Each Saturday during March, people gathered at each of Mid-Kentucky Presbytery’s four African American congregations to hear the stories of each congregation, including its heritage and ministry.
Dr. Shannon Craigo-Snell literally co-wrote the book on becoming an ally in the struggle for justice. So when she states that’s easier said than done for white people trying to be allies with their siblings of color — as opposed to straight people looking to do something similar for their LGBTQ+ siblings — it’s time to take notice and take action.
No sooner had the small delegation from the Presbytery of Mid-Kentucky — its general presbyter, stated clerk and moderator — renewed their passports and booked their flights to Taiwan than COVID-19 postponed their plans. Ever since three representatives from Changhua Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, Mid-Kentucky’s international mission partner, had traveled to Mid-Kentucky in May 2019, the Revs. John Odom, Jerry Van Marter and Angela Johnson had long been looking forward to their reciprocal visit.
“We are here holding up the life of Breonna Taylor, one who gave her life not intentionally, but a life that will be remembered for the movement she has now created,” the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II said during a vigil Sunday honoring the woman killed in her apartment March 13 at the hands of Louisville police.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Presbytery of Mid-Kentucky will host Remembering Breonna Taylor: Vigil for Justice at 5 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday at Beulah Presbyterian Church, 6704 Bardstown Road in Louisville.
No sooner had the small delegation from the Presbytery of Mid-Kentucky — its general presbyter, stated clerk and moderator — renewed their passports and booked their flights to Taiwan than COVID-19 postponed their plans. Ever since three representatives from Changhua Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, Mid-Kentucky’s international mission partner, had traveled to Mid-Kentucky in May 2019, the Revs. John Odom, Jerry Van Marter and Angela Johnson had long been looking forward to their reciprocal visit.
Nearly 50 mask-wearing, health-screened, socially-distanced friends, board members and staff of Cedar Ridge Camp, a ministry of Mid-Kentucky Presbytery, gathered Wednesday to celebrate groundbreaking for the 60-year-old camp’s new chapel.
The ministry of presence is important in God’s mission. Yet even when a global pandemic causes cancellation of short-term mission trips, congregations and presbyteries in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) are showing care and compassion in creative and urgently needed ways from afar.
Where there’s a will, there’s a driveway.
And although this year’s Palm Sunday festival procession into an “upper parking lot” more closely resembled a line at a car wash than a celebration of worship, exigent circumstances call for extreme creativity, imagination and grace.
And honks over Hosannas.
