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New year

A Presbyterian pastor finds hope and direction in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights

“Nothing is constant but change,” says the philosopher, and we might as well add, “…changing ever faster.” Wherever we look today the world is changing and at an unprecedented rate. Much of that change is alarming, but there is also some good news, such as for our prison system. In my home state of New York, the state prison population in the last 25 years has been reduced from 70,000 in the late 1990s to around 30,000 today.

New Year’s Day

One of the evening psalms among today’s lectionary readings is Psalm 8, which includes some of the most wondrous words in the Bible: 3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; 4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? 5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.

Watch Night services ring in the New Year

Watch Night recalls the hopeful waiting for Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation to take effect in 1862, and today’s continued quest for racial justice.

Looking for the new in a new year

Happy New Year, everybody! Or, as we sing along with José Feliciano in “Feliz Navidad,” his 50-year holiday hit: “Próspero año y Felicidad” (A prosperous and happy new year).

Decluttering is a holy act

The new year is a good time to take an inventory of hurtful memories, beliefs and other emotional baggage and hand them to God for purging.

PC(USA) leaders: New Year’s resolutions for 2020

As a new year begins for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), synod and presbytery leaders share their resolutions for the church. Among those resolutions are challenging congregations to do something radically new without worrying about failure, lifting voices often ignored and widening the witness of being a Matthew 25 presence in the world.