We give thanks for your goodness and mercy toward us. We are grateful for your loving kindness and care for your children through the ages. We thank you for your protection and correction. And we thank you that we of all genders, ethnicities and racialization bear the imprint of your caring nature.
The Rev. Dr. Lynn McClintock did a graveside service recently for the son of two residents she serves at a long-term care facility for seniors in Richmond, Virginia.
At the end of March, when schools, businesses and churches began closing their doors to curb the spread of COVID-19, the youth of Myers Park Presbyterian Church came up with an idea. The Charlotte, North Carolina, teens wanted those in the community to know that they weren’t alone.
The Presbyterian Church of Colombia is reaching out to its siblings around the world, sending greetings of “solidarity in God’s call that invites us to do everything in our power to protect the life of the people in our congregations and neighboring communities through pastoral and humanitarian care.”
“I have faith that God will dry up the Rio Grande so that I may safely cross,” he said. He had been on the journey from Honduras to the U.S. for a month and a half when we met him in a migrant shelter in Arriaga, Mexico. His teenage son was traveling with him. He told us about the pressure on his son to join a gang and the lack of lawful means to support oneself in his nation. He talked of seeing people murdered in the street.
Even before we were faced with the developments brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, my colleagues and I talked about how migrant journeys often take unexpected turns and yet their faith sustains them. Forced to leave their homes and their countries, they often set out on journeys with only a vague understanding of where they are headed. Refugees and asylum seekers know that even when the physical route itself is well-known, the metaphorical journey over time is much less certain.
One member is touched by the wind May 29, 2020 On a cold and windy day in February, members of the Presbyterian Foundation Board of Trustees crossed from El… Read more »
As a Hunger Action Congregation, Faith Des Peres Presbyterian Church is taking aim at food insecurity in greater St. Louis by providing food for schoolchildren and other vulnerable populations.
In Lebanon, a country “bursting at the seams” with refugee families, Scott Parker helps migrant children from Iraq and Syria unpack the trauma they have experienced.
Parker, a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ecumenical associate, delights in seeing children start coming to terms with their painful pasts, but he acknowledged that deep feelings they express can be unsettling to hear. One day while playing a game with puppets, Parker asked the children to pretend they were on a bus and something bad happened. An 8-year-old boy blurted out, “Oh, a terrorist just exploded a bomb on the bus!”
