When the Rev. Dr. Alonzo Johnson isn’t busy directing the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People, he’s convening the Education Roundtable, part of an initiative of the 221st General Assembly (2014) to Educate a Child, Transform the World.
Leaders with Educate a Child, Transform the World held an online roundtable Wednesday imploring Presbyterians to protect public education and provide care and nurture for students, teachers, administrators, board members and school staff.
As communities in various parts of the country grapple with equity issues related to public education, a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) webinar is being held Sept. 27 to discuss Presbyterian policy and how to get involved in advocating for youngsters.
Growing up in northern New Jersey, a younger version of the Rev. Dr. Alonzo Johnson watched in awe as Fred Rogers welcomed a break-dancer onto the groundbreaking television show “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” in the 1980s.
When Elizabeth Odom was just a baby, so was the Pentecost Offering.
Twenty-five years later, both are thriving.
Today, Elizabeth is a social worker and American Sign Language interpreter serving the Deaf community in Greensboro, North Carolina, and the Pentecost Offering helped her get there.
Everywhere he looked, the Rev. Allen Shelton saw tremendous gaps — gaps that were keeping high school-aged young people of color like Tariq Mayo from succeeding in life.
Shelton, a veteran educator, community advocate and pastor, was determined not to watch Tariq — and so many other promising youth — fall through the cracks of an increasingly broken educational system.
It’s one thing to watch the heartbreaking plight of new immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers unfold on the evening news.
It’s quite another to meet Lissy H. in person.
During an appearance on “Between Two Pulpits” that mostly focused on education, the Rev. Dr. Alonzo Johnson began to reminisce about his mother teaching him the 23rd Psalm.
When it came time to minister to the families of recent asylees from Central America, it turns out a global pandemic was no match for the 60 or so members and friends of Beechmont Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky.
These days she’s the Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Davis, who teaches seminarians about education at Union Presbyterian Seminary’s Charlotte, North Carolina, campus. When she was 9 and growing up in West Virginia, that role would have been difficult to fathom.