COVID-19 and its attendant restrictions on gathering has led Stony Point Center in New York to permanently lay off 40 of its 49 staff, part of a plan co-director Rick Ufford-Chase says is a retooling to survive the pandemic and keep the facility open for small group use. Read more »
June 19, 2020
Owing to the pandemic, Stony Point Center forced to eliminate most of its staff
COVID-19 and its attendant restrictions on gathering has led Stony Point Center in New York to permanently lay off 40 of its 49 staff, part of a plan co-director Rick Ufford-Chase says is a retooling to survive the pandemic and keep the facility open for small group use. Read more »
When author and artist P. Lynn Miller proposed the theme of “lament” to the national Bible Study Committee of Presbyterian Women four years ago, no one had any idea how timely the topic would be now. 
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a dramatic shift in the way organizations around the country are conducting business. For the first time in the history of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the organization will not hold an in-person General Assembly. This year the 224th General Assembly, originally scheduled to be held in Baltimore, will be a virtual event. 
Martha H. Reisner, a church consultant for the Board of Pensions, used to pick her churches based on how good the musical program was. Then, when she married a Presbyterian minister, Reisner gained a denominational home — and the Rev. Jim Reisner gained an accomplished soloist for his church choir. 
On one of the final days before commissioners to the 224th General Assembly (2020) will be asked to change it from a commission that can take actions on its own to a committee that makes recommendations, the Moving Forward Implementation Commission on Thursday issued a five-page administrative supplement. 
A timely and sometimes painful discussion on the impact of COVID-19 and racism on Native Americans ended on a hopeful note Tuesday, with a panelist invoking an image from nature. 
Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing those who were enslaved, in January 1863. However, it wasn’t until two years later, on June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers landed in Galveston, Texas, with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. After this, more than 250,000 slaves across Texas learned that they were free. 
Congregations striving to maintain their outward incarnational focus, one of the seven marks of congregational vitality, can thrive for at least two reasons: they’re ministering to others while at the same time being ministered to. 
In Gail Godwin’s book “The Finishing School,” which features an older woman and a 14-year-old girl, the woman tells the girl she can tell by looking whether a person has congealed. That person will have no more surprises, the woman tells her young friend, and to avoid the trap she must constantly be on guard against gelling too soon. It’s a valued vignette in one of the Rev. Dr. Lib Caldwell’s favorite books. 
Like most organizations, PC(USA)-affiliated camp and retreat centers were blindsided by the recent COVID-19 pandemic that has swept through the country and world over the past several months. Stay-at-home and social distancing orders struck the very heart and infrastructure of summer camp and retreat resident ministries. But amidst it all, associate for Christian Formation Brian Frick — who has oversight of PC(USA)-affiliated camps and retreats — sees positive outcomes for 2020 that hopefully carry over into 2021.