In the middle of this chaotic summer of 2020, I find myself one early Saturday morning at the recently opened pool that we use in the summer. Perhaps due to my vocation, youth ministry, I really enjoy and learn from observing and listening to young people. Read more »
July 28, 2020
Minute for Mission: Youth in the Church and World
In the middle of this chaotic summer of 2020, I find myself one early Saturday morning at the recently opened pool that we use in the summer. Perhaps due to my vocation, youth ministry, I really enjoy and learn from observing and listening to young people. Read more »
Synod School, a Synod of Lakes and Prairies event anticipated by hundreds of Presbyterians each summer, launched Monday with thought-provoking online classes ahead of Monday evening’s virtual plenary gathering. 
With the 75th anniversary of the U.S. bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima drawing near, the Washington office of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is drumming up support for legislation to keep the testing of nuclear explosives a thing of the past. 
Just how powerful is prayer? On Sunday morning I was greeted by an email from a colleague at the Presbyterian Mission Agency with these words: May you feel the love and receive strength from all the prayers coming your way this day. 
I have sat down to write this blog almost a hundred times. Each time I have given up after a couple of minutes. 
Presbytery of Detroit leaders recently published an open letter, written “from a place of deep pain and anger as we witness the division and inequality laid bare by (the coronavirus), particularly in our region.” 
On the last day of Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) orientation, we are sent off to be commissioned at churches in the Hudson River Valley near Stony Point Center. Several churches in the area agree to host small groups of YAVs for worship where we are commissioned for our year of service, followed by a meal and conversations. We as YAVs come as we are, bringing our whole selves, exhausted from the past week of orientation, to a table of strangers, to share our intentions for our year of service and what we have already begun learning during the first week. 
At the end of March, when schools, businesses and churches began closing their doors to curb the spread of COVID-19, the youth of Myers Park Presbyterian Church came up with an idea. The Charlotte, North Carolina, teens wanted those in the community to know that they weren’t alone. 
The Rev. Karen Brown’s first encounter with the Presbyterian Committee on the Self Development of People was an unqualified success. 
As protests against racism continued in Oregon and other parts of the country, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Office of Public Witness held a webinar this week explaining the importance of challenging the status quo and making one’s voice heard through the ballot box.