Mission statements are common among Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) churches and mid councils. The problem, according to the Rev. Dr. Theresa Cho, is that they usually don’t “tell us how to go about” the mission.
Justice is at the very heart of who God is, Professor Rebecca Davis of Union Presbyterian Seminary said during a Thursday workshop at the annual gathering of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators. And justice is not a political issue — it’s a biblical issue. “We must come to grips with that,” she said to an overflow workshop crowd, “if we are going to be faithful to the witness of the church.”
With artist Hannah Garrity of A Sanctified Art painting on a large canvas as they worshiped, the 650 or so people attending the annual gathering of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators opened their four days together Wednesday with a sermon by the Rev. Dr. Theresa Cho.
With the authority of someone who’s been important to the civil rights movement since she was a 15-year-old high school junior, Elizabeth Ann Eckford offered the annual gathering of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators Wednesday a firsthand account of her year as a member of the Little Rock Nine, the African American students chosen in 1957 to begin the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock three years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools are unconstitutional.
The Office of Christian Formation in the Presbyterian Mission Agency partnered recently with the Presbyterian Church Camp and Conference Association (PCCCA) to bring Spanish-speaking camping leaders from the mainland to Campamento El Gaucio in Puerto Rico.
For two days, the five-member contingent worked with and learned from staff and board members at El Gaucio, discussing issues like prices, fund development, staffing structures and marketing.