The last several weeks have been a very active period of severe weather in the United States, highlighting the need for church and community preparedness and the importance of partnerships and collaboration to bounce back from and potentially lessen the impact of disasters, such as tornadoes and flooding.
Friday’s tornadoes, which took the steeple off First Presbyterian Church in Martinsville, Indiana, and destroyed 200 homes in and around Sullivan, Indiana, came on top of tornadic destruction in and around Little Rock, Arkansas.
It was the dreaded church “calendaring meeting” — juggling special Sundays, worship themes, vacation dates and competing programming for the months ahead. We were finally past Advent to languidly plan January.
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?
During the ongoing pandemic, mission co-workers have looked for ways to continue their interpretation assignments in new and creative ways. The Rev. Dori Hjalmarson is doing just that.
Presbyterians for Earth Care has joined a growing list of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) groups calling for a speedy divestment from companies that contribute to the production of the two major greenhouse gasses, carbon dioxide and methane.
Like with many congregations in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), for the 90 or so churches in the Presbytery of Arkansas, worship is now a different experience than it was before the pandemic, the Rev. Stewart Smith said last week during an episode of the Synod of the Sun’s “SunSpots” podcast.
The right idea in the right place at the right time has led the Presbytery of Arkansas to say yes to the Matthew 25 invitation, one of the most recent mid councils to do so.
“We are learning what we’re capable of,” said Selenia Ordóñez. She and I share an anniversary: Ordóñez and her Presbyterian Women’s team began running a retreat center ministry the same week I was installed as a mission co-worker with the Presbyterian Church of Honduras. For the past year, we have both been learning what we’re capable of.
The right idea in the right place at the right time has led the Presbytery of Arkansas to say yes to the Matthew 25 invitation, one of the most recent mid councils to do so.
