Nearly 19,000 unaccompanied minors entered U.S. border custody in March, an all-time monthly record. The onslaught of lone minors overwhelmed the U.S. government’s infrastructure and intake process. The largest Border Patrol facility for migrant children was at 1,640% capacity in late March, holding more than 3,200 unaccompanied minors in a facility designed for 250 people. Read more »
May 6, 2021
Grace Presbytery shows grace to migrant teens
Nearly 19,000 unaccompanied minors entered U.S. border custody in March, an all-time monthly record. The onslaught of lone minors overwhelmed the U.S. government’s infrastructure and intake process. The largest Border Patrol facility for migrant children was at 1,640% capacity in late March, holding more than 3,200 unaccompanied minors in a facility designed for 250 people. Read more »
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Mental Health Ministry and the Presbyterian Mental Health Network are encouraging churches to use the month of May to emphasize the importance of mental health. 
“I am so excited,” said the Rev. Samuel Son, the PC(USA)’s Manager of Diversity and Reconciliation, “that we get to hear from this philosopher, prophet and preacher.”
That was the cue for Dr. Jonathan Tran, Associate Professor of Philosophical Theology and George W. Baines Chair of Religion at Baylor University, to start preaching remotely during a Wednesday Chapel Service attended by more than 80 of the PC(USA)’s national staff, a service offered by the denomination’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion team.
And preach Tran did. 
The Rev. Dr. Ted A. Smith, Professor of Preaching and Ethics in the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, presented the fourth and final 2021 Sprunt Lecture Wednesday, hosted by Union Presbyterian Seminary. The final virtual lecture was followed by a Q&A session on the overall lecture theme “No Longer Shall they Teach One Another: The End of Theological Education.” 
A Missouri congregation set up bluebird boxes in its sprawling church gardens, and the rare birds have taken up residence. 
Recently, the Office of the General Assembly released the 2020 annual statistics report showing a decline in membership last year at just over 56,000, which is about the same loss rate as has been reported since 2016. For 2020, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) counts a total membership of about 1.24 million members, with the total number of congregations at 8,925. 
Since 2017, grassroots actions on May 5 to honor and call for justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG) have increasingly grown at the local, regional, national and international level. 
The second Linda Kay Klein heard that the gunman in the March 16 shootings at three Atlanta spas considered his victims “stumbling blocks,” she knew he had been raised in purity culture. 
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) supports Christian witness in the Czech Republic through a long and active partnership with the Evangelical Church of the Czech Brethren (ECCB), which strengthened after the fall of communism in 1989. Old friendships were renewed and new friendships were built. 
Before launching into the third of his four Sprunt Lectures Tuesday evening, the Rev. Dr. Ted A. Smith offered what he called “a sermonic interlude” based on Jeremiah 31:31-34.