Teaching young people how to appreciate and engage in religious diversity is critical to achieving peace and security in the world, says the winner of the prestigious 2010 Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion, presented jointly by Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary (LPTS) and the University of Louisville.
Eboo Patel, founder and executive director of Interfaith Youth Core, won the prize for his 2007 autobiography, Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation. He was selected from among 67 nominations worldwide.
Eboo Patel’s dream is to build a world where interfaith cooperation is …
As the Christmas shopping season heads into the homestretch, are you facing a Christmas shopper’s “cold sweat” moment? You know, that OMG feeling that, despite standing in line during Sneak Peek Week, surfing online during Cyber Monday, shopping bleary-eyed on Black Friday and going pale over Green Weekend you’re still facing a Blue Christmas for that certain “someone” on your gift list?
The Presbyterian News Service offers this suggestion to help make Ol’ St. Nick jolly: Give a Presbyterian this Christmas!
Allow us to suggest a pair of new books — one written by, the other featuring 89-year-old Presbyterian …
A grant for $452,918 has been awarded by the Katherine and Thomas M. Belk Foundation of Charlotte, N.C., for major renovations to the Left Bank building at Montreat Conference Center.
Upon completion mid-summer, 2010, the renovated space will be known as the Katherine and Thomas Belk Center at the Left Bank and will house two levels of state-of-the-art meeting space.
The children of Thomas and Katherine Belk initiated the gift in memory of their father and in honor of their mother, both of whom have had long ties with Montreat. Thomas Belk served as chair of the board of directors …
AUSTIN, Texas — Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary has added two new trustees to its governing board: James B. Crawley of Norman, OK, and the Hon. Lyndon L. Olson Jr. of Waco, Texas. Each board member is invited to serve a term of three years, and eligible to serve two additional consecutive terms.
Crawley, an elder at First Presbyterian Church of Norman, is the founder and chairman of Crawley Petroleum Corporation, Crawley Ventures, LLC and the Crawley Family Foundation. Reared in the east Texas oilfields, Crawley obtained his degree in mechanical engineering at Texas A&M University before going on to get …
The Rev. Rebecca Young’s students come from far-flung islands across the sprawling Indonesian archipelago. When they enter her class the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission worker invites them to turn their theological thinking toward home.
Young, a theology and missiology professor at Jakarta Theological Seminary, encourages them to see Jesus Christ form an Indonesian rather than a Western perspective.
“What they’ve learned about Jesus Christ has tended to be from a missionary viewpoint,” she says. “I’m hoping they’ll see Christ not from Western eyes, but as one of them.”
Jesus, she points out, was born in Asia. “Let him …
What do a book about sharks, a children’s biography of John Calvin, and a story about a dump truck have in common?
According to a new Web site launched in October by Union Theological Seminary-Presbyterian School of Christian Education (Union-PSCE), as part of the world of children’s literature, the stories provide links to the Biblical story and theological reflection.
The new website — Children’s Literature: A Resource for Ministry — offers a host of online resources for using children’s and adolescent literature in educational ministry. It provides book reviews, lesson plans and ideas for ministry created by faculty and …
The Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, Palestinian Territories, was established in 1860. It faithfully serves the town of Bethlehem with a variety of important ministries. In recent years, the congregation has been able to expand its mission with a larger building dedicated to education and community activities.
An ancient cave was discovered while the site for the new building was being excavated. The congregation decided to leave the cave intact to show what a cave stable might have looked like when Joseph and Mary arrived over 2000 years ago.
The first sense I had when I saw the site …
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
Divine Savior Presbyterian Church is small. But that doesn’t mean its pastor doesn’t have a big vision.
Linda Martinez was called to be the Commissioned Lay Pastor for Divine Savior in August 2006.
“For my first sermon, there were 17 people in the pews,” she said.
Martinez realized early on that, in a sense, she had three strikes against her — she was …
Belgium-based Pax Christi International is urging people of faith to send on-line Christmas greetings of solidarity and encouragement to the isolated Christian community in Bethlehem, the place of Jesus’ birth.
“For the tenth consecutive year, Christmas celebrations will take place in a difficult climate for people in the Holy Land,” says Pax Christi’s Fr. Paul Lansu. “As we prepare to celebrate Advent and Christmas in the security of our homes and communities, let us not forget to pray for justice, peace and security for Palestine and Israel.”
Christmas messages and prayers can be emailed to the Arab Educational Institute between …
They leave their homelands and come to Hungary fleeing war, famine, poverty and political and religious persecution. Refugees from more than 50 countries choose Hungary because it is easier to get a visa there than in other European countries.
But the situation they encounter upon arrival is not easy.
Learning the new language is difficult. Finding work is nearly impossible — they are the last hired and the first fired. And in the last decade their adopted country has gone from being the strongest Central European economy to the weakest.
This is the situation Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission co-workers Joe …