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Mission Yearbook
“Did you agree to be dirt?” the Rev. CeCe Armstrong asked commissioners of Charleston Atlantic Presbytery and members of a newly chartered church in Charleston, South Carolina. The members of Parkside Church in Charleston, in accordance with G-1.0201 in the Book of Order, signed a charter that read in response to the grace of God, “We promise and covenant to live together in unity and to work together in ministry as disciples of Jesus Christ, bound to him and to one another as a part of the body of Christ in this place according to the principles of faith, mission, and order of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).” As a result, the presbytery convened at St. Barnabas Lutheran Church, which is Parkside Church’s place of worship, for a chartering service on Jan. 29 to commission the church, ordain and install elders and fully install their organizing pastor, the Rev. Colin Kerr.
I wonder how many times I’ve said or written “peace be with you.” It is a greeting many of our congregations use weekly as an act of worship. It is a salutation I use in many of my correspondences. It’s such a common utterance to me that I sort of forgot that it’s biblical, too. Good for me for citing Scripture with such regularity. The phrase comes to us from the Gospels, spoken by the resurrected Jesus when he appears to the disciples behind locked doors. It is a way he makes himself known to them.
Activities include blessings of backpacks and Bibles for new readers
The last harvest of peaches, melons and other summer fruits is not the only sign of changes in the season. School backpacks replacing beach bags and hiker’s packs in the piles that accumulate at front doors signal a new year and a shift in schedules for families across the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), marking a renewed commitment to learning and growth as the new school year begins.
What does it mean to labor…to work…to earn or make a living? Whether in a period of inflation, stagflation, or a robustly resilient economy, it’s reasonable to equate labor with a job—or the lack of one. And yet consolidating what it means to “make a living’’ with what may or may not provide a living wage, risks devaluing both the dignity of all created beings and the Gospel promise of “life abundant’’ (John 10:10). Mindful that our faith calls us to an expansive understanding of life, labor and love, A New Social Creed for the Twenty-First Century (2008) sets our living-making within the creative justice, deep relationality and restorative movements of the Triune God. For economies that thrust communities into subsistence-existence are counter to the commonwealth of God.
Every year, Presbyterians are asked to give to the Peace & Global Witness Offering. And every year Presbyterians ask: “Why?” One reason that Presbyterians contribute is because 50% of the offering stays with their local congregation and presbytery, empowering local peacemaking work in their own community. The other 50% supports the peacemaking work of the denomination, through our office, the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program.
The Rev. Jimmie Hawkins warned Synod School attendees that his message “might be a challenging. My wife says I’m not everyone’s cup of tea.”
“Hey,” a middle school improv class member playing the serpent in the Genesis 3 account told the Garden of Eden’s first female inhabitant during Synod School worship, “I see you’re interested in that tree over there.”
The Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, the PC(USA)’s advocacy director, recently told the Synod School gathered at Buena Vista University what Presbyterians believe.
Closing with “Beautiful Things” by the artist Michael Gungor as performed by Synod School musicians, a recent worship service held in Schaller Memorial Chapel at Buena Vista University explored how Creation came about and what an act that occurred 4.5 billion years ago means for us today.
As the keynoter for the 69th Annual Synod School at Buena Vista University, it was the job of the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins to remind the more than 500 people gathered what Presbyterians believe.
