Editor’s note: This is the latest in a series of stories about congregations engaged in significant outreach and evangelism ministries, reflecting the General Assembly’s commitment to “Grow Christ’s Church Deep and Wide.” — Jerry L. Van Marter

When two weekly newspapers in Germantown and Mt. Airy closed earlier this year, a Philadelphia church active in the community for 200 years provided financing that enabled a new publisher to bring similar newspapers to life.

In an era of failing newspapers, the resurrection of two papers in Northwest Philadelphia was an unusual event.  For a church to make it happen was even …

Advocacy works best when it’s organized, and participants in the Oct. 23 workshop “Advocacy That Gets Heard,” learned what steps to follow when organizing for a cause.

The workshop was part of the World Mission Celebration, which took place here Oct. 22-24.

The first step in effective advocacy is to identify an issue, said Alexa Smith, associate for Joining Hands Against Hunger, part of the Presbyterian Hunger Program. She asked participants to name a cause about which they were passionate. Congo, Colombia and women’s and children’s issues were some thrown out. The problem with those causes is that …

The Presbyterian Writers Guild (PWG) is accepting nominations for its 2010-2011 David Steele Distinguished Writer Award.

The award is given biennially in even-numbered years to recognize the cumulative work and influence — regardless of genre or subject matter — of a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) writer. The award will be presented at the PWG luncheon at next summer’s 219th General Assembly.

Previous winners include the late Vic Jameson, the late Jack Purdy, Ann Weems, Kathleen Norris, Gustav Niebuhr, Bill Tammeus, Eva Stimson, Gayraud Wilmore and Marj Carpenter.

The award is named for R. David Steele, a Presbyterian pastor best known for …

The complex history and current strife of the Middle East continue to make it a difficult place for Christians, despite 2,000 uninterrupted years of Christian witness in the region, participants in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s World Mission Celebration ’09 were told here Oct. 23.

“We’re caught between Iraq and a hard place,” Jordan-based longtime PC(USA) mission worker Douglas Dicks told some 700 mission-minded Presbyterians during a plenary session on the church’s witness in the Middle East. “It’s a tough neighborhood to live and navigate.”

Jordan is probably the most stable country in the region, even though it has been home …

Editor’s note: This is the second of two stories about Stony Point Center’s Community of Living Traditions, an interfaith community dedicated to nonviolence. — Jerry L. Van Marter

For Christians who will be a part of a new intentional interfaith community at Stony Point Center, the sense of a collective vision was evident from the start.

Stony Point co-directors Rick and Kitty Ufford-Chase had been talking about such a community with friends and colleagues, and in February they invited those people to come to the conference center for a stakeholders meeting.
“It was everyone who’d ever talked about …

Few attendees of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s World Mission Celebration here would be considered young adults, but there were a few offerings for that age group at the conference.

Two former Young Adult Volunteers shared their experiences in an Oct. 23 workshop titled “Engaging Young Adults Through Mission.”

Samantha Sale served in Guatemala from 2007-2008. While there, she lived with a woman and her 10 daughters, forming relationships that remain strong.

Sales worked in education, providing resources about child abuse and, later, teaching music at a middle school. Although she had no instruments, she raised money to buy some for …

At the Oct. 23 morning plenary session, attendees of the World Mission Celebration here learned about theology and evangelism work being done by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and its partners in the Americas.

Presenters spoke of the importance of building relationships in mission work, especially when differences can sometimes seem more important than similarities.

“Divisions are not just personal,” said Dennis Smith, a mission co-worker in Guatemala. “They are built into the structures, the very fabric of our society.”

Smith spoke of extractive industries in Latin America, which harvest goods like nickel, bananas and coffee, often at the expense of …

Mary J. Duckert, an author, children’s worker and Christian educator who touched the lives of countless Presbyterians during a decades-long career, died Oct. 25 in Portland, Ore., after suffering a stroke a month earlier.

A Cottage Grove, Wisc., native and graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Duckert felt a call to Christian education ministry in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) while on a youth mission trip. She graduated from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and served churches in Hammond, Ind., Libertyville, Ill. and Cleveland Heights, Ohio, as Christian educator and children’s ministry leader.

At the national level, she served as secretary …

The upturn in global financial markets brought good news to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Board of Pensions (BOP) as it met here Oct. 22-24: the board’s balanced investment portfolio is up 21.2 percent through the end of September and the church’s Pension Plan remains fully funded.

The BOP portfolio plunged 28.6 percent last year in the middle of the sub-prime mortgage crisis and resulting global financial meltdown. As a result, the Pension Plan’s “funded ratio” (assets vs. liabilities) dipped to 98 percent after averaging 151 percent between 2005 and 2007. The current funding ration is 114 percent.

Despite the encouraging …

A prominent Sunni Muslim parent in Lahore, Pakistan, came to Veeda Javaid seeking to enroll his daughter in a Presbyterian school in the city. At home a short while later, the girl — now a student at the school — heard a shouting match going on between Sunnis and Shiites in her family’s living room.

“She marched into the room,” Javaid recalled in an Oct. 24 presentation at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s World Mission Celebration ’09 here, “and said, ‘My teacher has taught me that we are all children of God and should be living in peace.’ The shouting stopped.” …