The Board of Pensions has presented its first Healthy Pastors, Healthy Congregations seminar in Puerto Rico. Congregational leaders of three churches in the Synod of Boriquén and their pastors attended the seminar, conducted in Spanish at Aguada Presbyterian Church in Aguada.
As the United States approaches the anniversary of the mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, Presbyterian Peace Fellowship announced this week that its 2019 Peaceseeker Award honors Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church and First United Church of Oak Park, both in the Chicago metropolitan area, for exemplary ministries to prevent future gun violence.
When more than 50 people representing 31 congregations gathered to prepare for the Presbytery of New York City’s launch of the Vital Congregations initiative, the Rev. Robert Foltz-Morrison, the executive presbyter, felt the Spirit moving.
As 14 Presbyteries prepare to launch the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A)’s Vital Congregations initiative in January, three presbyteries — Trinity, Newark and San Jose — are finishing up a pilot program of the two-year revitalization process.
Realizing that its closure was a real possibility, First Presbyterian Church in Winneconne, Wisconsin, called the Rev. Rose McCurdy as pastor to help the congregation find new life. One of its strengths was generosity toward local mission, but McCurdy sensed the congregation needed to extend its involvement beyond its community. When McCurdy picked up the Presbyterian Giving Catalog, she saw a resource that could help her struggling congregation in its quest for renewal. She saw the catalog as an avenue for increased mission participation, and the congregation’s mission committee agreed with her.
In the Mission Yearbook message for this Veterans Day, the Rev. (Capt.) Lyman M. Smith, director of the Presbyterian Council for Chaplains and Military Personnel, (PCCMP) writes, “More than 18 million veterans live among us. And of those 18 million, some 18 are likely to die by suicide today.”
Congregations seeking renewal for their pastor are invited to apply for the Lilly Endowment Clergy Renewal Program at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, Indiana.
When more than 50 people representing 31 congregations gathered recently to prepare for the Presbytery of New York City’s launch of the Vital Congregations initiative, the Rev. Robert Foltz Morrison, the executive presbyter, felt the Spirit moving.
As the Rev. Becca Stevens took to the ballroom stage at the Westin Hotel Wednesday, healing oils that would be used by 220 attendees to anoint one other at the 1001 New Worshiping Communities and Vital Congregations national gathering hadn’t been opened yet.
