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Mission Yearbook
When the Waterloo School District cut music programs a few years ago, members and leadership at Unity Presbyterian Church saw an opportunity to partner with Kittrell Elementary School to provide music education opportunities.
A thought: We live in a nation of inalienable rights, but God calls us to live lives of inalienable love. Rights lead to rules, but love leads to life.
A reflection: The Fourth of July fireworks have been over for two months, but we still have reason to celebrate a remarkable achievement in government.
The Declaration of Independence was an incredible document, declaring that people have inalienable rights, endowed by God, that a government should protect and defend.
U.S. churches, presbyteries and educational institutions have the opportunity to hear firsthand accounts of the struggles facing West Africa this fall. Ebun James-DeKam, general secretary of the Council of Churches in Sierra Leone (CCSL), is among 16 International Peacemakers who will be traveling across the country between Sept. 22 and Oct. 16.
The “Social Creed” is a concise summary of what we stand for, written in a positive way, and in three sections, recalling God’s Trinitarian nature and the great Christian bases of faith, hope and love. It reflects many long-standing convictions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), reinforcing the work of the Office of Public Witness in Washington, D.C., and the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations. It is also meant to strengthen the responsible citizenship of each Presbyterian Christian.
In a speech celebrating the 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, former President Jimmy Carter said, “Peace, like war, is waged.” These words were a thoughtful turn-of-phrase and a challenging declaration spoken at an auspicious moment. However, they did not originate with Carter or his speechwriters. They came from the pen of Carter’s fellow Georgian Walker Knight, a Christian journalist, poet and peacemaker. Since Carter uttered these words, they have turned up in various places where peace is promoted. For example, actor George Clooney repeated the phrase in a statement praising the work of United Nations peacekeepers.
The Rev. Michael Plank is a half-time pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Hudson Falls, New York, and cofounder of a self-sustaining new worshiping community.
In 2014, he and his spouse, Lauren Grogan, opened a gym named Underwood Park CrossFit in Fort Edward, New York. Now more than 100 members pay a monthly fee to work out physically and spiritually there.
Presbyterians join with Christians all around the globe today to pray for all of God’s creation. Instituted by the World Council of Churches in 2015, the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation is observed on Sept. 1. On this day, Christians worldwide are encouraged to set aside time to pray for all of God’s people and for all of creation.
In the New Testament, Jesus shared the Parable of the Sower with his disciples. In that story, Jesus explains that as the sower sows the seeds, some may fall on rocky ground or among the thorns, while other seeds flourish in rich soil.
The closing worship service at Big Tent focused on the parable and the second word in the conference theme: reconciliation. The Rev. Dr. Christine Hong, assistant professor of educational ministry at Columbia Theological Seminary, asked attendees to focus on “reconciliation” as they returned to their homes.
In a room filled with individuals of many nationalities, the Presbyterian Intercultural Network (PIN) tackled the difficult subject of race relations in America.
The Big Tent pre-conference “Coming to America: Some Here, Some Forced, Some Welcomed, Some — Not,” was sponsored by the Racial Ethnic & Women’s Ministries of the Presbyterian Mission Agency and attended by a group of nearly 100 people.
Bounding up to the pulpit with his laptop, Big Tent Bible study leader Eric Barreto cut right to the chase: “We have a problem,” he told Presbyterians gathered in Graham Chapel on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis.
“Even as the church is changing, even as our neighborhoods are changing, we as Christians don’t know quite know what to say in the face of these changes,” said Barreto, an associate professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary who was born in Puerto Rico and grew up in Slidell, Louisiana. He was leading the first of two Bible studies on the topic “Difference and Diversity in the Book of Acts.”
