Phyllis Tickle, the late author and founding editor of the religion department at Publishers Weekly, once wrote that every 500 years the church experiences a “massive upheaval,” where old ideas are rejected and new ones emerge. Tickle used the analogy of a “500-year rummage sale” to illustrate how the church enters into a period of cleaning house, deciding what to keep and what to toss in order to make way for the new thing God is doing.
Together with partners also engaged in church planting and revitalization, 1001 New Worshiping Communities of the Presbyterian Mission Agency is sponsoring an upcoming Hopeful Economics UnConference on March 3-5.
In retirement, the Rev. Fred Bunning delights in reading mysteries and solving puzzles.
Fortunately, his wife, the Rev. Virginia Bunning, is not one of them.
The bold vision and invitation of Matthew 25:31-46 to be the hands and feet of Jesus, serving people who are hungry, oppressed, imprisoned or poor, is awakening compassionate faith to new possibilities in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
The gift of $22,000, which after legal fees would be worth around $250,000 in today’s dollars, was given to Knox Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati exactly 100 years ago to aid the congregation in constructing a new church. But according to Knox’s pastor, the Rev. Adam Fronczek, there was “some lore” in the congregation about the gift, which came from a woman who wanted to be buried inside the walls of the church.
Charged with the job of creating a unified budget for 2023-24 to present to the 225th General Assembly next year, the Coordinating Table heard a proposal for doing just that from Kathy Lueckert, president of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation.
