The affordable online conference gives hundreds of people on both sides of the border the opportunity to participate
by Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service
An online Communion worship service on Sunday, Nov. 8, will cap the three-day annual event of the Presbyterian Border Region Outreach. (Photo by the Rev. Elizabeth Toland Smith)
LOUISVILLE — Registration for “Gospel Hospitality & the Kingdom of God,” the Presbyterian Border Region Outreach’s 2020 event, is now open. Click here to register.
The online conference will be hosted by the ministry site Pasos de Fe y Esperanza in Ciudad Juárez near El Paso, Texas, and will be presented Nov. 6-8 via Zoom.
Registration is $20 per person or $40 for a household of two or more. Each individual or household will receive a Zoom link in order to participate.
The registration fee includes pre-conference workshops, five sessions, three worship services, Saturday lunchtime workshops, a concert on Saturday evening and interpretation services during regular conference sessions. Registered participants will soon be able to choose from the workshops being offered.
Although participants can’t be welcomed in person to the U.S./Mexico border, organizers hope to give those who register a flavor of life there. Ministry partners have contributed items for Taste of the Border boxes, which cost $25 each and are limited to 200 participants.
The schedule of events includes:
Friday, Nov. 6 — Pre-conference workshops from 2 p.m. through 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time: Susan Krehbiel on “Asylum Accompaniment,” the Rev. Kathy Riley on “Self-Care and Resilience,” the Rev. Edwin González-Castillo on “Building Resilience” and Amanda Craft on “What’s the Next Step? To Love your Neighbor.” That’s followed by a 7 p.m. Eastern Time welcome and opening session, “From the Hostility of the Reign of this World to the Hospitality of the Reign of God” with PBRO’s Dr. Eliseo Pérez Álvarez. Those are followed by evening worship at 8:45 p.m. Eastern Time, with PBRO’s Juan Antonia Garcia Alvarado preaching.
Saturday, Nov. 7 — Morning worship at 10 a.m. Eastern Time led by the Revs. Holly and Kaci Clark-Porter, co-pastors of Grace Presbyterian Church in El Paso, Texas. Morning sessions are from 10:45 a.m. through 1:30 p.m. Eastern Time and include “Status of Human Rights and Migrant Deaths in South Texas” with Eddie Canales and “The transfigurations of Exile and Migrants” with Leopoldo Cervantes-Ortiz. Those are followed by workshops from 2 p.m. through 3 p.m. Eastern Time, “Border Connections” with the Texas Border Collaboration Network and “La Voz del Migrante” with Douglas Oviedo. Next are sessions from 4 p.m. through 7 p.m. Eastern Time, “Caring for the Sacred Other: A Conversation on Migration, Faith and the Borderlands” with Dr. Gregory Cuéllar and “Arte de Lágrimas” with Nohemi Cuéllar. An evening concert with Douglas Oviedo is set for 8 p.m. through 9:30 p.m. Eastern Time. It’ll be followed by a question-and-answer session.
Sunday, Nov. 8 — Worship with Communion begins at 11 a.m. Eastern Time at the U.S.-México Border Wall with PBRO’s Dr. Eliseo Pérez Álvarez preaching.
Watch an eight minute video of last year’s in-person conference celebrating PBRO’s 35th anniversary here.
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