When I was ordained

Just some random recollections of myself and the church at the time I was ordained in 1980:

I needed to wear running shoes because during the previous month my youth group had talked me into trying to water ski and I had injured my ankle. (My ankle returned to normal size in a matter of weeks, but it has never been the same.)

The church in which I was ordained was the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.

The denominational headquarters was at 475 Riverside Drive in New York City.

The terminology of 'teaching elder' and 'ruling elder' was very much in use and well-understood in the Presbyterian Church.

There was a position called Assistant Pastor. (That was my first position in the first church I served as a teaching elder.)

Assistant Pastors and Associate Pastors were not members of the Session. (Soon after I was ordained the church would vote on changing this rule. At the time, I thought the change was a bad idea. I was wrong.)

The session of the first church I served had recently studied the blue book report on Homosexuality and the Church. But they were uncomfortable even talking about the experience of studying the issue.

The General Assembly (the church's most inclusive governing body) met annually.

The Book of Order was published annually and was an inexpensive paperback with a non-glossy cover.

The Presbyterian alphabet soup of organizations and committees was populated with acronyms I have not seen in a long time, such as COWAC.

The UPCUSA was in conversations with the Presbyterian Church in the United States about reunion. Someone showed me a copy of the PCUS Book of Order and I could tell by the much smaller size of their book that the two churches had markedly different cultures and ways of relating to their constitutions.

There was no Committee on Representation. (I would later chair one of those for a couple years.)

The General Assembly had no Advisory Committee on the Constitution. (As the church considered reunion, I thought the addition of the ACC as part of a second way for the General Assembly to render constitutional interpretations was a bad idea. I was wrong.)

File under : PCUSA, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Steel City Pizza has moved to Tarentum

Tonight I was in Tarentum for a wedding rehearsal, and in addition to the pleasure of working with a wonderful couple and their delightful friends, I discovered that a great pizza spot from Lower Burrell has reopened across the river.

Back in April I had noticed that the lights were out in the building on Leechburg Road where Steel City used to be located. Then the sign in front of the building was changed to say "Building for lease." I wasn't the only one to be discouraged by the apparent closure.

But tonight I learned that Steel City Pizza has moved -- into a restaurant location very familiar to me in Tarentum -- the former location of Lee's Chinese Restaurant, 415 E. 4th Ave.

When I started telling friends that I had discovered where Steel City had moved, I realized what a popular spot it had been for a lot of people. I called the restaurant to get answers to the questions people were asking.

Do they still have those wonderful bread sticks for those who eat in the dining room? Yes.

Do they still deliver to Lower Burrell? Yes, they will deliver to Lower Burrell, New Kensington, and Tarentum. The new phone number for the location in Tarentum is (724) 224-7499.

File under : Lower Burrell, New Kensington, Tarentum, food

Summer preaching schedule starting to fill in

My preaching schedule for the summer is starting to fill in. The dates booked so far are:

• May 17, First Presbyterian Church of Gibsonia
• June 14, Harmony United Presbyterian Church, Belle Vernon
• July 26, Northmont United Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh

I can hear you saying it now; those churches have taken all the good dates. But if you act now, you might still be able to book me for a Sunday this summer at a church near you.

File under : worship

Some events for Presbyterians (and others) in the Valley (and elsewhere)

There are a number of opportunities to participate in some worthwhile events over the next couple of weeks.

Carol Harris Staffing Walk/Run/Ride for Habitat

This year the fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity will take place at the Pittsburgh Mills Mall, with the staging area in the parking lot between J.C.Penney and Sears. Events for people of all ages will begin at various times on Saturday, May 9, 2009 starting at 8:00 AM with the 5k run. The bike ride starts at 9:00 AM.

Tags: Allegheny, fundraiser, Habitat, housing, outdoors_recreation, ride, run, Valley, walk

Pin Me Up

This art show at Artform Tattoo in Lower Burrell on May 9, 2009 benefits the Susan G. Komen Foundation. The show starts at 2:00 PM. There is a $10 cover charge.

Support local artists and finding a cure for breast cancer.

Tags: art, breast, cancer, fundraiser, health, Lower Burrell

God Complex Radio: Is your pastor smart?

This will be the second show of God Complex Radio, an internet radio show featuring Rev. Carol Howard Merritt and Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow. The topic for this program appears to deal with issues of clergy education. You can listen to the show live at godcomplexradio.com on May 11, 2009 at 12:00 noon EDT.The show will also be archived for later listening.

Tags: internet, radio, clergy, education, Presbyterian, religion

Revised Form of Government Presentation & Discussion

There will be a presentation and discussion of the Revised Form of Government for Pittsburgh Presbytery. Elder Carol Hunley, a member of Southminster Presbyterian Church, and Rev. Dan Williams, Co-Moderator of the General Assembly's Task Force on the Revised Form of Government will give the presentation and assist the discussion. There will be two sessions at the Presbytery Center on May 20, 2009. The first session will be from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM and the second from 7:00 PM to 9:00.

Tags: PCUSA, Pittsburgh, polity, Presbyterian, rFOG

Poverty housing and Habitat for Humanity in the Allegheny Valley

In many older communities in the Allegheny Valley there is an ongoing problem of substandard housing, which is often the only option available for families living in poverty.

Habitat for Humanity of Allegheny Valley offers one faithful response to the problem of poverty housing. Organized in 1996, it has been building decent homes with partner homeowners since 1997.

Support for Habitat is so broad that it is easy for people to forget that Habitat is a Christian ministry. Countless local church groups volunteer their time in our building projects. Church groups come from out of state as well. Although we don't require volunteers or homeowner families to make to make a formal profession of faith, we do invite them to join us in something that Jesus is doing in the world.

Beyond faith groups, our local affiliate has had help from American Eagle Outfitters, State Farm, and Comcast, to name just a few of the corporations who have lent a hand and provided resources. We've had an amazing partnership with the new mall in the area - the Pittsburgh Mills.

Habitat's work involves a careful balance of enlisting and deploying volunteers, soliciting donations of funds and materials, identifying and supporting partner homeowners and their families, and developing projects in which all of the above can come together. A couple years ago I visited one of our local affiliate's work-sites on a day when an unexpectedly large group of volunteers showed up. I was amazed by the flexibility of our Executive Director Diane Belitskus in adapting to the greatly increased number of volunteers that day, and her ability to identify tasks that were suitable for the unexpected group.

Our local affiliate is working on increasing its building capacity. We have benefited from a special partnership between Habitat for Humanity International and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans called Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity. Under this larger partnership Thrivent Financial is providing $125 million over five years to help Habitat for Humanity significantly increase the number of homes it builds. Habitat for Humanity of Allegheny Valley is one of the many local affiliates that has received grants and extra commitments of volunteer hours from Lutherans to build more homes.

As I have seen the wonderful things that Thrivent Builds has been able to accomplish in partnership with affiliates around the world, I have been asking myself one question: Is there an entity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) that is in a position to make a similar partnership with Habitat for Humanity?

File under : Allegheny Valley, Church, Habitat, PCUSA, Presbyterian, housing, poverty

Magical mystery moderatorial powers

It's hard to tell exactly what Bruce Reyes-Chow is doing in this photo taken while he was visiting Heartland Presbytery yesterday.

Is he summoning a manifestation of the Holy Grail?

Is he causing a chalice to levitate?

Is he doing a little bit of stage magic?

Or is he simply "doing his thing" as the photographer modestly describes?

File under : PCUSA, humor, picture

When is a blogger a newsperson?

Will the New Jersey shield law protect a blogger doing research for an article?

Wait a month to find out.

My cousin gets involved in the most fascinating cases. And this one about a blogger being sued for slander over online conversations to research an article really piques my interest.

I've observed that my own blogging takes me in different directions, sometimes engaging in conversation about an article someone else has written, and sometimes producing original content to which someone else might respond.

When I started attending borough council meetings I wanted to learn about the issues that were important to the people in the community. My blog was a convenient tool for me to record my perceptions and to share them with others.

I noticed that sometimes our local newspaper had a reporter there to cover the story, and sometimes not. It is easy for a local government to stay off the radar screen. It can hold meetings at the same time as the well-attended school board meetings. It can cancel agenda meetings and make the public wait for the actual meeting to find out what business is to be transacted. It can make clever use of executive session, misstating the purpose for excluding the public, or reconvening in open session after most of the public have gone home.

Some friends and acquaintances appreciated what I wrote. And some politicans made ingratiating comments to me about how my blog posts were so much better than what the newspaper had published. Come on - I had read the newspaper stories and I knew that they were just fine.

Was I a journalist in what I wrote on my blog? I don't know. Was I journalist when I started writing original local stories on Topix.com? Perhaps. But in both cases I am sure that I made a contribution to keeping the public informed.

I never faced a lawsuit over sources - or for anything else related to my blogging. But I am really looking forward to learning the outcome of Shellee Hale's case.

And I hope she wins.

File under : First Amendment, blogs, journalism, law