Hundreds of individuals from the Kansas City, Missouri, metro area woke up one autumn morning and instead of putting on their Sunday best, they dressed in work clothes, boots and gloves; gathered rakes, scissors, knitting needles and casserole dishes; and drove to church to worship in a different way.
In a season marked by special dinners and other festive events, members of a New Jersey congregation are remembering a special commemoration of their own.
Earlier this year the Missions Committee at First Presbyterian Church of South Amboy held a potluck to honor former Police Chief LeRoy Kurtz and other New Jersey police officers. The committee surprised Kurtz with the help of his family and church members.
When Nora Leccese, who addresses domestic poverty and environmental issues for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Public Witness (OPW), first came to the office through the Emerson National Hunger Fellows Program, she expected to be there for only five months. But she immediately met people in the office and in the broader interfaith community who were willing to speak out on issues like racism, sexism and homophobia.
After World War II, denominational leaders felt called to promote unity. In 1943, they established World Community Day, a day set aside for ecumenical study and prayer. Many denominations were doing their own justice and peace work, but leadership determined that one day of joint study would strengthen unity among them.
Before the sun set on Thanksgiving Day, stores across our country opened their doors to shoppers seeking an early start on Black Friday specials. This “busiest shopping day of the year” is etched deeply into our culture and our economy. In the past decade, another retail phenomenon has developed in the days following Thanksgiving. The technological revolution and savvy marketers have given us Cyber Monday, which is filled with promotions aimed at online shoppers.
The Rt. Rev. Fonki Samuel Forba, moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC), recently issued a statement urging peace and dialogue in response to ongoing persecution and marginalization of the country’s Anglophone population. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is an ecumenical partner of the PCC and has previously engaged in advocacy on the church’s behalf.
The Presbytery of Philadelphia, which is celebrating its 300th anniversary this year, recently welcomed 2,000 worshipers to a special Saturday service in North Philadelphia.
On the day PC(USA) member Francis Ntowe’s sister was buried, there were six other funerals in her small community in Cameroon.
“One of them was a pastor, and all of them had died from HIV/AIDS,” he said.
Building a church and its membership from the ground up is no small feat. Doing it in a country that persecutes members of your faith makes it doubly difficult. But the Rev. Manh Nguyen, pastor of Evangelical Community Church in Hanoi, Vietnam, continues to grow his church despite a government that frowns upon religion.
For more than 17 years, the Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP), through its Joining Hands initiative, has been tackling the root causes of hunger and poverty. PHP staff recently gathered with representatives from several countries to look at the progress and where to go from here.
