The daughter of a church member texted, late one Friday night, to say that her dad’s physical health was fading fast. He had been placed on hospice, and she was concerned about how much more time he had. She told me that she had become his round-the-clock nurse/caregiver, and she was grateful to be able to do that. Earlier in the week I had offered to drive to her house (about 60 miles) to visit them. She indicated that she now wanted to take me up on my offer.
Forty years ago, the Dutch Reformed Mission Church (DRMC) in South Africa adopted Belydenis van Belhar — the Confession of Belhar — in its first reading. Belhar was an outgrowth of the DRMC’s effort to grapple with the church’s participation in and defense of apartheid and touches prominently on themes of unity, reconciliation and justice. The DRMC adopted Belhar in its final form in 1986.
Last fall, Shenandoah Presbytery hosted an all-day educational event at Massanetta Springs Camp and Conference Center in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The event focused on the bold vision of being a Matthew 25 church with two guest speakers: the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, director of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Office of Public Witness, and the Rev. Dr. Margaret Grun Kibben, chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives.
In-person worship services are returning at various rates and with various restrictions. And while some congregations are reporting in-person attendance that’s higher than it was pre-Covid, most churches are reporting lower in-person attendance with a significant number of people attending their online services. My congregation is in that majority.
In locations across the country, PC(USA) churches and mid councils are finding ways to transform otherwise humble church kitchens into spaces of ministry, mission and community engagement.
Go to Berkeley. Become a Christian. That might sound like a joke, but that’s my faith story. I became a follower of Christ during my first year at the University of California at Berkeley. It was then that I heard that one excellent reason not to believe in God was science. As a newly minted Christian sitting in the pews of First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, I also heard that “the Gospel is not fragile.” The Gospel’s strength to connect with culture, including science, was something I desperately needed to hear — and is something Presbyterians believe.
When one of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s most gifted preachers stands before an auditorium full of the denomination’s most talented musicians, you’d expect beautiful worship that uplifts and edifies.
In his book “The Spirit of Soul Food: Race, Faith and Food Justice,” the Rev. Dr. Christopher Carter states that those working to keep others fed — farmworkers, grocery cashiers, baggers, packers, even fast-food employees — “are supposed to be invisible for most of us who live in the United States.”
A new group of Young Adult Volunteers arrived in Tucson in August 2022, where they were met with more than the usual level of rejoicing: This program year marks the 20th anniversary of the Tucson Borderlands Young Adult Volunteer program! For two decades now, young adults have sought the voice of God in their lives and in the U.S./Mexico borderlands through a year of service.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” Helen Keller observed that “faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light.” And John Calvin wrote faith is “the firm knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us.” While none of these definitions are fully complete, each gives us a glimpse of this Christian cornerstone, much like the beginning of Hebrews 11, which affirms that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for.”
