For Emily Donovan, youth director at Little Chapel on the Boardwalk in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina and co-founder of Clean Cape Fear, the fight to protect and nurture children goes far beyond the walls of the church. She recently testified before the Congressional House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on the Environment on the dangers of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) as a result of local pollution.
A Florida woman who was a lifelong Presbyterian, a savvy investor and a pioneer for women in the Chicago banking industry has left a bequest of more than $1 million to the Presbyterian Foundation. The money is being used to establish a fund for scholarships for students attending colleges and universities affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Racially charged violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, sent shockwaves of fear and grief across the United States on an August weekend last year.
Like many other Americans, Presbyterian pastor Jon Brown was distraught to the point of numbness, but on the following Monday morning his hope was renewed.
“May I humbly convey appreciation to you for your initiative and sponsorship. … Indeed, to me, it was as if I was dreaming until I realized that it was real. Of course, it was my first time to travel by plane. God is gracious, hallelujah!”
Presbyterian World Mission received this heartfelt message from the Rev. Wickliff Kang’ombe Zulu, chaplain of the Nkhoma Synod prison, as he expressed gratitude for sponsorship of his attendance at the eighth annual International Conference on Human Rights and Prison Reform (CURE).
A national report ranks Louisiana 49th in children’s well-being, but Presbyterian Children’s Homes and Services is working to change that. It is also healing children and preserving families in Texas, which ranks 47th in children’s well-being, and Missouri, which ranks 26th.
The Rev. Alex E. Awad, a peace and justice advocate and former missionary with the United Methodist Church, spoke to U.S. audiences this fall as part of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program’s International Peacemakers initiative. He’s served in Israel/Palestine as an educator and pastor for more than 30 years and spoke about his experiences in the Holy Land, the conditions faced by Palestinians under occupation, the impact of Israeli settlements, and the role of the church in ending the current injustices found in his homeland.
As we entered each village, people (especially the women) greeted us with singing, dancing, clapping and broad smiles.
During our weeklong mission trip, we visited people and projects in remote villages of the Zomba district in southeastern Malawi assisted by Villages in Partnership (VIP, a nonprofit organization established in 2008 by Presbyterians in New Jersey).
She was taken to the clinic with a sore on her heel so deep that bone was exposed. The Achilles tendon had broken away a disintegrated portion of her heel bone. Brought to our makeshift surgical suite at the Manos Amigos clinic in La Entrada, Honduras, the patient was touched by people in our medical mission team who used their God-given gifts in the most compassionate, flexible and ingenious ways, despite lacking the technology they would have had in the United States. Used in the surgery were some samples of a new skin-growing material that just happened to have been donated to a podiatrist on our team.
When the #MeToo hashtag exploded on the social media scene in October 2017, no one could have predicted its continued impact on the treatment of women both in and out of the workplace. For a while, #MeToo seemed to be more about bringing down famous people in big corporations or enterprises, like Harvey Weinstein and Matt Lauer. Hollywood is one thing, but harassment isn’t supposed to happen in churches, right?
Faith is not just personal; it’s political. Our leaders pass laws about how we treat one another, laws about money and more. The Bible addresses these issues as well in Scriptures like the Ten Commandments, the parable of the sheep and the goats, Sabbath rules and Jesus’ advice to the rich young ruler to sell his possessions and give to the poor. To say the Bible and Jesus are not political is to deny their influence and relevance to our lives in the 21st century.
