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Note #7985 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Jewish ministries nothing new for Presbyterians
03451
October 23, 2003

Jewish ministries nothing new for Presbyterians

by John Filiatreau

LOUISVILLE - Presbyterian ministry among American Jews dates to 1820, when one Thomas Lindsay donated $121.60 to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, to be used to carry the good news of the gospel to the 8,000 Jews living in the United States.

By 1850, ministries in Jewish immigrant communities were booming in New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. In the mid-19th century, these efforts were headed up by the Rev. John Neander, a Jew trained in the Talmud and in Rabbinics who converted and became a Presbyterian minister.

Neander's approach - intellectual rather than emotional - characterized Presbyterian evangelism among Jews for more than a century. He also identified with Jewish Americans' religious and social struggles in the New World and was a prominent campaigner against the anti-Semitism then rampant in many parts of the country.

Around the turn of the 20th century, outreach to Jews was a major focus of the evangelism program of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA), with more than a dozen U.S. presbyteries supporting such ministries.

In 1920, the Rev. John Stuart Conning was hired to head what was called the Department of Jewish Evangelization, which by then had ministries in New York City; Brooklyn; Newark, NJ; Roseland, NJ; Philadelphia; Baltimore; Washington, DC; Chicago; St. Louis; Detroit; Omaha, NE; Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN; Los Angeles; and San Francisco.

 Most of these were new-immigrant aid centers for the thousands of eastern European Jews seeking refuge in the United States at the time. They taught work and language skills, sponsored reading rooms and children's clubs, and conducted Bible studies and worship services.

In 1934, First Hebrew Church of Chicago became the first Jewish-Christian congregation chartered as a Presbyterian church. Congregations in Philadelphia and Baltimore were established and supported by the church, but were never officially chartered.

 From 1937 until 1946, Presbyterian Conrad Hoffman directed the International Missionary Council's Committee on the Christian Approach to the Jews - currently known as Messiah Now Ministries - which represented 10 mainline denominations but was funded largely by the Presbyterian church. That organization was a leader in rescuing Jewish believers from the Third Reich.

The national church's evangelism program was based on the idea that Jews who
accepted Jesus as the Messiah had a right to express their faith in Jesus in
the context of their cultural and religious heritage as Jews.

Such programs lost favor in the mainline denominations in the period between
World War II and the 1970s, and by the 1980s many were out of business.

In 1970, the Rev. Herbert Links became pastor of First Hebrew Christian
Church of Philadelphia, whose name later was changed to Congregation Beth
Messiah. He was succeeded by the Rev. Andrew Sparks, who as director of
Messiah Now Ministries set out to renew Beth Messiah's connection with the
Presbyterian Church (USA) before leaving to launch Congregation Avodat
Yisrael, a new church development of Philadelphia Presbytery.

Supporters claim there are more than 200 Messianic Jewish congregations in
the United States.

According to the Web site of Messiah Now Ministries, Congregation Avodat
Yisrael is also "an official project of the Outreach Foundation." Sparks said
in its 2002 annual report that it was "applying to become a ministry of
International Evangelism, Worldwide Ministries Division." It sponsored a
booth at the General Assembly in 2002.

The congregation's eight-member "National Board of Reference" includes the
Rev. Fahed Abu-Akel, moderator of the 214th General Assembly (2002), and the
Rev. H. Stanley Wood, director of the Center for New Church Development at
Columbia Theological Seminary and formerly of the national staff of the
PC(USA)'s new-church development program.

(Some information for this story is from "A Brief History of Presbyterian
Ministry Among Jewish People: 1820-2001," by Jonathan Kaplan.)

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