Dec. 14 marks the seven-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook tragedy, when 26 people, including 20 first-graders, were shot and killed in their elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. Many people thought that inconceivable event would be the tipping point in our public and legislative complacency following mass shooting incidents in this country. Sadly, since then we have instead grown increasingly numb, as these events have become the “new normal” and 600,000 Americans have been killed or injured by guns in the subsequent years. Read more »
November 12, 2019
Minute for Mission: National Gun Violence Prevention Sabbath Weekend
Dec. 14 marks the seven-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook tragedy, when 26 people, including 20 first-graders, were shot and killed in their elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. Many people thought that inconceivable event would be the tipping point in our public and legislative complacency following mass shooting incidents in this country. Sadly, since then we have instead grown increasingly numb, as these events have become the “new normal” and 600,000 Americans have been killed or injured by guns in the subsequent years. Read more »
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” That’s how the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights begins. The declaration was drafted in response to the calamities and barbarous acts experiences by people all over the world during World War II. This year marks the 71st anniversary of this historic document in moral consciousness that has been a beacon of hope and purpose throughout the world. The United States was instrumental in this effort, and Eleanor Roosevelt was the driving force in the drafting the document that would become the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 
The stress of everyday living often blinds us to the blessings we enjoy. Thanksgiving Day, then, provides an eye-opening opportunity. It is an occasion to remind ourselves of the gifts God has given and to give thanks for them. Gratitude is a crucial component of Christian discipleship. Meister Eckhart, the German mystic of the Middle Ages, wrote, “The most important prayer in the world is just two words long: ‘Thank You.’ ” 
Today marks the 31st anniversary of World AIDS Day, and Presbyterians are encouraged to participate as part of Presbyterian HIV/AIDS Awareness. This year’s theme is “Know your status.” 
“They said their teacher has not come,” said Peter, the education facilitator for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) partner Across, translated from Anyuak to English. 
As a boy growing up in Brazil, the Rev. Dr. Cláudio Carvalhaes said he was afraid of the dark. At bedtime it comforted him that his father had the light on in the next room. “I could see the light where he was, and that was my resting place,” said Carvalhaes, associate professor of worship at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, during last week’s “Responding to an Exodus: Gospel Hospitality and Empire” celebration of 35 years of ministry by Presbyterian Border Region Outreach’s Frontera de Cristo. Carvalhaes led a Friday morning workshop he called “Preaching from the Darkness” at First Presbyterian Church in Douglas, Arizona. 
Early in September, an ambitious denomination-wide effort was launched. A comprehensive survey, labeled appropriately the Minister Survey, allows Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Research Services to ask questions about issues of deep importance to the denomination. 
Raised in both Douglas, Arizona and nearby Agua Prieta, which is just south of the U.S.-Mexico border, artist and community college instructor M. Jenea Sanchez has an interest in the kind of public art that’s a simultaneous expression of hope and resistance. 
In the Mission Yearbook message for this Veterans Day, the Rev. (Capt.) Lyman M. Smith, director of the Presbyterian Council for Chaplains and Military Personnel, (PCCMP) writes, “More than 18 million veterans live among us. And of those 18 million, some 18 are likely to die by suicide today.” 
In mid-August, a video crew supported by Blessed Tomorrow, a Presbyterian Hunger Program partner, filmed chapel service at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville. Portions of the service, as well as an interview with the Rev. Dr. Diane Moffett, Presbyterian Mission Agency president and executive director, are featured in a new climate action video, “Jesus Calls Us.”