We marked each Sunday in our Advent season with God’s promises for hope, peace, joy, and love. We lit candles at church or in our homes as tangible signs of these promises fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Five congregations in the Presbytery of Milwaukee joined together on an initiative inspired by the Matthew 25 invitation to feed the hungry. It led to unexpected, broad collaboration.
Grace United Church of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, a merged congregation of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the United Church of Christ, recently completed a fundraising project to nearly triple a gift of $2,000, to be used with the Matthew 25 invitation’s foci in mind: alleviating hunger and poverty, confronting racism, advocating for criminal justice reform and addressing other social justice needs.
“We were blessed with a $100,000 gift from a donor who wished to remain anonymous,” said Rachel Yates, executive presbyter of the Presbytery of Milwaukee. “The donor wanted every congregation — no matter its size — to have $2,000 for mission.”
The Presbytery of Milwaukee calls its ambitious work around the Matthew 25 invitation “Healing Through Action.” Last fall, congregations and members of the presbytery took on medical care (“I was sick and you looked after me”) and housing (“I was a stranger and you invited me in”).
When the Rev. Dr. Craig Howard describes the journey that led him to become the Foundation’s newest Ministry Relations Officer, he says that it all began with his work as an insurance agent.
Add the Presbytery of Milwaukee to the list of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mid councils and churches to help heal people by wiping away their medical debt.
After shutting down its building earlier this year due to the pandemic, Tippecanoe Presbyterian Church in Milwaukee was faced with a dilemma — how to keep providing food intervention and support for the hungry.
Heritage Presbyterian Church in Muskego, Wis. has a resurrection story to tell.At the beginning it might sound familiar to many Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations. The membership was graying and in decline. Of the 100 members on the rolls, between 30-40 came to worship.In 2015, the Rev. Michelle Henrichs joined them, providing pulpit supply for five months. Ordained, and trained as a new worshiping community leader, she began asking members of the congregation, “When were you were most energetic and excited about church?”Their most common answer: “When we were raising our children.”
Bolz-Weber, the unconventional Lutheran minister who’s been known keep her audience tuned in with humor and an expletive now and then, spoke to more than 300 people at the Sept. 27 meeting of the Presbytery of Milwaukee in the auditorium of the city’s Art Museum.
