Along with a group of ecumenical partners, a delegation of PC(USA) associates met with a Cuban delegation at the United Nations 78th General Assembly High Level Week to discuss topics that included economic sanctions, climate change, and how to deepen the partnership between PC(USA) and its sister church the Iglesia Presbiteriana — Reformada en Cuba — the Presbyterian Reformed Church in Cuba (IPRC). The Cuban delegation included President Miguel Díaz-Canel, the foreign minister, and the Cuban ambassadors to the United States and the UN.
Up to 100,000 people have fled their homeland of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic) in fear of persecution and ethnic cleansing by the hands of Azerbaijan military and government rulers. Already starving from a 10-month blockade, those fleeing are forced to escape through rough, unsafe territory and attacks from Azerbaijan military personnel before arriving in Armenia.
The Al Amana Centre (AAC) in Oman was founded in 1987, but its roots date back to the country’s first Christian mission in the late 19th century. Its initial iteration was evangelistic ministry, but quickly grew into medical care to serve the common good and live out a Christian witness among non-Christian people and education. It was the only modern hospital in the middle eastern country at the time and remained the only modern medical provider in Oman for nearly 80 years.
Red-tagging and other human rights violations are done systematically in the Philippines, according to Filipino human rights advocate Jimarie Snap Mabanta.
During “Inward and Outward,” her final Bible study Saturday for the Presbyterians for Earth Care conference, the Rev. Dr. Patricia Tull offered this caveat: “A journey that is self-renewing and self-focused does no earthly good.”
A pastor with the Presbyterian Church of Colombia talked about her official role as a government negotiator, helping to bring peace to after more than five decades of internal armed conflict in the South American nation.
Recently a group of Presbyterian Mission Agency personnel joined with ecumenical partners from across Latin America and the Caribbean and delegates from the World Council of Churches and the World Communion of Reformed Churches. They gathered in Bogotá, Colombia, at the “International Encounter for Reconciliation in Colombia: Ecumenical Experiences and Learnings in Peace Building.” The PMA delegation included Ellen Sherby, the Rev. Dr. Valdir França, Sue Rheem, and the Rev. Sarah Henken, PC(USA) mission co-worker serving in Colombia, a country seeking peace after more than 50 years of armed conflict.
The Presbyterian Hunger Program and its Global Solidarity Network will begin a five-week book study in September to help people gain a better understanding of the Church’s complicity in colonization and the exploitation of Indigenous land, resources and people.
The Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Militarism Working Group’s newest Connecting the Dots webinar is scheduled for noon Eastern Time on Wednesday, Sept. 6.
