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Mission Yearbook
Before delivering a talk to end Church World Service’s Together We Welcome Conference, the Rev. Dr. Karen Georgia A. Thompson delivered one of her many published poems to the online audience of about 300 people.
Much has happened in and to our nation since our observance of this historic day last year. We pulled out of Afghanistan, endured the pandemic, remained divided by competing ideologies vying for ascendance in our political system, grieved the lives of countless innocents whose lives were taken in mass shootings and entered a time of financial instability that threatens many of the poorest among us.
The importance of faith communities standing in the gap for asylum seekers was driven home during a national immigration conference hosted by Church World Service (CWS).
Among the ancient disciplines being taken on by contemporary people, the pilgrimage may be the most common. Prior to Covid, nearly a million people around the world have walked long distances on pilgrimage. Even during this current era, thousands have found a way to make the journey of a lifetime. In his book “The Pilgrim Journey: A History of Pilgrimage in the Western World,” James Harpur writes, “At the heart of pilgrimage is a spiritual impulse that has existed from time immemorial.”
Matthew 25:31–46 calls us to engage in the world around us, so that we wake up to new possibilities. Faith comes alive when we boldly engage God’s mission and share the hope we have in Christ. The Presbyterian Hunger Program’s Earth Care Congregation (ECC) certification program recognizes churches that are turning their commitments to caring for God’s Creation into ministry that revitalizes their own community.
Spanish moss hanging from branches like gnome beards. Palm fronds dancing with the passing breeze. Lizards darting from flower bed to sunny stucco. I’m looking out at my sister-in-law’s Florida backyard.
More than 300 people attended the recent Together We Welcome conference put on by Church World Service, which counted the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) as a sustaining sponsor of the online conference.
It’s one thing for your church to be on social media, but simply having a presence is not enough. What is needed is an understanding of the various social media platforms, who uses them and what content gets noticed. So, let’s begin with the basics. The platforms we think of most often are Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. For church discussions, we will be focusing on Facebook and Instagram.
Multiple pandemics over the past two years, including Covid and efforts to bring about racial justice in U.S. communities — even among communities of faith — have benefited from a black light that highlights and helps clean up the messes that justice-seeking activists are asking the church to work on.
When the Covid pandemic hit, Warriors on Wheels of Metropolitan Detroit decided to start a grocery delivery service to help vulnerable people stay safe. The delivery service for people who are disabled or who are older adults is just one of the ways that Warriors on Wheels (WOW) has assisted people in Michigan with the help of the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People and other supporters.
