Sometimes the simplest questions give rise to the most interesting conversations. That is what I discovered one morning at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Virginia.
World leaders and government officials from nearly 200 countries are gathering for the next two weeks in Marrakech for the 22nd Conference of Parties (COP22), part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
After a year of meetings, collaboration and recommendations, the White House Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships has released its final report to end poverty in the U.S. The report, entitled Strengthening Efforts to Increase Opportunity and End Poverty, provides recommendations to the President to increase opportunity while reducing inequality.
From across the United States and the world, indigenous peoples and their allies have gathered at the Camp of the Sacred Stones, north of Cannon Ball, North Dakota, near the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe reservation’s northern border. Members of the tribe took the initiative in this witness to protect their sacred sites and waters from environmental harm and to affirm tribal sovereignty and Treaty rights.
Hurricane Matthew was like a very bad dream, watching a slow-motion bullet heading toward someone you love, unable to do anything to stop it. I kept the National Hurricane Center’s webpage open for five or six days, morning, afternoon and night; checking every few hours to see what the storm was doing.
For members of First Presbyterian Church of Jeffersonville, Indiana, reducing energy costs means more than balancing the budget. They see it as an opportunity to redirect funds to ministerial outreach.
Life starts early in Haiti. Market women, called madam seras in their native language, rise before dawn to sell produce along the streets or in village markets. Arriving at their spot to sell, they spread a cover on the ground and artistically arrange their wares, be they vegetables, sundries or household items.
Although the streets of Charlotte, North Carolina are now quiet following protests in response to the shooting death of Keith Lamont Scott by police, area Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) pastors say the historic and deep-seated sentiment that fostered unrest after this killing remains.
The gravel road is mostly abandoned now. With only small spots of fallen snow and flurries along the way, one would not believe this was the same road that led masses of people to the world’s highest lift-served ski area at 17,785 feet. After navigating hairpin turns and watching the houses and farmland of the Bolivian altiplano (high plateau) become smaller and smaller (if one dared look over the narrow road’s edge), the Chacaltaya glacier, in all of its nakedness, soon would be revealed. Today’s view of the glacier, however, is much different from that of years past. Now only a few small remnants of ice and snow persist.
When you purchase that cup of coffee on the way to work each morning, have you ever thought about where it comes from or who grows and picks the coffee beans? Who benefits financially? The Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP) is once again offering people an opportunity to get a firsthand look at the coffee farming business in Nicaragua.
