I’ve always been stubborn. My mother has a picture of me as a child, with arms crossed and a determined squint that sums up most of my childhood and possibly my adult personality. Difficult, resistant, overly critical — I’ve been called many things throughout my life. Maybe that’s why I’ve always enjoyed Wendell Berry’s poem Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front. Throughout this piece, Berry eloquently encourages the reader to do things like: “… do something that won’t compute. Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing. Take all that you have and be poor. … Ask the questions that have no answers.” Berry not only empowers us to be cantankerous, but indeed goes on to warn that if we are not, we are putting our individual and, ultimately, communal moral compass at risk. Finally, my “troublesome” traits are vindicated!
Today’s worship service at the chapel at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) offices was not your typical service. Following the call to worship, participants joined in a rousing prayer for justice that included excerpts from the Confession of Belhar in a rhythm from Ghana, West Africa. The prayer was led by Alonzo Johnson, director of Self Development of People, and his African drum.
Twelve months ago, the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins packed his bags, said goodbye to his North Carolina congregation at Covenant Presbyterian Church in New Hope Presbytery, and made his way to the nation’s capital as the new director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Office of Public Witness.
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child that has been born king of the Jews?” … When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him … When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under. — Matthew 2:1–16
It’s been a good year for hate. Melanie Rodenbough, a lifelong Presbyterian, lives in North Carolina. In early 2017, she learned from the news that the FBI was beginning an investigation after an audio recording of a meeting of conservative activists near Winston-Salem revealed death threats against Muslims living in the area.
At this year’s Big Tent, General Assembly Co-Moderators Denise Anderson and Jan Edmiston recommended Always with Us? What Jesus Really Said about the Poor for their “One Church, One Book” discussion. The author, the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, offers her thoughts and questions here: What does the Bible say about poverty? Is it an unfortunate but inevitable reality? Is it the fault of the poor themselves? Is it a way to get close to God? Is it a curse from God?
Sarah Jane Moore grew up in a small Illinois farm town where few spoke of diversity. The town had no minority residents, and only a few people of color attended her college.
Mission co- worker Douglas Dicks has gone home. Not to his boyhood home in Virginia but to his spiritual home in Israel/Palestine.
Last month Dicks began serving as an associate for ecumenical partnerships at the invitation of St. Andrew’s Scots Memorial Church in Jerusalem, working with churches in Bethlehem, Jerusalem and elsewhere in the Holy Land. However, neither the job nor the region is new to him. He was commissioned by his home church, Buckton Presbyterian, to go to Jerusalem in September 1995 for two years. He stayed 18 years and finished his term in 2013 to return to Virginia to care for his aging mother.
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) related seminaries Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Columbia Theological Seminary, McCormick Theological Seminary and San Francisco Theological Seminary are among the 32 schools nominated this year as Seminaries that Change the World.
Calling on congregations to offer an educational event exploring The Doctrine of Discovery, the September edition of Facing Racism from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) asks participants to consider the history of exploitation of Indigenous Peoples in the United States.
