The Interim Unified Agency of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) released its annual report on church statistics this month with no particular surprises. The numbers in the report reflect statistics from 2023, which saw a decrease in the number of members, ministers and churches across the denomination, in keeping with trends from recent years. Meanwhile, new worshiping communities saw an impressive rate of growth.
Just ahead of the final gift she’ll give to Presbyterians from around the country — training and encouragement during the annual Moderators’ Conference Nov. 14-16 — the Rev. Tricia Dykers Koenig was on the receiving end of expressions of thanks for her work and well wishes as she retires from her role as Associate Director for Mid Council Relations in the Office of the General Assembly and, more visibly, as parliamentarian at recent General Assemblies.
If you want to know how and why the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is known as a connectional church, ask the Rev. Jihyun Oh.
That’s precisely the connection Simon Doong and the Rev. Lee Catoe, the hosts of A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast, made last week. Listen to their conversation with Oh, an assistant stated clerk and the director of Mid Council Ministries in the Office of the General Assembly, here.
On Thursday during the first day of what will be a three-day session in the conference center at the Presbyterian Center, the Unification Commission heard from the two people who will be most responsible for what a unified Office of the General Assembly and Presbyterian Mission Agency will be: the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, and the Rev. Dr. Diane Givens Moffett.
Along with easing any tension over their task as evangelists, on Thursday Dr. Cheni Khonje taught a crowd of nearly 200 ruling elders and deacons some new language around the concepts of “welcome” and “relationship.”
Staff and members of Mid-Kentucky Presbytery have used the PC(USA)’s most recently-adopted confession, the Confession of Belhar, in a new video designed to remember the victims of violence against persons of color, including Kentuckians Breonna Taylor and David McAtee, George Floyd of Minnesota and Ahmaud Arbery of Georgia.
