Presbyterian congregations are responding to homelessness around the country. They are preparing meals and sharing produce from community gardens, offering shelter on cold nights, assisting with job skills training and participating in Congregation-Based Community Organizing (CBCO). Read more »
October 17, 2019
Minute for Mission: Hunger and Homelessness Sunday
Presbyterian congregations are responding to homelessness around the country. They are preparing meals and sharing produce from community gardens, offering shelter on cold nights, assisting with job skills training and participating in Congregation-Based Community Organizing (CBCO). Read more »
The Presbyterian Committee on Mission Responsibility through Investing is joining with New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer and a coalition of 25 major investors in calling on General Motors to join its peers in a compromise agreement with California and other states for clean vehicle standards. 
“We make our own history,” Eleanor Roosevelt said. “The course of history is directed by the choices we make and our choices grow out of the ideas, the beliefs, the values, the dreams of the people. It is not so much the powerful leaders that determine our destiny as the much more powerful influence of the combined voice of the people themselves.” 
Last summer, the Rev. Dr. José Irizarry took a mission trip to Puerto Rico with 10 teenagers from his church. They knew he’d been a university professor and administrator, and on a break from repairing houses, they circled him, wanting how-tos on college life. Irizarry describes the trip as “part work, part worship and part listening.” 
The Book of Genesis may spell out God’s plan of salvation. But the Rev. Dr. Renita Weems told nearly 800 people attending the closing worship at this year’s Big Tent that “sometimes I wish God would save us without asking us to participate in salvation. Just get on with it, God! But God continuously invites flawed, inconsistent people to participate with God.” 
For nearly 15 years, a certificate has hung on a sparsely occupied bulletin board on the back wall in the sanctuary of Laguna United Presbyterian Church in Casa Blanca, New Mexico. For the only Native American congregation in Santa Fe Presbytery, this now-faded certificate represented much more than a tradition or achievement. Every time they walked by it, it was a reminder of their congregation’s commitment to participate in the life of the church — a church that spans beyond their Casa Blanca community. 
In the first seven months of this year, more than 20 school shootings occurred. The refrain “I never thought this would happen here” has become a mantra on the evening news. The circle of those experiencing trauma — or knowing someone who has — widens daily. 
Civility is easy when we’re in our comfort zone, but civility becomes more challenging as we move away from that easy place. But that’s what we need to do — and there’s a way to do it.
That was part of the message Dr. Deirdre “Dede” Johnston brought to this year’s Synod School when she addressed civility in a time of incivility as the midsummer ministry’s convocation speaker. 
I never thought of myself as a crafty person. The small motor skills required for sewing or crocheting make my brow knit in frustration. Coloring books meant to lower blood pressure increase mine. But I confess that there have been weeks where I’ve been crafting some sort of visual aid to go with the sermon I’m preparing. 
Should you visit the village of Belleau, France, today you will find in their cemetery one grave graced by an American flag. Ernest Stricker is buried among the villagers. Each year the staff of the local military cemetery ensure that his grave is decorated. Stricker is the last American soldier to die in the battle of Belleau Wood.