Ruling Elder James Parks of Baltimore, a member of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board who cut his teeth on community organizing, opened his devotional time with the board recently by playing the clip of Gregory Porter’s “Take Me to the Alley.”
For church and worshiping community leaders, the Way of Spiritual Fortitude is apparently paved with good intentions, including intending to regularly practice self-care in the midst of long hours doing ministry that can be as demanding as it is draining.
What would it cost to buy it all back?
Early in the pandemic, my wife and I undertook an inventory with the help of a computer program. We entered our possessions, room by room, with photos and a few facts. The process proved arduous, but we made it to the end.
“Mi casa es su casa” expresses a sincere welcome to all. One hears this phrase often in Latina communities. When guests are in one’s home, they become part of one’s family.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) supports Christian witness in the Czech Republic through a long and active partnership with the Evangelical Church of the Czech Brethren (ECCB), which strengthened after the fall of communism in 1989. Old friendships were renewed, and new friendships were built.
I just don’t want to have to feel guilty being white. That’s what John said after my presentation at a family retreat I was facilitating for a church a few years ago. I was talking about the advantages that whites enjoy in American society that people of color do not always receive, referencing a classic article by Dr. Peggy McIntosh titled “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” In it, she points out that whites can typically agree with statements like, “If a traffic cop pulls me over, I can be pretty sure that I haven’t been singled out because of my race,” or “When I am told about our national heritage or ‘civilization,’ I am shown that people of my race made it what it is.”
The Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III remembers the heartbroken grandmother of a man in denial of his drug addiction. “Son,” she told him one day, “until you name the demon, you ain’t never gonna be free.”
One of the high points so far in my ministry within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has been participation in the development of “Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal.” Although I came on board near the end of the hymn selection process, I had the honor of being involved in the preparation and introduction of this major resource of congregational song for the church.
Accepting a first call to ministry and moving during a pandemic may not be ideal, but one thing is certain: the Rev. Katheryn McGinnis is following in the footsteps of a long line of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) pastors, including her grandfather, great-grandfather, great-great grandfather and great-great-great grandfather.
