An energetic new pastor arrives to the resounding “Alleluia!” of a grateful congregation. Two years later, she leaves in fury, blaming a toxic environment, with her health in tatters.
The perfect call finally appears for the seasoned pastor hoping to ease his way into retirement. Within a month, the pillar of the church leaves the denomination altogether.
Hundreds of people gathered from across the world for an ecumenical prayer service at the Nieuwe Kerk, a 15th-century church in Amsterdam, to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) at the very spot in which the organization was founded.
“You cannot understand our history as a country until you understand the history of the church.”
That’s how Mark Charles — a Navajo pastor, speaker and author — began his presentation to a room full of missionaries in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which gathered this past summer for their annual meeting.
World Food Day — celebrated on Oct. 16 every year — commemorates the founding in 1945 of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The FAO was created to respond to famines and hunger in a world of God’s abundance. Despite the abundance of land, water, nutrients and sunlight on this precious planet, even in the 21st century, hundreds of millions of people go hungry.
This organization Hombres Presbiterianos Hispanos Latinos (HPHL) has served Hispanic Latino Presbyterian men for more than 13 years. The organization seeks to act as an instrument of reconciliation between God and men. HPHL’s purpose is to assist and encourage Hispanic Presbyterian men to accept and proclaim the love of Jesus Christ and to offer spiritual formation through prayer and Bible studies so men can understand their role in our church. HPHL also hosts seminars, conferences and workshops that encourage Hispanic Latino men to get to know each other and to help empower them to discover their spiritual gifts so they can bring the Good News to their communities.
While many voices vied for the attention of Kofi Annan, the former U.N. secretary general consistently listened to people seeking peace from the vantage point of faith, according to a Presbyterian mission leader.
For Bud Frimoth, a 92-year-old World War II veteran and retired minister of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), reading accounts of those working to contain the recent Mendocino Complex fires in California brought back memories from years ago.
Dr. Brian K. Blount’s book Go Preach! Mark’s Kingdom Message and the Black Church Today sits on my desk. It’s one of the books that survived the move from my rental in Maryland to my Vermont home.
It has been described as one of the major highlights of the 223rd General Assembly (2018) in St. Louis. Hundreds of Presbyterians, including the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, General Assembly Stated Clerk; Co- Moderators Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri and the Reverend Cindy Kohlmann; and Presbyterian Mission Agency Executive Director the Rev. Diane Moffett walked to the City Justice Center. With more than $47,000 received at the assembly’s opening worship service, Nelson turned the money over to local organizations to begin bailing out individuals who had been prescreened for release because they could not afford their cash bail.
The country of Niger in West Africa is only 1 percent Christian, but “the faithful witness and long-term vision of these believers is great,” said Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission co-workers Michael and Rachel Ludwig, who have worked in mission and ministry alongside the Evangelical Church in the Republic of Niger (EERN) for more than four years. The EERN is the largest Protestant denomination in Niger, with about 12,000 members.
