The following is a prayer from the Rev. Christian T. Iosso, who serves the Presbyterian Mission Agency as the coordinator for the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) and the senior editor of Justice Unbound. The ACSWP, according to their web page, “serves the prophetic calling of the whole Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) by providing the General Assembly with careful studies of pressing moral challenges, media for discussion and discernment of Christian responsibilities, and policy recommendations for faithful action.”
Living in Honduras during the spring and summer has felt especially difficult and intense. What started as a labor dispute between teachers’ and doctors’ unions and the government has become agitation against government corruption and economic desperation. Classrooms from elementary to university have been closed at various times, and public hospitals have not been attending patients. Taxi and bus drivers have been occasionally involved in blocking streets and shutting down cities. The U.S. Embassy was vandalized and has been partially closed.
The Rev. Mark Baridon remembers the Wednesday that Eileene MacFalls calmed tension during the midday prayer and lunch served up each week by a group of downtown Louisville churches. Those churches include Central Presbyterian Church, which Baridon serves as co-pastor and where MacFalls attended.
David LaMotte was telling the story of Wesley Autrey, who was dubbed the “Subway Superman” and “Subway Hero” in 2007 after he saved a man who had fallen onto the tracks of the New York City subway while suffering an epileptic seizure.
President Donald Trump was not the first leader to use tweets, the Rt. Rev. W. Darin Moore told a crowd Monday from the steps of the United Methodist Building, across the street from the U.S. Capitol.
Susan Orr came to her first Ecumenical Advocacy Days in 2013, and the past several years, she’s been loading up the van with friends and colleagues in April to make the eight-hour drive from Rochester, New York, to Washington, D.C.
The 63rd Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is scheduled for March 11–22, 2019, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. The event is expected to draw representatives from member states, U.N. entities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from around the world. Applications are now being accepted and can be accessed on the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations (PMUN) web page.
In the fall of 2016, the Rev. Dwayne Black, pastor of The Sanctuary Church, found himself behind bars more than once for feeding the homeless on Florida’s Fort Lauderdale Beach. His arrest gleaned international attention. In his defense, Black says he “follows the red letters in Scripture.”
To Breathe Free, a short movie produced by Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA), will be screened twice in upcoming days at the DC Shorts Film Festival in Washington, D.C. Produced and shot in D.C., the film follows the five-year saga of a Syrian family fleeing the war in Homs, Syria to refugee camps in Jordan to beginning their new life in the nation’s capital.
Nearly three-quarters of Haitians live on less than two dollars a day; hunger and poverty are daily challenges, as are political turmoil and violence. Despite these obstacles, Fabienne Jean, coordinator of the Hands Together Foundation of Haiti (FONDAMA), works diligently every day to fight for the most vulnerable of those living in her homeland.
