PC(USA) News

Connected events explore the legacies of Presbyterian missionaries in the early 20th century

April 11, 2024

Kristen Gaydos | Presbyterian Historical Society

PHILADELPHIA

Through April 30, the Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS) is hosting a traveling exhibit, “Assyrians from Persia (Iran) to the United States, 1887-1923: Assyrian Education, American Missionaries, and the Search for a Home.” In conjunction with the exhibit, PHS welcomed Dr. Hooman Estelami of Fordham University for an event and talk on March 21.

April 11, 2024

Brian McLaren, an in-demand speaker who’s written more than 20 books with one more, “Life After Doom,” coming out next month, spent 90 minutes on Wednesday participating in a webinar with the people who run New York Avenue Presbyterian Church’s McClendon Scholar Program.

April 11, 2024

As a new generation of young writers looked on with gratitude toward the veteran members of the Presbyterian Writers Guild, who had gathered at Agnes Scott College’s Center for Writing and Speaking on April 5 to share in dedicating the Guild’s gift of its entire organizational endowment, emotions ran unexpectedly high.

April 10, 2024

The Rev. Dr. Charles Halton, winner of the 2024 Grawemeyer Award in Religion for his book “A Human Shaped-God: Theology of an Embodied God,” published in 2021 by Westminster John Knox Press, delivered an insightful and inspiring talk Tuesday in Caldwell Chapel at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Watch Halton’s talk here.

Before that, committee leaders learn plenty about the work they must complete during the GA’s June 25-27 online committee meetings

April 10, 2024

Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE

The more than 130 people attending the General Assembly Leadership Briefing both online and at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky, put in a full day on Tuesday, learning more about their roles as committee leaders and even witnessing a skit depicting a mock committee meeting that nearly went off the rails before righting itself at the end.

April 10, 2024

Seeing the “diamond ring” is the holy grail of amateur astronomers: that moment in a total solar eclipse when the edge of the sun’s corona bursts forth with a sparkling burst of light at one point while the rest of the rim is illuminated like a ring. I had no chance of seeing that where I was, located many miles away from the path of totality. All I saw was a solar “croissant.” But I did consider the experience holy. 

April 10, 2024

“This annual lecture continues Dr. Cone’s dynamic legacy of prophetic Black theological and religious thought that pushes hard against the conscience of America,” said the Rev. Dr. Serene Jones, president of Union Theological Seminary in New York City, who held a moment of reverent pause as she asked the audience to consider the legacy of the Rev. Dr. James H. Cone, who had been a professor at Union for 50 years. Cone died in 2018. The event on April 3, held at the seminary’s James Chapel and streamed online, was the fourth annual lecture to be held in his honor.

How General Assembly committees will use MyGA, PC Biz and GA Preparation

April 9, 2024

Fred Tangeman | Office of the General Assembly

LOUISVILLE

Tuesday morning at Leader Briefing, committee leaders and committee support staff for this summer’s 226th General Assembly learned ways that technology, including the expanded MyGA website, will help them manage their committee business. They also learned how trainings and resources on the GA Preparation site will acquaint them with wider assembly processes and members of their committees.

Committees will gather virtually June 25-27 prior to in-person plenaries in Salt Lake City.  

April 9, 2024

The fourth episode of the “Around the Table” podcast series features Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) pastors talking about how parents can have faith conversations with their children throughout different stages of the child’s life. Listen to the 32-minute edition here.

April 9, 2024

From April 6-9, Ferncliff Camp and Conference Center in Little Rock, Arkansas, in partnership with the Office of Christian Formation of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, hosted an intergenerational Creation care event culminating in three and a half minutes of the total solar eclipse on Monday.  

April 9, 2024

The Rev. Lee Catoe and Simon Doong, the hosts of “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast,” opened their most recent installment with the voices of youth who’d attended a conference at Massanetta Springs Camp and Conference Center in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Catoe asked youth about what they want to see happening in the church today.

Committee leaders build community and learn more about the roles they’ll fill during the 226th General Assembly

April 8, 2024

Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE

Those called to lead online committees and the many people supporting their work are both online and at the Presbyterian Center Monday through Wednesday for the General Assembly Leadership Briefing in advance of the 226th General Assembly, set for June 25 through July 4.

April 5, 2024

Communications staff in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) garnered six victories during the 2024 DeRose-Hinkhouse Memorial Awards announced Friday by the Religion Communicators Council for work they completed during 2023.

April 5, 2024

As they did Thursday, members of the Commission on the Unification of Office of the General Assembly and the Presbyterian Mission Agency spent almost all their time Friday meeting in closed session as a committee of the whole. Commissioners emerged Friday afternoon from their gathering at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky, for a 20-minute public session before praying and adjourning.

April 5, 2024

It is the season when volunteer work trips kick into high gear as groups from churches and other partners of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance show their love and compassion by helping with rebuilding projects in communities affected by disasters. For groups that have one of these trips in their future, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance has put together a free, downloadable how-to guide to assist with planning.

April 5, 2024

What gives someone the will to do what is right in the face of possible death threats, intimidation or loss of comfort? One could offer it’s the power of the Holy Spirit, and yet following the nudge of the Spirit is still a choice. In the postbellum South, a Presbyterian minister recognized an opportunity to educate Black men and prepare them for ministry. This conviction took him all the way to the 1875 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, which voted to authorize the inception of the Tuscaloosa Institute.  The Rev. Dr. Charles Allen Stillman’s legacy is deeply rooted and connected to the history of what is now known as Stillman College.

April 5, 2024

The pictures of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza being forced by the Israeli military to evacuate the northern part of the Gaza Strip heading south evoked old memories of the 1948 Nakba. In 1948, Jewish Israeli terror groups destroyed and erased over 500 Palestinian villages and displaced nearly 800,000 Palestinians,¹ including more than 50,000 Palestinian Christians who had to flee, thus becoming refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan and Lebanon.

April 4, 2024

Meeting for much of Thursday as a committee of the whole in executive (closed) session, the Unification Commission announced Thursday afternoon it has selected a consultant to help it with the work of unifying the Office of the General Assembly and the Presbyterian Mission Agency.

PHS will develop RNS exhibit with support from Lilly Endowment grant

April 4, 2024

Kristen Gaydos | Presbyterian Historical Society

PHILADELPHIA

The Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS) will use a $94,750 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to develop a traveling exhibit of photographs from its Religious News Service Collection.

The planning grant will fund the design and fabrication of an exhibit prototype that explores how the Religious News Service covered the interplay of religion, domestic politics and foreign affairs from 1936 to 1983.

April 4, 2024

Just days after an airstrike killed seven World Central Kitchen workers in Gaza and as experts says famine is imminent in northern Gaza, the PC(USA)’s Office of Public Witness held a webinar Wednesday on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Nearly 300 people attended.