Together with a few ecumenical partners, “Solidarity with the Suffering,” a 35-member delegation of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Israel/Palestine Mission Network returned home last week after eight days of solidarity with people who are suffering and mourning the deaths of those who have died in the war in Gaza between Hamas and Israel.
Planning has begun for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s next Young Adult Advocacy Conference, which is set to take place this fall on the Charlotte campus of Union Presbyterian Seminary in North Carolina.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Office of Public Witness has again issued an Action Alert, asking Presbyterians to advocate for a ceasefire and an increase in humanitarian aid for Gaza.
Telling the Parable of the Good Samaritan from the perspective of the man who’d been beaten and left for dead, the Rev. Cedric Portis Sr. preached a rousing and thought-provoking sermon during opening worship Wednesday for the Annual Event of the Association of Partners in Christian Education, meeting in St. Louis and online through Saturday.
When a crowd was gathered on the hill to hear Jesus preach and the crowd was hungry, the disciples wanted to send them away. Instead, Jesus instructs them in Mark’s gospel, “you give them something to eat.”
“Trouble the Water,” a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) docuseries that encourages constructive conversations about race and racism, has been selected for wider distribution and is being knitted together into a full-length feature film that will be available for home viewing early this year.
The annual meeting of the Society of Christian Ethics in Chicago, Jan. 4-8, showed a great generational transition in the professors who teach religious ethics in seminaries, divinity schools, colleges and universities. The SCE is an ecumenical professional association of almost 1,000 members, including as many as 90 Presbyterians in recent years.
Last week as part of the lead-up to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presbyterian Peace Fellowship offered an informative webinar featuring author and scholar Dr. Michael Long, who most recently edited “Bayard Rustin: A Legacy of Protest and Politics” about the man most responsible for organizing the landmark March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.
On Tuesday, Columbia University’s Dr. Obery M. Hendricks, Jr. , one of the nation’s foremost commentators on religion and the political economy, warned an online crowd the nation is “at such a dangerous point” that “if we don’t push back against those who weaponize the Bible very soon, they might just get the upper hand, and we and our descendants will suffer.”
Jamie Bruesehoff, the most recent guest on “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast,” recalled the first day her transgender daughter, Rebekah, came to church as herself. The one person whom Bruesehoff feared might cause problems for her and her husband, the pastor of the church, made a beeline for the pastor following worship.
