While the community of Sutherland Springs, Texas grapples with yesterday’s mass shooting at First Baptist Church, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is responding. Mission Presbytery has requested PDA’s presence to meet with church leaders and determine the best way to minister during this time.
Sarah Jane Moore grew up in a small Illinois farm town where few spoke of diversity. The minority population stood at zero percent and only a few people of color attended her college.
For over 140 years, First Presbyterian Church was the centerpiece of historic Englewood, New Jersey. But that all changed on March 22, 2016, when a fire broke out leaving significant damage to the sanctuary, destroying original stained-glass windows and causing the roof to collapse.
A short walk to dinner in the nation’s capital became a life-changing experience for eight-year-old Meghan Deluca. The New Jersey native was walking with her family in Washington, D.C. and came across several homeless people, including a few who were sleeping in boxes. Instead of ignoring them or closing her eyes to their anguish, young Meghan made a compassionate choice to do something about it.
Seventy-two years ago today, the newly-formed United Nations approved a charter that has been the foundation of its work ever since. Today marks United Nations Day, an opportunity for the global community to celebrate the work and progress the institution has made. UN member states aren’t the only ones to commemorate the special day.
The original idea was to simply schedule screenings of the most recent Presbyterian Disaster Assistance documentaries on immigration detention and refugee resettlement (Locked in a Box and To Breathe Free) at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Dayton. What Sally Dyer didn’t realize, was a number of organizations across the city were planning their own awareness events around these issues.
October 20-22 marks the 26th annual National Observance of Children’s Sabbaths, a time for people of all faiths to devote to, and unite in, their concern for children, commit to improving children’s lives, and advocate for justice on their behalf. The 2017 Children’s Sabbaths theme is “Moving Forward with Hope: Love and Justice for Every Child.”
The meeting room at Laws Lodge on the campus of the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary was buzzing with groups clustered together, debriefing on the past three weeks. Most of the 15 international peacemakers gathered here for a day of conversation before heading back to their homes, an opportunity to talk about their experiences and interactions with U.S. congregations, students and communities.
In recognition of World Food Day, the Presbyterian Hunger Program has announced that more than 70 Presbyterian churches have become Hunger Action Congregations since the initiative was announced last summer.
It’s been nearly two weeks since hundreds of rounds were fired into a large crowd at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas, killing 59 people and injuring 489, resulting in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
