Communication Archives

NFL superstar Micah Parsons scores big for a PC(USA) congregation in California

Posted September 15th, 2023

Just ahead of the Dallas Cowboys’ opening season shutout against the New York Giants on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” on Sept. 10, Cowboys’ linebacker Micah Parsons, scored another decisive win.

Presbyterian hymnwriter pens anniversary hymns for congregations marking milestones

Posted September 12th, 2023

Presbyterian hymnwriter the Rev. Dr. John A. Dalles has completed several new anniversary hymns for congregations marking special milestones — some of them going back centuries.

The PC(USA)’s Westminster John Knox Press publishes a spiritual travel book

Posted September 5th, 2023

Lori Erickson has long searched for the sacred in locations and cultures far from home as well as in her beloved Iowa. But when the pandemic put both air travel and in-person worship off-limits, Erickson and her husband hit the road with a camper in tow to discover spiritual sites and experiences in their own home country.

Presbyterian film critic: ‘Oppenheimer’ draws cautionary lessons from the Bible and other ancient texts

Posted August 31st, 2023

Just as Christians divide history according to the birth of Christ, so we might divide modern history by another birth, July 16, 1945 —BAB and AAB, Before the Atom Bomb and After the Atom Bomb. The test, named “Trinity” by Robert Oppenheimer because he loved the poetry of John Donne, produced a new world, one in which humanity could possibly destroy itself. A dangerous era was born, one that could not be revoked. Christopher Nolan’s massive film, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography “American Prometheus” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, shows how the scientist that presided over Trinity clearly understood this. His obsession with how the A-bomb would be used after the war even led to his professional undoing. In some ways, this scientific thriller can be viewed as a cautionary film.

First Presbyterian Church Near Ely, Iowa, sets its missional sights on Ukraine

Posted August 28th, 2023

The lines of 164 years of Czech history at First Presbyterian Church Near Ely, Iowa blurred with current day Ukraine and the result was unexpectedly amazing.

Thursday’s Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation Board meeting includes a sunny financial report

Posted August 24th, 2023

Meeting via Zoom on Thursday, the Presbyterian Church, A Corporation Board of Directors made short work of its agenda, taking a few actions and providing a handful of updates before voting to enter into closed session to discuss personnel, property, litigation and security matters.

The PC(USA)’s Unification Commission sets July 1, 2025, as the date for unifying the Presbyterian Mission Agency and the Office of the General Assembly

Posted August 20th, 2023

Dividing its time almost evenly between closed and open sessions on Sunday, the Unification Commission — which is working to unify the Office of the General Assembly and the Presbyterian Mission Agency — voted to approve a timeline to complete its work by the 227th General Assembly in 2026.

The Rev. Dr. John Goodman, appreciated as a volunteer at PC(USA) General Assemblies for his knowledge of polity, dies at 81

Posted August 16th, 2023

The Rev. Dr. John Robert Goodman, a pastor and mid council executive appreciated and respected for his polity knowledge proffered at the many General Assemblies he served as a volunteer, died Aug. 8 in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He was 81.

Bill Craig, part of a fifth-generation family at Siloam Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, is remembered for a life well lived

Posted August 15th, 2023

William Alan Craig, better known as Bill, a Presbyterian ruling elder of varied interests and copious abilities, was remembered Saturday by friends and family members at Siloam Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, New York. Watch Craig’s celebration of life, which opened with a Connecting Links ceremony, by going here. The service begins at the 30-minute mark.

Synod of the Covenant webinar explores a third model for preachers

Posted August 11th, 2023

“Preaching and Conflict” was the topic of the Rev. Dr. Aimee Moiso’s Equipping Preachers webinar for the Synod of the Covenant last week, and participants came away with a third preaching model — relational preaching — to add to the traditional models of prophetic and pastoral preaching.