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Writing a will is “an act of love and responsibility,” says Sherry Kenney, a ministry relations officer with the Presbyterian Foundation. A will enables you to designate guardians for any surviving dependents and to determine how your assets will be distributed. Without a will, the probate court will make those decisions.
May Friendship Day, a Church Women United initiative, is most often celebrated on the first Friday of the month of May. May Fellowship Day began in 1933 after two Christian women’s groups planned gatherings based on similar concerns: child health and children of migrant families. These groups united and over the years, eventually became what we now know as Church Women United. The May celebration has been continually observed since 1933 and each year the theme identifies a shared concern of Christian women and their communities. In 1999, Church Women United changed the name from May Fellowship Day to May Friendship Day.
Poet T.S. Eliot once wrote, “The Church must be forever building, and always decaying, and always being restored.” Through these words, our worldview of the church changes. It is an understanding that the church will continue to have life and vitality. From age to age, the church will continue to grow. This contrasts with the natural cycle of all living organisms, a life cycle that involves decay. Since the beginning of “church,” we have seen an endless cycle of decay. Be hopeful, though — the church is always restored! It is restored not through our human hands and effort, but by God.
God of solidarity, thank you for your arms that stretch across this broken world. We are grateful for this work and witness. Encourage them. Bless them so that your word may be spread far and wide. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
The Rev. Buddy Monahan, pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Odessa, Texas, and corresponding member of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board as chair of the Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns (ACREC), died March 27 in Odessa from injuries sustained in an automobile accident. He was 52.
Sri Lanka faces enormous economic and social challenges, but when a group representing several ministries of the Presbyterian Mission Agency visited in January, they saw a couple of fair trade and innovative workplaces beginning to flourish.
Upon first feeling the chill of the air, upon leaving the swaddling security of the womb, the newborn wails. Having been forced from her snug home of nine months, she is adrift in what must seem like limitless nothingness.
Leaders from across the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) representing intercultural congregations, and the Presbyterian Intercultural Network, gathered at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky, last fall to talk about their call, passion and best practices for intercultural ministries. Ideas for possible initiatives were shared on how the Presbyterian Church may become an intercultural church that is truly welcoming and inclusive, and that genuinely appreciates each other’s distinctiveness and values differences.
Kristen Young will never forget the face of Diana. The expectant teen was scared and refused to smile when she came to the shelter in Peru where Young worked last year as a Presbyterian Young Adult Volunteer (YAV). As the days passed, Diana felt the warm embrace of the center staff and her somber countenance began to brighten. Young was especially moved when she saw the delight Diana took in her newborn son.
Haiti Education and Production Initiatives (HEPI) is a nonprofit organization begun in 2010 by members of the Charleston Atlantic Presbytery in South Carolina. Haiti had been a focus of the presbytery for a few years prior to 2010. HEPI’s foci are education for children and adults, and production. Creations of Hope is the production arm of HEPI.
