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Peace & Justice
Through world wars, the Cold War and current affairs, people in the United States have heard a lot about Russia — its government in particular.
Charles Atkins serves as chair of the Justice Committee for the Presbytery of New York City, and late last year, one of his committee members came to him with an opportunity he had never thought of.She was Sue Rheem, whose day job is mission specialist for the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations (PMUN), and she thought Atkins would be a prime candidate to be a Presbyterian delegate to the United Nations Commission for Social Development (CSocD) in February.
One day ahead of Thursday’s National Day of Prayer, the Rev. Chris Iosso urged worshipers during the weekly Chapel service at the Presbyterian Center Wednesday to work toward a new ecumenism that bridges the widening gap between humanity and the planet they inhabit.“The climate crisis gives urgency to ecumenism, and makes divisions more problematic than ever,” said Iosso, coordinator of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy. “It is not a struggle we can overcome on a national basis.”
The Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis was delivering an impromptu sermon at the end of a long, hot day riding around Western Kentucky on a bumpy bus when she turned to the story of a leper who approached Jesus.“The leper said, ‘If you choose, you can heal me,’” Theoharis said. “’If you choose, you can heal me.’“Now that leper had gone a lot of places up to that point. He went to the HMOs of his day, and they turned him away. He went to the hospitals nearby, they had closed down. But Jesus traveled around the land opening up free healthcare clinics, never charged a co-pay. The leper said to Jesus, ‘If you choose, you can heal me.’“The question before us this afternoon is, ‘Do we choose?’”
The best way to advocate for change with publicly-traded corporations is to have direct access to high-level leaders, says Rob Fohr, Director of Faith-Based Investing and Corporate Engagement for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
The Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, director of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Office of Public Witness in Washington D.C., says “we have third-world conditions in parts of the United States of America,” reflecting on his travels to cities some might find surprising.
The crises were different, but one of the results was the same: Presbyterians stepped up when help was needed.
Samantha Paige Davis had to start her lunchtime talk at Compassion, Peace & Justice Training Day re-framing her given topic: “Movement Building in a Time of Fear.”
The closest the Rev. Bethany Peerbolte has come to heartache associated with Mother’s Day was a couple years ago, when her parents moved from Michigan to North Carolina. “I’m like, ‘If that was hard for me, I can’t imagine what the people in my church are going through when they’ve lost a mother or haven’t had a mother figure who’s really been kind and loving to them, like a mother should be.’”
Each member of Spencer Presbyterian Church in Spencer, West Virginia had their own reasons for wanting to put solar panels on the church.
