synod of lakes and prairies Archives

Holy rhythms

Posted July 29th, 2020

The COVID-19 era “is going to radically push what the church is in the future,” the Rev. Dr. Jason Brian Santos told the Synod of Lakes and Prairies’ Synod School Wednesday evening.

Opportunities abound for interfaith engagement, a pastor with the Des Moines Area Religious Council told a virtual classroom full of the Synod of Lakes and Prairies’ Synod School students on Tuesday. All one must do is “step outside of what is normal for you and move into someone else’s reality.”

‘What will we tell them?’

Posted July 28th, 2020

Having as much fun as they could via Zoom, more than 330 Presbyterians gathered from across the country and across borders for the opening night of Synod School Monday. They were treated to a childhood faith story from the Rev. Dr. Rodger Nishioka and laughed with — not at — a Synod School mainstay, the Rev. Burns Stanfield and his online band of tie dye-clad musicians.

Synod School class explores religious diversity in Des Moines

Posted July 27th, 2020

Synod School, a Synod of Lakes and Prairies event anticipated by hundreds of Presbyterians each summer, launched Monday with thought-provoking online classes ahead of Monday evening’s virtual plenary gathering.

Now accepting applications for Native American Leadership Development Fund awards

Posted July 16th, 2020

The Presbyterian Mission Agency is now accepting grant applications for the Native American Leadership Development Fund Award. The 2020 one-time awards are being made available for education and/or leadership development of Native American Presbyterian leaders or Native American Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) organizations and communities.

A visual reminder of how hearts are joined

Posted June 30th, 2020

When General Assembly Co-Moderators Ruling Elder Elona Street-Stewart and the Rev. Gregory Bentley were elected on Saturday, June 20, they were immediately given the option of moderating the first-ever, fully-online 224th General Assembly (2020) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) from their respective homes in the upper Midwest and the Southeast.

Love knows no bounds

Posted June 24th, 2020

If a sacrament may be defined as a visible sign of an invisible grace, in a similarly sacramental fashion, God’s grace and love are on abundant, if mostly virtual, display through ‘Links of Love,’ a colorful paper chain representing Presbyterian generosity across the denomination, country and globe.

224th General Assembly elects Street-Stewart, Bentley co-moderators

Posted June 20th, 2020

Elona Street-Stewart, executive of the Synod of Lakes and Prairies, and the Rev. Gregory Bentley, pastor of Fellowship Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama, were overwhelmingly elected to be co-moderators of the 224th General Assembly Saturday.

Presbyterian Mission Agency Board committees Zoom to get their work done

Posted April 16th, 2020

Administrative and Program committees of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board met separately Thursday by Zoom calls.

Creating calm in anxious times

Posted October 20th, 2019

“The peace of Christ be with you. And also with you.” On Sunday mornings in congregations across the country, hands are shaken, and the words of Christ’s peace are exchanged with one another. Yet what does it mean to pass the peace of Christ into a world that is often anxious?