says war is worth sacrifice Address urges public to back his Iraq policy By Peter Baker and Dana Milbank / Washington Post
	President Bush appealed to the American public Tuesday night to remember "the lessons of September 11th" and not lose faith in the Iraq war effort despite unremitting violence, declaring in a prime-time address that "the proper response is not retreat." After the speech, Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) issued a biting statement saying that Bush's "numerous references to September 11th did not provide a way forward in Iraq" but instead "served to remind the American people that our most dangerous enemy, namely Osama bin Laden, is still on the loose." Related: • The text of the President's address • Statement on Bush Iraq Speech by Democratic Leader Harry Reid

Canada: Same-sex bill passes / Globe And Mail, Canada
	Canada is on its way to becoming the third country in the world to openly embrace homosexual marriage after the House of Commons gave its final approval last night to a bill that changes the definition to include same-sex couples. All that remains for the same-sex bill to become law is debate in the Senate, where Liberals vastly outnumber the opposition Conservatives and are expected to pass the bill early next month.

A church that seems beyond healing By Muriel Porter / The Age, Australia
	Conservative Anglicans around the world must be jubilant. Their long-term strategy of isolating the liberal North American Anglican churches from the mainstream Anglican communion has paid off. By the barest of majorities, the triennial meeting of the international Anglican Consultative Council, which ended yesterday in Nottingham, England, has effectively banished the Americans and Canadians over their support of same-sex unions and gay clergy. Ironically, the harsh decision was only possible because the North Americans had voluntarily removed themselves from the vote. The close vote did not just endorse the banishment of the North Americans. It also explicitly endorsed the hardline stance against homosexuality that has been the cause of all the trouble. Without support from the Anglican Consultative Council – and ironically, without their own voting power – the North Americans will find it hard to be accepted back into the Anglican fold. Their permanent exclusion is now a real possibility, and with it, the dismantling of the Anglican communion.

Beijing and Rome agree on bishop's appointment / AsiaNews
	With this move, the Chinese government hopes to find a way of healing the rift between the underground – unofficial – Church and the official Church, which is recognised and registered by the government. For the Chinese government, accepting a bishop recognised by the Holy See, means setting a single point of reference for the official and underground communities. The acceptance of a bishop nominated by the Holy See is a gain even for the Vatican, because Beijing is acknowledging that links between the Vatican and a bishop do not signify unwarranted interference in China’s internal affairs and do not threaten the security of the state.

Supreme Court ruling leaves public schools in limbo By Susan Jones / CNSNews.com
	Public school administrators hoping for Supreme Court guidance on religious matters were disappointed with Monday's rulings on the Ten Commandments. The National School Boards Association -- a federation representing the 95,000 school board members who serve America's 15,000 public school districts -- said the rulings failed to clarify church-state controversies that have plagued school districts nationwide. "We are concerned that the court's lack of clarity will continue to leave our school children at the mercy of litigious groups, on both sides of the issue, that love to make public schools their favorite legal battleground," said Anne L. Bryant, NSBA executive director.

High Court to again hear case on abortion clinic protesters By David G. Savage / Los Angeles Times
	Before leaving for its summer recess, the Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it would take up, for the third time, a long-running dispute between aggressive antiabortion protesters and the National Organization for Women. At issue is whether the protesters can be sued under the federal antiracketeering law with conspiring to shut down abortion clinics.

John Paul II set on road to sainthood – Hundreds cheer `Santo subito!' By Liz Sly / Chicago Tribune
	Pope John Paul II was placed Tuesday on what is expected to be a record-breaking sprint toward sainthood, amid mounting popular pressure for the beatification process to be completed by summer's end. At a grand ceremony at Rome's Basilica of St. John Lateran, the officials who will examine his case took a solemn oath of secrecy and vowed to accept no gifts or money in pursuit of their duties, marking the official start of the "inquiry into the life, virtues and reputation of sanctity of the servant of God, John Paul II" just three months after his death. According to the church rules, John Paul will be required to perform at least one medically certified miracle before he can be beatified, and another in order to secure full sainthood. The miracles must have taken place after his death. Reports of miracles attributed to him already have begun pouring in.

Christian groups plan more monuments Many expect confusion and litigation on Ten Commandments to continue By Alan Cooperman / Washington Post
	Within hours of yesterday's Supreme Court decision allowing a Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of the Texas Capitol, Christian groups announced a nationwide campaign to install similar displays in 100 cities and towns within a year. "We see this as an historic opening, and we're going to pursue it aggressively," said the Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, director of the Washington-based Christian Defense Coalition. Mahoney said the Texas decision was sufficient to "open up a whole new frontier" for preserving the United States' "Christian heritage."

America's religious right: You ain't seen nothing yet / The Economist
	"...Born-again Christians are no longer rural hicks; they are richer and better educated than the average American. There are now 500 Christian colleges in America and evangelical chapters at the Ivy Leagues. Go to one of the 1,000 gleaming megachurches and the people stepping out of the four-wheel-drives in the Wal-Mart-sized car parks are software engineers, doctors and teachers... "Nor, to lose another stereotype, are all the righteous white. There are some 25m black evangelicals, who seem to be moving slightly more to the right; and new immigrants, too, provide plenty of recruits. Larry Eskridge, of the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals at Wheaton College, guesses there may be 8m Latino evangelicals. A huge number of Asian-Americans are fervent Christians, too. "The religious right also represents more than just evangelicals. At the last election Mr Bush won the Catholic vote by snaring 72% of self-styled traditionalist Catholics..."

Term paper about 'God' earns student failing grade 'He told me you might as well write about the Easter Bunny. He wanted to censor the word God.'
	Victorville, CA—For using the "G" word 41 times in a term paper, Bethany Hauf was given an "F" by her Victor Valley Community College instructor. Hauf's teacher approved her term paper topic – Religion and its Place within the Government – on one condition: Don't use the word God. Instead of complying with VVCC adjunct instructor Michael Shefchik's condition Hauf wrote a 10-page report for her English 101 class entitled "In God We Trust." "He said it would offend others in class," Hauf, a 34-year-old mother of four, said. "I didn't realize God was taboo." "I don't loose my First Amendment rights when I walk into that college," Hauf said. She is demanding an apology from the teacher and that the paper be re-graded.

Selling God a lucrative business / CBS
	Houston may be nowhere near heaven or Hollywood, but on Sunday mornings, it feels like a little of both. Joel Osteen is pastor of Lakewood Church, the largest evangelical church in America with 30,000 weekly attendants. With a TV ministry, it's watched in at least 100 countries. His production staff and studio rival any network. Osteen looks like an anchorman, talks like a Southern salesman and runs this congregation like a CEO. Asked if it's part message and part marketing, Osteen says: "To me, we're marketing hope." And hope sells. Last year, Lakewood brought in $55 million.

Compendium of Catholic Catechism released / CWN
	Pope Benedict XVI released the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church at a June 28 liturgical ceremony at the Vatican. In his homily, Pope Benedict said that the new volume fulfilled an important need by providing "a brief, concise catechism, containing all and only the essential and fundamental elements of Catholic faith and morals." He expressed his hope that the work would make more people acquainted with the teachings of the Church. It is an abridged version of the full Catechism, "reliable and complete, as certified by the approval of the Pope." The Compendium, in its Italian-language edition, is a 205-page book, consisting of 598 questions and responses.

American Decalogue – Book review by D. Brent Laytham Telling stories of U.S. morals through the prism of the Ten Commandments.
	"At first glance, a book by Chris Hedges on "America's broken covenant with the Ten Commandments" seems radically misplaced... what is this left-leaning former war reporter for The New York Times doing with a thesis more suited to Alabama's former chief justice Roy Moore?... "Hedges believes that for many people, one commandment – or its violation – will dominate their life... "What all these stories manage to show, and show well, is that "no one … violated the commandments without tremendous anguish and no one suffered violations without great pain."..."

Billy does it again – by Tony Carnes
	"...Graham decided to take on the fundamentalists in the spring of 1957, warning the National Association of Evangelicals at their annual meeting that took place in upstate New York that they "could slip into extreme ultra-fundamentalism." But fundamentalist leaders like Bob Jones Sr. said Graham had "sold out to the modernists" by inviting all churches to participate in his services. "On the other side, many liberal mainliners were not any kinder to Graham. Union Theological Seminary's Reinhold Niebuhr, for example, attacked Graham relentlessly and refused to meet with the evangelist..."

Without man, the environment is insignificant By Dennis Prager
	"One major conflict between the Judeo-Christian value system and the various secular ones competing with it revolves around the answers to these questions: Is nature created for man or is man merely a part of nature? Or, to put it in other words, does the natural environment have any significance without man to appreciate it and to use it for his good? "The Judeo-Christian responses are clear: Nature has been created for man's use; and on its own, without man, it has no meaning. Dolphins are adorable because human beings find them adorable. Without people to appreciate them or the role they play in the earth's ecosystem to enable human life, they are no more adorable or meaningful than a rock on Pluto. "That is the point of the Creation story... "Judeo-Christian values are the primary reason science and modern medicine developed in the West. A rational God designed nature, and rational human beings can therefore perceive it and, yes, conquer it..."


Letters from readers – email us
•	L Rus Howard "Did I read correctly that only 35 congregations out of 11,100+ congregations celebrated More Light Sunday? This is less than 1/3 of 1% of all the congregations in the PCUSA... "Someone needs to ask all of the quiet and timid, “biblically conservative and theologically reformed” pastors in the PCUSA, “Why are you letting a minuscule minority have ruling sway over the denomination?"..."