The Rev. Dr. Anna Case-Winters, who has taught theology at McCormick Theological Seminary for 35 years, wasn’t all gloom and doom during a recent episode of the “Leading Theologically” podcast hosted twice each month by the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty of the Presbyterian Foundation.
The excitement could be felt through the screen as nearly 30 women entered the virtual room to gather for the second of the three-part Lydia’s Listening Session hosted by the offices of Women’s Leadership Development and Leadership Development for Leaders of Color of the Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries (RE&WIM).
In opening remarks of the virtual 46th Biennial Convention of the National Black Presbyterian Caucus, the organization’s president, the Rev. Dr. Thomas H. Priest Jr., said, “In the preface of the Revised Edition of ‘Black and Presbyterian: The Heritage and the Hope’ by Gayraud S. Wilmore, former president of the National Black Presbyterian Caucus, Jesse C. Swanigan, wrote, ‘Black Presbyterians, North and South, are still asking the questions about cultural differences, identity and ethnic-specific mission that they asked before the reunion — asking these questions with even more urgency in a church and nation where racism seems unabated. Is it possible or more difficult than in 1980 to experience what Black Presbyterians United (BPU) President Claude C. Kilgore called ‘unity within diversity’?”
As LoveJoy United Presbyterian Church (LUPC) in Wood River, Illinois, lives into its commitment to be a Matthew 25 congregation, it is seeking to empower every church member to discover their individual calling and gifts so they can go forth and serve.
An article recently published by the Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS) explored the aspects of racism present in U.S. Christian missions to Korea during the time of Japanese colonization of Korea (1905–1945) and reaching into the first years after the end of World War II but just before the Korean War broke out in 1950.
In the late ’90s, Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri became a member of a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregation in Puerto Rico with a membership of fewer than 20 people. The congregation, the co-moderator of the 223rd General Assembly (2018) recalls, had gone through a schism, and her spouse, the Rev. José Manuel, was called to be its redevelopment pastor. When the couple arrived, they discovered that there was no session, no deacons, no Christian education programs and no musicians. “Church” consisted of Sunday worship only. An administrative commission appointed by the presbytery served as the session.
