After so many years, it would be easy to give up on the prospect of peace. But members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) continue to hold fast to a hope that comes from an omnipresent God.
Every year, Presbyterians are asked to give to the Peace & Global Witness Offering. And every year Presbyterians ask: “Why?” One reason that Presbyterians contribute is because 50% of the offering stays with their local congregation and presbytery, empowering local peacemaking work in their own community. The other 50% supports the peacemaking work of the denomination, through our office, the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program.
When the Rev. Fursan Zu’mot became an International Peacemaker for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), he thought he would be the one doing the blessing.
More than 15 years ago, Efi Latsoudi moved from Athens, Greece, to Lesvos Island when she realized “there are refugees suffering and local society didn’t know much about it. No one was taking care of them. I wanted to know what was happening to them.” She founded Lesvos Solidarity, an organization that serves refugees and others and is supported in part by gifts to the Peace & Global Witness Offering, which many Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations received Sunday as part of World Communion Sunday.
The prophet Isaiah invites us to imagine God’s peace in unlikely places. Trees clap their hands. Joy grows where sorrow once reigned. A world torn by enmity, strife and despair blossoms back to abundant life. Lions lie down with lambs, and nations once at war with each other come together in peace.
Wandering the streets of Athens with two small children in tow, Fatima had nowhere to turn.
Left homeless following a massive fire that closed the Moria Refugee Camp in 2020, the native Afghani was arrested and imprisoned after unknowingly becoming involved with drug dealers.
Devastated and alone in a Greek prison — her two little ones sent off to a shelter for unaccompanied children — Fatima may as well have been invisible, until her case was supported by a refugees legal aid organization, which referred her cause to Lesvos Solidarity.
The Presbyterian Peace Network for Korea (PPNK) is urging the public to support a campaign for peace on the Korean Peninsula by taking two steps: incorporating a unity prayer into their church service during the Season of Peace and joining a campaign to collect thousands of signatures.
Anthony was dealt a bad hand in life. Looking intently into the eyes of the Rev. Charles Harrison, pastor of Barnes United Methodist Church in Indianapolis and president of the board of the Indy TenPoint Coalition, the young man visiting from Chicago made his tearful confession.
