Travelers, not unexpectedly, arrive with baggage. And as pastors and church leaders regularly navigate the daily landscape of life and ministry under tremendous pressure and stress, they may find themselves carrying more than their usual share to the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s annual Disciple-Making Church Conference on January 16.
In an apparent random act of violence, the education wing of St. Stephen Presbyterian Church in Fort Worth, Texas was extensively vandalized last Saturday evening. Officials believe the vandals gained entry to the building by breaking windows around 8:00pm and then continued their rampage until 4:20am Sunday when a church steward arrived and startled them away.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), via its Office of Public Witness, has joined 30 other faith communities endorsing a letter to President-elect Trump urging him and his administration to prioritize issues of climate change, the environment and justice.
If every waiter is said to be an aspiring actor, might every barista somehow be a future campus minister? Such was almost certainly the case at last week’s College Conference at Montreat, where on Wednesday morning, Jan. 4, some 30 campus ministers from across the country were served their morning coffee by a group of keenly interested and highly motivated seminary students.
Presbyterian churches located within a few miles of the Fort Lauderdale – Hollywood International Airport are still trying to wrap their minds around last Friday’s shootings that left five people dead and several injured. The suspect, Esteban Santiago, 26, appeared before a federal magistrate judge on Monday and could possibly face the death penalty.
“Hidden Figures”—the movie about a group of brilliant female African-American mathematicians that aided NASA during the space race—took the second spot at the box office in its first weekend of wide release, narrowly bested by “Star Wars: Rogue One.” The movie features the story of Katherine G. Johnson, a longtime Presbyterian and 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom awardee.
At the conclusion of Valarie Kaur’s Jan. 4 electrifying keynote address at the College Conference at Montreat, the tandem lines on either side of Anderson Auditorium were at least ten deep with students all but on fire to have her respond to their questions.
In a recent denominational survey, nearly three-quarters of Presbyterians said that “Jesus Christ is the only Savior and Lord,” a finding that stands in contrast to an earlier study on Presbyterian views of salvation.
A recently released report by the Pew Research Center for Religion & Public Life shows the composition of the 115th U.S. Congress is losing members from historically mainline Protestant groups in favor of modest gains by evangelicals, Catholics and representatives from other faith traditions.
