An African American CREDO conference hosted by the Board of Pensions in partnership with Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary drew 17 African American ministers to Roslyn Retreat Center in Richmond, Virginia, to cultivate wholeness — specifically, their spiritual, vocational, health, and financial well-being.
As a Hunger Action Congregation, Faith Des Peres Presbyterian Church is taking aim at food insecurity in greater St. Louis by providing food for school children and other vulnerable populations.
No one knows exactly how many children in the tri-county area around Detroit (Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties) are lacking a bed of their own, but it is likely the number is in the thousands, according to the nonprofit Building Beds 4 Kids.
“I believe the church extends far beyond the congregation or building,” said the Rev. Mary Sellers Shaw. “I am called to build community both inside and outside the church.”
Down the street and around the globe, Presbyterians are committed to addressing the scourge of gender-based violence.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) states that “violence against women and girls is one of the most prevalent human rights violations in the world.” Noting that an estimated 1 in 3 women worldwide will experience physical or sexual abuse in her lifetime, UNFPA observes that gender-based violence “knows no social, economic or national boundaries.” For this reason, every year the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations facilitates the involvement of a PC(USA) delegation at the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women. This group shapes global standards on gender equality and the empowerment of women and is supported in part by gifts to the Peace & Global Witness Offering.
Fifteen years after being sent to Iraq as a U.S. soldier, the Rev. Matthew Fricker felt compelled to return in response to a higher calling.
“I felt affection for the country, and I could feel God calling me back to this place because of the needs of the churches over there and the needs of all the Iraqi people,” Fricker said. That calling, he added, extended to his personal need for healing and reconciliation.
As the new year begins, McGregor Presbyterian Church its pastor, the Rev. Julie Walkup Bird, are looking ahead with renewed energy and excitement as the result of a two-year program to enhance congregational vitality.
McGregor Presbyterian Church in Columbia is one of the churches in South Carolina’s Trinity Presbytery that participated in the two-year Vital Congregations initiative.
