The Rev. Brendan McLean is associate pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Tyler, Texas, one of the communities shrouded in darkness for nearly two minutes during the April 8 solar eclipse.
Only just before it happened, someone forgot to urge the clouds over Tyler to go away.
Synod School, put on each year by the Synod of Lakes and Prairies, turned 70 this year, and so who else would leaders ask to preach during opening worship than Elona Street-Stewart, a septuagenarian who’s the synod’s executive and Co-Moderator of the 224th General Assembly (2020).
Born more than 600 years ago and burned at the stake for heresy at age 19, Joan of Arc still had a lot to teach a roomful of Synod School students this year — especially with guidance from Dr. Scott Stanfield, Emeritus Professor of English at Nebraska Wesleyan University and a longtime Synod School participant.
Susan Stabile, a distinguished senior fellow at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis and a spiritual director and retreat leader, taught a fascinating and helpful week-long class at Synod School, “Jesus the Storyteller: Learning from the Parables.”
Born in the Synod of Lakes and Prairies, Restorative Actions describes itself as “a grassroots voluntary initiative for churches, individuals, mid councils and agencies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), as well as ecumenical partners and interested organizations, to take a leadership stance in opposed to racism and racial privilege” by allowing “U.S. Americans who benefit from institutional racism to provide a credible witness for justice by surrendering ill-gotten gains toward the establishment of just relationships with Afro-Americans and Indigenous communities.”
The Rev. Bill Davnie was a Presbyterian pastor for five years before hearing a different call: He then served 27 years as a career Foreign Service Officer.
Ellen Smith, World Mission’s regional liaison for Central and Eastern Europe, led a packed and thought-provoking mini-course during Synod School on the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s mission in Ukraine.
Before the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins took to the stage at Schaller Memorial Chapel to deliver the final convocation for Synod School this year, the Rev. Dr. Matt Sauer of Manitowoc (Wisconsin) Cooperative Ministry, as he’d done all week, donned a red zip-up cardigan just like another Presbyterian, Fred Rogers, used to. It was Sauer’s duty to remind those attending the 69th annual gathering that not all the world is like the Synod of Lakes and Prairies’ Synod School, which concluded on the campus of Buena Vista University.
Concluding her weeklong journey through biblical accounts starting with the letter “c” — Creation, crisis, covenant and Christ came before — the Rev. DeEtte Decker, the preacher during Synod School and the communications director for the Presbyterian Mission Agency, concluded worship on the with more alliteration: the church as co-creator.
One good way to live out its embodiment is for the church to speak the truth in love.
The Rev. Samuel Son, the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Manager of Diversity and Reconciliation, told Synod School attendees that speaking the truth in love can dispel myths, “which you and I are addicted to.”
