A current area coordinator and a former regional liaison with Presbyterian World Mission are among the four people recently named to the board of the American Waldensian Society.
For more than a decade, the Rev. Dr. Kevin E. Frederick has been a leading figure in the Waldensian movement in the United States. On March 30, 2021, he will be retiring as pastor of the Waldensian Presbyterian Church in Valdese, North Carolina. The following interview, courtesy of the American Waldensian Society, is one of several interviews with Frederick that will be published between now and in March 2021.
In recent months, much of Mediterranean Hope’s focus has been on migrants already in Italy. Living below the radar in shanty towns, they are an exploited workforce, propping up seasonal harvests of tomatoes, citrus fruits, and olive oil; undocumented, without contracts or access to basic services.
She arrived in Italy on Feb. 4, 2016. Of the flight that brought her and her husband and their two small children from Beirut to Rome, she remembers only the emotions she felt on the plane, and the flowers and hugs they got when they landed.
It happens quickly, often in a single generation. Yours is the big church on the town square, the church that your family has attended for generations. Once, this church was the spiritual heart of the community. This is where people supported one another in times of crisis, remembered their roots and celebrated their joys. Once there were jobs in the town, but today young people leave to study and work in the big city. Now, on a good Sunday, 25 or 30 people gather for worship; your church struggles to survive.
