Gathered online Wednesday night for their quarterly meeting, members of the Presbytery of the Pacific’s Immigration and Refugee Task Force heard from the Migration Accompaniment Ministries of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. Nearly 30 people attended the meeting to hear from PDA’s Susan Krehbiel and Omar Salinas Chacón, as well as local advocates.
A community in Upcountry Maui that endured a wildfire at the same time as Lahaina is receiving a helping hand from concerned Presbyterians who are answering the call to donate to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA).
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is working with the Presbytery of the Pacific following this week’s fires that killed at least 55 people in Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Earlier this week fires also burned brush on the Big Island of Hawaii, but those fires have been largely controlled.
As 2022 draws to a close, the hosts of the Being Matthew 25 broadcast, the Rev. Dr. Diane Givens Moffett and the Rev. DeEtte Decker, took a look back at the content they helped to create during each monthly episode.
According to a 2020 count, Los Angeles County had 66,433 homeless residents, about the same population as two of California’s college towns, Palo Alto and Davis. Churches including First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood and its indominable director of Urban Mission and Community Outreach, Amie Quigley, became “the model for how church-based homeless ministries work in collaboration with city, county and private agencies,” said the Rev. Heidi Worthen Gamble, Mission Catalyst for the Presbytery of the Pacific.
During a virtual meeting on Thursday, the Presbyterian Hunger Program Advisory Committee heard about a variety of approaches that are being used by faith communities to address poverty and homelessness, from taking a group bike ride to paying off medical debt.
Joseph Russ’ appointment as Presbyterian World Mission’s coordinator for migration issues, advocacy and mission in the Northern Triangle of Central America, a new mission co-worker position, is the fulfillment of an overture passed by the 223rd General Assembly, held in St. Louis in 2018.
The eight-hour livestream planned for #GivingTuesday on Nov. 30 will feature events and check-ins with congregations and mid councils across the country.
