During a webinar this week, special guests of the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People encouraged churches and other segments of society to find ways to help formerly incarcerated people get back on their feet. Read more »
November 12, 2021
Extending welcome to the formerly incarcerated
During a webinar this week, special guests of the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People encouraged churches and other segments of society to find ways to help formerly incarcerated people get back on their feet. Read more »
The Rev. Dr. Michael W. Waters, who wrote the award-winning “For Beautiful Black Boys Who Believe in a Better World,” published last year by Flyaway Books, brought a pair of show-and-tell items to punctuate his hour-long talk Thursday evening at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky. 
La Oroya, Peru, is one of the most contaminated places on the planet, with decades of poison unleashed on this small community. For more than 20 years a group of citizens has advocated for the enforcement of adequate environmental measures.
Now, for the first time, there are signs of hope. 
A team tasked by the Coordinating Table to analyze more than 2,000 restricted funds given to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) over the years for various purposes offered its initial report Thursday, identifying 15 funds that could be reassigned from benefiting the Presbyterian Mission Agency to helping to fund the Office of the General Assembly. 
In the midst of the pandemic last fall, Sheri Dittman, the commissioned pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Brownsville, Texas, gained some fame in Presbyterian circles as the mastermind of a photo scavenger hunt with a purpose — getting parishioners at the church she serves and at First Presbyterian Church in Mission, Texas, where she’s part-time coordinator for Congregational Development, more familiar with multiple options available through the Presbyterian Giving Catalog. 
Catherine McAuley, who founded the Sisters of Mercy in 1831, once said, “We are like the compass that goes round its circle without stirring from its center. We have one solid comfort in all our tripping about. Our center is in God, from whom all our actions spring from their source.” 
When the Rev. Dr. Christina Berry enrolled her congregation to become a Matthew 25 church, little did she know just how the Spirit would move among them. After reviewing the areas of focus that her flock could engage in — building congregational vitality, dismantling structural racism and eradicating systemic poverty — focusing on vitality made the most sense for an all-white congregation living in the shadow of glory days gone by. 
When Pennfield Presbyterian Church in Battle Creek, Michigan, wanted to re-landscape its flowerbeds and memorial garden in 2019, the Rev. Annemarie S. Kidder knew it would “take money.” The church sits on 5 acres of hillside and has expansive 20-foot-wide flowerbeds. A garden show was created as a fundraiser, and with several garden lovers in the congregation, the show expanded to include walks through those members’ beautiful gardens, Kidder said. 
Danica McCardle’s grandmother’s favorite proverb is “Train children in the right way, and when old, they will not stray.” It seems 13-year-old Danica is being trained in the faith well. Presbyterians Today talked with the Girl Scout, who wants to someday be a paleontologist, about God, servanthood and the Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies that were part of the “Cookies and Milk” coffee hour she hosted at West Nottingham Presbyterian Church in Colora, Maryland. 
The Rev. Dr. Erin Swenson finally met someone who shared her experience of being a transgender woman in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).