While serving as the synod representative on the Board of Directors for Presbyterian Women, I suggested that the synod begin a Justice & Peace Book Discussion Group that would not interfere with the Native American Book Discussion Group already in process. Thus, the first year of the Justice & Peace National Book Discussion Group was born. Read more »
February 28, 2023
Presbyterian Women grows its Justice & Peace Book Discussion Group
While serving as the synod representative on the Board of Directors for Presbyterian Women, I suggested that the synod begin a Justice & Peace Book Discussion Group that would not interfere with the Native American Book Discussion Group already in process. Thus, the first year of the Justice & Peace National Book Discussion Group was born. Read more »
A new virtual Bible study, launched on Feb. 1 by Racial Equity and Women’s Intercultural Ministries to celebrate Black History Month, continues through mid-March with an outstanding roster of presenters. The series, called “Models of Black Resistance Past and Present,” will be hosted on Zoom with advance registration required. 
In partnership with Presbyterian Women, Racial Equity and Women’s Intercultural Ministries will host its annual Celebrate the Gifts of Women worship service at 9 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday via livestream on the PC(USA) Facebook page. Celebrate the Gifts of Women Sunday is on March 5. 
“On Sunday, March 10, 1822, four men and six women swore an oath together in district school #1 on the corner of Concord and Adams Street in the village of Brooklyn,” reads Collette Foster, a member of First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, New York, in a video series celebrating the congregation’s bicentennial. “Their idea,” Foster continues, “was to organize a house of worship and to found the only Presbyterian church in their settlement of 7,000 people.” 
A simple question asked nearly a decade ago by a Seattle-area pastor interested in learning more about the Presbyterian Church in Colombia has blossomed into a partnership that reflects a mutual passion for theological and academic inquiry, worship, faith and the desire to simply “be” together. 
Presbyterian pastor and hymn writer the Rev. Carolyn Winfrey Gillette has written a new hymn to encourage Presbyterians and others to gather and send hygiene and other kits to organizations that can put them in the hands of people who need them as the result of natural or human-caused disasters. 
The Board of Trustees has named Dr. Jacqueline E. Lapsley to be the eighth president of Union Presbyterian Seminary.
As the first woman to lead the seminary in its 211-year history, Lapsley is used to being a trailblazer. She was the first woman to serve as dean and vice president for Academic Affairs at Princeton Theological Seminary, a position she has held since 2018.
Along with easing any tension over their task as evangelists, Dr. Cheni Khonje recently taught a crowd of nearly 200 ruling elders and deacons some new language around the concepts of “welcome” and “relationship.” 
With the one-year anniversary of Russia’s continued aggression toward Ukraine looming, a webinar was held recently to discuss the impact of nonviolent resistance against the war and to make recommendations to Congress, including stressing the need for diplomacy. 
While the economic and social status of women may be improving marginally worldwide, the lives of many women in India — like Smitha Krishnan — have remained virtually unchanged.