Winter is no match for Americans who are weary of gun violence and who are determined to do something about it. From Dec. 3-10, from a frigid church parking lot in Cambridge, Wisconsin to a rainy day in Decatur, Georgia, church members and others fired up their chop saws to join the Guns to Gardens movement. Their goal? Transforming unwanted guns into garden tools.
Born in 1946, the Rev. Nibs Stroupe, now retired after serving for 34 years at the intercultural Oakhurst Presbyterian Church in Decatur, Georgia, grew up “in a totally segregated society” in Helena, Arkansas. He said he saw Black folk “all the time” while growing up, but “they didn’t feel like people” until he did some work in Brooklyn, New York as a young adult.
Through plenary and breakout sessions — and by listening to Presbyterians who are making strides toward building intercultural faith communities — the 2020 Intercultural Transformation Workshops got underway Saturday with about 90 people aboard virtually.
In an ongoing effort to create a more diverse and inclusive denomination, the Presbyterian Intercultural Network and the Presbyterian Mission Agency — in partnership with the presbyteries of Sacramento and Stockton and Charlotte — will host the 2020 Intercultural Transformation Workshops.
The Rev. Samuel Son, manager of diversity and reconciliation at the Presbyterian Mission Agency, recently held a roundtable discussion with three Presbyterian clergywomen to discuss the challenges and opportunities of leading a congregation during protests and pandemic.
With its September meeting in Atlanta, the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People (SDOP) aims to get to know the Georgia capital and its surrounding communities better with a series of workshops and meetings.
During opening worship at the East Coast Vital Congregations gathering at Atlanta’s First Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Amantha Barbee told nearly 100 mid council and other church leaders that if they want a vital congregation, they should “tell the truth, listen, take risks and above all preach the gospel.”
Described in his introduction as a lover of Waffle House and the owner of about 250 bow ties, Dr. Tony McNeill described during a Thursday talk at the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators annual event the work that he and others at Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary are developing to “deliver theological education for the present age.”
