Throughout the centuries, houses of worship have proclaimed the Creator’s power and beauty through the arts — everything from architecture to sculpture. Today, that same artistic Spirit is moving through Newton Presbyterian Church in Boston. While the pandemic has required church walls to become more porous, Newton Presbyterian has been reaching out and inviting artists, writers and musicians to showcase their works in its worship space and through the church’s social media platforms as a way to glorify God and reflect on the gift of grace, as Anita Ulloa, a ruling elder, and Jack Holder, a deacon, say of the “God [who] is speaking in ancient and new ways.” Read more »
November 30, 2021
Boston church gets creative with the arts
Throughout the centuries, houses of worship have proclaimed the Creator’s power and beauty through the arts — everything from architecture to sculpture. Today, that same artistic Spirit is moving through Newton Presbyterian Church in Boston. While the pandemic has required church walls to become more porous, Newton Presbyterian has been reaching out and inviting artists, writers and musicians to showcase their works in its worship space and through the church’s social media platforms as a way to glorify God and reflect on the gift of grace, as Anita Ulloa, a ruling elder, and Jack Holder, a deacon, say of the “God [who] is speaking in ancient and new ways.” Read more »
The Board of Pensions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has joined a growing coalition pledging to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace. 
One good way to live out its embodiment is for the church to speak the truth in love.
The Rev. Samuel Son, the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Manager of Diversity and Reconciliation, told Synod School attendees that speaking the truth in love can dispel myths, “which you and I are addicted to.” 
“Only as an adult,” the Rev. Dr. Jill Duffield told the Synod of Lakes and Prairies’ Synod School recently, displaying a picture of a familiar Presbyterian pastor and children’s television pioneer dressed in a red zip-up sweater, “did I realize how much my theology was shaped by Mister Rogers.” 
During a Pastors and Church Leaders Mental Health panel discussion, four church leaders discussed ways that stress has manifested itself in their lives — and in the lives of those they serve.
The Rev. Bertram Johnson spoke about his work at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where he offers spiritual health care support for students. 
One of the evening psalms among today’s lectionary readings is Psalm 8, which includes some of the most wondrous words in the Bible:
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?
5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crowned them with glory and honor. 
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will commemorate World AIDS Day with an online chapel service at 9 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, Dec. 1, featuring the Rev. RJ Robles, a Nashville-based HIV/AIDS activist. 
Between Two Pulpits, the weekly broadcast hosted by Special Offerings’ Bryce Wiebe and Lauren Rogers, could just about call itself Between Two Coastlines Monday as Wiebe and Rogers hosted respectively from Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles and Westminster Presbyterian Church, which is just a bit west of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. 
Like with many congregations in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), for the 90 or so churches in the Presbytery of Arkansas, worship is now a different experience than it was before the pandemic, the Rev. Stewart Smith said last week during an episode of the Synod of the Sun’s “SunSpots” podcast. 
No matter how the pandemic may have altered people’s perception of time, the calendar nonetheless marches on.