Welcome our new Field Staff member
The Rev. Dr. Magdy B. Girgis
We are pleased to announce that Rev. Dr. Magdy B. Girgis will join the Presbyterian Mission Agency ministry area of Racial Ethnic and Women's Ministries/Presbyterian Women as the Field Staff for Middle Eastern Ministries in the Office of New Immigrants and Emerging Ministries, effective Monday, February 11, 2013. His responsibilities include working in partnership with congregations and mid councils to develop and grow Middle Eastern new worshiping communities and their leadership. In addition, he will identify social justice inequities and act as a bridge for dialogue, promoting educational and cultural understanding of Middle Eastern issues in partnership with the National Middle Eastern Presbyterian Caucus and other groups. Magdy is a board-certified chaplain at Vitas Hospice Care in California. He will serve part-time as the Field Staff for Middle Eastern Ministries as deployed staff while continuing to reside in Los Angeles, California, with his wife Afaf and two children, their son, David, and their daughter, Sarah. In addition to English, Magdy speaks his native language, Arabic.
Magdy brings to this position “the characteristics of leadership development, communication skills, partnership, wide and diverse administrative experiences, and proficiency in various fund development efforts.” He has shared with us his interest in working with the Racial Ethnic and Cross Cultural Ministries offices, understanding the goal of igniting the movement to grow 1001 new worshiping communities “by investing a good time of my life in leading missions and developing local evangelism, which is what my life is centered around because it is my passion.” He can be reached by email.
Update your contact information
To better connect with PC(USA) New Immigrants and Emerging Ministries, we are updating our current databases and request for you to fill out a update form, and return it back to Andrea Meriwether, as indicated at the bottom of the form. Please, let us know if you have any questions.
Welcoming Immigrants and Refugees
Watch this half-hour video from the Presbytery of Giddings-Lovejoy to see how international groups in the United States, presbyteries, local congregations and the office of New Immigrants Congregational Support joined their gifts and resources to organize worshiping communities among new immigrants and refugees.
Get the Racial Ethnic Torch
"The Racial Ethnic Torch" is a periodical published by Racial Ethnic Ministries since 1990, offering news, events and issues of concern to racial ethnic Presbyterians. The "Torch," which is published twice a year in summer and fall, serves as a tool to connect you to new resources and upcoming events, to equip you with information that will bolster your faith life and ministry and to inspire you as we share stories of racial ethnic Presbyterians in the church. To subscribe to the print edition, email Alejandra Sherman.
Download the Racial Ethnic Torch Winter 2013
New immigrant young adults have another opportunity to serve!
The PC (USA) Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) Program offers exciting opportunities in Christian service and learning for young adults (19 to 30 years of age). There are 16 sites in the United States and abroad where YAVs can learn and serve for one year. Volunteers work with a church or organization as well as develop Christian community and meet regularly for prayer and Bible study and participate in vocation discernment with other Young Adult Volunteers. Each year, the application deadline is January 20 for August placement. Learn more.
Theological Education for new immigrant lay leaders in the USA
New waves of immigrants from Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East, and East Europe are coming to this nation as immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, migrant workers, students and religious workers. In the case of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the blessing of having new Presbyterians from abroad creates the need to provide different welcoming resources. One of those is this program of reformed theological education under a Presbyterian perspective, with and for the leadership of the new international communities of faith.
Program description
The Presbyterian Church office of New Immigrants & Emerging Ministries, under the General Assembly Mission Council, and the Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico (ESPR), present their mission partnership with this dynamic, diverse and flexible reformed theological program for new immigrant Presbyterian lay-leaders. The office of New Immigrants & Emerging Ministries ’s mission includes the formation of new immigrants by providing resources for Christian leadership development. The ESPR is a theological institution related to the PC(USA) through the General Assembly’s Committee on Theological Education. Together, both institutions are committed to run this plan as an intensive two-year program to be assessed for further extension as an inter-denominational and international project.
Continue readingMission and History
New Immigrants & Emerging Ministries provides the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) with resources aimed at facilitating entry of new immigrants groups into the life of the denomination. It was organized in 1999, one year after the General Assembly's approval of the "Racial Ethnic and Immigrant Church Growth Strategy."
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The challenge is to intentionally facilitate communications and resources to assist middle governing bodies to reach out to and to welcome those Christian immigrant groups. At this time, the office only works with groups from the countries of Africa, South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh), Brazil, and English and French Caribbean. In the same goal area, Latino, Asian, Korean and Middle Eastern Congregational Enhancement offices serve their other respective international groups.
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