Closing worship for the NEXT Church national gathering on Sunday brought together two ways of being community that you wouldn’t necessarily associate — Luke’s description in Acts 2 of how the early church functioned and the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, which have been adapted to other addictions as well.
Opportunities are broken, the Rev. Bertram Johnson told the NEXT Church gathering Friday, when we worship anything but God. And for anyone who needed proof, he cited Exodus 32:1-20, the story of the tablets that Moses broke, furious that while he was atop a mountain to receive the Ten Commandments, Aaron allowed the people to construct a golden calf to worship. Moses was so mad upon his return he took the image and burned it. Then he grounded it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink the water.
Engaging with Matthew 25 and the three areas of focus that make up the vision — building congregational vitality, dismantling structural racism and eradicating systemic poverty — is being addressed in a variety of ways by the 765 congregations and 72 mid councils who have signed on since its launch in April 2019. Now there is another way to start those conversations and actively engage in the world around us.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Office of Gender, Racial & Intercultural Justice will be offering three virtual anti-racism training sessions in 2021, starting this month.
Flyaway Books is proud to share that “For Beautiful Black Boys Who Believe in a Better World” by author Michael W. Waters and illustrator Keisha Morris was selected for In the Margins Book Awards’ “Top 10 Fiction Titles” 2021 List. The book is also included in the organization’s “Fiction Recommendation List for 2021.”
A self-described “proud South African,” Dr. Warren Chalklen had plenty to teach the 1,000 or so people attending last week’s online national gathering of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators about how diversity makes churches and organizations stronger.
What started off as an initiative of the adult Sunday school class at First Presbyterian Church in Morgantown, West Virginia, has grown to a wider community-based effort now called Dismantling Racism Together.
