Highlighting worship efforts during the pandemic ranging from high-tech and labor-intensive to one church’s “Call ‘Em All” telephonic approach, Thursday’s webinar on Hybrid Ministry: The Scattered Church was a balm for clergy and worship leaders who’ve struggled mightily with pandemic-induced issues including pastoral care, trauma and self-care.
There is a fountain in Louisville’s Waterfront Park beside the Ohio River. It is an oasis for office workers and a treat for tourists in the heat of summer. Children splash with delight in the jets of water that spring up from the ground. And for members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Sacrament Study Group (2003–2006) it is a sacred place.
On April 2, Good Friday, musicians and pastors will offer a gift to the church: an experience of the practice that has sustained them through the COVID-19 pandemic.
The bold vision and invitation of Matthew 25:31-46 to be the hands and feet of Jesus, serving people who are hungry, oppressed, imprisoned or poor, is awakening compassionate faith to new possibilities in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is providing for congregational use an online Ash Wednesday service that features liturgy and music in English, Spanish and Korean. The 40-minute pre-recorded service was filmed at the chapel in the Center’s Louisville, Kentucky, office and is available on the Center’s Vimeo page here.
Dr. John Weaver, a celebrated Presbyterian organist and composer, died Monday at the age of 83. His daughter, the Rev. Kirianne E. Weaver, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Ithaca, New York, described his passing in a Facebook post on Tuesday morning:
“Last night, in the small hours, Dad took his last breaths. It was the winding down of a clock, and we knew this moment was coming when the hands would stop moving; it was all peaceful and then came the dawn.”
Public health officials urge people to wear masks. Workplaces and businesses adjust hours to prevent crowding. Several cities impose quarantines or ban public gatherings. This sounds like something people see and hear as they go online or watch the news every night, but this was December 1918 when the world struggled with the impact of a global flu pandemic.
Plans are under way to begin the ninth round of Roman Catholic-Reformed dialogue in the United States. The group of 14, which includes two elected people from each of the four Reformed denominations — the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Christian Reformed Church in North America, the Reformed Church in America, and the United Church of Christ, along with six Roman Catholic representatives, will review the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ), approved by the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church.
Around the time of national elections, the Rev. Dr. David Gambrell gets requests for resources of prayer and services of reconciliation. And Gambrell, the associate for Worship in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Office of Theology & Worship, said it’s especially true this year during a presidential election as divisive as any in recent memory.
