Six months had passed since our elders transitioned to more prayerful session meetings. I was checking in with Vic, one of our crustier members who had resisted the change. “So, how are you dealing with the new meeting style?” I asked. Read more »
March 25, 2021
Time for more prayer, less talk
Six months had passed since our elders transitioned to more prayerful session meetings. I was checking in with Vic, one of our crustier members who had resisted the change. “So, how are you dealing with the new meeting style?” I asked. Read more »
It humbles me the extent to which our Roma friends and colleagues practice hospitality, always laying a table for us with whatever they have. They are among the poorest of the poor, marginalized by a society that feels threatened by an alien culture living in their midst. I don’t use the word alien as a negative, just a reality. They are a people with deep traditions, a strong sense of family and community, their own language, their own music, their own style of dress. They do not wish to be assimilated, but they do wish to live in peace with their neighbors, if it is only possible. Often, should a job be posted, as soon as a Roma man or woman applies, it is not available. The Roma are also subject to violence (pogroms) and blamed for any bad incident that takes place in a community. It is assumed that they will steal what is not nailed down. 
Trinity Presbytery recently announced that Rev. William Anderson passed away peacefully on March 22 at the Clinton Presbyterian Community in Clinton, South Carolina. He and wife Lois, who preceded him in death, served as mission co-workers in Africa for 49 years (1951-2000), 37 of those years in Sudan and South Sudan. The couple also served for brief stints in Kenya and Uganda. 
Henry owned a parcel of land. He had bought a 100-by-100-foot lot in a dangerous part of town years ago hoping to make a profit when the neighborhood improved. For a time, he lived in the vacant building on the lot to chase away squatters and even got beat up a few times. Henry was a big man. What I remember most about Henry was the way he walked, with a purposeful stride, wearing a white button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up. My partners and I had gone to see him about buying that piece of property. He was a tough negotiator, but eventually we came to an agreement. 
The Washington Corrections Center for Women is both the largest and the only maximum and medium security prison for women in the state. It’s surrounded by barbed wire, and you have to go through five locked gates to get to the main population. 
Three PC(USA) pastors who serve congregations that have made significant strides helping to provide their neighbors with safe and affordable housing formed the centerpiece of Wednesday’s national Matthew 25 webinar. Nearly 250 people participated. 
The pandemic has forced us to embrace digital technology (Zoom, etc.) like never before, but in many places that has looked a lot different to what it looks like in the USA. 
The pandemic has stretched the Church in many ways — but we are still very much … here. Although it was hard at first, we have expanded our thinking, and our doing, in new and innovative ways to close the distance and be together. We have continued to worship. We have continued to build and shape community; we have continued to take care of one another. And on top of all that, we have continued to come together to serve those in need; both here in our own community and all over the world. Despite the difficulty, struggle and loss, the Church continues to declare its presence in the world, through different means, certainly, but toward the same purpose. 
Victoria Alexander, 22, is passionate about working with and learning from women leaders, so she jumped at the chance to be part of a Presbyterian delegation to the 65th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. 
The Rev. Sameh Shaker and Dr. Mirna Wasef, moderator and vice moderator of the National Middle Eastern Presbyterian Caucus, have released this statement on behalf of the caucus about last week’s shootings in the presbyteries of Greater Atlanta and Cherokee: