World Community Day began in 1943 as a day for church women across denominations to study peace. After World War II, leaders of denominations felt that they should set aside a day for prayer and ecumenical study. The leaders thought that while many denominations were performing peace and justice work by themselves, having a day where they could study together would be beneficial to all. The theme of this year’s World Community Day is Reaching for Wholeness: In Harmony with God’s People.
Miriam is a teacher at a public elementary school in her indigenous community in Guatemala. When the government funds for the school hadn’t come halfway through the school year (but had for all of the non-indigenous public schools in the area), she led a march of teachers from their small town in the mountains to the municipal building in Xela, six miles away. Outside the government building, indigenous teachers and parents held a rally and delivered a letter demanding the money allocated for their children’s education.
When soldiers are seeking to reclaim lost territory, they have little regard for the peace agreements signed by their national leaders. That’s why the grassroots work of the Rev. Peter Tibi and PC(USA) partner RECONCILE is a critical component of South Sudan’s fragile peace process.
General secretaries and other high-ranking national church leaders from nine Asian countries gathered here September 4-7 to pave the way for a coherent and well-coordinated Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace (PJP) Asia Focus-2019.
This Labor Day marks the 10-year anniversary of “A Social Creed for the 21st Century,” an ecumenical message of hope adopted by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA. The creed’s foundation lies in the Christian bases of faith, hope and love and offers a vision of society that “shares more and consumes less, seeks compassion over suspicion and equality over domination, and finds security in joined hands rather than massed arms.”
A veteran of more than 3,000 concerts and 12 full-length CDs of mostly original music, songwriter, guitarist, speaker, and writer David LaMotte will present a concert on Wednesday, September 5 at 7:30 p.m. at Springdale Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky.
While many voices vied for the attention of Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general consistently listened to people seeking peace from the vantage point of faith, according to a Presbyterian mission leader.
August 6 and 9, 1945, are the days that the United States Air Force dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, causing over 185,000 immediate and slower deaths in those Japanese cities. Ever since, most churches and many other religious and moral people have sought to prevent any further use of nuclear weapons. Remembering and mourning that initial devastation is part of the spiritual resistance of Christian obedience.
At the 223rd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) one of the Middle East resolutions that was approved in record time was a Commissioners Resolution (12-10) “On Gaza Violence,” expressing “profound grief and sorrow for the families of all Palestinians killed in the Great March of Return protests at the Gaza border.”
Two years after South Sudan gained independence in 2011, civil war erupted in 2013. The conflict has displaced more than 5 million people, leading to massive human suffering and widespread famine. As part of its response, the 223rd General Assembly (2018) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) passed a comprehensive overture that provides a robust platform for the denomination’s Office of Public Witness to advocate for an end to this war.
