The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is one of 24 churches and faith-based organizations to have signed on to a letter calling on the administration of President Joe Biden to lift the sanctions on Cuba, saying they prevent humanitarian aid from reaching people on the island.
In the first of three listening circles, the offices of Women’s Leadership Development and Leadership Development for Leaders of Color of the Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries hosted PC(USA) women of color who are in faith leadership roles to provide them with the safety of a space that honors their voices and their experiences as they voice how COVID-19 has impacted their lives and ministries.
As Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations commemorated Reformation Sunday — remembering when Martin Luther posted his 95 theses for reform on a church door in Wittenberg, Germany, in 1517 — their thoughts turned to Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli and the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.
During the holidays, we find ourselves wrapping the babe born in Bethlehem in a thick blanket woven with the threads of sentimental love. We sing hymns about how love came down from heaven. We light the fourth candle around the Advent wreath — referred to as the “love” candle in most wreath-lighting liturgies — and bask in its warm glow. It’s all very comforting. Yet the love God gave to the world in the way of Jesus is not about feelings. It’s about action. It was seen in Mary’s “yes” to be the Christotokos, the “Christ-bearer.” It was illustrated by Joseph taking Mary as his wife, even though she was carrying a child that was not his. It rang through the night skies as angels sang of salvation to the shepherds.
When I was a child growing up in the United Methodist Church, I remember that my parents once got a little cardboard folder to put quarters in. Although I don’t remember whether you were supposed to put the quarters in every day or every week — or even what the project was for — it really made an impression on me that kids could be a part of giving.
When a 12-year-old Jesus escaped his parents’ watchful eye during the family’s annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the anxious couple returned to find him at long last in the temple, “sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.”
