Some of the challenges that churches and society faced 50 years ago are still challenges today, attendees at Ecumenical Advocacy Weekend learned. More than 200 members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) joined other denominations this spring for a weekend of worship, workshops and activism, a few short blocks from the Pentagon. Read more »
June 8, 2017
Ecumenical Advocacy Weekend rallies churches to become more active
Some of the challenges that churches and society faced 50 years ago are still challenges today, attendees at Ecumenical Advocacy Weekend learned. More than 200 members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) joined other denominations this spring for a weekend of worship, workshops and activism, a few short blocks from the Pentagon. Read more »
Presbyterians are generally allergic to the prosperity gospel, the belief among many Christians that God blesses those who bless God. Prosperity gospel is a good idea, but it begins to get tricky when we believe that those who are faithful to God will always be blessed by financial wealth and good health. 
Rural farmers in India are celebrating the certification of Udaipur’s Gati Village as Rajasthan’s first fully organic farming community. The designation will allow Gati to market its crops and products internationally. Nearly 300 farm families are covered by the designation as they seek to market major crops which include wheat and corn. 
Fifty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech that provided the foundation for this year’s theme at Compassion, Peace and Justice Training Day. Speaking at Riverside Church in New York, King provided a connection between the war in Vietnam and the civil rights movement. 
In this year in which we celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, we also mark 180 years of Presbyterian mission abroad. During these years, much of the nature of mission and of how Presbyterians think about mission has changed or, at the very least, been supplemented or clarified by new ideas. 
Doris Garcia Rivera, president of the Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico, remembers how grateful she was, standing on the stage at a meeting of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board earlier this year in Puerto Rico.
When Tony De La Rosa, the agency’s interim executive director, presented a $10,000 DREAM Grant check to the Synod of Puerto Rico for use by the seminary, Garcia Rivera was ecstatic. 
A previously little-known resource within the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Communications ministry of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has new life, thanks to the results of a 2015 survey and assessment. The Presbyterian Communicators Network was created in 2004 as a response to a General Assembly Mission Work Plan, which called for enhancing communications efforts across the denomination and creating a system that promotes dialogue within the church. The network’s primary mission is to link Presbyterians who are officially responsible for communications in their synod, presbytery or congregation through on-site workshops, e-newsletters, social media and other vehicles. 
The Rev. Evan Harrison of Sunnyside Presbyterian Church in Fayetteville, North Carolina had an idea. Given to him by God, he says, through inspiration he received watching Presbyterian Mission Agency 1001 New Worshiping Community videos — and from what he saw happening in churches throughout the Coastal Carolina Presbytery. 
Presbyterian churches and institutions will have the opportunity to hear firsthand accounts of what it is like to be a hometown refugee. Nora Arsenian Carmi is one of at least 15 individuals who will be visiting Presbyterian churches, mid-councils and other institutions this fall as part of the 2017 International Peacemakers. 
Nearly 700 people of all ages will descend upon a small town in Iowa July 23-28 to sing, study, worship, and play. Synod School, offered by the Synod of Lakes and Prairies at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa, is thriving — and unusual, since it is the only such Presbyterian program left in the country.