Presbyterians paused during their Week of Action Thursday to take a more introspective and personal action: mourning the deaths of 183,000 Americans and more than 832,000 people around the world who have perished from COVID-19.
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.
Using technology that performed flawlessly Monday, three entities approved eight recommendations to send to next month’s online General Assembly concerning the impacts of lower than anticipated giving brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Rev. Dr. Trace Haythorn, now the CEO and executive director of the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education, learned his first pastoral care skills at the tender age of 13 after his friend died of leukemia.
When members of the Christian Education Committee at Pisgah Presbyterian Church in Versailles, Kentucky, met to discuss options for their children during the pandemic, they decided to try something radical.
Before hearing a fundraising feasibility report on Stony Point Center Friday and then learning of the Rev. Dr. Diane Moffett’s plan to expand any fundraising efforts to make them church-wide, the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board took care of committee reports.
Dressed in the white robes of Easter, the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II and the Rev. Dr. Diane Moffett — together with remote appearances by the Rev. Cindy Kohlmann and Ruling Elder Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri, Co-Moderators of the 223rd General Assembly — leave little doubt in a worship video set for release April 9 that the good news of Christ’s resurrection transcends the despair, economic deprivation and isolation brought on by the coronavirus.
As one of their final offerings of leadership service to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Co-Moderators of the 223rd General Assembly are holding a conference for commissioned pastors and commissioned ruling elders, who mainly serve small Presbyterian congregations all across the nation.