In Durham, North Carolina, downtown revitalization will soon get a collaborative kickstart through the construction of hundreds of units of affordable housing, which city and county officials agree is a growing need in the community.
The Rev. Lorenzo Small admits he had never heard of prayer walking until a pastor friend told him about it. So, he tried it. The prayer walk made such an impact on Small for being “very simple and yet very effective” that wherever the pastor goes, prayer walking goes with him.
Nearly 30 years ago, 25 residents of North Scottsdale, Arizona, attended a worship service at what would grow to become Pinnacle Presbyterian Church, a congregation of more than 1,400 in the Presbytery of Grand Canyon.
My grandmother was a farm wife during the Dust Bowl of the Great Depression. For the rest of her life, she was meticulous
about not wasting food. She wouldn’t use a vegetable peeler on potatoes or carrots because she could remove less peel using a knife.
The Rev. Sharyl Dixon is now in her sixth year serving Kingston Presbyterian Church in Kingston, New Jersey. When she started serving the church — be it visiting the women’s Bible studies or shaking hands at the door after a service — Dixon realized that what she was witnessing, in different forms, was caregiving, whether it was for a spouse with dementia, ailing parents or children with special needs. Dixon realized there was a need to care for those offering care to others.
When I was a pastor in Montgomery, Alabama, I was in a meeting with several community leaders and civil rights advocates talking about justice issues in the city and the state. We were gathered in one of the Sunday school rooms of a small Baptist church. Early in the meeting, I looked up and noticed a small poster on the wall that read: “What if God released his tapes on you?”
It was an honor like no other for Army Brig. Gen. Kenneth “Ed” Brandt. For the past 30 years, Brandt, an ordained PC(USA) pastor, has been serving as a military chaplain, providing enlisted men and women with a sacred space to make sense of out of a sometimes-senseless world.
Since 2009, the Nigerian government has been engaged in violent conflict with Boko Haram militants in Northeastern Nigeria. People’s homes have been burned along with their farming fields. Food, tools and other possessions have been stolen. And many women and young girls have been raped by the insurgents. Many have lost their lives.
More than 732 million people in India don’t have access to toilets, according to WaterAid, an international organization that focuses on water, hygiene and sanitation. This lack of access poses problems in particular for rural women and girls who are often obliged to wait until it is dark to defecate in open fields. Not only does this situation create physical discomfort, compromise sanitation and health, and damage dignity, but it also causes serious safety problems.
Fort Caroline Presbyterian Church, which I serve as interim pastor, is 60 years old and has long passed its “glory days.” It’s in the Arlington area in Jacksonville, Florida, a neighborhood in the midst of transition. When I arrived nearly four years ago as the part-time ecumenical pastor, we were worshiping alongside about 20 people. We have only two couples in their 50s; most worshipers are 70–98 years of age.
