When Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory after the Spanish-American war, missionaries on the island were granted mission fields. Presbyterians were assigned the western side of the island—which is where the majority of Presbyterians live.
As a professor of music and worship at the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) in Atlanta, she shared the music of the world with future pastors and others. Melva, now retired, brought this passion to her work as a member of the committee that produced the first hymnal of the newly reunited Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Church Glorious, a new multi-ethnic church in the San Gabriel Presbytery, just 19 miles east of Los Angeles, began last September as a Glorious Living Bible study with a core group of 25 people meeting in the home of the Rev. Dr. Kerry Allison and his wife, Oona.
For diehard fans of acronyms—of which Presbyterians surely have more than their fair share—the Rev. David Gill has mined something of a GEM. Gill, who will retire on January 31 as executive director of Ferncliff Camp and Conference Center, says that throughout his 20-year tenure at the PC(USA)-related camp he has always “looked for things that can be financially self-sustaining for the long haul.”
The first thing I noticed when I exited the car was the sound of bagpipes. Welcome to College Conference at Montreat, where students descend each year for faith formation, fellowship, and the occasional tune from that beloved Scottish instrument. I took the music as a personal welcome, as this was my first Montreat experience.
There’s always that first time—that time in ministry when a pastor’s expectations go unmet. It happened inevitably to the Rev. Jeff Eddings, who in 2004 co-founded the Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community together with a United Methodist colleague, the Rev. Jim Walker, in the South Side neighborhood of Pittsburgh.
Travelers, not unexpectedly, arrive with baggage. And as pastors and church leaders regularly navigate the daily landscape of life and ministry under tremendous pressure and stress, they may find themselves carrying more than their usual share to the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s annual Disciple-Making Church Conference on January 16.
As Christy Foster stood on a hillside overlooking the Guadalupe River at the Presbyterian Mo-Ranch Assembly, she remembered all at once just how much—and for how long—she had wanted to be in camp and conference ministry.
