Together with her husband, Dr. Gordon Govens, the Rev. Ruth-Aimée Belonni-Rosario Govens has led the Presbyterian Pan American School in Kingsville, Texas, for the past 18 months or so, helping to prepare 90 international students each year for lives of Christian leadership in the global community. PPAS is among the institutions supported by the Christmas Joy Offering.
Presbyterians love a well-crafted sermon and well-written prayers. But the Rev. Carlton Johnson, coordinator of Vital Congregations, believes that sometimes PC(USA) congregations need to return to vibrant prayer.
Between Two Pulpits, the weekly broadcast hosted by Special Offerings’ Bryce Wiebe and Lauren Rogers, could just about call itself Between Two Coastlines Monday as Wiebe and Rogers hosted respectively from Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles and Westminster Presbyterian Church, which is just a bit west of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.
The Rev. Irvin Porter, associate for Native American Intercultural Congregational Support in the office of Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries, has offered up many presentations on the Doctrine of Discovery and the more than 500 years of history between Native American and white people in this country. Porter told Between Two Pulpits hosts Bryce Wiebe and Lauren Rogers Monday that only once has someone responded, “I didn’t do any of that, so why should I feel guilty?”
Preachers looking to hold the attention of the youngest people in worship — especially during the children’s time — do well to check with a Christian educator. Nearly all are founts of creative ideas.
In the midst of the pandemic last fall, Sheri Dittman, the commissioned pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Brownsville, Texas, gained some fame in Presbyterian circles as the mastermind of a photo scavenger hunt with a purpose — getting parishioners at the church she serves and at First Presbyterian Church in Mission, Texas, where she’s part-time coordinator for Congregational Development, more familiar with multiple options available through the Presbyterian Giving Catalog.
“The mystery of ministry in the PC(USA) fascinates me every day,” said someone who should know, the Rev. Princeton Abaraoha, a pastor and deployed member of the denomination’s national staff, during the Between Two Pulpits Facebook Live event Monday. Watch Abaraoha’s conversation with Special Offerings’ Bryce Wiebe and Lauren Rogers here.
The eight-hour livestream planned for #GivingTuesday on Nov. 30 will feature events and check-ins with congregations and mid councils across the country.
While it’s always fun and enlightening to have an artist explain her work, the Rev. Lauren Wright Pittman clearly enjoys hearing what others read into her work.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) makes business sense for companies and organizations including the Presbyterian Mission Agency, which has been training employees on the three values monthly during 2021 as the response to a General Assembly mandate.
