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Note #7453 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Revised      Revised	  Revised
Speech lessons
02376

Speech lessons

WMD and seminaries will help Presbyterians learn to talk about their faith 

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE - Plans for an effort to develop continuing education for clergy
to help Presbyterians learn to talk about their faith were approved Saturday
by the Worldwide Ministries Division (WMD) committee of the General Assembly
Council (GAC).

The proposed consultation was referred to WMD by the 211th General Assembly
(1999) of the Presbyterian Church (USA). It will be coordinated by WMD and
the Committee on Theological Education (COTE) of the Congregational
Ministries Division.
COTE will review the plan during a meeting next month in Richmond, VA.

"The consultation is intended to deal with a significant problem
Presbyterians have in relating to people of other faiths," said the Rev.
Margaret Thomas, interim coordinator for WMD's office of interfaith
relations. "They find themselves unable to speak on anything that has to do
with their faith experience. As a consequence, they become very relativistic,
anything-goes kind of people, or become very rigid and retreat to churchy
language that they parrot. It is the hope of this effort to find ways to get
beyond this.
"This is about witness, about all the broad ways in which we share the good
news of the gospel of Jesus Christ."

The proposal calls for a two-day event to help seminaries develop
continuing-education for pastors to equip Presbyterians to be more articulate
in talking about their faith. It will be held on a seminary campus in 2003.
It recommends the creation of a small planning team including representatives
of at least two seminaries and several people appointed by WMD.
The estimated cost is $10,000, to come from the WMD budget.

The focus of the GA referral is on "the witness made by Presbyterians in
inter-religious relationships of every kind."

In its proposal, WMD said it hopes to discover "appropriate ways to equip
pastors for helping church members ... in order that they may be witnesses in
a pluralistic society."

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