During the dinner break on the final day of the Presbyterians for Earth Care Conference Sunday, participants were treated to images of a minister in a clerical collar blessing a crawfish, a seven-person congregation that installed solar panels on its church building, a woman tending her church grounds with Earth-friendly lawn-care equipment and more.
As Latinx communities in the United States and abroad experienced the surging impacts of climate change, particularly Hurricane Maria’s devastating blow to Puerto Rico in 2017, Presbyterian churches in those communities began to explore how they could address the growing crisis.
Applications from interested presbyteries and individual congregations that have the blessing of their presbytery are now being accepted for the fourth wave of the Vital Congregations Initiative.
Inside this Issue The Initiative | Community Connections | Vital Reflections | Show Your Marks The Initiative Seasons Greetings from the Office of Vital Congregations The Office of Vital Congregations… Read more »
Seven presbyteries and one congregation have been selected to be part of the third wave of the Vital Congregations Initiative in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A).
The vision for the Matthew 25 invitation asks us to engage together in the three works of vitalizing congregations, dismantling structural racism and eradicating systemic poverty. Though individual, these three works are inseparable. Can a congregation be vital without confronting racism? What is at stake when racism directs our congregational and community life?
As a seminary student I heard a constant refrain from our professors: Jesus came to preach and teach. It was the pretext underlying our whole seminary education as they trained us to preach and teach.
Applications from interested presbyteries are now being accepted for the third wave of the Vital Congregations Initiative. And for the first time since the initiative began with a pilot program in 2017, individual churches may also apply — if they have the blessing of their presbytery.
COVID-19 has caused the world to change the way people connect and the way they do business. For nearly a year millions of people have been sheltering in place and worshiping online. However, not all churches have the resources and capabilities to offer virtual services to their members.
When it comes to the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s increasingly popular Presbyterian Giving Catalog, the time-honored saying that “people give to people” has never been truer.