The trauma and heartbreak of the Korean War continues to linger many decades after the signing of an agreement to end active military fighting on the Korean Peninsula.
Born in the Synod of Lakes and Prairies, Restorative Actions describes itself as “a grassroots voluntary initiative for churches, individuals, mid councils and agencies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), as well as ecumenical partners and interested organizations, to take a leadership stance in opposed to racism and racial privilege” by allowing “U.S. Americans who benefit from institutional racism to provide a credible witness for justice by surrendering ill-gotten gains toward the establishment of just relationships with Afro-Americans and Indigenous communities.”
The Rev. Bill Davnie was a Presbyterian pastor for five years before hearing a different call: He then served 27 years as a career Foreign Service Officer.
Ellen Smith, World Mission’s regional liaison for Central and Eastern Europe, led a packed and thought-provoking mini-course during Synod School on the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s mission in Ukraine.
Near the end of a recent Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) webinar, Tracie Campbell made an impassioned plea for people of faith to “do something” to curtail gun violence in this country.
Before the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins took to the stage at Schaller Memorial Chapel to deliver the final convocation for Synod School this year, the Rev. Dr. Matt Sauer of Manitowoc (Wisconsin) Cooperative Ministry, as he’d done all week, donned a red zip-up cardigan just like another Presbyterian, Fred Rogers, used to. It was Sauer’s duty to remind those attending the 69th annual gathering that not all the world is like the Synod of Lakes and Prairies’ Synod School, which concluded on the campus of Buena Vista University.
Concluding her weeklong journey through biblical accounts starting with the letter “c” — Creation, crisis, covenant and Christ came before — the Rev. DeEtte Decker, the preacher during Synod School and the communications director for the Presbyterian Mission Agency, concluded worship on the with more alliteration: the church as co-creator.
When Pastor Erika Irizarry Rodriguez received a technology grant from the Presbyterian Foundation, she breathed both a sigh of relief and exclaimed a shout of joy.
“Y’all responded a little better than I thought you would yesterday,” the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins told Synod School attendees, referring to a talk he delivered on whether some symbols belong in church. “So today I thought I’d talk about Christianity and capitalism.”
“God, you are with me.” What a powerful statement of faith that is!
The psalmist says that even though we walk through “the darkest valley,” we fear no evil, or, as the King James Version of the Bible reminds us, “the valley of the shadow of death.”
