Questions and answers about finance dominated the conversation at this fall’s A Corp Board meeting, held Thursday and Friday at the Presbyterian Historical Society.
Meeting in Baltimore, the Moving Forward Implementation Commission voted this week to convene the leadership of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, Office of the General Assembly and the A Corporation for what it called “an honest and open examination” of the 2021-22 budget “in order to establish a unified approach and plan for budgeting for the upcoming cycle.”
Second Presbyterian Church in Chicago is among 10 churches around the country to receive a total of $1.9 million in repair and restoration funds designed to safeguard their physical legacies and strengthen the value they contribute to their communities.
The grants were announced in a news release Thursday by the National Fund for Sacred Places.
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.”
Nearly all (90%) of Presbyterians pray at least several times a week and nearly half (42%) read the Bible on their own at least several times a week. Middle-aged and older Presbyterians engage in these spiritual disciplines more frequently than younger Presbyterians do.
Mere moments after the final credits of “Flint: The Poisoning of an American City” rolled, Harold Woodson was on stage of the Capitol Theatre Thursday giving the documentary an endorsement that affirmed it had accomplished some of its major goals.
How do ministers fulfill their call? Who are they? What did they learn in seminary? What didn’t they learn in seminary? How are they impacted by changes in society and their communities? Moreover, how do changes in the life of the church and in society as a whole affect the emotional and physical well-being of a minister?
These are important questions. Right now, the church is unable to answer them, but that is about to change.
