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Mission Yearbook
The Rev. Jane Pauw remembers the date, March 12, when she blacked out and entered the darkness, into what she calls “a warm, mindless comfort” that she had never experienced before.
Take a minute to look back on your life. Who all have you lived with? In the earliest parts of our lives, we might live with parents or grandparents or other caring adults. Perhaps siblings. Over the years, we might live with friends and extended family, family of choice or even sometimes with strangers. And sometimes we might find ourselves living alone.
Add prayer and guided meditation to the activities for which Presbyterians are now using online platforms to engage.
During a recent Zoom call, the Revs. Jeff Eddings, coaching and spiritual formation associate for 1001 New Worshiping Communities, and Ayana Teter, director of vocation and placement at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, took about 30 participants through liturgy, prayer and a guided meditation designed to get them to use their imaginations to place themselves in the midst of the disciples as Jesus washed their grimy feet as depicted in John 13:1–17.
There’s no need to have an empty church on Sunday mornings, even in the midst of coronavirus social distancing directives.
Co-pastors Tami Seidel and Chip Low of First Presbyterian Church of Yorktown, New York, aren’t encouraging disobedience to stay-at-home orders. Rather, they’ve placed photos of church members in the pews for them to look out on as they offer livestreamed Sunday morning services from the church sanctuary.
In the backyard of my house in Accra, Ghana, there are plantain, papaya and mango trees, each giving fruit at their particular times of the year. I’m excited as the dry season ends — the beginning of spring in the U.S. — when our avocados ripen and become ready to eat!
Using Ezekiel’s stark vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, the Rev. Dr. David Gambrell elicited any number of innovative ideas from about 70 pastors and other church leaders during a recent videoconference on Spirit-inspired worship, one of the Seven Marks of Vital Congregations.
The Presbyterian Church of Colombia is reaching out to its siblings around the world, sending greetings of “solidarity in God’s call that invites us to do everything in our power to protect the life of the people in our congregations and neighboring communities through pastoral and humanitarian care.”
I was about to launch into my public service announcement about the need to stay home, especially as the COVID-19 virus began making itself known to our rural community, but I was interrupted.
Many of a certain age can fondly harken back to loading into the family station wagon and visiting the local drive-in movie theater. Finding just the right spot to get a great view of the screen, attaching the scratchy metal speaker to the partially rolled-down window, and sitting in the back seat with blankets, pillows, a big tub of popcorn and a drink were integral parts of the outdoor movie experience.
It was a week of mission at Manokin Presbyterian Church in Princess Anne, Maryland, along the state’s Eastern Shore. That’s because the 30-some members of this congregation, first organized in 1672, continue to stay in touch with each other, even though they have not gathered for worship since March 8 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
