June–July 2015 Ordained Servant

From the Editor. The Orthodox Presbyterian Church has always been deeply interested and involved in ecumenicity. Our joint venture in Great Commission Publications with the Presbyterian Church in America and our Psalter-hymnal project with the United Reformed Church are evidence of that commitment. In this issue URCNA pastor William Boekestein and OPC pastor William Shishko present articles based on lectures given at the “Semper Reformanda Conference” during the United Reformed Churches in North America Classis Eastern US, on October 14, 2014. These warm and thoughtful presentations should spur us on in our Reformed ecumenical endeavors.

Beginning last month Westminster Theological Seminary PhD student Sherif Gendy began providing very useful reviews of contemporary Old Testament literature. His chapter by chapter summary and critique should provide pastors with a helpful guide to available literature. This month Gendy reviews Middleton’s A New Heaven and a New Earth.

Fellow media ecologist T. David Gordon reviews The Digital Divide, an important collection of articles by a wide range of authors on the pros and cons of the electronic media.

Finally, Susan Felch reviews Jamie Smith’s How (Not) to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor. This is a guide to Taylor’s monumental work The Secular Age through the lens of Smith’s own philosophical understanding.

Don’t miss Herbert’s brilliant poem, “The Church-floor,” which links the patterns of his church’s floor to the human heart. His visual metaphor nicely illuminates his meaning.

Blessings in the Lamb,
Gregory Edward Reynolds

FROM THE ARCHIVES “ECUMENICITY, CHURCH UNITY”

Subject Index

• “All Ecclesiology is Local.” (Matthew W. Kingsbury) 11:3 (Jul. 2002): 60–61.
• “Charles Hodge on Presbyterian Union and Ecumenicity.” (D. G. Hart & John R. Muether) 7:2 (Apr. 1998): 35–37.
• “Perfecting Fellowship.” (John P. Galbraith) 7:1 (Jan. 1998): 2–9.
• “A Postscript to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (And Others Who May Benefit) On Perfecting Fellowship.” (John P. Galbraith) 7:2 (Apr. 1998): 25–26.
• “Practical Ecumenicity.” 5:1 (Jan. 1996): 24.
• “Some Thoughts on the Practice of Ecumenicity.” (Bill DeJong) 7:2 (Apr. 1998): 27–28.
• “Some Timely Thoughts from John Calvin on Differences among Christians.” (Stephen Doe) 9:4 (October 2000): 91–92. [reprinted 15 (2006): 55–57]
• “Biblical Principles of the Unity of the Church: A Reformed (Continental) Perspective – Part 1.” (James de Jong) 11:1 (Jan. 2002): 29.
• “Biblical Principles of the Unity of the Church: A Reformed (Continental) Perspective – Part 2.” (James de Jong) 11:2 (Apr. 2002): 27–32.
• “The Biblical View of Church Unity.” (Archibald A. Allison) 10:3 (Jul. 2001): 60–64.
• “On the Unity and Diversity of the Church.” (Herman Bavinck) 11:3 (Jul. 2002): 65–66.
• “True Church Unity: What It Is.” (Benjamin B. Warfield) 11:3 (Jul. 2002): 56–59.
• “The Unity of the Church in the Westminster Tradition – Part 1.” (W. D. J. McKay) 11:3 (Jul. 2002): 46–54.
• “The Unity of the Church in the Westminster Tradition – Part 2.” (W. D. J. McKay) 11:4 (Oct. 2002): 82–88.

Ordained Servant exists to help encourage, inform, and equip church officers for faithful, effective, and God-glorifying ministry in the visible church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Its primary audience is ministers, elders, and deacons of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, as well as interested officers from other Presbyterian and Reformed churches. Through high-quality editorials, articles, and book reviews we endeavor to stimulate clear thinking and the consistent practice of historic, confessional Presbyterianism.