“Help me and show me how to tend to my flock.” This was a prayer shared by many a clergy member in March 2020. It seemed to go straight from Jim Burton’s mouth to God’s ears. As the interim pastor of Kingston Presbyterian Church in Conway, South Carolina, he recalled reading an article from another church that utilized writing prayers on ribbons. He reached out to Shandon Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South Carolina, and was given permission to use the idea any way he desired. Hence, in the quaint town along the Waccamaw River began the Prayer Ribbon Ministry. Pastor Burton reflects on Psalm 147:3: He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds.
Presbyterians and many other people of faith are accompanying asylum seekers from Central America and as far away as African nations through the U.S. immigration court process. Just how successful that coming alongside process will be remains to be seen as President-elect Joe Biden and the 117th Congress reshape U.S. immigration policy and laws beginning in January 2021.
Six years ago, Hilda Ramírez arrived in the United States with her seven-year-old son, Ivan, after fleeing Guatemala. She spent a year in a Texas detention center, where she led women on a hunger strike. Four years ago, she and her son were offered Sanctuary at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, where they remain even as they face deportation and fines in the tens of thousands of dollars.
In the shadow of what many consider the worst refugee camp in Europe is a beacon of hope, operated mostly by volunteers, a group called Lesvos Solidarity.
Investigative journalist and author Todd Miller has been studying the border issues for almost 20 years. Over that time, he told the people attending last week’s 35th anniversary of Presbyterian Border Region Outreach, Miller has learned to follow the money.
Light Street Presbyterian Church in Baltimore has been home to a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregation for more than 160 years. Founded as a place of refuge for children who worked in factories, Light Street always knew it existed for the city’s working-class neighborhood.
Last summer, I received a call to join Olympia Presbytery in planting a new worshiping community, Hagar’s Community Church, at the Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW) — the largest women’s prison in Washington state.
During Tuesday morning plenary at the national evangelism conference “Sabbath Rest, Holy Surrender, Full Life,” 135 attendees were encouraged by Ryan McKenzie, director of program ministries at Zephyr Point Presbyterian Conference Center, to “silence themselves.”
