A recent New York Times story tells of a Catholic priest in Queens who decided not to let the coronavirus-mandated closure of his church keep him from worshiping with, and ministering to, his parish.
“He decided that if people can’t come to church, the church ought to find a way to go to the people,” explained the Rev. Dr. Ted Wardlaw, president of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exploited wounds we never healed.
Once who knows that truth all too well is the Rev. Dr. William Barber II, president of the group Repairers of the Breach, co-chair (with Presbyterian pastor the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis) of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, and pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church in North Carolina, where he preached a sermon as part of the Festival of Homiletics.
Bintou Jalloh’s father was clear — education was a priority. “Your first husband is your degree,” he told her. “You get your degree first.” He wanted Jalloh to have the educational opportunity of America, so she left her home in Bamako, Mali’s capital, to study accounting at Temple University, in Philadelphia.
Nebraska Presbyterian Foundation’s Board of Directors awarded grants totaling $137,211 to nine Nebraska churches or organizations in April to partially fund projects that support outreach activities to enhance or expand some aspect of their ministry.
Two hundred years ago, William Dunlop, a professor of church history at the University of Edinburgh, published two volumes of confessions that had enjoyed “public authority” in Scotland since the Reformation. While the Westminster Standards (1647–48) filled the first volume, more than 10 earlier confessional documents — including the Geneva Catechism (1542), the Scots Confession (1560) and the Heidelberg Catechism (1563) — filled the second. By placing Westminster in the broader tradition of Reformed (“Calvinist”) theology, Dunlop honored a distinctly Reformed custom: He compiled a book of confessions.
Saying he’d been dreading preaching as part of the Festival of Homiletics, the Rev. Lenny Duncan nonetheless did just that with precision and panache during a sermon broadcast — even though “I wasn’t sure what God wanted from me this time,” as he put it.
The Presbyterian Association of Musician offers ideas for congregations as they navigate the return to public worship and seek to bridge online and in-person gatherings. These suggestions may need to be adapted for a particular context of ministry. They should be undertaken only insofar as local resources and current conditions allow.
In a truly altruistic act of kindness and unity, the National Korean Caucus of Presbyterian Churches (NCKPC) has demonstrated what a connectional church looks like.
The Rev. Byeongho Choi, Moderator of the NCKPC and pastor of Bethany Korean Presbyterian Church in Marietta, Georgia, said, “As moderator I called a meeting to ask the caucus how we could help the small churches during this very difficult time of the COVID-19 virus.”
Yearning to break free from a life hindered by addiction, Lori Flick walked into Columbia Presbyterian Church in south-central Pennsylvania almost seven years ago and found a place of refuge.
“I think a lot of people were like ‘Who is this girl?’” she said. “I was skinny as heck. I looked like I was ready to rob the place,” but “I just got to know everyone. They gave me hope. They gave me Jesus. They gave me my self-worth when I didn’t have it.”
