The Rev. Lisle Gwynn Garrity spent most of last week’s national gathering of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators turning her back on attendees — allowing them to watch her at work. Read more »
February 4, 2020
‘This is the spiritual practice I am most renewed by’
The Rev. Lisle Gwynn Garrity spent most of last week’s national gathering of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators turning her back on attendees — allowing them to watch her at work. Read more »
“God’s Big Plan,” a new board book by noted Christian educator Elizabeth F. Caldwell and Old Testament scholar Theodore Hiebert, is now available. 
Throughout the summer of 2019, researchers from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary began an intensive study of African American rural ministry. Seminary professors and alumni, in partnership with congregational leaders from Bardstown, Hopkinsville, and Eminence, Kentucky, examined the issues that ministers and congregants address to effectively provide spiritual, social and personal guidance to the rural communities they serve. 
The Fiangonan’i Jesoa Kristy eto Madagasikara (FJKM), PC(USA)’s partner denomination in Madagascar, believes strongly in spreading the gospel and helping people improve their lives. The FJKM also believes that Christians have a responsibility to help preserve Creation. Church leaders often quote Genesis 2:15, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (NIV). Helping people improve their lives while helping to preserve Madagascar’s unique biodiversity is especially challenging given the extent of hunger and poverty in Madagascar and the environmental degradation threatening many species with extinction. The climate crisis is intensifying these challenges. 
Mary Jane Veloso, on death row in Indonesia for more than nine years, is finally celebrating at least a partial legal victory. 
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Public Witness (OPW) is calling on people to oppose expansion of the Trump administration’s “Muslim ban,” including the suspension of several types of visas for people from majority-Muslim countries. 
The nominations for the 2019 Oscar Awards have been out for some time now, and once more I invite you to explore some of the ethical and spiritual values in the major nominated films. This can add to your enjoyment if you plan to watch ABC’s broadcast of the Oscars, set for 8 p.m. Eastern Time Sunday. If some fashionistas can get excited over what stars wear on the red carpet, why not show equal interest in what values are embedded in the nominated movies themselves? 
By way of photo submission, Presbyterians are invited to tell the world the ways their church, mid council or organization is carrying out the Matthew 25 invitation and the Hands and Feet initiative. 
When Gail Cafferata faced closing the church she pastored, her experience brought to mind a million questions about her call, leadership and future. Inspired by her experience and wanting to explore other pastors who were called to serve churches that closed, she embarked upon a sociological study, diving into the experiences of more than 130 pastors in five historically established denominations (Episcopal, Lutheran, United Methodist, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and United Church of Christ). Westminster John Knox Press is proud to announce the release of her book, “The Last Pastor: Faithfully Steering a Closing Church,” which explores the hard-won lessons of the pastors she interviewed about their journeys through church decline and closing. 
Another hot and dry summer last year caused many heat-related issues and stresses for farmers in Central Europe. Plants had to be watered around the clock, just to keep them alive.