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June 18th

 

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Issue Home May 30, 2006 Site Home

HEADLINES:
Thompson Clothes Closet Is Closing
Local Attends Church Leaders’ Conference

Thompson Clothes Closet Is Closing

The Clothes Closet, located in the Thompson United Methodist Church will be concluding this outreach service on Friday, June 30. Donations of clothing are no longer being accepted.

There is still a large selection of clothing available and we would like to encourage anyone wishing to acquire items, to come in on Friday mornings from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

As always, if there is an immediate need, contact Pastor Barbara Pease at 727–2341, Mary Gray at 756–2652 or Joy Mead at 727–2518.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has generously donated items of clothing to this outreach.

Special thanks to the ladies who have devoted their time and talents for the past four years, to keep the Clothes Closet available to those in need.

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Local Attends Church Leaders’ Conference
Submitted by Paul R. Carlson, Ed.D.

Some 70 church leaders from New York to California met at Manhattan’s Central Presbyterian Church May 18-19 in an effort to overturn a proposal calling for selective divestment of Presbyterian holdings in corporations doing business with Israel.

The two-day meeting was sponsored by the National Christian Leadership Conference for Israel (NCLCI), a broad-based network of Christians committed to the security of Israel in today’s world.

During the sessions, attendees heard from several opponents of divestment, including Clarence B. Jones, legal counsel and advisor to the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Dr. Khaleel Mohammed, professor of religion at San Diego State University, as well as an imam and Islamic law authority.

The Rev. Paul R. Carlson, Ed.D., pastor emeritus of the Silver Lake Presbyterian Church in Brackney, is a member of NCLCI’s executive committee. Before retirement, he served as the executive director of the United Churches of Northeastern Pennsylvania, as well as an adjunct instructor at the University of Scranton.

Dr. Carlson, the author of three books on ecumenical and interfaith affairs, said the divestment proposal ignited widespread protests among both Christians and Jews when it was first adopted by the 216th Presbyterian General Assembly two years ago in Richmond, VA.

He said the NCLCI meeting focused on efforts to rescind the controversial proposal when commissioners representing the denomination’s 173 presbyteries convene in Birmingham, AL, June 15-20 for the 217th Presbyterian General Assembly.

Carlson noted that the issue is resurfacing at a time when Warren Buffet, America’s iconic investment tycoon, has announced that he is buying an 80 percent share in Israeli metalworks conglomerate Iscar for a record $4-billion.

“It’s an amazing company run by amazing people,” the so-called “Sage of Omaha” told a reporter. “I don’t get many opportunities to invest in companies like that.”

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert hailed the news as “a great present for the State of Israel.”

“This is not just another deal worth billions,” Olmert said. “Here we have the world’s greatest investor – not a Jew, nor a Zionist – who is making a vote of confidence in the State of Israel’s economy.”

Among those commissioners to the 217th General Assembly reconsidering the divestment proposal will be those from Lackawanna Presbytery, representing some 8,300 members in 62 churches in Susquehanna, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Wayne, Pike, Wyoming, and Bradford counties.

Meanwhile, Rick Ufford-Chase, moderator of the 216th General Assembly, has urged the denomination to do some hard thinking about the controversial measure before it resurfaces at the Birmingham meeting.

He noted that overtures, or resolutions, representing both sides of the issue having been pouring in for consideration at the upcoming General Assembly of the 2.3-million member denomination.

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