The action required to transfer the operations of the Ghost Ranch Conference & Education Center from the Presbyterian Mission Agency (PMA) to the National Ghost Ranch Foundation (NGRF), was approved today by the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board (PMAB).
In 2014, a year before Madison Presbyterian Church’s 200th anniversary, Jill Wiest and I volunteered to see what information we could find to enhance the celebration. After looking through many old files we wondered if we had found everything—after all, there are many nooks and crannies in our 1846 church building. What about that old safe in the small room off the kitchen that had been the pastor’s study in the 1800s?
Following an interfaith solidarity gathering of more than 500 clergy and lay people at the Oceti Sakowin camp on the northern border of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation near Cannon Ball, North Dakota last Thursday, a group of approximately 70 faith leaders and “water protector” activists traveled to Bismarck to stage a sit in at the Capitol building’s judicial wing.
More than 20 representatives from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) joined a 500-person-strong gathering of clergy and lay leaders at the Oceti Sakowin prayer camp yesterday, adding voices of solidarity to self-described “water protectors” at the site and taking part in a ceremony repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery.
The Cannon Ball (North Dakota) Gym was filled to capacity tonight with nearly 500 clergy representing 20 faith traditions in anticipation of their show of solidarity for self-described “water protectors” opposing the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) north of Standing Rock Sioux reservation lands.
Amidst a trilling of trumpets, a shower of stoles, and a grateful congregation’s affirming applause—interposed with the shedding of more than a few tears—Lisa Larges, a candidate for the ministry of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) since 1986, was ordained as a teaching elder at the Lake Nokomis Presbyterian Church.
The Board of Directors for the Board of Pensions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) gathered here last week (October 26-29) for its fall meeting. New board members, approved by the 222nd General Assembly (2016) of the PC(USA), received orientation prior to committee and business sessions.
Healing has begun between Native Alaskan groups and the Presbyterian church following an apology issued by the Presbytery of Yukon at the meeting of the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) last Saturday.
“All of us have to educate ourselves. All of us have to make an extra effort to understand the other.” That’s the crux of the message Dr. Sayyid Syeed, national director for the Office for Interfaith and Community Alliances for the Islamic Society of North America, brought to Redwood Falls, Minnesota, when he spoke at the First Presbyterian Church and other locations in that community Sept. 15-17.
As wagons of corn—not to mention truckloads of gravel and dirt—circle the United Church of Crawsfordsville, Iowa, surely the harvest is nearing. Or at least the church’s eagerly-awaited harvest supper and auction is.
