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New Wineskins releases Strategy Report The Plan: realignment by New Wineskins churches with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) [pdf, 155 pages] "...to fulfill our vision of becoming a missional force for Jesus."
	"...We believe there are two faithful options for evangelicals to follow: • To realign with an evangelical, Reformed body that is more faithful to Christ, obedient to Scripture and seeks a missionally-focused partnership with us than is the PC(USA); or • To stay in place within the PC(USA), while working for the reformation and renewal of that part of the Body of Christ if so led by the Holy Spirit..." "...The Plan we are prayerfully called to endorse is a realignment by the New Wineskins Association of Churches (NWAC) with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) to fulfill our vision of becoming a missional force for Jesus. Initially, NWAC churches will be received into a non-geographic transitional presbytery ("NWEPC") of the EPC. We will immediately begin working as partners with the EPC leadership to develop a more missionally faithful new thing..." Related: New Wineskins Strategy Team Report released in preparation for Winter Convocation / Press release [Note: NWAC consists of some 150 congregations]

From: Perspectives An online publication of the Office of the General Assembly
•	Stated Clerk response to President Bush on Iraq military strategies "...we view with grave concern the proposal of the President to send over 21,000 additional troops to Iraq..."
•	Presbyterians and Separatist Evangelicals: A continuing dilemma [pdf] By R. Milton Winter
•	Stories from our past – by Fred Heuser
•	Beyond Vietnam: A time to break silence By Martin Luther King, Jr.
•	The Christmas gift – by Dee H. Wade

Budget woes, staff cuts plague PHEWA By Craig M. Kibler / The Layman
	NEW ORLEANS – Budget woes and staff cuts brought on by a financial crunch in the denomination highlighted a report presented Sunday during the biennial business meeting of the Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare Association. "On May 1, 2006," Executive Director Nancy K. Troy said in her report,"in an attempt to reduce a $9-million deficit, the Presbyterian staff was reduced by 75 staff members… The budget in the Social Welfare Ministries/PHEWA will be cut by 40 percent in the '07 and '08 budget cycle." Due to the budget cuts, she said, the association's Network Leadership Teams did not hold their annual face-to-face meetings, "which has definitely affected our outreach." Three newsletters "were abandoned," she said, and some materials that were meant to be printed "have been deferred."

Scripture lessons for today – from the Lectionary
	"Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the LORD, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who by myself spread out the earth; who frustrates the omens of liars, and makes fools of diviners; who turns back the wise, and makes their knowledge foolish; who confirms the word of his servant..." "... once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light..."

Today in the Yearbook for Prayer and Study The Presbytery of Shenango [Pa.]
	"The 15,873 members of the 69 churches in the Presbytery of Shenango have had a partnership with the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC) for more than ten years. The churches of Shenango have contributed more than $1.5 million to their partner church in Sudan, helping to educate pastors and evangelists in one of the fastest growing churches in Africa, if not the world..."
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‘Disappearance’ of children alleged at EMI orphanage in India

(Compass) – After Rajasthan state officials turned away hundreds of children returning to an orphanage run by Emmanuel Mission International (EMI) last year, the state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has formed a committee to investigate EMI for the alleged “disappearance” of children.
     EMI attorney Mohammad Akram said the state Social Welfare Department first served notice to EMI on December 5, saying a committee had been formed to look into the disappearance of children at the orphanage after the number of residents fell from more than 1,700 to only 435.
     Akram explained that most of the children had left for summer vacation in their villages in March 2006. Only 435 children stayed at the orphanage.
     When the other children returned, the department officials refused to accept them back,” Akram explained.

Never forget Saddam Hussein's cruelty – The Iraqi dictator's inhumanity to mankind was almost beyond imagination in its scope and butchery.
By John Hughes / The Christian Science Monitor

"...There are museums that ensure that the brutality of the Nazis, or Pol Pot in Cambodia, or other tyrants, is recorded for posterity – not for jarring sensational reasons, but because future generations should be reminded how precious freedom is, and what sacrifices have been made for it.
"I have suggested before in this space that such a museum should be built in Baghdad so that the evil and brutality of Saddam Hussein should not be lost in the mists of history...
"Tapes of what he said long ago were played in a Baghdad courtroom last week as the case continued against some of the six major defendants still on trial. Wrote John Burns, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times: "In the history of war crimes prosecutions against some of the last century's grimmest men, there can rarely have been a moment that so starkly caught a despot's unpitying nature."..."

Evangelicals gain following among Chile's poor
By Lisa Yulkowski / Reuters

With a growing gap in Chile between the rich and poor, the needy have been increasingly turning to evangelical churches for spiritual and material aid, starting a shift in the nation's religious landscape.
     A group of evangelical pastors say church membership has jumped nearly 50 percent since the country's last census in 2002 which they attribute to their focus on the neediest sectors.
     "I think we've worked to bring about changes in the individual and the family, and doing so has allowed the poor to excel and achieve a better standard of living," said Bishop Emiliano Soto, president of the Metropolitan Pastoral Council, which groups some 1,200 evangelical churches.
     In 2002, 70 percent of Chileans identified themselves as Catholics and 15 percent as evangelicals, a Protestant movement that stresses a believer's personal conversion to a Biblically-oriented faith. [Total population is 16+ million].
     A generation ago, evangelicals accounted for a only sliver of the population in this South American nation.

High schooler told to stop passing out anti-abortion fliers during classes – by Milan Simonich / The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Sarah Hollen, a sophomore at Penn Cambria High School, says the principal violated her right of free speech by stopping her from passing out leaflets opposing abortion.
     School administrators counter that Sarah broke district rules Oct. 25 by distributing the fliers during a chemistry class.
     Both sides claimed victory yesterday after Sarah dropped her federal lawsuit against the school district.
      The two sides have struck an agreement. Sarah is free to hand out her leaflets, provided the principal sees them one day in advance. They cannot be passed out during class.

Jerusalem church leaders offer to mediate in Fatah, Hamas conflict / ENI

Church leaders in Jerusalem have warned warring Palestinian factions they could trigger civil war and, offering to play a mediating role, they are urging an end to violence in order for them to focus on the true priority of their people - independence.
"As leaders of the Christian churches in Jerusalem concerned at the present situation in the Palestinian Territories we feel we must voice our anxiety for all our people - Christian and Muslim alike - at the deteriorating relations between Fatah and Hamas leaders and the armed forces," they said.

Bottom-up discipline
What do you do when your pastor – or your entire denomination – strays?
By Ted Olsen / Christianity Today

The term church discipline most often brings to mind a dramatic Matthew 18 moment, when a church member's unrepentant sin is brought before the full congregation. But when a pastor falls, there is no simple, three-step Bible passage at hand, and we're not great at figuring it out ourselves. The many possibilities for handling such failings are reflected in the structures of our hundreds of denominations.


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