For the better part of the past decade, Carl and Rebecca Hart, and eventually their young son, lived at The Grove Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. The housing arrangement allowed them the time, energy, and relative financial freedom to serve the church and the surrounding community. This relationship flourished until, in the summer of 2022, an unexpected ruling from the fire inspector forced The Grove to evict the Harts. The Rev. Kate Murphy, pastor at The Grove, says this situation points to a bigger justice issue, and she wants the larger church to fight back.
The Presbyterian Mission Agency Board set the table Wednesday in order to decide Thursday whether to approve a consultant’s report that envisions new ways for the mission agency to do its ministry in the coming years.
The Leadership Innovation Team formed to envision the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s size and structure in a changing world racked by racial reckoning and the pandemic is well into its work after 17 three-hour sessions, the Rev. Dr. Diane Moffett, PMA’s president and executive director, told the PMA Board Wednesday.
The Presbyterian Mental Health Network and the Presbyterian Mission Agency announced a formal partnership during Thursday’s online meeting of the PMA Board.
A nearly hour-long plenary to cap the second week of the Intercultural Transformation Workshops focused on the pain and trauma clergy and lay people alike have been carrying for the past six months during the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and racial injustice, including the killings of African Americans at the hands of police and Wednesday’s grand jury decision on the role of police in the killing of Breonna Taylor of Louisville, Kentucky, on March 13 in her apartment.
The Revs. Kate Murphy and Eulando Henton have been friends and colleagues in ministry in Charlotte, North Carolina, for more than a decade. They speak to one another each week about the joys and challenges of leading intercultural congregations — Murphy has for almost 12 years been pastor of The Grove Presbyterian Church and Henton was called three years ago to be the first African American pastor at a historically white congregation, Derita Church.
In an ongoing effort to create a more diverse and inclusive denomination, the Presbyterian Intercultural Network and the Presbyterian Mission Agency — in partnership with the presbyteries of Sacramento and Stockton and Charlotte — will host the 2020 Intercultural Transformation Workshops.
Though the Rev. Rola Al Ashkar grew up close to where Jesus Christ lived and shares a similar ethnicity to Christ, she still had to unlearn a Western-influenced, blonde-hair and blue-eyed image of Christ.
The Rev. Samuel Son, manager of diversity and reconciliation at the Presbyterian Mission Agency, recently held a roundtable discussion with three Presbyterian clergywomen to discuss the challenges and opportunities of leading a congregation during protests and pandemic.
