Batting leadoff during Monday’s ecumenical worship at the 67th Commission on the Status of Women, prominent Presbyterians preached a message of hope and inclusion to those gathered in person at the Church Center for the United Nations and to those participating in worship online.
During a panel discussion on Saturday, engineer Anna Hand of Towson Presbyterian Church in Maryland helped to bring home the spirit-crushing realities that girls and young women sometimes face when they show interest in science, math, engineering and technology (STEM).
The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), offered thanks to God and to those present during worship Sunday at Church of the Covenant in New York City “to be in the midst of a powerful gathering of women.” At the invitation of the church’s interim pastor, the Rev. Dr. Cornell Edmonds, Nelson preached Sunday as part of the 67th Commission on the Status of Women, an in-person and online gathering of about 8,000 people that runs from March 6-17.
The 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women kicked off Friday for delegates from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and Presbyterian Women with an orientation session from the Church of the Covenant in New York City that set the stage for a nearly two-week gathering to empower women and girls.
The 2023 Celebrate the Gifts of Women worship service took place on Wednesday and was streamed on the main PC(USA) Facebook page. A joint effort by Presbyterian Women and Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries, the service can be viewed here.
Thousands of people from around the globe, including a contingent from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), are headed to New York City for the 67th Commission on the Status of Women, a gender equality gathering that will be celebrated by the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the PC(USA), both Co-Moderators of the 225th General Assembly, and the president and executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency.
While serving as the synod representative on the Board of Directors for Presbyterian Women, I suggested that the synod begin a Justice & Peace Book Discussion Group that would not interfere with the Native American Book Discussion Group already in process. Thus, the first year of the Justice & Peace National Book Discussion Group was born.
In partnership with Presbyterian Women, Racial Equity and Women’s Intercultural Ministries will host its annual Celebrate the Gifts of Women worship service at 9 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday via livestream on the PC(USA) Facebook page. Celebrate the Gifts of Women Sunday is on March 5.
The Christian Women Fellowship Movement of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) held its annual Rally in late October at Hope Presbyterian Church in Mitchellville, Maryland, its first in-person gathering since the Covid pandemic began in March 2020.
Dr. Delores Seneva Williams, a seminal thinker and writer in the development of womanist theology, died at the age of 88 on Nov. 17, said her daughter, Celeste Williams.
