When the Rev. Dick Powell was tapped as a candidate for the job of President and CEO at Presbyterian Mo-Ranch Assembly, he had one demand: “If I can’t stay in the Board of Pensions plan, I’m not coming.” More than a decade later, Powell and every other full-time employee at the camp and conference center in the Texas Hill Country is a member of the Benefits Plan of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Presbyterians paused during their Week of Action Thursday to take a more introspective and personal action: mourning the deaths of 183,000 Americans and more than 832,000 people around the world who have perished from COVID-19.
Though the Rev. Rola Al Ashkar grew up close to where Jesus Christ lived and shares a similar ethnicity to Christ, she still had to unlearn a Western-influenced, blonde-hair and blue-eyed image of Christ.
The Tooth Bus is a large bus outfitted with all the equipment needed to make and repair dentures. After over 10 years of visioning, fundraising and hard work by churches in the Presbytery of St. Augustine, the Tooth Bus has finally made its way to Jamaica. The plan is that the bus will be able to go most anywhere in Jamaica where there was a work site and have everything required to make dentures for those in need.
It is impossible not to be emotionally moved by the rows of crosses displayed on three sides of College Hill Community Church in Dayton, Ohio. The 20 crosses on display honor Black lives lost in senseless killings, the majority at the hands of police officers sworn to provide protection.
During a fast-paced two-hour Zoom conversation this week, the Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow led more than 100 participants in a discussion on “The Scattered Church: Pastoring in a Time of Pandemic.”
More than 200 people listened in Tuesday while some of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s deepest thinkers and most effective practitioners of anti-racism work shared their hearts and their experiences during a 90-minute Town Hall, part of the Presbyterian Week of Action. View the event here.
Finding practical stewardship resources and theological reflections on the practice of generosity has just become easier with the launch of “Where Your Heart Is … A Weekly Offerings Stewardship Blog.”
For too long the women of the Bible have been depicted in one-dimensional terms. On one side are saints, such as Mary, while on the other are “bad girls,” such as Eve and Jezebel. Just as often, the female characters of the Bible are simply ignored.