Let’s Go Bucs II 13 April, 2009
Posted by Benjamin P. Glaser in Baseball, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Pirates.1 comment so far
Photos from today’s game:
Before Game Ceremony honoring Pittsburgh Police Killed in the line of duty...
Before Game Ceremony honoring Pittsburgh Police Killed in the line of duty...
Marines showing every one else how to properly display the colors...
Pirates Win!
Sign For Local Big-Box Non-Denom church...
Let’s Go Bucs 13 April, 2009
Posted by Benjamin P. Glaser in Baseball, Beer, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Pirates.Tags: Pirate Baseball, Pittsburgh Pirates
3 comments
Heading out to the home opener verse the Astros…
$1 to the person who can i.d. this photo…
Meme Time 29 May, 2008
Posted by Benjamin P. Glaser in Baseball, Beer, General, Pittsburgh, Summer Events.1 comment so far
Here we go:
The Start of Summer Meme
8.) How does the Summer affect your faith? Is it a hindrance or an ally?
1.) I begin to sweat like a dispy baptist in a liquor store. 
2.) a.) Drinking a beer, sitting on my balcony, reading a book, and listening to the Pittsburgh Pirates on the radio
b.) Fishing
c.) Going to Amusement Parks (Kennywood here in Pittsburgh)
d.) Re-Enacting Civil War Events (Going to this one in a month)
e.) Playing at the park with my daughter
3.) Freshly Cut Grass
5.) Family Trip to Niagara Falls after my Senior Year of High School and before I left for Marine Corps boot Camp
6.) Extreme Cold. You can always warm up by natural means (fire, adding clothes), Cooling Down may get you arrested and costs money.
7.) See my post here. For those too lazy to look, Herman Witsius and Francis Turretin.
8.) Hindrance. Heat makes me angry and grumpy.
(Which is why God will send me down South for my first pulpit)
Local 1,700 member Church Votes 664-25 to disaffiliate 21 January, 2008
Posted by Benjamin P. Glaser in PC (USA), Pittsburgh.6 comments
Memorial Park Presbyterian Church secured a court injunction last week to allow its congregation to meet this past weekend over the objections of the Pittsburgh Presbytery, and the McCandless church used the opportunity to vote overwhelmingly to disaffiliate from the Presbyterian Church (USA) for a more biblically conservative denomination.
While Memorial Park leaders said their members’ 664-25 vote with three unmarked ballots means the church is now a member of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, a presbytery official said, however, that under denominational law he still considered it part of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
The ballots were handed out during one Saturday service and three yesterday to people whose names were checked against a membership list. The ballots covered four separate questions:
• Disaffiliating from the Presbyterian Church (USA).
• Affiliating with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
• Amending church bylaws to remove any mention of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
• Affirming all of its current pastors, elders and deacons.
The 692 ballots represented less than half of the church’s 1,675 members, but the number was close to its usual Sunday attendance in January. Memorial Park is the largest church in the Pittsburgh Presbytery, which has 155 churches and more than 40,000 members.
The votes this past weekend had been expected to be uneventful, given that the church’s session, or governing body, had voted unanimously earlier this month to disaffiliate, and the congregation had voted 951-93 in June to seek dismissal from the national church, believing it had strayed from biblical authority and no longer fully adhered to classical Christian doctrines.
But Tuesday, Memorial Park officials received a letter from a presbytery-appointed administrative commission that was formed, the letter said, to deal with “the destruction, disorder and unrest at our Memorial Park congregation.”
According to the letter, the seven-member commission of pastors and elders had the right to “remove, replace, restructure or dissolve the pastor’s relationship with the congregation” and remove all assistant pastors, elders, deacons and lay officers.
And the letter forbade the congregation from meeting or voting this past weekend.
On Wednesday, Memorial Park lawyers got an injunction from Common Pleas Judge Judith L. Friedman that prevented the presbytery from interfering with the vote.
On Thursday morning, the presbytery’s attorneys responded in court that they feared Memorial Park’s vote would affect the disposition of its buildings and 71/2-acre property on Peebles Road.
After the church agreed not to take any actions to transfer or dispose of its assets, the presbytery withdrew its opposition to the injunction.
A hearing is scheduled tomorrow before Judge Friedman to determine whether the injunction filed by the church will be dissolved or sustained.
Because Memorial Park no longer considers itself part of the Presbyterian Church (USA), church officials said it would not be bound by either decision.
“The vote [this past weekend] means we move forward with the ministry and the mission that we believe God has called us to,” said the Rev. Dean Weaver, senior pastor at Memorial Park.
But the Rev. Doug Portz, acting pastor of the Pittsburgh Presbytery, called this past weekend’s votes “unconstitutional” and said he would have preferred church officials meet with commission members rather than turn to the civil court.
“According to the Pittsburgh Presbytery, Memorial Park is still a member church of the presbytery,” he said yesterday. “We are saddened by their actions to take this vote.
“The vote that they have taken is an unconstitutional vote according to our constitution.”
Officials of Memorial Park plan today to hand-deliver notice of the church’s disaffiliation to the presbytery.
None of these maneuverings affects the lawsuit Memorial Park filed earlier this month against the presbytery, seeking to confirm its property title and avoid any threat of seizure of its buildings by the presbytery.
Memorial Park is seeking to become the second church in Allegheny County to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA), following Beverly Heights Presbyterian Church, which was dismissed in October.
Do Not Forget!!! 1 January, 2008
Posted by Benjamin P. Glaser in General, Hockey, Pittsburgh.5 comments
The Game of the Year is on Today. Pittsburgh vs. Buffalo, outside, at Ralph Wilson Stadium at 1:00pm on NBC.
PITT IS IT!!!!!!!! 2 December, 2007
Posted by Benjamin P. Glaser in Pittsburgh, West Virginia.1 comment so far
Pitt 13
#2 WVU 9
Pitt Victory Song
Let’s go Pitt, we’re set for victory
So lend a hand, strike up the band!
Let’s go Pitt, we’re making history
We’ll never yield out on the field.
The whistle blows, we’re on our toes
The ball is IN the air.
It may be rough the going tough
But always fighting fair so…
(Chorus) Fight on for dear old Pittsburgh
And for the glory of the game
Show our worthy foe that the Panther’s on the go
Pitt must win today! Rah! Rah! Rah!
Cheer loyal sons of Pittsburgh
Cheer on to victory and fame
For the Blue and Gold shall conquer as of old
So fight, Pitt, fight!
Da da da da da-da Fight, Pitt, fight!
Da da da da da-da Fight, Pitt, fight!
V-I-C-T-O-R-Y! (repeat Chorus)
Beginning a New Course of Study 14 November, 2007
Posted by Benjamin P. Glaser in Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, RPTS.10 comments
While the title may be a bit misleading it is quite a good summary of what I am going to do over the next couple of terms. I have applied to the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary here in Pittsburgh to take a couple of courses for credit over the next couple of terms, as well as next school year. My purpose for doing so is to both broaden my theological horizons past the mainline seminary I now attend (Pittsburgh Theological Seminary) and to allow for a more relaxed theological environment in which to learn. I must be honest in saying that it will be refreshing to sit in a class and not have to defend basic Christological orthodoxy and watch as “Reformed” theology is misconstrued, masticated and spit out. This may also lead to me working towards a M.A at RPTS, we’ll see…
Five Words 10 November, 2007
Posted by Benjamin P. Glaser in Cleveland Browns, Football, General, Pittsburgh.5 comments
GO BROWNS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BEAT THE STEELERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Property Issue Getting Ugly in Western PA 7 November, 2007
Posted by Benjamin P. Glaser in PC (USA), Pittsburgh, Property.2 comments
Washington Presbytery has put forth a plan to try to resolve property issues with a Peters church that voted Sunday to break ties with the Presbyterian Church (USA), but its leaders say they will litigate ownership in civil court if forced to.
At Tuesday night’s special meeting in Eighty-Four, tremendous sympathy was expressed for the minority at Peters Creek Presbyterian Church who had opposed the break and who are now seeking to be declared “the true church” in the dispute. The meeting ended with the 80 ministers and elders gathered around a half dozen representatives of the minority, laying hands on them in prayer and singing Amazing Grace.
The Rev. David Bleivik, the general presbyter, said that if a court battle became necessary there was a possibility of financial assistance from both national headquarters and the regional synod.
“On every level we have sought to avoid legal action in accordance with [the biblical book of] Corinthians . . . . But if we are forced to defend the just side of this, we will prevail. I have no doubt,” he said.
“I have a deep place in my heart for the loyal minority because of what they have been through and how they have been treated.” Others at the meeting harshly criticized the conduct of Peters Creek leadership toward the minority.
Ray Peterson, an elder who is spokesman for the majority at Peters Creek, said later that whatever the presbytery said or proposed was irrelevant, since his congregation was no longer part of that denomination. He has previously expressed confidence that the majority from the church will receive a fairer, faster hearing in civil court than from the presbytery. The congregation took two votes, one 273-86 and on Sunday 207-26 to leave the PCUSA and affiliate with the more conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
“The reason we disaffiliated from the PCUSA is so we did not have to contend with specious motions and initiatives from the Washington Presbytery,” Mr. Peterson said.
More details in tomorrow’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Area News 2 November, 2007
Posted by Benjamin P. Glaser in Episcopal Church, Martin Luther, Pittsburgh.7 comments
Pittsburgh bishop responds to church warning
By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
JOHNSTOWN — Pittsburgh Episcopal Bishop Robert W. Duncan Jr. invoked the legacy of theologian Martin Luther today in his first public response to being warned Wednesday by the denomination’s leader that the diocese’s continued march to separate from the national church could force him out of his position.
“Here I stand,” Bishop Duncan told clergy and laity at the 142nd diocesan convention. “I can do no other. God help me. Amen.”
Those were the words spoken by Martin Luther in 1521 when he was called before the Diet of Worms for his supposedly heretical works. Emperor Charles the Fifth later declared the theologian an outlaw and he went into exile.
Bishop Duncan’s short response to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori came after he told convention deputies that “as a diocese we have come to a fork in the road.”
The convention will vote later today on whether or not to move forward with plans to leave the Episcopal Church.
More details in tomorrow’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
First published on November 2, 2007 at 3:14 pm
—————————————————————————————
MAJOR UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Local Episcopalians vote to leave the U.S. church
Friday, November 02, 2007
By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
JOHNSTOWN — Members of the Pittsburgh Episcopal Diocese have voted overwhelmingly to break away from the denomination in the United States and align with an Anglican province in another country.
In today’s vote at the 142nd diocesan convention, the laity approved the measure 118-58 with one abstention. The clergy vote was 109-24 in favor of breaking away.
For the break to occur, the diocese must pass the same measure next year and select which Anglican province to join.
In a letter Wednesday to Pittsburgh Episcopal Bishop Robert W. Duncan Jr., U.S. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori warned that such a move could result in declaring the Pittsburgh Diocese vacant and ordering Bishop Duncan’s removal.
Bishop Duncan invoked the legacy of theologian Martin Luther today in his first public response to the wraning.
“Here I stand,” Bishop Duncan told clergy and laity at the convention. “I can do no other. God help me. Amen.”
Those were the words spoken by Martin Luther in 1521 when he was called before the Diet of Worms for his supposedly heretical works. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V declared the theologian an outlaw and he went into exile.
Bishop Duncan’s short response to Bishop Schori came after he told convention deputies that “as a diocese, we have come to a fork in the road.”
More details in tomorrow’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Denominational News 18 October, 2007
Posted by Benjamin P. Glaser in EPC, PC (USA), Pittsburgh, Property.2 comments
Almost six months to the day after voting to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA), Beverly Heights Church in Mt. Lebanon was granted its dismissal today by the Pittsburgh Presbytery.
The Presbytery’s 174-73 vote, with two abstentions, means Beverly Heights will move its 400-member congregation, along with its buildings and grounds, to the more conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
Who Says God Does Not Answer Prayer? 7 September, 2007
Posted by Benjamin P. Glaser in Baseball, General, Pittsburgh, Prayer.3 comments
(First published at 11:01 a.m.; updated 11:42)
The Pirates this morning fired general manager Dave Littlefield near the end of his seventh losing season.
He will be replaced on an interim basis by Brian Graham, the team’s director of player development.
Littlefield, 47, took the post July 31, 2001, and his teams went a combined 442-581 in his tenure, never approaching .500. That included 67-95 finishes in 2005 and 2006, and the current edition’s 61-79 record.
His contract, which was extended on opening day last year, was to run through the 2008 season.
The firing was made by principal owner Bob Nutting, who already had been searching for a new CEO to replace outgoing Kevin McClatchy and now will add the general manager’s post to that list.
“After eight months of listening and analyzing the situation, it has become clear that this decision was necessary to move our organization forward,” Nutting said. “While there are many bright spots for us to build from, I am not satisfied with the overall performance and progress that has been made. I’m committed to building a successful organization, and this is an important step in that process.”
