What is discernment? What is God calling us to do in a particular situation, either as an individual or a congregation or mid council? How do we move forward?
I have never used the praying hands emoji as much as I have the past two years. I serve as a chaplain in a city trauma center, so I pray a lot. But the COVID-19 pandemic provoked more need for prayer than I have ever felt before; thus, the use of the praying hands emoji increased as the pandemic continued.
Amanda Craft differentiates between small-a advocacy and big-A Advocacy.
Small-a advocacy, she said during a workshop during the Presbyterian Border Region Outreach conference, is articulated every day. It’s about standing up for ourselves and others. It’s about making the system work for us, said Craft, manager for Advocacy in the Office of the General Assembly’s Office of Immigration Issues.
The Rev. Dr. Leah Schade has noticed an unexpected phenomenon emerging from the coronavirus pandemic: The pastors she mentors and the students she teaches at Lexington Theological Seminary in Kentucky are feeling something akin to relief.
In August of 2013, President Obama announced the possibility of military action in Syria. Our Syrian Church partners urged the Presbyterian Church (USA) to speak out against military action, arguing that the situation would only become more violent as more weapons were funneled into the country. Mary Mikael, our church partner from the Evangelical Church of Syria and Lebanon, came to Washington, DC and the Office of Public Witness organized visits with key members of congress and the administration. She asked them to give “Syrians a chance to live.”
