Family members and friends, scholars, church leaders and well-wishers from around the country joined on Friday to celebrate the joyous inauguration of the Rev. Dr. José R. Irizarry as the 10th president of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
Thousands of people from around the globe, including a contingent from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), are headed to New York City for the 67th Commission on the Status of Women, a gender equality gathering that will be celebrated by the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the PC(USA), both Co-Moderators of the 225th General Assembly, and the president and executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency.
Calling herself a sometimes “reluctant pursuer of hearing God’s voice,” the Rev. Ruth Faith Santana-Grace nonetheless picked up the phone one day early in 2022 and “made a blind call to this dear sister and now friend,” the Rev. Shavon Starling-Louis, to discuss standing for the office of Co-Moderators. The rest is history, of course: in June 2022, commissioners to the 225th General Assembly elected the two as Co-Moderators, offices they hold right up until the 226th General Assembly, set to be held online and in-person in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2024.