The World Council of Churches (WCC) is inviting ecumenical youth to be stewards at the 2018 Central Committee in Geneva, Switzerland. With an application deadline of Jan. 31, the Stewards Program aims to bring together a
dynamic and diverse group of 20 young people, between the ages of 18 and 30, from all over the world. The program will take place June 5–23. The invitation is open to people from a variety of backgrounds, churches and regions.
Despite the Trump administration’s anti-environmental policies, delegates to a recent climate convention in Bonn, Germany, are prepared to continue their fight for environmental protection, says a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) delegate to that convention.
The Rev. T. Denise Anderson, co-moderator of the 222nd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), added her voice to the many faith leaders present for the recent launch of The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival in Washington, D.C. Owing its name to the Poor People’s Campaign instituted in 1967 by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the call seeks to unite “tens of thousands of people across the country to challenge the evils of systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, ecological devastation and the nation’s distorted morality.”
Between 1880 and 1940, nearly 5,000 black men and women were lynched in the United States. In response, African-American Christians turned to their religion and to the cross of Jesus as a symbol of suffering but also of profound hope. Despite these violent killings and the centrality of the cross in Christian communities, the lynching tree did not occupy any space in the American theological imagination.
As the hurricane season drew to a close, the bulk of the work for the year’s storm season had just begun for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. To help in that effort, PDA hired David L. Myers as senior advisor for PDA’s hurricane recovery.
The Rev. Jihyun (pronounced “Jee-hum”) Oh, a pastor in the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta, has joined the staff of the Office of the General Assembly as manager of call process support. She began working part-time on Nov. 29 and began working full-time in Louisville on Jan. 1.
An oil leak in the Keystone Pipeline in November spilled more than 210,000 gallons of oil approximately three miles southeast of Amherst, South Dakota. The state’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources said it was the largest Keystone oil spill to date in the state.
Nearly 30 spiritual leaders recently gathered in New Mexico to show their support for threatened public lands sacred to Native Americans and for tribal sovereignty. The event, organized by the New Mexico Wildlife Federation and Creation Justice Ministries, brought together representatives from a number of denominations and groups, including Presbyterian, Lutheran, Catholic, United Church of Christ and Jewish organizations, as well as several Native American organizations.
Let us be reminded also that our stance on punishment is in sharp contrast to our Christian gospel’s redemptive message of repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation, as expressed in Luke 4:18; and that our salvation, individually and collectively, is linked to our treatment of those in prison, as declared in Matthew 25:41–43.
Near the end of a long corridor lined with classrooms and elaborate hand-painted murals of biblical scenes sits a small kitchen. The sign on the refrigerator says, “This is Leonor’s refrigerator. Please do NOT help yourself to her food.”
