Ethnicity and the Church are two vital subjects in mission studies. However, the focus has always been on the latter. As a result the Church's theology of ethnicity is weak. Fear, ethnocentrism and theological blindness account for the little interest in the subject of ethnicity. However, a Church that neglects ethnicity does so at her own peril. God's dealings with IsraeL a history of the growth of the Church from one culture to another makes the study of ethnicity imperative. Failure to acknowledge and harness ethnicity can lead to ethnocentrism or tribalism which is an enemy to God's mission. God's mission essentially reconciles, unites and enriches people from different ethnic groups whilst ethnocentrism or tribalism excludes, divides and impoverishes them. The Presbyterian Church of Ghana like the wider society has to cope with ethnicity. Whereas the Church has harnessed ethnicity in her mission, she has, nonetheless, failed always to do away with ethnocentrism or tribalism. The PCG has not been faithful to her parent missionaries' strategy of planting indigenous churches among the non-Akan and non-Ga. The current PCG's strategy amounts to Akan-Ga cultural mission. Ethnicity and Christian identity are crucial to providing people with their true secure identity. A Christian always has to come to terms with his dual identity, that is, belonging to an ethnic group as well as to Christ. A theology that affirms this dual identity will be in a position to have healthy multi-ethnic churches and be effective in mission. Andrew Walls' Three Tests of Christian expansion: The Church, The Kingdom and The Gospel Tests serve as our measuring instrument. The PCG has not passed these Tests satisfactorily. She needs the Pentecost experience, that is a fresh touch of the Holy Spirit. The thrust of this thesis is that, when the PCG experiences this Pentecost, integration, reconciliation and embrace will be achievable among her multi-ethnic membership. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2000.

This dissertation examines the educational contributions of the American Mission in Egypt using previously untapped archival documents from the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia. The principal focus of this research is on the establishment of American Mission schools in Egypt. The successes and failures of this missionary movement's work with Copts and Muslims are examined within the context of demographic data and political history. The study also discusses Egyptian anti-missionary sentiments directed against the American Mission in the 1920s and 30s, and constitutes an exploration of Christian-Muslim relations in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Egypt.

The major focus of this study is to identify the potentials and obstacles involved in establishing a permaculture in an existing suburban community in Muncie, Indiana.Permaculture is, briefly, a design concept of human settlements which strives to bring about an attitude of ecology and humanity in society as a whole. The physical of the earth by involving design stresses energy conservation and production of renewable natural resources, ecological food production techniques, and the recovery of a genuine sense of community and a sense of the sacredness of the earth by involving people with people and people with the landscape.The First Presbyterian Church site and congregation in Muncie has been chosen for this study. A permaculture proposal has been developed for and presented to the community. Initial reactions to this proposal have been obtained in order to identify the potentials and obstaclespresent toward implementing the permaculture proposal in this unique suburban setting. / Department of Landscape Architecture

Early records of the St. Gabriel Street Church are contained in the Presbytery Office of The Presbyterian Church in Canada located in the Dominion Square Building. There are none in the First Presbyterian Church in Montreal. The register of the St. Peter Street Church is to be found in the archives of the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul although apparently, not the Minute Book of the Church Committee. A manuscript source of great value, if it could be located, is the diary of William Hunter, in which he is said to have noted the ecclesiastical events of his day. Before he helped form the St. Peter Street congregation, he had been an elder in the St. Gabriel Street Church. His diary was used by Robert Campbell in 1887. The most valuable printed material relating to the St. Gabriel Street Church and the individuals who formed its membership, is found in Robert Campbell’s book of 800 pages, entitled “History of the Scotch Church St. Gabriel Street, Montreal”, and published in 1887. It also contains useful information concerning the St. Peter Street Church. In addition we have a short, almost contemporary history of the St. Peter Street Church. It was written by Dr. Alexander Mathieson in 1832, and is found in “The Life of Alexander Mathieson”, published by James Croil in 1870.

The Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF), drawn up in London in the 1640s, has been one of the most influential confessions in the history of Reformed theology. It has occupied a very significant place in the life of a great many Protestant churches since the seventeenth century, and continues to serve as a chief subordinate standard in several major denominations today. In the opening chapter of the Confession, the divines of Westminster included a clause which implied that there would no longer be any supernatural revelation from God for showing humankind the way of salvation. Means by which God had once communicated the divine will concerning salvation, such as dreams, visions, and the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, were said to be no longer applicable. However, many of the authors of the WCF accepted that "prophecy" continued in their time, and a number of them apparently believed that disclosure of God�s will through dreams, visions, and angelic communication remained possible. How is the "cessationist" clause of WCF 1:1 to be read in the light of these facts? Was it intended as a strict denial of the possibility that any supernatural revelation for the purposes of salvation could take place after the apostolic period, or did its authors, as some modern scholars have argued, allow for a more flexible view, in which such divine revelation through extraordinary means might still take place? This thesis explores these questions in the light of the modern debates over the interpretation of the Confession�s language and its implications for the church today. It considers the difference between "mediate" and "immediate" revelation as understood by the Westminster divines, and attempts to show that only "immediate" revelation was considered to have ceased, while "mediate" revelation, which always involved Scripture, was held to continue. A detailed analysis of the writings of the Westminster divines reveals that these churchmen possessed both a strong desire to maintain the unity of Word and Spirit and a concern to safeguard the freedom of the Holy Spirit to speak to particular circumstances through the language and principles of Scripture. God still enabled predictive prophecy and spoke to individuals in extraordinary ways, but contemporary prophecy was held to be something distinct from the prophecy of New Testament figures. In the minds of both the Scottish Presbyterians and English Puritans, prophecy was considered to be an application of Scripture for a specific situation, not an announcement of new information not contained within the Bible. The Scriptures always remained essential for the process of discerning God�s will. The Introduction to the thesis considers the debate over WCF 1:1 in its modern setting. Chapter One outlines the socio-political and theological context of the Westminster Assembly, and discusses the question of how to assess the respective contributions of the divines to the documents it produced. Chapter Two investigates the Westminster view of the necessity and scope of special revelation, and discusses the nature of the "salvation" which was conveyed by this means. Chapter Three surveys the exegetical traditions underpinning the teaching that former modalities of supernatural revelation had ceased. Chapter Four seeks to respond to modern claims that Puritan theology allowed for a "continuationist" position, by canvassing evidence both from seventeenth-century Reformed thinkers themselves and from their critics, who maintained that Westminster orthodoxy was indeed cessationist in style. Chapters Five and Six explore the claims to and explanations for "prophecy" in Reformed theology in both England and Scotland in the seventeenth century. Chapter Seven examines the question of the theological status of the Westminster Confession in its own time. To what extent were subscription requirements envisaged by the Assembly and the governments of the day, and what form did these requirements take? The thesis concludes that the Westminster divines intended the cessationist clause to affirm that there was to be no more extra-biblical, "immediate" revelation for any purpose now that the church possessed the completed Scriptures. The written Word of God was fully capable of showing the way of "salvation" in its wider scope as either temporal or eternal deliverance. At the same time the divines did not intend to deny that God could still speak through special providences that might involve dreams or the ministry of angels, for example, but such revelation was always to be considered "mediate". The primary means was held to be the written Scriptures, illuminated by the Holy Spirit. The unity of the Word and Spirit was maintained, and God�s freedom to address individual circumstances remained intact.

This study of the governance of theological education examines significant policy and management decisions within Presbyterian ministry training in New Zealand between 1961 and 1997 in the light of Edward Farley�s integrated goal for theological education, theologia. Edward Farley�s argument that theologia, integration of theology (scientia) and theology (habitus), was fragmented from the first use of modern research university education as professional education for ordained ministry in the 1880s, provides a theoretical framework for analysing the influence of governance on theologia, through its effect on institutional organisation, structure and curricula. International unease about theological education is reflected in New Zealand Presbyterian ministry formation, though little sustained critical analysis is yet published in New Zealand. The period under study begins in 1961 when the Special Committee on Theological Training called for a Chair in Pastoral Theology to 1997 when the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand opened its Centre for Advanced Ministry Studies, later renamed the School of Ministry. Criteria signifying recovery and/or fragmentation of theologia drawn from Farley�s arguments are searched for in the beginning of University theology at Berlin and the beginning of ministry formation in Dunedin, New Zealand. The intervening time till 1960 is similarly analysed. Governance decisions about Pastoral Theology in the first case study and governance decisions about University, church and theology in the second, are then assessed. Constant rearranging of pastoral theology programmes symptomises increasing fragmentation of theologia as does the creation of a Pastoral Chair. Pastoral theology is left with the integrative responsibility, rendering other disciplines more scientific as feared by some Theological Hall teachers. Outside the University from 1876-1946, New Zealand Presbyterian ministry formation was still influenced by University expectations from Scotland and Berlin. After 1946, teaching within the University of Otago Faculty of Theology, Presbyterian teachers enjoyed considerable opportunities for integrated teaching. Fragmentation of theologia was therefore delayed and to some extent retarded. Increased University influence from 1992 meant these opportunities were lost. Finally, around the 1996 withdrawal of direct University engagement with Presbyterian ministry formation, formational goals were set for the Church�s new Centre of Advanced Ministry Studies. These aimed to integrate theology (scientia) and theology (habitus) retrospectively for ordinands after foundational theological education elsewhere. Earlier 1990s governance decisions affected achievement of these goals. This work argues that between 1961 and 1997 most governance decisions in New Zealand Presbyterian ministry formation exacerbated existing structural fragmentation of theologia. Differing arrangements to alleviate this were attempted, and integration of (scientia) and (habitus) occurred for some students and at different periods. Structurally, however, the University-approved four-fold programme continued, making pastoral theology�s role remained ambiguous and theologia�s fragmentation inevitable. While the New Zealand Presbyterian Church set its own ministry formation goals from 1961-1997, finance, prestige and educational philosophy prevented development of its own programme. Time and money were put into supporting University theology instead, and the University used to produce an educated ministry. It is now inevitable that the Church has to integrate theology (scientia) and theology (habitus) retrospectively for its students after theological education elsewhere.

Project (D. Min.)--Iliff School of Theology, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-99).

Thesis (M. Div.)--Emmanuel School of Religion, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-64).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, 1999. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 219-226).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Tulsa, 1990. / Bibliography: leaves 149-163.