eradicating systemic poverty Archives

A year with Matthew

Posted January 22nd, 2020

Subtly and quietly, Wednesday’s worship service in the Chapel at the Presbyterian Center took shape from a resource designed to allow Presbyterians to spend a year with Matthew’s Gospel.

‘Put us where you want us, and show us what to do’

Posted October 25th, 2019

A congregation without a building but with a proven record of innovation for serving the Rochester, New York, community — especially those living in the city’s margins — has accepted the Matthew 25 invitation.

Presbyterians urged to protest proposed rule limiting food stamp benefits

Posted August 19th, 2019

The Office of Public Witness is calling on Presbyterians to speak against a proposed administrative rule revision that will eliminate food assistance benefits to nearly 3 million Americans.

It’s all in the timing

Posted June 20th, 2019

The right idea in the right place at the right time has led the Presbytery of Arkansas to say yes to the Matthew 25 invitation, one of the most recent mid councils to do so.

A small church with a big passion to actively engage in the community

Posted June 20th, 2019

Some Sundays, five or 10 people show up for worship at Yaphank Presbyterian Church on Long Island, New York. The church, established in 1851, has 41 members on its rolls. The average Sunday attendance is about 15. Yet the session of the historic church, whose sanctuary was destroyed by a December 2013 fire, has embraced the invitation to become a Matthew 25 church. Its chosen focus is eradicating systemic poverty.

Loving people who have been in and out of prison makes ‘suffering Christ more real to us’

Posted June 17th, 2019

Nancy Wind, the leader of the new worshiping community Isaiah’s Table in Syracuse, New York, She recently partnered with the Matthew 25 Farm in Central New York. Its mission is to give away fresh vegetables and fruit to those in need in their neighborhood.

Matthew 25 invitation fits ‘like a hand in a glove’

Posted June 17th, 2019

When the Rev. Kirk Perucca of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Kansas City, Missouri, heard the Rev. Dr. Diane Moffett, president and executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, speak about the agency’s new Matthew 25 invitation, he got excited.

‘Off to a great start’

Posted June 14th, 2019

As of Friday morning, 79 congregations, five presbyteries and one synod — Lakes and Prairies — had said yes to the Matthew 25 invitation, agreeing to become more actively engaged in the world by working on one or more of three focus areas: building congregational vitality, dismantling structural racism and eradicating systemic poverty.

Time to start building God’s realm

Posted April 1st, 2019

Monday marks the official kickoff of the Matthew 25 Invitation, a movement that calls Presbyterian congregations and mid councils to actively engage in the world around them so that, as the invitation’s now-active website says, “our faith comes alive and we wake up to new possibilities.”

Heart, effort and teamwork needed to minister to ‘the least of these’

Posted March 27th, 2019

With all the skill and passion she’s built spending 30 years in the pulpit, the Rev. Dr. Diane Moffett christened the Matthew 25 Invitation before the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board Wednesday.