Calling Christians yet again to move forward in hope in this post-election season, the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins and colleagues from the Presbyterian Office of Public Witness and the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations led the national staff of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in worship on Wednesday.
Nearly 90 national staff members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) gathered online Wednesday for a Chapel service to honor the 12 colleagues whose positions were eliminated last week amid ministry reconfiguration announced by Executive Director and Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, the Rev. Jihyun Oh.
As the plaintive strains of “Be Still, My Soul” filled the Presbyterian Center, worshipers gathered for prayer, both online and in the chapel, on the morning following the national election.
During Wednesday’s online worship service four days ahead of Theological Education/Seminaries Sunday, national staff of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) were privileged to hear a sermon from the Rev. Dr. José Irizarry, the president of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
With a selected preaching text of 1 Kings 19:4-8, the account of Elijah asking God for death and God instead providing an angel to minister to the prophet for the long journey ahead, the Rev. So Jung Kim delivered a homily during Wednesday’s Chapel Service for the PC(USA)’s national staff filled with encouragement to care for one another in similar ways.
Preaching to an online congregation of about 85 people during the Chapel service held on Juneteenth, the Rev. Keion Jackson leaned on the account found in Deuteronomy 31:1-6, which depicts Moses, on the precipice of leading God’s people into the Promised Land, instead turning things over to his successor Joshua, at God’s command, and instructing the people to be strong and bold.
Fittingly, Wednesday’s Chapel service put on by Presbyterian Publishing Corporation staff featured a thoughtful and challenging sermon by an author published in November by Westminster John Knox Press.
From childhood, the Rev. Dr. Anita Wright, the pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Montclair, New Jersey, has thought Wonder Woman — especially Linda Carter’s version — was wonderful.
According to the Rev. Wilson Kennedy, people doing the work of ministry do well to remember the words of a pair of neurologists who star in the Netflix documentary series, “Lennox Hill”: “Remember, there is a person here.”
