Far from “the peaceful easy feeling we experience when all is well and all is right,” God’s peace is “something really robust and active,” a peace “that is the most present in the presence of pain, in the hardest moments of my life, in situations that feel impossible.”
The Advisory Committee of the Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP) met last week to pore over grant requests from organizations around the globe that are addressing systemic poverty, climate justice, racism and other pressing issues in their communities.
From committing to work for peace in our own communities to traveling to see peace work around the world, there are numerous ways people can get involved in the work of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program.
Asked by Special Offerings to develop a sermon marking the Peace & Global Witness Offering that many churches collect on World Communion Sunday on Oct. 3, the Rev. Marissa Galván-Valle said her first reaction was, “Oh my Lord, I don’t know how I will do this.”
The Karnes City, Texas facility where people detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are detained is called Karnes County Family Residential Center.
In Berks County, Pennsylvania, ICE has the similarly named Berks Family Residential Center.
Panelists on Wednesday’s edition of the “Welcoming the Stranger” webinar series from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Migration Roundtable had a different word for the facilities where many families crossing the U.S. border are kept.
Prison.
In the late 1980s, when I was serving as a youth group leader in my local congregation, my pastor invited me to attend a gathering that I recognize now as the early stages of a new movement for youth in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Even as I was being drawn headlong into the phenomenon that was — and still is — the Presbyterian Youth Triennium, I had no idea how the lens through which I viewed the PC(USA) was about to change.
A “peace movement” is taking place throughout Mid-Kentucky Presbytery. Its origins are found in Scripture for sure, but the movement has gained momentum largely in response to COVID-19.
Natalie Pisarcik, a member of First Presbyterian Church of Boonton, New Jersey, has already bravely shared her story of deep depression and the intention she once had to end her life before asking God to forgive her for what she called “a terrible mistake,” forgiveness Pisarcik said she did receive.
