Sometimes the simplest questions give rise to the most interesting conversations. That is what I discovered one morning at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Virginia.
In South Sudan there is a fragile peace and a surprising veneer of normalcy, but just below the surface lurks layers of ethnic violence, severe food shortages and exponentially growing inflation. Still, the Rev. Debbie Braaksma returned to the U.S. last week with a sense of hope that minor miracles are happening daily that may lead to a more lasting peace.
Melissa Wiginton remembers the first thing she did after being hired by Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. “We had to come up with a title when I started in 2011,” she says. “We wanted to make a statement about the seminary’s commitment to education with people who weren’t going to school here every da
The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), sent a letter of support to leaders and members of the Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in Greenville, Mississippi after the congregation’s building was vandalized with “Vote Trump” graffiti and set ablaze.
If there is anything good that can come out of a hurricane, it is preparation for the next one. That appears to be the feeling of residents and volunteers working in New Hope and Coastal Carolina presbyteries in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew.
What will ministry and mission look like in the twenty-first century? Leaders from the Presbyterian Church of Egypt and other Protestant denominations came together to meet with American pastors, professors, synod and presbytery executives, and lay leaders from New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania to answer the question.
World leaders and government officials from nearly 200 countries are gathering for the next two weeks in Marrakech for the 22nd Conference of Parties (COP22), part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Following an interfaith solidarity gathering of more than 500 clergy and lay people at the Oceti Sakowin camp on the northern border of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation near Cannon Ball, North Dakota last Thursday, a group of approximately 70 faith leaders and “water protector” activists traveled to Bismarck to stage a sit in at the Capitol building’s judicial wing.
While Presbyterians and more than 500 other clergy gathered in North Dakota in support of the Native American water protectors last Thursday, the Presbyterian Center in Louisville was the site of a prayer vigil held at the same time. The short vigil, organized by staff, allowed Presbyterians and others in and around Louisville to stand in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
More than 20 representatives from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) joined a 500-person-strong gathering of clergy and lay leaders at the Oceti Sakowin prayer camp yesterday, adding voices of solidarity to self-described “water protectors” at the site and taking part in a ceremony repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery.
