Thirteen hundred people are gathered in this Eastern Iowa community through Saturday for the 20th White Privilege Conference. Attendees were treated Thursday to a pair of thoughtful keynote addresses and the first of what will be their choice of more than 100 workshops.
Dr. Stephen Nelson, a pediatric hematologist at Children’s Hospital of Minnesota, had some alarming statistics for those attending his Thursday workshop “The Healer’s Power: How Whiteness Kills” at the White Privilege Conference.
To hurt the Earth is to hurt the poor, Gordon Aeschliman wrote in “The Green Bible: Understanding the Bible’s Powerful Message for the Earth.” He added: “It shouldn’t be surprising that creation and justice are inextricably linked” and that to keep the garden, as humans are told to do in Genesis 2, is the same notion as the Numbers 6:24 blessing: The Lord bless you and keep you.
Last week during their first day engaging communities in South Louisiana that were hit hard by natural and human-caused environmental disasters, members of the Mission Responsibility Through Investment Committee took a bayou boat ride courtesy of the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe.
As it meets for the 243rd time March 11-12 in Richmond, Va., Synod of the Mid-Atlantic acknowledges it’s meting “at a precarious time,” according to Warren J. Lesane, Jr., the synod’s Executive and Stated Clerk.
During the coming week a number of varied events will occur at and around Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Va., to honor the enduring legacy of the Rev. Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon.
The founding of Stillman College toward the end of the 19th century was an act of courage and faith. It was not, however, an action taken without consideration and debate. Stillman College is a historically black liberal arts college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). During the month of February, residents of the U.S. and Canada celebrate Black History Month.
In a rousing call to worship with African drums and “Fanga,” a traditional dance and rhythm of welcome in various West African cultures, employees and guests celebrated Black History Month during the Wednesday morning worship service at the Presbyterian Center.
African-Americans have played a pivotal role in American church history. Many may be familiar with Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, the founders of what is now known as the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which was established in Philadelphia in 1792. Less known but equally as important to the Presbyterian denomination was the Rev. John Gloucester, who founded the First African Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia in 1807.
Wow! And what about the Philistines? And are there others who need to be subdued? Tongue-twisting passages like these are the bane of lay readers and a source of fascination for many who heard these wondrous lists of names read on a Sunday morning. They are, of course, a rendering of the ethnic diversity of the world the Hebrews marched into under Joshua and are a “list of enemies” who stood between the children of Israel and the Promised Land.
