Three women have been honored with the 2016 Women of Faith Awards conferred by the Racial Ethnic & Women’s Ministries of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The awards honor female members of the PC(USA) whose lives exemplify their Christian commitment through witness, service, and leadership. The 2016 Women of Faith awardees are: Read more »
September 26, 2016
Three Women Honored for Building Bridges of Reconciliation
Three women have been honored with the 2016 Women of Faith Awards conferred by the Racial Ethnic & Women’s Ministries of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The awards honor female members of the PC(USA) whose lives exemplify their Christian commitment through witness, service, and leadership. The 2016 Women of Faith awardees are: Read more »
When Rev. Eric Markman became pastor of Hartford Street Presbyterian Church in Natick, Massachusetts, 5½ years ago, several members warned him not to do anything with the church’s land. Hartford Street Presbyterian had been through a difficult and ultimately unsuccessful effort to create low-income housing on part of its nine acres of land-locked property. 
For two decades Starmount Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, has been actively ministering to families resettling in the community, with a special emphasis on children and youth. Part of that commitment has been partnering with families from South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Bosnia, Syria, and Chad, to name a few. 
This weekend marks the 25th annual National Observance of Children’s Sabbaths, uniting people of faith in common concern for problems like child poverty; in shared conviction that the God of love and justice calls us to the same; and in renewed commitment to reach out with love and to speak up for justice to improve the lives of children. 
Within two months of the chartering of the city of Seattle, seven Presbyterian men and women gathered in George Whitworth’s home to organize themselves as the First Presbyterian Church of Seattle. Their session first met in 1873, as Whitworth preached alternate Sundays with a Methodist minister. Their first sanctuary was built at the corner of Third and Madison streets in 1877. The church grew rapidly, by 1894 boasting 643 members, and moving into a new building at the corner of Fourth and Spring. 
In the words and experience of Rev. Jim Moseley, executive presbyter of New Castle Presbytery, “Every great effort in ministry requires both strategic thinking and ‘daring’ in equal amounts.”
And maybe just a few peaches. 
Veronica Muchiri has a big job. As the organizer and secretary of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa National Woman’s Guild, she’s working to change the perception about women in East Africa.
The organization has a membership totaling 120,000 from Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. Its motto is “Empowering Christian women transforming society.” That includes strengthening families, developing mentors and coaches, improving health programs, and addressing environmental concerns. It also works to engage women as agents of peace, healing, and reconciliation. 
When the busload of teenage girls from an affluent boarding school in Farmington, Connecticut, entered the room, they weren’t exactly enthusiastic. They would be spending the afternoon with the Council of Churches of Greater Bridgeport (CCGB), a faith-based social services agency dedicated to meeting the needs of people at risk and breaking the cycle of poverty and incarceration. The young women expected an afternoon of boring lectures. 
Tired of their country’s civil war and related atrocities, some church women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo bravely walked to the hiding place of a notorious warlord in March 2013, seeking peace. 
The “seed money” planted by three people at First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio, has resulted in a harvest of generosity directed toward Presbyterian mission co-workers.
Bruce Henderson and his wife, Karen, gave $2,500 in support of mission co-workers, as did their friend Nel Huck. The three then invited others to join them by making gifts of any size. After a January mission emphasis, the 110-member congregation added $8,500 to the initial $5,000.