Dear university presidents and chancellors,
We write to you as members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), a 300-year-old institution that divested from companies profiting from the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory in 2014. We encourage you to take similar measures at your university. Read more »
May 3, 2024
Israel/Palestine Mission Network pens letter to university leaders calling for divestment in the Holy Land
Dear university presidents and chancellors,
We write to you as members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), a 300-year-old institution that divested from companies profiting from the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory in 2014. We encourage you to take similar measures at your university. Read more »
On Thursday, members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation Board of Directors were briefed on the proposed unified budgets for 2025 and 2026, budgets that will authorize the upcoming work not only of the Administrative Services Group, but the Presbyterian Mission Agency and Office of the General Assembly as those two entities continue to unify under the guidance of the Unification Commission. 
Flautist, futurist, bandleader and composer Nicole Mitchell Gantt joined the Rev. Jermaine Ross-Allam Wednesday for the second installment of the Matthew 25 series, “Imagining a Future Beyond Systemic Poverty and Structural Racism.” 
The Rev. Michelle Scott-Huffman, campus minister of Ekklesia Progressive Campus Ministry at Missouri State University in Springfield, preached for the first time in her career on Psalm 23 during Chapel Service on Wednesday, the first day of Mental Health Month. 
Terry Stokes, who wrote the upcoming book “Jesus and the Abolitionists: How Anarchist Christianity Empowers the People,” said during a recent “A Matter of Faith” podcast that he wrote the book to help people “look at anarchy and grab insights and inspiration for how to reshape our theology and our practice within our communities and our society.” 
Membership had gone from 1,400 to about 160 over the decades. Maintaining a 10-acre campus, with a tall-steeple sanctuary built in 1950, drained money and energy. Church leaders struggled with the implications of closing or merging.
It’s not a new story.
However, Evergreen Presbyterian Church in Memphis, Tennessee, is writing a new chapter not only in a nontraditional place, but with new friends and missions. 
With every event of gun violence, does the Spirit tug at you to do something? Yet what? And how? And do I have the courage and skill to do it? Or… I’ve been working on this — how do I become more effective?
If these questions call to you, the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship invites you — and perhaps others from your church — to attend the inaugural James Atwood Institute for Congregational Courage at the Ghost Ranch Education and Retreat Center in Abiquiu, New Mexico, August 22-25. Honoring the late Presbyterian prophet of gun violence prevention, James Atwood, the Institute will offer intense continuing education for clergy and lay leaders in a range of educational, pastoral and action strategies for gun violence prevention mission in the local congregation. 
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Office of Public Witness joined with more than 100 additional immigrant, refugee, human rights and humanitarian organizations urging Congress to introduce and pass legislation that supports reinstating funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, known as UNRWA. The letter calls it a “moral and strategic failure” to suspend funding during a period of catastrophe and extreme need. 
The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival announced Monday that it will once again hold an assembly and march in Washington, D.C., to call attention to the plight of poor and low-wage workers, push for moral public policies and encourage people to vote. 
For nearly 30 years, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) through its Committee on Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) has worked to engage corporations to adopt better and more just environmental policies and practices to mitigate the escalating impact of climate change.