The International Day of Rural Women is observed on Oct. 15, the day before World Food Day, to bring attention to the “significant contributions [of women] to agricultural production, food security and nutrition, land and natural resource management, and building climate resilience.” This year’s theme is ” Rural women cultivating good food for all.”
The Rev. Dr. James Foster Reese, a respected and beloved pastor and pioneer in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), died June 17 after a long illness. He was 98.
After leading the congregation in prayer, the Rev. Dr. Greg Bolt knelt next to the golden retriever in her blue and white service dog jacket.
“Brinley, God has given you a calling to help a person in need with tasks of daily living, companionship and love. We give thanks for you and your willingness to serve, and to help. May your example inspire us to help and to love more in our daily lives. Brinley —” The dog placed her paw over Bolt’s arm and gave him a kiss. “You are commissioned to service.”
When Covid struck in spring 2020 in the Czech Republic, it meant, above all, a radical reduction in contacts. This reduction was a reasonable response from the authorities to the pandemic, which was spreading through physical encounters between people. The schooling of children and young people as well as the work of many adults have moved to their households. When people outside the home had to meet others, such as on public transport or in shops, the obligation to wear a mask began to apply.
One of the churches I visit every few years is Grace Taiwanese American Presbyterian Church outside of Trenton, New Jersey. I was briefly its youth director during seminary, and it was part of my call to ministry in Taiwan.
“Pride is in its essence this uncontrolled joy, a light and a reflection of how the Holy Spirit works,” Ophelia Hu Kinney recently told “A Matter of Faith” podcast hosts the Rev. Lee Catoe and Simon Doong. “I think of Pride as a way that light shines on things that didn’t have a light shone on them before and blows on things where the wind hasn’t gone before.”
During Kevin Riley’s first interaction with Tom Wenzl, Riley was pinned in the parking lot of a grocery store in the Skagit Valley in Washington state. Wenzl, then a Mount Vernon police office, arrested Riley.
Presbyterian Publishing Corporation has announced that it will donate royalties from sales of the Glory to God hymnal to organizations involved in reparative justice for every African American spiritual and Indigenous peoples’ song in the book. This is being done to honor the creators of these songs, who, unlike other hymn writers in the book, were never able to benefit from their creations.
