Matthew Desmond, the author of the 2023 book “Poverty, by America,” made a 15-minute online appearance Monday to help launch a four-week PC(USA)-wide study of his best-seller. More than 260 people were present to hear from Desmond, the Maurice P. During Professor of Sociology at Princeton University, whose 2017 book, “Evicted,” won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction. They also discussed the first two chapters in small groups.
By way of photo submission, Presbyterians are invited to tell the world the ways their church, worshiping community, mid council or organization is carrying out the Matthew 25 Invitation.
“So much that was said went straight to my heart, and I am left inspired and dedicated to the work of Matthew 25 for months to come,” said Jennifer Morgan, ruling elder at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Madison, Wisconsin. “This Summit has strengthened my faith in other people, the Presbyterian Church as a whole, and our gracious, loving God!” said Morgan, who attended the Matthew 25 Summit with two other church members and a member of the staff at Covenant.
On the heels of last week’s Matthew 25 Summit, Matthew 25 Being Connected events are being offered online in the coming weeks to help Presbyterians learn from and support one another as they do the work laid out in Jesus’ Judgment of the Nations in Matthew 25:31-46.
As attendees prepared for the final morning of the Matthew 25 Summit at New Life Presbyterian Church in South Fulton, members of The Many, the conference’s vocal instrumental group in residence, led those gathered Thursday in a time of centering, communal prayer.
Drawing an insightful and inspirational Matthew 25 Summit to a close with worship Thursday, the Rev. Dr. Diane Givens Moffett asked those gathered at New Life Presbyterian Church in South Fulton, Georgia, and online to “consider with me” the thrust of her sermon, “Dream Driven.” View the sermon preached by Moffett, president and executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, here. Her sermon begins 48 minutes from the end.
In an hour-long Matthew 25 Summit address that alternated between the historic and the prophetic, the Rev. Dr. William Yoo wowed attendees with a talk on the Matthew 25 church that never was and the Matthew 25 church that is here today. The 350 or so people in attendance stood and clapped and offered Yoo encouragement throughout his inspiring lecture, which can be seen here. Yoo is introduced by the Rev. Carlton Johnson at the one hour, 18-minute mark.
On the second day of the Matthew 25 Summit, the community again gathered itself at the New Life Presbyterian Church in South Fulton, Georgia, for a unique worship experience, in which gently evocative music flowed seamlessly into the creative force of the spoken word, the grace of liturgical dance, and again into poetry, song and silence.
A powerful sermon by the Rev. Hodari Williams, team leader of New Life Presbyterian Church in South Fulton, Georgia, deftly set the stage for the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, who brought conference-goers to their feet with her opening plenary on the first day of the historic Matthew 25 Summit.
Growing up in the 1980s, the Rev. Hodari Williams was a fan of Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger comic books — especially Cloak, whose superpower was becoming invisible when he wore his robe.
