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covid-19
When author and artist P. Lynn Miller proposed the theme of “lament” to the national Bible Study Committee of Presbyterian Women four years ago, no one had any idea how timely the topic would be now.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a dramatic shift in the way organizations around the country are conducting business. For the first time in the history of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the organization will not hold an in-person General Assembly. This year the 224th General Assembly, originally scheduled to be held in Baltimore, will be a virtual event.
A timely and sometimes painful discussion on the impact of COVID-19 and racism on Native Americans ended on a hopeful note Tuesday, with a panelist invoking an image from nature.
Congregations striving to maintain their outward incarnational focus, one of the seven marks of congregational vitality, can thrive for at least two reasons: they’re ministering to others while at the same time being ministered to.
Like most organizations, PC(USA)-affiliated camp and retreat centers were blindsided by the recent COVID-19 pandemic that has swept through the country and world over the past several months. Stay-at-home and social distancing orders struck the very heart and infrastructure of summer camp and retreat resident ministries. But amidst it all, associate for Christian Formation Brian Frick — who has oversight of PC(USA)-affiliated camps and retreats — sees positive outcomes for 2020 that hopefully carry over into 2021.
It is said, “When America gets a cold, the African American community gets pneumonia.”
The COVID-19 pandemic is proving that to be true. As the virus spreads across the country, it appears that it is impacting African Americans at a disproportionally high rate. In hot spots like New York, Detroit, New Orleans and Chicago, blacks are dying at alarmingly high rates.
The Rev. Jane Pauw remembers the date, March 12, when she blacked out and entered the darkness, into what she calls “a warm, mindless comfort” that she had never experienced before.
There’s no need to have an empty church on Sunday mornings, even in the midst of coronavirus social distancing directives.
Co-pastors Tami Seidel and Chip Low of First Presbyterian Church of Yorktown, New York, aren’t encouraging disobedience to stay-at-home orders. Rather, they’ve placed photos of church members in the pews for them to look out on as they offer livestreamed Sunday morning services from the church sanctuary.
Using Ezekiel’s stark vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, the Rev. Dr. David Gambrell elicited any number of innovative ideas from about 70 pastors and other church leaders during a recent videoconference on Spirit-inspired worship, one of the Seven Marks of Vital Congregations.
I was about to launch into my public service announcement about the need to stay home, especially as the COVID-19 virus began making itself known to our rural community, but I was interrupted.
