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mission yearbook
Troy Byrdsong and Alison Oglesby are two young women with big dreams and big hearts. The freshman and junior attend Wayne State University and attended the United Nations 61st Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) as part of the 12-person delegation of the Racial Ethnic and Women’s Ministries of the Presbyterian Mission Agency.
Dennis Hughes has always known that in life—and in death—he belongs to God. But in 73 years of living, he has known the latter all too well.
A few years ago, Judy Whitford decided that it was time to get her estate in order. After the passing of her husband, she realized how his work in “putting things in order” had helped her—something she wanted to do for her two children and six grandchildren.
Fresh out of college, Everdith (Evie) Landrau embarked on her first international experience—a month in Geneva. The visit was also her first exposure to global ecumenical body—the World Council of Churches.
Leslie Cox is a second-year seminary student at Columbia Theological Seminary in the Masters of Divinity program. She is focusing her efforts in advocacy and inclusion, and has started the blog loveles.co about “Queer Love Stories.”
The 2017 gathering of NEXT Church concluded March 15 with worship and a sermon by the Rev. Paul Roberts Sr., president of Johnson C. Smith Seminary in Atlanta. In its seventh year, the three-day conference was attended by 550 people under the theme of “Wells & Walls: Well-Being in a Thirsty World.”
“Theological Conversations,” a series of papers designed to invite congregational leaders in the PC(USA) into discussion wherever they gather as sessions, presbyteries or for adult education in congregations, has continued its celebration of the
500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation with the release of “The First 500 Years” by the Rev. Dr. Jerry Andrews.
The 550 attendees of the 2017 NEXT Church National Gathering in March were treated to inspiring testimonies, over a dozen workshops, worship opportunities and a discussion on the “spiritual but not religious” research of the Rev. Dr. Linda Mercadante as the conference concluded its first day and began the second.
Around 850 people from Guatemala’s Maya Quiché Presbytery and visitors from Heartland Presbytery gathered in January at the Maya Quiché Bible Institute in the Guatemalan highlands near Quetzaltenango to celebrate more than 21 years of partnership.
Five core tenets—intentional Christian community, simple living, cross-cultural mission, leadership development and vocational discernment—resonate with participants at each of the Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) program’s 21 sites. To better show how YAVs engage in these principles, the YAV program has begun a series of Instagram account “takeovers,” where individual sites are allotted a 2-3-day period during which their images and stories will be featured at @yavprogram. This dedicated focus allows candidates, friends of the program and volunteers’ home communities to receive a moment-to-moment, day-to- day understanding of how YAVs live and work.
