Over the past year amid a pandemic, protests and politics, I often heard many pastors, elders and mid council staff say that they are having a particularly hard time making ends meet. People aren’t giving the way they used to give. These churches and presbyteries are struggling to do more with less, and it’s the same way at the place where I currently serve, the Presbyterian Mission Agency — which has had a 40% reduction of our workforce over the past 10 years. In the end, the need is becoming greater and greater.
A multi-billion-dollar tax reform bill that would have increased taxes on basic necessities including food and utilities sent Colombians to the streets in late April to peacefully protest.
Since the Feb. 1 military coup in Myanmar, peaceful protesters practicing non-violent civil disobedience have been met with bullets, tear gas and the fear of being dragged from their homes in the middle of the night.
Calling racism “a sin against humanity,” the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Public Witness expressed outrage at the death of George Floyd Friday and called on Presbyterians to take action in the wake of his death.
Following protests that were disrupted by what one pastor called “a few anarchists from outside the march’s planning group,” Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations and organizations in Pittsburgh are taking a quieter, prayerful approach headed into this week.
Presbyterians who want to help Haitians dealing with the almost simultaneous effects of natural disaster, government corruption, fuel shortages and crop challenges have at least two choices, according to Fabienne Jean, coordinator of FONDAMA, or Hands Together Foundation of Haiti, a network if 11 farmer organizations across the Caribbean nation currently choked with deadly protests that have paralyzed the economy and closed businesses and schools.
Although the streets of Charlotte, North Carolina are now quiet following protests in response to the September 20 shooting death of Keith Lamont Scott by police, area Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) pastors say the historic and deep-seated sentiment that fostered unrest after this killing remains.