The bequests of two sisters recently contributed a total of more than $500,000 to the Theological Schools Endowment Fund. But that’s only part of the story.
There is a fountain in Louisville’s Waterfront Park beside the Ohio River. It is an oasis for office workers and a treat for tourists in the heat of summer. Children splash with delight in the jets of water that spring up from the ground. And for members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Sacrament Study Group (2003–2006) it is a sacred place.
The Rev. Dr. Neddy Astudillo recently received the Presbyterians for Earth Care Annual Eco Justice Award.
Astudillo, who works with GreenFaith, an organization with a mission to inspire, educate, organize and mobilize people of diverse religious and spiritual backgrounds globally for environmental action, is a leader in the ministry of environmental justice.
The Rev. John Russell Stanger doesn’t like talking about money, or his student loan debt.
“It’s so uncomfortable,” he said. “But we’ve got to do it, so that others know help is available for people like me who want to serve smaller congregations.”
With nearly all of her trips to see family and friends temporarily on hold during the pandemic, Lucy Janjigian simply lets her fingers — and her imagination — do the walking, straight through every colorful page of the Presbyterian Giving Catalog.
I teach a mission course at our seminary and have an on-again-off-again relationship with the field of “missiology,” which can include everything from church growth and personal evangelism to the study of world Christianity or contextual theology.
After serving for many years as a commissioned lay pastor of Brentwood Presbyterian Church in the Presbytery of Long Island, New York, a Matthew 25 presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Rev. Ida Rosario retired at the end of 2020 to start a new season in her life and ministry. Today she serves as a minister in a small multicultural church that partners with a Hispanic congregation of more recent immigrants.
We gathered by the shoreline of a lake in Colorado. We were tired and showing symptoms of compassion fatigue. We had endured 24 deaths in 12 months — 10 of those by suicide.
In 2012, the General Assembly made a bold commitment — to create an environment within the denomination that would lead to the flourishing of the existing church and the birth of at least 1001 new communities of worship and witness. The Presbyterian Mission Agency went to work creating a system of resources to support this call to equip presbyteries, help potential leaders discern God’s call, develop a system of grants, build leadership capacity and create a network of coaches prepared to accompany a new worshiping community through all the stages of development. Establishing partnerships and collaboration with other North American denominations, the reach of these resources extends far beyond the PC(USA).
