A devastating drought has displaced one million Somalis since January 2021, and more people are expected to flee as communities face the prospect of famine in 2023. First, the rains failed, then Al-Shabab, an armed group that controls large swathes of south-central Somalia, started to impose hefty taxes on local farmers like Fathi Mohamed Ali.
A congregation-based community organizing group in the Annapolis, Maryland area is helping churches and other groups to champion local causes through working together as a united force.
A year after a tornado destroyed First Presbyterian Church of Mayfield, Kentucky, and much of the community, the disaster has left the church grounds virtually bare. But a sign gives a hint of a promising future.
A special town calls for a special pastor.
And the Rev. Sunjae Jung — initially worlds away from the storied college town of Athens, Georgia, home to the Athens Korean Presbyterian Church — heard God’s call loud and clear.
Although maybe not so clearly at first.
In 1970, the National Committee on the Self-Development of People (SDOP) began with a question: How should the Church respond to the growing disparity between rich and poor across the globe? Half a century later, the Covid pandemic and a canceled 50th anniversary celebration became an unexpected opportunity to answer that founding question in a new way.
Samual Polanco is no stranger to the power of walls.
Especially their potential to exclude.
Polanco, a 2022 graduate of the Menaul School — a PC(USA)-related, grades 6-12 college preparatory school located in Albuquerque, New Mexico — has faced walls his entire life.
#GivingTuesday, which this year falls on Tuesday, Nov. 29, is a global day of giving designed to harness the potential of social media and the collective power of individuals, communities, and organizations to encourage philanthropy and to celebrate generosity worldwide.
As a lifelong advocate of the connectional church, the Rev. Ben Franklin Whitfield might never have expected that this denominational doctrine would one day prove indispensable to him at his own time of greatest need.
