When God promised to be present through life’s floods and fires, the assurance was of little comfort to Trell, whose house burned to the ground in March.
If you want to know how and why the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is known as a connectional church, ask the Rev. Jihyun Oh.
That’s precisely the connection Simon Doong and the Rev. Lee Catoe, the hosts of A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast, made last week. Listen to their conversation with Oh, an assistant stated clerk and the director of Mid Council Ministries in the Office of the General Assembly, here.
Over her long career in higher education and in hymnody, Dr. Melva Wilson Costen taught her students that music is a gift from God that can lift our spirits and serve as a refuge during difficult times. “It speaks,” said the Rev. Addie Peterson, eulogizing Costen at Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, “when we don’t know the words to say.”
Roughly 421,400 people were unhoused in the U.S. last year, and 127,750 of them were chronically unhoused, meaning they didn’t have a place to stay for a year or more, according to National Alliance to End Homelessness data. Unhoused rates have been climbing nationally by about 6% every year since 2017, the alliance said. The increase in the number of unhoused people comes when housing costs are soaring and prices for essentials like food and transportation continue to rise.
Originally called Armistice Day, Nov. 11 was set aside to honor veterans of World War I. In its official resolution, Congress sought to set aside time to “commemorate with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through goodwill and mutual understanding between nations … with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples.”
Just ahead of the Dallas Cowboys’ opening season shutout against the New York Giants on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” on Sept. 10, Cowboys’ linebacker Micah Parsons, scored another decisive win.
The Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty of the Presbyterian Foundation kicked off the third season of his “Leading Theologically” podcast looking at the joys of ministry alongside guest the Rev. Mark Ramsey, executive director of The Ministry Collaborative. Listen to their 30-minute conversation here.
Church and state. Faith and politics. Religion and government. What a charged “and” links these oft-contested realities. Amid such flurried contests of identity, borders, meaning and structure, what do intercessory prayers, active participation and prophetic critique look like? How, when so many institutions — political, cultural and religious — appear to be fraying at the edges, are we to pray, participate, and critique in ways that heal and transform? These are pressing queries that resist simple answers. And yet perhaps a partial answer rests in the realization that there are numerous ways to engage in the life of faith and the civic realm.
Presbyterian hymnwriter the Rev. Dr. John A. Dalles has completed several new anniversary hymns for congregations marking special milestones — some of them going back centuries.
