Scott Galloway’s father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all Presbyterian pastors. Galloway has followed all three of his preacher forebears — not into the pulpit, but as a storyteller and filmmaker who has created a product that pastors, church educators and others can use to stimulate discussion and make the weekly readings from the Revised Common Lectionary more relatable to Sunday worshipers.
In addition to worship and workshops — and even some hiking, kayaking and gardening — Presbyterians for Earth Care handed out awards at its recent national conference.
The honorees have been leaders in Earth care at the church level and above, and some were even surprised to find there was an award for what they do.
Light Street Presbyterian Church in Baltimore has been home to a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregation for more than 160 years. Founded as a place of refuge for children who worked in factories, Light Street always knew it existed for the city’s working-class neighborhood.
During this year’s celebration of the National Black Presbyterian Caucus’ 45th Biennial Convention in Atlanta, five outstanding Presbyterians were recognized for their efforts toward “seeking racial justice and equity.”
The 2019 Lucy Craft Laney Award was presented to Ruling Elder Corine Lytle Cannon, mother of the late Rev. Dr. Katie Cannon.
Union Church in Seattle is “a church with a day job — a very involved day job,” says Scott Lumsden, Seattle Presbytery co-executive presbyter.
Stick around for a few days at 415 Westlake Ave. N., and you’ll see he’s right.
After hearing social media feedback that parents were not enamored with Vacation Bible School offerings at nearby churches, Evergreen Presbyterian Church in Memphis, Tennessee, created from scratch its own Peace Camp.
Thirty-one campers, including about 10 from the host church, took part in this year’s camp. With help from their neighbors, church members wrote the curriculum and staffed the five-hour-per-day, five-day event, spending one day each on a significant topic — gender, social class and poverty, race, migrants and care for the Earth.
In Lebanon, a country “bursting at the seams” with refugee families, Scott Parker helps migrant children from Iraq and Syria unpack the trauma they have experienced.
Parker, a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ecumenical associate, delights in seeing children start coming to terms with their painful pasts, but he acknowledged that deep feelings they express can be unsettling to hear. One day while playing a game with puppets, Parker asked the children to pretend they were on a bus and something bad happened. An 8-year-old boy blurted out, “Oh, a terrorist just exploded a bomb on the bus!”
The Rev. Tom Willadsen of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, has become a fixture at the Synod of Lakes and Prairies’ Synod School, where his classes are known for humor.
Willadsen, author of “OMG! LOL! Faith and Laughter,” which can be found here, spent 19 years as pastor of First Presbyerian Church in Oshkosh. There he organized monthly meetings of faith leaders in the community and served as organizer and master of ceremonies at an annual Interfaith Festival of Gratitude.
For David Barnhart, it’s the story — not his story, but the story of the subject.
“One of the things I love about the work that we do is that we don’t know where it’s going. We have no idea where it’s going and what the focus is,” he said. “What we try to do is work with the community and have them guide us and [the film] needs to go wherever it needs to get.”
Presbyterian congregations are responding to homelessness around the country. They are preparing meals and sharing produce from community gardens, offering shelter on cold nights, assisting with job skills training and participating in Congregation-Based Community Organizing (CBCO).
