Those attending closing worship Saturday at the national gathering of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators shared communion around round tables, rocked along with musicians David LaMotte and Zach Light-Wells, enjoyed music provided by the University of the Ozarks Chamber Singers and heard one last time from the Rev. Dr. Theresa Cho, pastor of St. John’s Presbyterian Church in San Francisco.
Now retired after serving the First Presbyterian Church of Libertyville, Ill., the Rev. Roberta Dodds Ingersoll described during a workshop this week how congregants at First Church became more comfortable talking about their death, or that of a loved one.
One of Lisa Sharon Harper’s favorite talks is her take on Matthew 25, which she shared Friday morning with the approximately 650 people attending the national gathering of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators.
Mission statements are common among Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) churches and mid councils. The problem, according to the Rev. Dr. Theresa Cho, is that they usually don’t “tell us how to go about” the mission.
Justice is at the very heart of who God is, Professor Rebecca Davis of Union Presbyterian Seminary said during a Thursday workshop at the annual gathering of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators. And justice is not a political issue — it’s a biblical issue. “We must come to grips with that,” she said to an overflow workshop crowd, “if we are going to be faithful to the witness of the church.”
With artist Hannah Garrity of A Sanctified Art painting on a large canvas as they worshiped, the 650 or so people attending the annual gathering of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators opened their four days together Wednesday with a sermon by the Rev. Dr. Theresa Cho.
With the authority of someone who’s been important to the civil rights movement since she was a 15-year-old high school junior, Elizabeth Ann Eckford offered the annual gathering of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators Wednesday a firsthand account of her year as a member of the Little Rock Nine, the African American students chosen in 1957 to begin the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock three years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools are unconstitutional.
Dave believed so strongly that in life and in death, we belong to God,” said Mary Katherine Robinson, pastor and head of staff at Black Mountain Presbyterian Church in Black Mountain, North Carolina, the home church of the Rev. David Vines Miller and his wife, Polly, since their retirement from mission service in 1994.
“As a missionary of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for 40 years in Africa, he spread that good news all over Congo, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and every corner of the world he touched!” Robinson said of Miller, who died at his home in North Carolina, surrounded by family members, on Dec. 23, 2019 at age 93. “Even though our hearts are broken over the loss of this vibrant and faithful servant of God, may we continue to be a people of hope as we witness to the resurrection.”
Preaching from Deut. 6:4-9, a text she described as both aspirational and inspirational, the Rev. MaryAnn McKibben Dana sent about 900 people attending the College Conference at Montreat home Sunday morning with a closing worship message focused on Sabbath and remembering.
