Jen Evans could not stop the tears when she saw a year’s worth of work come to completion at the 2016 Presbyterian Youth Triennium, a gathering of thousands of Presbyterian youth that takes place every three years at Purdue University. As one of the recreation leaders, she was responsible for creating a Hate to Hope Wall experience that was part spiritual reflection, part prophecy, and part art installation. A year in the making, the wall project encouraged youth to write notes of hope on cloth ribbons to cover hateful words and phrases that had been spray painted onto a wall built of pallets.
This weekend marks the 25th annual National Observance of Children’s Sabbaths, uniting people of faith in common concern for problems like child poverty; in shared conviction that the God of love and justice calls us to the same; and in renewed commitment to reach out with love and to speak up for justice to improve the lives of children.
While there may no longer be a standard path for those who enter seminary, Lucy Crain’s journey has taken her to places few will ever see. The second year student at Union Presbyterian Seminary’s satellite campus in Charlotte, North Carolina, says until recently she never anticipated she’d be studying for ministry.
