Mission Yearbook

Presbyterian pastor preaches on a proverbial prototype

From childhood, the Rev. Dr. Anita Wright, the pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Montclair, New Jersey, has thought Wonder Woman — especially Linda Carter’s version — was wonderful.

Mother’s Day

I keep thinking about the mother of the disciples James and John, you know her as the wife of Zebedee. Her name was Salome, which means peace. She may have been the sister of Jesus’ mother, which would have made her Jesus’ aunt, and James and John, Jesus’ cousins. Jesus gave them the name Boanerges, which means “Sons of Thunder” (Mark 3:17, Luke 9:54).

Minute for Mission: Fair Trade Day

Jesus fed the hungry and told his disciples to do the same. Yet, we know that hunger is an extremely complex phenomenon with economic, political and social causes. The Presbyterian Hunger Program does root cause work that addresses the underlying questions of why people are hungry in order to reduce ongoing hunger. That work includes accompanying Presbyterians in questioning our economic lives as we move beyond what our dollars do in the offering plate, to considering what our dollars do in the marketplace.

Presbyterian Peace Fellowship launches new Gun Violence Prevention Congregational Toolkit

The Gun Violence Prevention Working Group of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship (PPF) has been hard at work. The team of 15 Working Group members has completely retooled its primary resource, the Gun Violence Prevention Congregational Toolkit. One of the few comprehensive resources for congregations on this issue, the prior toolkit editions have been accessed by more than 2,500 Presbyterians and others from all 50 states. It was time for an update!

Embodying kindness on the streets of Las Vegas

For Shawn Duncan, it’s the little things — like getting a birthday card — that mean a lot. Perhaps it’s because Duncan, a military veteran living in Las Vegas, hadn’t had a mailbox in years. Or a home.

That’s a RAP

The Reimagining America Project (RAP), a grassroots effort of clergy, activists and local leaders in and around Charlotte, North Carolina, who are working to reduce the unjust impacts race has on the systems of our society, was the subject of an illuminating webinar recently offered by Union Presbyterian Seminary and two of its institutions, the Center for Social Justice and Reconciliation (CSJR) and the Katie Geneva Cannon Center for Womanist Leadership.

Minute for Mission: Holocaust Remembrance Day

On this day, communities around the world observe Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day. Together, we stand in solidarity with the Jewish people and pay tribute to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust. An estimated 6 million European Jews and at least 5 million prisoners of war, Romany, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals and other victims were murdered by the Nazis in one of the most horrendous campaigns in human history. On this day, as we pay tribute to the victims of the Holocaust, we also come together knowing that this act of remembrance is a commitment to a shared responsibility for humankind to ensure such crimes never happen again.

Minute for Mission: National Day of Awareness & Action for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit People

Indigenous communities have been struck by the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit people (MMIW) for decades. This epidemic is a systemic failure where Indigenous women are going missing and being murdered at alarmingly high rates with minimal justice. Within the past several years, the MMIW movement has brought awareness of this violence to the public’s attention. Still, there is much work to be done.