At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Presbyterians researched their church histories in hopes of discovering how congregations responded to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. Some were dismayed, though, to find that there was little to no mention of the flu in session minutes. Trinity Presbyterian Church, however, is making sure history doesn’t forget its response to the current pandemic. The Valdosta, Georgia, congregation has created a photobook called “Porch Pictures.” Read more »
November 18, 2020
Congregation chronicles COVID-19 in pictures
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Presbyterians researched their church histories in hopes of discovering how congregations responded to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. Some were dismayed, though, to find that there was little to no mention of the flu in session minutes. Trinity Presbyterian Church, however, is making sure history doesn’t forget its response to the current pandemic. The Valdosta, Georgia, congregation has created a photobook called “Porch Pictures.” Read more »
While congregations and new worshiping communities are facing unprecedented challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, they are also innovating by learning new technologies, starting new missions and finding new ways to be the Church while social distancing. A new report from PC(USA) Research Services describes some of the challenges that worshiping communities are facing and provides a peek at the new things that are springing forth. 
“Many hands make light work.” “Teamwork makes the dream work.” “If we all do a little, it adds up to a lot.”
There are lots of ways to say it — but working together really does make bigger and better things possible. And, lots of times, working together makes it more fun, too. In fact, there are times made better just by our ability to be together, to be with one another. 
The ministry of presence is important in God’s mission. Yet even when a global pandemic causes cancellation of short-term mission trips, congregations and presbyteries in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) are showing care and compassion in creative and urgently needed ways from afar. 
How to put an end to the killing of schoolchildren and thousands of others in Cameroon — and ways to support Cameroonians seeking asylum in other countries, including the United States — was the topic of a webinar Tuesday attended by more than 300 people. 
Add the Presbytery of Milwaukee to the list of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mid councils and churches to help heal people by wiping away their medical debt. 
“Blessed is the church that trusts in the grace of Christ to build congregational vitality,” said Ruling Elder Elona Street-Stewart, Co-Moderator of the 224th General Assembly (2020). This is just one of the Beatitudes read by Street-Stewart and the Rev. Gregory Jerome Bentley, Co-Moderator of the 224th General Assembly, as they opened the newly recorded Matthew 25 worship service. 
When the decision was made earlier this year to hold a virtual assembly, not only did Ruling Elder Elona Street-Stewart and the Rev. Gregory Bentley, Co-Moderators of the 224th General Assembly (2020), have to forego a trip to Baltimore, but they also missed out on the time-honored tradition of gathering with their predecessors who have also held the denomination’s highest elected office.
Thanks to #GivingTuesday, their wait is over. 
If a sacrament may be defined as a visible sign of an invisible grace, in a similarly sacramental fashion, God’s grace and love are on abundant, if mostly virtual, display through “Links of Love,” a colorful paper chain representing Presbyterian generosity across the denomination, country and globe. 
Whoever wrote the book of Hebrews — especially the 11th chapter, which the Presbyterian Association of Musicians was studying as part of its online 50th anniversary celebration — wasn’t a very careful reader of the biblical account of humankind’s first murder, told in Genesis 4:10-10.