Individuals who want to gain a greater understanding of the civil rights movement and how it continues to be impactful can sign up for a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) travel study seminar that will include visits to three southern states next spring. Read more »
November 9, 2023
PC(USA) travel study seminar to explore ‘Legacies and Lessons’ of the civil rights movement
Individuals who want to gain a greater understanding of the civil rights movement and how it continues to be impactful can sign up for a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) travel study seminar that will include visits to three southern states next spring. Read more »
The Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky, will host a screening of the film “1963-Still: Same Shot” from 3 p.m. through 4 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, Nov. 20. 
“Jesus and Justice,” the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s first-ever Young Adult Advocacy Conference, got underway on an October Friday at the Presbyterian Center and online. Eighty young people registered for the free three-day conference, including an online cadre of about 30 young adults. 
The 225th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) declared the years 2022 to 2032 to be the Decade to End Gun Violence and called on the church to recommit itself to the work. 
After a deadly shooting at Westside Middle School near Jonesboro, Arkansas, David Gill and others pined for a way to aid students in their emotional and spiritual recovery. He began delving into the idea of holding a healing camp at Ferncliff Camp and Conference Center, where he worked a few hours away. 
When Kat Green first arrived at her current call as director of Children’s Ministry at Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church in Severna Park, Maryland, recruiting volunteers was her first priority. 
In the tradition of beloved writers including Frederick Buechner, the Rev. Dr. Anna Carter Florence has written “A is for Alabaster: 52 Reflections on the Stories of Scriptures,” recently published by Westminster John Knox Press. Carter Florence, the Peter Marshall Professor of Preaching at Columbia Theological Seminary, appeared alongside the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty of the Presbyterian Foundation on his show, “Leading Theologically.” 
When the Rev. Dr. Cleo LaRue hears a sermon, he’s listening for four things:
• Was the biblical text central to the sermon?
• Was there a controlling thought or identifiable sermonic idea, or was it, as LaRue calls it, “pearls without a string?”
• Could you follow the sermon with your listening ear? “I am opposed to long quotes,” the former homiletics professor at Princeton Theological Seminary said. “It takes it out of your voice and makes it difficult to hear and follow with your listening ear. You have to write in conversational tone to engage your congregation.”
• Did the sermon make a claim on your life? “Are you preaching because you have something to say,” he asked, “or are you preaching because you have to say something?” 
Westminster Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee has been celebrating 150 years of ministry this year, a celebration that continues following worship on Sunday with a luncheon, music and a brief program. Worship will include a special sermon by the church’s senior pastor and head of staff, the Rev. Dr. Donovan Drake, and a new anthem composed for the occasion by Philip WJ Stopford based on Psalm 78:1-7. 
In the midst of the Covid pandemic, when the efficacy of new vaccines was still unknown and many churches were not back to worshiping inside, the Rev. Aisha Brooks-Johnson, executive presbyter of the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta, issued an invitation for congregations to join the Vital Congregations Initiative (VCI). The Rev. Katie Day, having accepted her call to Pleasant Hill Presbyterian Church in Duluth, Georgia, during the pandemic, remembers that her congregation was still worshiping in a parking lot and conducting meetings on Zoom.