The Moderator of the General Assembly, Rt Rev Dr John Finlay, visited Nepal with his wife in early April. The Rev Joseph and Mrs Campbell are Presbyterians serving there with the United Mission, Nepal (UMP).
Nepal has a population of 29 million people and poverty, malnutrition, inadequate housing, poor sanitation and lack of running water are endemic. It has become a secular state, with Hinduism the prominent religion of the Nepali people. The first Christian church came into being in 1959 with 29 believers. Today, it is believed, there are one million Christians there.
The work of the United Mission began in 1954 as an international, inter-denominational Christian development. It continues as a force for eradication of the root causes of poverty and injustice and for the promotion of peace and reconciliation in a land emerging from the violence of a Maoist insurgency.
Ahead of its General Assembly in May the Church of Scotland has nominated the Rev David Lunan as moderator-designate. He is a graduate in arts and divinity of the University of Glasgow and studied at Princeton Theological Seminary in the USA. After his return to Scotland he ministered to young people in the Calton area of Glasgow. After ministries in several congregations he settled in Renfield, St Stephen's, Glasgow. Mr Lunan is clerk of the Presbytery of Glasgow.
He has had an abiding interest in the student Christian movement, Amnesty, Christian Aid, ecumenism and inter-faith dialogue. He succeeds as moderator the Rt Rev Sheilagh Kesting, the first lady minister to become moderator of the Church of Scotland. A first lady elder to become moderator in 2004 was Alison Elliott.
Forty years of women as ministers in the Church of Scotland is celebrated this year. With some reluctance, the General Assembly agreed the ordaining of women as ministers in 1968. Women are now ordained in the Irish Presbyterian Church with little if any objection.
Bishop Wolfgang Huber, sometime professor in the University of Heidelberg and currently chairperson of the Council of the Evangelical Church (EKD), will be in Ireland during May. Bishop Huber left his professorship after the Berlin Wall came down to work for the union of divided churches in the east and west. The pursuit of social justice, freedom from poverty and dialogue with Muslims are high on his agenda.
He will speak on "Remembering the Past: Ethnic and Religious Conflict in Europe" at a lecture arranged by the Dublin Council of Churches and the Lutheran Church on Saturday May 17th at 5pm in the Methodist Centenary Church, Leeson Park. On Monday May 19th at 10am in the Walton Theatre, TCD, he will speak on "Theological Reasons for Human Rights and their Consequences for the Ecumenical Process". To attend either or both lectures call 01-6766548.
Thinking Christians are again indebted to Columba Press and James P. Mackey. In Jesus of Nazareth - The Life, the Faith and the Future of the Prophet, Mackey excels. Among topics dealt with by him are: the inerrancy and other views of the Bible; the Bible as history, genealogies of Jesus in contradiction; virginal birth rightly understood; Passover and the Last Supper and its aftermath; and the public mission and trial and death of Jesus.
James P. Mackey is emeritus professor of theology at Edinburgh University and a visiting professor in TCD.