The Service of Lament and Hope offered Sunday by Presbyterian Peace Fellowship included a highlight organizers may not have envisioned — poignant online participation by the nearly 30 people gathered to mark the loneliness, heartache and, yes, the hope that people have experienced during a year marked by pandemic, racial injustice, economic devastation and isolation.
As the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for work and life became clear, it was obvious they would fundamentally change the way the Compassion, Peace & Justice (CPJ) ministries of the Presbyterian Mission Agency operated.
The Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People (SDOP) has approved grants totaling $118,000 to 30 community-based projects in the United States aimed at alleviating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Presbyterian Office of Public Witness is among several religious groups that have signed a letter expressing deep concern about what they see as an escalation of tensions between the United States and Iran.
The Washington office of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is calling on the public to rally behind Cameroonians being deported from the United States to dangerous situations in their homeland.
At the Presbyterian Church of Latakia, Syria, the Rev. Salam Hanna ministers to people who have endured nine years of civil war and, recently, sanctions that have led to the worst economic crisis the nation has faced in a century.
The statistics for gun violence jump off the page:
40,614 gun violence deaths in the United States this year
919 children under age 12 have been shot
985 teens have been killed
10 million guns flow into the United States every year
The Office of Public Witness is keeping a watchful eye on the presidential transition and joining in meetings between representatives of president-elect Joe Biden and interfaith groups as many Americans eagerly await new leadership in the White House.
