“Screams and hubbubs! The children were excited and happy to leave the huts and go play outside. The air was thick and full of dust and flakes falling from the sky. They thought it was snowing, something which never happened on their tropical island. They were surprised and curious. They run after the flakes, catching them with their hands, rubbing them in their hair and on their bodies,” an eyewitness recalled.
That day was March 1, 1954. The U.S. just tested a nuclear bomb in the atoll of Bikini, in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. The visible fallout from the explosion continued to drop for several days.
Reading and seeing the testimonies of thousands of migrants who have survived crossing the Darién Gap jungle on foot, their exposure to hunger, bug bites and infections of all kinds, getting lost without being found, being victims of extortion, robbery and sexual abuse by mafias on both sides of the jungle under the complicit indifference of the authorities is a social scandal and degrading to human dignity.
Our denominational response to the Matthew 25 call to aid those less fortunate is lived out through the foci of strengthening worship communities, eradicating systemic poverty and combating racism. An old proverb states that a long journey is made step by step. And so it is that our partners in the Presbyterian Community of Kinshasa (CPK) in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are taking steps to improve formal education systems and provide life options that will lead to a more productive and healthy society.
“Water is life” is a statement that is heard frequently throughout Africa as many people cannot take water for granted. This is particularly true in Niger, a country that is mostly within the Sahara Desert, with the remainder lying within the Sahel, a dry ecosystem that transitions between desert and savannah lands.
To think about peace, about the blessing of peacemakers in the midst of war and constant threats, is very difficult. War is absolutely evil — it brings only suffering, pain, grief and injustice.
I still can see clearly in my mind’s eye the writing printed on the spine of a book that was on the shelf of my family’s bookcase in our humble rented house in Los Angeles. In Korean script, it read: “Why We Can’t Wait,” written by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies is a consortium of three universities — the Universitas Gadjah Mada (a non-confessional state-owned university), Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Kalijaga (a state-owned Islamic university) and Universitas Kristen Duta Wacana (a private Christian university) — all located in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
A group of us representing the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) were present at the World Council of Churches (WCC) Assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany, in September, where “Christ’s Love Moves the World to Reconciliation and Unity” was the theme.
This year the Presbyterian Church of Trinidad and Tobago (PCTT) had one of the youngest delegations to the World Council of Churches assembly. The PCTT also afforded me the opportunity to attend the 225th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), making both assemblies an attempt at returning to fellowship in person.
When Covid struck in the spring of 2020 in the Czech Republic, it meant, above all, a radical reduction in contacts. This reduction was a reasonable response from the authorities to the pandemic, which was spreading through physical encounters between people.
