Word: presbyterian
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...nation's two major Presbyterian bodies were separated last week by only six blocks-and more than a century of history. As in other denominations, Northern and Southern Presbyterians split on the slavery issue in 1861. Efforts to heal the rift brought the churches' two general assemblies to tandem meetings in Louisville last week, with a joint session for the formal unveiling of a plan for reunion. But the encounter was still as tentative as the mating dance of sand crabs...
Issues quite apart from race now divide the two denominations. The Northern church, the 2.8-million-member United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., is three times the size of the Southern denomination, the 900,000member Presbyterian Church in the U.S. Many Southerners feel that in a merger they could be swallowed up by the Northerners, who are both less conservative in doctrine and more committed to social action. The reunion plan reflects this liberalism. At their ordination, for example, Southern Presbyterian ministers would no longer be required to accept the Bible as "the infallible rule of faith and practice...
...denomination's vocal conservative wing may well prevent any new creed from winning the required support: 75% of the church's presbyteries. Some conservatives, however, are quitting the battle. Last year more than 55,000 of them, mostly in the Deep South, established their own National Presbyterian Church. As many as 200,000 more might break away if the plan of reunion goes through...
...members developed their own institutions with the meager resources available. Inevitably, they re-created a pale imitation of the white world complete with their own coming-out parties and cotillions. They distinguished themselves from the black masses by quitting the Baptist and Methodist churches for the Episcopal, Congregational, Presbyterian or Roman Catholic denominations. Though treated like any other blacks by the white population, they took what comfort they could in their lighter skin. Some Negro colleges even requested photos from applicants to make sure they did not admit too many dark-skinned students...
...paid for their time. Their services leave unresolved the emotional problems that are often at the heart of sexual difficulties. "A guy may be able to have sex with a surrogate," says Dr. John O'Connor, head of the sex therapy program at New York's Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, "but what happens when he wants to have sex with his partner?" Adds Dr. Helen Kaplan, author of The New Sex Therapy, who directs a similar program at New York Hospital's Payne Whitney Clinic: "Lonely people can be helped by surrogates, but I would...