A community in Upcountry Maui that endured a wildfire at the same time as Lahaina is receiving a helping hand from concerned Presbyterians who are answering the call to donate to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA). Read more »
August 28, 2023
Presbyterian response to Maui wildfires continues
A community in Upcountry Maui that endured a wildfire at the same time as Lahaina is receiving a helping hand from concerned Presbyterians who are answering the call to donate to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA). Read more »
In my disability ministry work with congregational leaders, the question I have heard most often is not, “How can each person experience the love of God?” The question I hear most is, “How can we meet the needs of this family? We can’t start a disability ministry. We don’t even have the volunteers we need for our ‘regular kids.’” 
As they neared the end of a time of training and team building at the Presbyterian Center and online on Friday, more than two dozen of the class of 2023-24 Young Adult Volunteers got to hear stories of both inspiration and encouragement from a panel of Louisville-based faith leaders and advocates. 
Rola Al Ashkar is a Presbyterian Christian from Lebanon. She grew up in a nonreligious family, in a culture drenched in religion. Her parents took her and her brothers to church and Sunday school on occasions. When she had her confirmation class, she received her first Bible, and even as a teenager, she read the Bible with critical eyes, questioning parts of it and searching for answers. Her curiosity led her to regularly attend Sunday services, youth meetings and church summer camps, and through those experiences her faith grew, and she found a community in the Presbyterian Synod of Syria and Lebanon. 
In the past several months, Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations has been leading peacemaking efforts in Israel-Palestine, the Korean Peninsula, and Sudan and South Sudan at the U.N. Some of these conflicts have been around as long as the United Nations has been in existence and appear intractable. Others are new, such as the war in Ukraine, as we note with concern the rising levels of political instability around the world. Peace is fragile, and justice is hard-won. 
Jesus was asked, “… And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29)
America’s history with Indigenous peoples hasn’t always been neighborly. In the past five years, the General Assembly has taken actions to change that legacy, and to be neighbors, not conquerors. 
William Tennent probably never dreamed we would get to this point. The same could be said for John Witherspoon.
Tennent, some may recall, is considered by many to be the father of Presbyterian higher education in the United States. It’s been almost 300 years since this forward-thinking Presbyterian pastor established his ministerial Log College in Pennsylvania to educate and prepare commoners for ministry. The college was his response to the first “Great Awakening,” a revivalist movement in the early 18th century that aligned with the Presbyterian goal of “always being reformed.” 
“Did you agree to be dirt?” the Rev. CeCe Armstrong asked commissioners of Charleston Atlantic Presbytery and members of a newly chartered church in Charleston, South Carolina. The members of Parkside Church in Charleston, in accordance with G-1.0201 in the Book of Order, signed a charter that read in response to the grace of God, “We promise and covenant to live together in unity and to work together in ministry as disciples of Jesus Christ, bound to him and to one another as a part of the body of Christ in this place according to the principles of faith, mission, and order of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).” As a result, the presbytery convened at St. Barnabas Lutheran Church, which is Parkside Church’s place of worship, for a chartering service on Jan. 29 to commission the church, ordain and install elders and fully install their organizing pastor, the Rev. Colin Kerr. 
I wonder how many times I’ve said or written “peace be with you.” It is a greeting many of our congregations use weekly as an act of worship. It is a salutation I use in many of my correspondences. It’s such a common utterance to me that I sort of forgot that it’s biblical, too. Good for me for citing Scripture with such regularity. The phrase comes to us from the Gospels, spoken by the resurrected Jesus when he appears to the disciples behind locked doors. It is a way he makes himself known to them. 
Activities include blessings of backpacks and Bibles for new readers
The last harvest of peaches, melons and other summer fruits is not the only sign of changes in the season. School backpacks replacing beach bags and hiker’s packs in the piles that accumulate at front doors signal a new year and a shift in schedules for families across the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), marking a renewed commitment to learning and growth as the new school year begins.