Before some 60,000 supporters met together at Houston’s Discovery Green park to join the family of George Floyd in a peaceful march to City Hall this week, about 200 clergy from diverse faiths, ethnicities and backgrounds gathered in the ballroom of a nearby hotel to pray.
The Rev. Dr. Diane Moffett, president and executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, released this statement Wednesday about the deep pain and anger that’s led to demonstrations and violence in cities across the county since the May 25 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police:
“My soul is troubled. With the COVID-19 pandemic raging, killing over 106,000 people in this country and disproportionately impacting communities of color, and with the slayings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and just this week David McAtee, my cup runneth over with despair.
The National Council of Churches (NCC) is grieved and deeply disturbed by the acts of violence that have been perpetrated against two unarmed African American men reported this week, even as most of the nation has remained at home sheltering in place. These incidents have reinforced the urgent need for us to address racism and white supremacy. The evil that results from racial hatred is exactly this: Black bodies lying dead in the streets.
The Presbyterian Campus Ministry at the University of Georgia (UGA) is not new. It’s been around since 1940 and housed in the current space since 1959, which served as a safe space for African American students during the tumultuous 1960s.
At its fall 2019 meeting, the Board of Trustees issued a mandate to Columbia Theological Seminary to embark on a process of institutional reckoning. Upon the recommendation of Dr. Marcia Riggs, J. Erskine Love Professor of Christian Ethics, the seminary will partner with Dr. David Hooker, Associate Professor of the Practice of Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding at the University of Notre Dame, to guide the community through his Transformative Community Conferencing process.
A quick search on the internet leads to countless facts about shifting American diversity. For example, in 2007, Rodríguez and García joined the top 10 list of most popular last names in the United States. And, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, beginning in 2030, the country will grow more by international migration than birth within its borders.
The gospel empowers people of color — and it’s for white people too, the Rev. Samuel Son, the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Manager for Diversity and Reconciliation, told a crowd gathered for worship at the Presbyterian Center last week and for a quarterly update on the Matthew 25 invitation from PMA leadership.
Historically, Presbyterians have contributed to white supremacy culture. But they’ve also done plenty of reparative work in recent years, three Presbyterian officials said during a Friday workshop at the White Privilege Conference.
Dr. Ivory Toldson knows BS when he sees it.To Toldson, one of three Friday keynoters during last week’s White Privilege Conference, BS stands for “bad statistics.” One such statistic that received widespread circulation was the claim there are more black men in prison than in college. That statistic, said Toldson, a professor of counseling psychology at Howard University and president and CEO of the QEM (Quality Education for Minorities) Network, was wrong, even if those who made the claim were “making a legitimate point.”
The Presbyterian Mission Agency Board (PMAB) will soon hold its first meeting since the 223rd General Assembly (2018), with new leadership at the helm. The Revs. Joe Morrow, PMAB chair, and Warren Lesane, chair-elect, along with the Rev. Dr. Diane Moffett, the newly elected president and executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency (PMA), will lead the board through their first meeting in Louisville on Sept. 27–29. In addition to Morrow, Lesane and Moffett, Ruling Elder Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri and the Rev. Cindy Kohlmann, the newly elected co-moderators of the 223rd General Assembly, will bring greetings along with General Assembly Stated Clerk the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II.
