mission yearbook

Matthew 25 and care of Creation go hand in hand

The Rev. Dr. Diane Moffett, president and executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, believes that God has intricately woven our lives together at this time in history so we may be part of the healing work of God’s Creation. As stewards of God’s Creation amid myriad challenges — devastating fires, floods, droughts and storms — we are to continue to bring glory to God and be a blessing to God’s people, particularly people who are hungry, oppressed, imprisoned or poor, she said.

Minute for Mission: Christian Education

September is a time of change. The leaves change colors as the weather cools. The days are shorter and the shadows longer. Summer breaks are over, and kids are settling back into a new school year. At church, Christian educators, pastors and volunteers are diligently preparing for another program year, which kicks off on  a Sunday often referred to as Rally Day.

Pennsylvania congregation commits to nurturing nature

From Sept. 1 to Oct. 4, Christians around the world celebrate the Season of Creation. Some pray, some do hands-on projects, some advocate. It’s powerfully good work that’s urgently needed

Hillsborough Presbyterian Church works to take care of the Earth

From Sept. 1 to Oct. 4, Christians around the world celebrate the Season of Creation. Some of us pray, some of us do hands-on projects, some of us advocate. We all protect creation. It’s powerfully good work that’s urgently needed.

Crisis is still disrupting lives in Cameroon

“At a time when fear and uncertainty are looming in the air, at a time when emotions have overtaken reason, at a time when the sacredness of human life has been defiled, at a time when we are creating more enemies than friends, at a time when division seems to be destroying the unity of our people, and at a time when we do not seem to trust each other, we are here again to remind all Presbyterians and the people of Cameroon of our collective responsibility and role as a Church and as a people in these trying moments of our nation and history.” Thus, starts the Oct. 10, 2017 official statement of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC) concerning the crisis in Cameroon, often referred to as the Anglophone Crisis.

The Great Commission, Matthew 25 invitation go hand in hand

During her nearly nine years as pastor of Washington Shores Presbyterian Church in Orlando, Florida, the Rev. Erika Rembert Smith has placed the Great Commission at the front and center of her vision for the congregation.

Minute for Mission: A Season of Peace

In his poem “In the Soul of the Serene Disciple” Trappist monk Thomas Merton flips the reader between two vantage points of a shared condition — one in which “poverty is a success” and one where it is “no achievement.” That poverty could be a success in any way is a difficult premise to accept. When we think of poverty, we think about a crushing system of social and economic deprivation that isolates and destroys lives. That is a reality for too many and a challenge that the church is called to help address. But the discipline of Christian poverty, in which a disciple might willingly give up a life of excess and extravagance in order to better focus on all that God provides, is another thing altogether.

Minute for Mission: A Social Creed for the 21st Century

What’s the use of the Social Creed for the 21st Century? Yes, the Social Creed gets cited in books that deal with ecumenical social ethics, but how many read those after they leave seminary? Well, actually, Cynthia Rigby’s book “Promotion of Social Righteousness” (2010) did get broader circulation, and it reprints the Social Creed as the key illustration of what the church stands for in its social witness. Her title is one of the six “Great Ends of the Church” and it means both social justice and public integrity.