As the Rev. Becca Stevens took to the ballroom stage at the Westin Hotel Wednesday, healing oils that would be used by 220 attendees to anoint one other at the 1001 New Worshiping Communities and Vital Congregations national gathering hadn’t been opened yet.
Without the support of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Rev. Denise McLeod isn’t sure she would have survived.
A widowed minister serving a small church, Trinity Presbyterian, in Key West, Florida — and raising a son who is now a senior in college — she applied for the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Loan Forgiveness for Pastors.