Even though she’s 101 years old, Mary Conklin of Winnebago, Minnesota has not attended every edition of Synod School, which debuted in 1954. But she has been a part of most of the last 50 or so versions of the beloved gathering, put on each year by the Synod of Lakes & Prairies and attended by about 540 people this year, ranging in age from 5 months to 101 years. Read more »
July 25, 2024
Synod Schooler who’s 101 is thrilled to be back where she belongs
Even though she’s 101 years old, Mary Conklin of Winnebago, Minnesota has not attended every edition of Synod School, which debuted in 1954. But she has been a part of most of the last 50 or so versions of the beloved gathering, put on each year by the Synod of Lakes & Prairies and attended by about 540 people this year, ranging in age from 5 months to 101 years. Read more »
Synod School’s excellent house band pumped out Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family.” The Scripture selection was Mark 3:31-35, an account of Jesus setting the crowd straight on who his family really is. Even Erin Kaye’s a time for children got Synod School’s youngest attendees to think about what their family means to them. 
Dr. Corey Schlosser-Hall, the convocation speaker during Synod School this week, used a pair of videos to help demonstrate some of what God is up to in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Watch the videos Schlosser-Hall showed to the 540 or so people attending Synod School here and here. 
Across the nation from the gathering of the PC(USA)’s 226th General Assembly, the Poor People’s Campaign held an assembly of its own in Washington, D.C., and it featured spirited comments from two Presbyterian pastors.
The Mass Poor People’s and Low Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March featured talks by both the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-founder of the Poor People’s Campaign and director of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights & Social Justice, and the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, the PC(USA)’s advocacy director. 
Amidst the background of a “Ceasefire Now” sign and attendees holding signs with the same message, Christian groups gathered in front of the United Methodist building in Washington D.C., Wednesday morning just hours before Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was scheduled to address Congress. The Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP), of which the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is a denomination member, sponsored and organized the prayer vigil, which featured several notable Christian and Muslim leaders, including the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, director of advocacy for the PC(USA)’s Office of Public Witness. 
Over nearly a year, the United Korean Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Maryland, undertook what the Rev. Josh Park calls “a significant project” to amend its bylaws to align more closely with the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). 
In all of Church World Service’s (CWS) programs, there is an element that allows us to thrive: our partnerships. We recently took the time to appreciate one of these partnerships when our PC(USA) friends and colleagues Ellen Smith, regional liaison for Central and Eastern Europe, and Luciano Kovacs, Middle East and Europe area coordinator, visited CWS programs in Bihac in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Belgrade in Serbia. 
Preaching to an online congregation of about 85 people during the Chapel service held on Juneteenth, the Rev. Keion Jackson leaned on the account found in Deuteronomy 31:1–6, which depicts Moses, on the precipice of leading God’s people into the Promised Land, instead turning things over to his successor Joshua, at God’s command, and instructing the people to be strong and bold. 
The annual Worship & Music Conference of the Presbyterian Association of Musicians kicked off two weeks of offerings in Montreat, North Carolina, with evening worship, followed by a full schedule of classes in choral and congregational music, lessons in specific instruments, hymn-writing, liturgy and preaching.
In the winter of 2023, a team of archivists at the Presbyterian Historical Society began the process of reparative description on the records of Tucson Indian Training School. Over the next six months, they worked not only to remove outdated and harmful language, but to enhance the descriptions of students so that their full names, tribal affiliations, and experiences are better represented in the collection.