Westminster Presbyterian Church opened its spacious new wing in Minneapolis on Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, with more than 1,100 people celebrating the connection of their 121-year-old church to a new building full of sunlight and color.
With “home” as its theme, the 2018 Montreat College Conference (Jan. 2–5) urged students and their ministry leaders to consider the many ways the word impacts their lives. “What makes a place home? What does it mean to leave home? What does it mean to feel like you don’t have a home?” the conference introduction asked. “What about those who
do not have a home and cry out for justice and mercy?”
NO GUN RI, South Korea — In March 2015, the Rev. Ed Kang and the Rev. Earl Arnold of Cayuga-Syracuse Presbytery visited the No Gun Ri Peace Park, the site of a tragic killing of civilians in the early days of the Korean War. Deeply moved, they vowed to take action. Two years later they returned with the entire Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) standing alongside them.
Government leaders from several countries around the world are receiving mail from Presbyterian churches containing prints or paper cut-outs of red hands. It’s part of the Red Hand Campaign — an initiative to encourage countries to stop the practice of turning children into armed soldiers.
The Rev. Jimmie Hawkins packed his bags in early 2017, said goodbye to his North Carolina congregation at Covenant Presbyterian Church in New Hope Presbytery, and made his way to the nation’s capital as the new director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Office of Public Witness. His new appointment coincided with the swearing in of a new U.S. president.
Samantha Williams’ passion for her organic pancake-mix business is not driven solely by entrepreneurial ambition. It is also fueled by her sense of Christian vocation, which began to form more than a decade ago while she served as a Young Adult Volunteer (YAV).
Five years ago, many Egyptians came to the U.S. during the time of the Arab Spring and Muslim Brotherhood rule. They harbored a desire to worship in the language of their heart, Arabic, which they describe as “the language of heaven.”
I am a Korean-American Presbyterian, but that does not define all I am.” Those were the opening lines of my seminary application essays, ordination process paperwork and grant applications. The lines came at a turning point after serving as a Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) in Egypt in 2003. Those applications helped me re-evaluate my 20-something years of life, and I sensed the stirrings of ministry that might look more multicultural than the boundaries of my familiar upbringing.
One day, while taking a break from studying in the Duke Divinity School library, I got into a conversation that would change the course of my family’s life. As I talked with a stranger, I learned that he was the only person in the world with a PhD in New Testament (my field also) who could speak the language of the country where he was training Christians for ministry. This really struck me.
New words are added to the dictionary on a regular basis. Oftentimes these are words we hear but are not quite sure of their meaning.
“Intersectionality” is one of those words.
