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World Mission
Anyone who has dealt with conflict that lasts for years knows how difficult it can be to re-establish a bond with “the other side.” Even if that conflict ended a long time ago. Those are some of the challenges faced by the Rev. Doug Baker, one of the 2017 International Peacemakers visiting the U.S. this fall.
More than 80 percent of its flora and fauna cannot be found anywhere else on earth. But despite the richness of its biodiversity, Madagascar is one of the poorest nations in the world with 92 percent of its population living on less than $2 a day.
A group of Presbyterians got some hands on experience in coffee farming during a recent trip to Nicaragua. The eleven-member delegation, which included staff from the Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP), World Mission and Equal Exchange, spent a week learning about fair trade and how the coffee is grown, processed and shipped to other countries.
Released in movie theaters in April, ‘The Promise’ is no mere period love story but a ‘fight to end genocide and injustice,’ promoters say. Actor Christian Bale plays an American journalist trying to expose the Ottoman plot to exterminate millions of Armenians.
In a recent visit to Lebanon and Syria, a delegation from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) had an opportunity to see firsthand the devastation caused by years of conflict. The group also got an up-close view of efforts to breathe new life into Syrian neighborhoods and cities.
Though we often hear only the dark and disturbing stories coming out of the Middle East, on February 26 there was an historic moment of celebration. The Presbyterian Church in Tripoli and the National Evangelical (Presbyterian) Synod of Syria and Lebanon (NESSL) ordained the Rev. Rola Sleiman as the first Arab woman to serve as a Minister of Word and Sacrament.
Two Orthodox Coptic churches were the subject of suicide bombings on Palm Sunday, April 9, killing 44 and wounding 126. The first attack occurred at St. George’s church in Tanta, about 50 miles north of Cairo. The second occurred at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Alexandria, on the Mediterranean coast.
The Rev. Jan Edmiston, Co-Moderator of the 222nd General Assembly (2016) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), returned early last week from a trip to Syria with a delegation from the church’s Compassion Peace and Justice ministries. Following the chemical weapons attack in Idlib and the retaliatory airstrikes by the United States military, she issued a prayer for the people of Syria and the world.
Five representatives of the Congo Mission team at Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church (LOPC) recently traveled to Sacramento for a meeting with the staff of California’s new junior senator and former state Attorney General, Kamala Harris. Two members of a Bay Area organization for Congolese nationals in Diaspora, Congo Prosperity Catalyst, joined them.
April 8 is International Romani Day, celebrating the Romani (Roma) culture, history and people and raising awareness of the issues they face. The Roma are the largest minority group in Europe and are commonly known in the English-speaking world as “Gypsies,” a perjorative term. Like “Native American,” “Roma” is an umbrella term for many subgroups.
