Education

Leading through strength of diversity

A self-described “proud South African,” Dr. Warren Chalklen had plenty to teach the 1,000 or so people attending last week’s online national gathering of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators about how diversity makes churches and organizations stronger.

Westminster John Knox Press releases three new Bible studies

Westminster John Knox Press is excited to announce the publication of three new Bible studies: “Lies My Preacher Told Me: An Honest Look at the Old Testament” by Brent A. Strawn, “The Flawed Family of God: Stories about the Imperfect Families in Genesis” by Carolyn B. Helsel and Song-Mi Suzie Park, and “From Daughters to Disciples: Women’s Stories in the New Testament” by Lynn Japinga. These three new Bible studies offer opportunities for individual and group reflection.

APCE honors four longtime church educators

During its 2021 annual event, “Anything but Ordinary Time,” held online last week, the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators honored the following four educators.

A plenary with plenty of help from her friends

Asked to address the 1,000 or so people taking in the first-ever online national event of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators, Amy Kim Kyremes-Parks did the sensible thing: she got some of her favorite church educators to help her by sharing their thoughts from their own settings.

Wanted: modern-day repairers of the breach

With Isaiah 58: 1-12 as his preaching text Friday, the Rev. Paul Roberts wondered out loud what it means today to be repairers of the breach.

From enduring to embracing

As the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators (APCE) kicked off its 2021 annual event, which is online for the first time ever, Thom Cunningham, a member of APCE’s annual ministry team, broke the news.

‘The new thing before us is the now thing’

Thoughtful, moving and imaginative worship was front and center during the national event of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators Thursday afternoon, when more than 1,000 people from four continents joined for an online opening worship service anchored by prophetic preaching from the Rev. Aisha Brooks-Lytle.

Celebrated Presbyterian organist and composer John Weaver dies at 83

Dr. John Weaver, a celebrated Presbyterian organist and composer, died Monday at the age of 83. His daughter, the Rev. Kirianne E. Weaver, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Ithaca, New York, described his passing in a Facebook post on Tuesday morning: “Last night, in the small hours, Dad took his last breaths. It was the winding down of a clock, and we knew this moment was coming when the hands would stop moving; it was all peaceful and then came the dawn.”

Nine hundred eight and counting

As of Tuesday, registration for “Anything but Ordinary Time,” the name of the annual event of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators (APCE), stood at 908 — nearly one-third of them first-time attendees, according to Anne Wilson, a retired educator from Houston and member of the event’s planning team. In addition, 15 percent of those registered have attended one previous APCE annual event.