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big tent 2017
In the New Testament, Jesus shared the Parable of the Sower with his disciples. In that story, Jesus explains that as the sower sows the seeds, some may fall on rocky ground or among the thorns, while other seeds flourish in rich soil.
The closing worship service at Big Tent focused on the parable and the second word in the conference theme: reconciliation. The Rev. Dr. Christine Hong, assistant professor of educational ministry at Columbia Theological Seminary, asked attendees to focus on “reconciliation” as they returned to their homes.
In a room filled with individuals of many nationalities, the Presbyterian Intercultural Network (PIN) tackled the difficult subject of race relations in America.
The Big Tent pre-conference “Coming to America: Some Here, Some Forced, Some Welcomed, Some — Not,” was sponsored by the Racial Ethnic & Women’s Ministries of the Presbyterian Mission Agency and attended by a group of nearly 100 people.
Bounding up to the pulpit with his laptop, Big Tent Bible study leader Eric Barreto cut right to the chase: “We have a problem,” he told Presbyterians gathered in Graham Chapel on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis.
“Even as the church is changing, even as our neighborhoods are changing, we as Christians don’t know quite know what to say in the face of these changes,” said Barreto, an associate professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary who was born in Puerto Rico and grew up in Slidell, Louisiana. He was leading the first of two Bible studies on the topic “Difference and Diversity in the Book of Acts.”
Por conteo a mano alzada, una gran parte de los/as asistentes a la plenaria de Big Tent el viernes por la tarde (7 de julio) indicaron que al menos habían leído Waking Up White por Debby Irving, un libro sobre el privilegio blanco recomendado a la iglesia por las Co -Moderadoras de la Asamblea General, Jan Edmiston y T. Denise Anderson.
세인트 루이스 – 금요일 오후 빅텐트 전체 회의 (7월 7일)에 참석한 사람들 중 상당수는 총회 공동 총회장인 Jan Edmiston 과 T. Denise Anderson 목사의 추천으로 백인 특권에 관한 책인 Debby Irving의 Waking Up White을 읽었다고 손을 들며 응답했다.
“This is what the future of the Presbyterian Church looks like!” Co-Moderator T. Denise Anderson declared to a group of nearly 40 young adults attending this year’s Presbyterian Intercultural Young Adult Network’s post-Big Tent gathering. Sponsored by Racial Ethnic & Women’s Ministries, the assembly of multicultural young adults ages 19-35 included individuals with ethnic backgrounds from five continents.
On the heels of the Big Tent conference in St. Louis, the ongoing PC(USA) Facing Racism campaign has released resources from the event with the theme “Race, Reconciliation and Reformation.”
As the Rev. Stephen McCutchan, an honorably retired PC(USA) minister in St. Petersburg, Florida, and a member of the Presbyterian Writers Guild (PWG) Board, considered some months ago what workshop he might offer at the PC(USA) Big Tent event, he immediately thought of his longtime friend and former pastoral colleague, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Stevenson, honorably retired in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
At Friday’s Big Tent workshop, The Church’s Stories of Struggle and Reconciliation, representatives of the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s (PMA) World Mission talked about the accompaniment of global partners in the work of peace building in South Sudan, Cuba and Israel-Palestine.
Dismantling racism was a popular topic at Big Tent 2017. The workshop Disrupting Racism: Building the Intercultural Community was attended by 50 percent more people than had registered.
