Presbytery and synod moderators and moderators-elect from around the country are at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky and online Friday and Saturday for the annual Moderators’ Conference, which commenced with thoughtful and winsome worship led by the co-moderators of the 226th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Rev. Tony Larson and the Rev. CeCe Armstrong.
As the plaintive strains of “Be Still, My Soul” filled the Presbyterian Center, worshipers gathered for prayer, both online and in the chapel, on the morning following the national election.
“Our use of language, symbols and cultural forms in Christian worship is founded on the gift of Jesus’ incarnation,” said the Rev. Dr. David Gambrell, quoting the Book of Order (W-1.0301), in his opening for a video addressing copyright issues in worship. The same passage in the Book of Order later states, “Through Jesus Christ, we may speak truthfully to God and lift up our hearts with gratitude.” The video, “Copyrights in Worship: Words,” is the second in a series of six short videos produced by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) through a collaboration between its Office of Theology & Worship, legal staff and Communications team.
With Ephesians 2:10 as their scriptural basis, the co-moderators of the 226th General Assembly, the Rev. CeCe Armstrong and the Rev. Tony Larson, joined the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Rev. Jihyun Oh, to lead a hybrid worship service Wednesday in the Chapel at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky. One by one, the three recently elected denominational leaders spoke on “Created,” “Called” and “Commissioned.”
With a nod to the rain that’s pounded Montreat Conference Center since the start of the Presbyterian Association of Musicians’ Music & Worship Conference, those gathered to worship Wednesday opened the service by singing “There Shall be Showers of Blessing” and “Rain Down.”
The Evangelism Conference, a three-day hybrid offering put on by Theology, Formation & Evangelism in the Presbyterian Mission Agency, concluded at Montreat Conference Center on Tuesday with a list of tips for evangelists and spirited and Spirit-filled closing worship led by the Rev. Gregory Bentley, Co-Moderator of the 224th General Assembly (2020) and pastor of Fellowship Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.
Featuring the Rev. Shanea D. Leonard as keynoter, the Evangelism Conference set for Montreat Conference Center Oct. 30 through Nov. 2 will explore the theme “Addressing Harm, Embracing Hope.”
The Rev. Shanea D. Leonard, national coordinator for Gender & Racial Justice in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), knows what it’s like to lament by being honest before God about the pain they have experienced in the church.
The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and the Rev. Dr. Diane Moffett, president and executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, shared a forward-looking and candid conversation that was aired on the PC(USA) Facebook page on Thursday.
“With this faith we shall be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope” was the theme for Wednesday’s special online worship service commemorating and celebrating the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The theme was a quote from Dr. King’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech delivered at the 1963 March on Washington.
