More than a hundred people packed into the chapel at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) offices in Louisville to celebrate the life and witness of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The service commemorated the 50th anniversary of King’s speech “A Time to Break Silence” which drew connections between racism, materialism and militarism.
The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), sent a letter of support to leaders and members of the Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in Greenville, Mississippi after the congregation’s building was vandalized with “Vote Trump” graffiti and set ablaze.
As an adviser for the Unglued Church, a program in Pittsburgh Presbytery for help with church change, I encounter a lot of churches at the end of their rope. It’s a time in a church’s life when it’s important to emphasize the importance of thinking beyond survival, and how the congregation might imagine leaving a legacy for God’s ministry and mission.
More than 400 individuals from throughout the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) gathered for the DisGrace conference at the Montreat Conference Center in North Carolina to address the issues of embedded and structural racism in the church and culture with the hopes of moving from disgrace toward solidarity.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is taking specific action to confront the societal and racial issues facing black communities in the U.S. by living into a new church initiative to address the plight of African American males in our country.
Although the streets of Charlotte, North Carolina are now quiet following protests in response to the 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.
In an open letter to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the church’s National Urban Ministry Network honored the memory of the recently passed Rev. Eugene “Freedom” Blackwell and encouraged readers to join them in continuing his fight for social and racial justice “for all of those who suffer in our cities.”
While it may be true from a Christian perspective that “all lives matter,” says the Rev. Dr. Cynthia Campbell of Highland Presbyterian Church in Louisville, she points out that from the very beginning of United States history we have violated this standard of belief: that all are created equal.
The recent shootings in Baton Rouge, Falcon Heights and Dallas have prompted the Interfaith Coalition to appeal to U.S. lawmakers to “mend divisions” between communities and law enforcement. In a letter to congressional leaders, the coalition, including the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), says the shootings are another reminder of the “great harm caused by unaddressed racial injustices and divisions in America.”
A timely, new Being Reformed: Faith Seeking Understanding study honors the 50th anniversary of the Confession of 1967 and the anticipated adoption of the Confession of Belhar as a confessional standard of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) at the 222nd General Assembly (2016) in Portland this summer.
