Make A Donation
Click Here >
mission yearbook
After COVID-19 forced the cancelation of planned projects and in-person worship, Coastland Commons, a 1001 New Worshiping Community in Seattle Presbytery, moved to Zoom discussions about their city’s history of land use by Black, Indigenous and people of color communities. After about six months of Zoom gatherings, they figured out a safe way to see Seattle anew through socially distanced community walks. They reached out to the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI), which organizes redlining tours in Seattle’s Capitol Hill and Central District neighborhoods.
I am not usually a fan of a pastor or someone in my position using themselves as a good example. If pastors tell a story from their lives in a sermon, I think it should be a story about how they learned something about their faith because of a failing or a shortcoming, or a story about something funny that happened to them. I also think pastors should never use their children as examples, especially if the child is in worship. The last thing preachers’ kids need is to have more attention drawn to them.
Justo Mwale University in Zambia is generally thought of as an educational institution that prepares pastors. It has trained pastors for seven African countries. But this unique place of learning also plays a key role in equipping scholars to go on to train pastors in other African theological schools.
Hannah Drake’s “Do Not Move Off the Sidewalk Challenge” says a lot about allowing people to flourish in whatever body God gave them.
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.”
Susan Ehterton, a real estate developer and ruling elder at Arlington Presbyterian Church in Arlington, Virginia with 35 years of experience in redevelopment and affordable housing, explained the church’s journey as moving “from one stone edifice to another stone edifice” — one with 173 units of affordable housing and, as it turns out, room for the congregation as well.
Congregations of many denominations extend the peace of Christ with a blessing during their service. “The peace of Christ be with you (and also with you).” It is a blessing offered and a blessing returned in kind. Extending the peace of Christ is part of an active, engaged faith — a witness to what it means for us to be building the household of God.
Our congregation has been worshiping virtually since last year. We had a few good months of outdoor worship, but colder weather meant back to virtual worship. And that meant reimagining one of our favorite Sundays of the new year: Ordination and Installation Sunday.
The Rev. Aisha Brooks-Lytle enjoys nothing more than cheering on the Herculean online worship efforts being made each week during the pandemic by churches of the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta where she is the executive presbyter.
From Sept. 1 to Oct. 4, the Christian family celebrates the good gift of Creation. This global celebration began in 1989 with recognition of the Day of Prayer for Creation and is now embraced by the wide ecumenical community.
