The Office of Public Witness (OPW), the public policy information and advocacy office of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), recently published an updated version of its community advocacy guide titled “Holy Discontentment: Grassroots Advocacy and Organizing in the PC(USA).”
The city of St. Louis is the historic centerpiece of a highly accomplished cultural and economic region. At the same time, like most of the United States, it is divided along lines of race and class. How do Presbyterian congregations minister and do mission faithfully in light of these realities? What can our larger church learn from our sisters and brothers in St. Louis?
The Presbyterian Hunger Program’s (PHP) Advisory Committee gathered this spring at Stony Point Center in New York to see some of the anti-hunger work taking place there. They toured the gardens and greenhouses and heard about plans for the center to start working additional farm land nearby.
God of solidarity, thank you for your arms that stretch across this broken world. We are grateful for this work and witness. Encourage them. Bless them so that your word may be spread far and wide. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
After the 2017 “Living, Dying, Rising” conference took place in August in St. Petersburg Beach, Florida, a sociologist from the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Research Services department conducted informal interviews of participants, most of whom were leaders of new worshiping communities (NWCs).
It has been 10 years since I stepped off an Ethiopian Airlines flight and placed my feet on Kenyan soil. However, the impact of my Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) experience has left me feeling, at times, as if it were yesterday. I don’t remember how I came to know about the YAV program. I vaguely remember filling out an application. What I do remember is my interview with Phyllis Byrd and my excitement about the possibility of serving for a year on the continent of Africa. I vividly remember her stern and stoic demeanor and my desire to convey how much I needed this experience.
Can the people who benefit from unjust social systems actively work for justice with those who are oppressed by those systems? No Innocent Bystanders: Becoming an Ally in the Struggle for Justice (Westminster John Knox Press) by Shannon Craigo-Snell and Christopher Doucot is a start-up guide for spiritual or religious people who are interested in working for social justice but don’t know how or where to begin.
After a brief hiatus, Unbound: An Interactive Journal of Christian Social Justice, published its first edition since the hire of new managing editor Henry Koenig Stone. The current installment: Defending the Common Good, covers diverse issues such as defending truth in media, sanctuary churches, human trafficking, an ecumenical call to good ecological stewardship, and the role of faith communities in resisting white supremacy.
The Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People has a long list of volunteers who champion the ministry’s mission. For the Rev. Johnny Monroe, it’s been a lifelong commitment.
“I guess I’m what you would call a cradle Presbyterian. I was born into Presbyterianism,” he said. “Back in the late 1800s after slavery, missionaries from the northern church established schools and churches in Sumter County, South Carolina, including the Goodwill Presbyterian Church and Goodwill Parochial School, where I grew up.”
African American clergy gathered in Washington, D.C. today saying they are concerned about the political, racial, ethnic, economic and academic climate in America. The group held a news conference outside of the United Methodist Building, urging the new administration to take a second look at its policies and actions towards African Americans and other minority groups.
