As the U.S. government continues to debate the future of migrants, refugees and displaced people living in this country, the upcoming Compassion, Peace and Justice Training Day will address the issue head-on. The daylong event, part of Ecumenical Advocacy Training Weekend, will provide Presbyterians an opportunity to learn more about the people most impacted.
All eyes have been on the Korean peninsula in recent weeks as the 2018 Winter Olympics have taken place. Presbyterians and other interested people will get a chance to see and learn about the Korean culture in person later this year.
Critical peace talks began in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on February 6 aimed at ending the ongoing civil war in South Sudan. PCUSA partner, the Rt. Rev. Peter Gai and his ecumenical colleagues, Archbishop John Baptist Odama and Archbishop Paulino Lukudu Loro opened the talks with prayer.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. — Matthew 22:37–40. This message is recited over and over among people of faith, whether they are Jews, Muslims or Christians. The words are unambiguous in their call for us to deal with others within the human family in ways that we ourselves would like to be treated.
War has a human face. Every shadow, every line, every wrinkle is part of the story. In a recent visit to South Korea, a PC(USA) peace delegation witnessed firsthand the human face of war. The delegation visited the War & Women’s Human Rights Museum. There they watched video interviews with “comfort women” — women kidnapped or lured by the promise of jobs and forced into sexual slavery in what were known as “comfort stations” for Japanese soldiers during World War II. The women in the video spoke no English. There were English subtitles to help translate. The subtitles, though, weren’t necessary. The women’s faces said it all.
The Presbytery of East Virginia hopes to generate conversation around the issue of racism at its upcoming meeting this month. The Racial Dialogue Team of the presbytery’s Peacemaking Committee is inviting local churches and interested parties to the presbytery meeting on Saturday, January 27, at Providence Presbyterian Church in Virginia Beach.
In a global campaign, the World Council of Churches (WCC) invites people across the globe to extend “A Light of Peace” for the Korean Peninsula and for a world free from nuclear weapons.