Thoughtful, moving and imaginative worship was front and center during the national event of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators Thursday afternoon, when more than 1,000 people from four continents joined for an online opening worship service anchored by prophetic preaching from the Rev. Aisha Brooks-Lytle.
Dr. John Weaver, a celebrated Presbyterian organist and composer, died Monday at the age of 83. His daughter, the Rev. Kirianne E. Weaver, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Ithaca, New York, described his passing in a Facebook post on Tuesday morning:
“Last night, in the small hours, Dad took his last breaths. It was the winding down of a clock, and we knew this moment was coming when the hands would stop moving; it was all peaceful and then came the dawn.”
As of Tuesday, registration for “Anything but Ordinary Time,” the name of the annual event of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators (APCE), stood at 908 — nearly one-third of them first-time attendees, according to Anne Wilson, a retired educator from Houston and member of the event’s planning team. In addition, 15 percent of those registered have attended one previous APCE annual event.
Pastors and Christian educators from around the country as well as Canada and the United Kingdom joined for a webinar Monday to find out from one another how they’re creating community among the generations during the pandemic and, just as importantly, once it’s over.
A decade ago, Walter Brueggemann called the church to journey together for the good of our community through neighborliness, covenanting, and reconstruction in “Journey to the Common Good.” He distilled this challenge to its most basic issues: Where is the church going? What is its role in contemporary society? What lessons does it have to offer a world enmeshed in turbulent times?
Inspired by their grandchildren, three friends and members of Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church in Sunnyvale, California, have created a new children’s book, “God is With Us Always Even in a Pandemic.”
Joanne Rogers, who was married for more than 50 years to children’s television icon and Presbyterian pastor Fred Rogers, died Thursday in Pittsburgh. She was 92.
The 2021 APCE (Association of Presbyterian Church Educators) annual event, themed “Anything but Ordinary Time,” is set for February 4-6, but the registration deadline for submitting names for scholarship opportunities is Friday, January 15. The deadline for accessing interpretation services is Friday, January 22. Hopeful participants can register for the three-day online event here. There are several levels of participation available.
As the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for work and life became clear, it was obvious they would fundamentally change the way the Compassion, Peace & Justice (CPJ) ministries of the Presbyterian Mission Agency operated.
The Rev. Ruth-Aimée Belonni-Rosario Govens is a testament to the leadership development that takes place through the Conference for Seminarians of Color.
