On the campus of the Martin Luther King Jr. Evangelical University, students study among lush gardens and stroll along open, breezy hallways.

But the university’s setting isn’t its only draw — the campus is also home to the Interchurch Center for Theological & Social Studies (Centro Intereclesial de Estudios Teológicos y Sociales, or CIEETS).

Created in 1985, CIEETS has two main arms: theological education and community development projects related to agriculture and the environment.

CIEETS comprises 22 denominations and unites 400,000 people in Nicaragua, including Moravian, Pentecostal, Mennonite and Church of Christ members. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) partners with the …

Twenty water systems in Haiti installed by Living Waters for the World (LWW) — a ministry of the Synod of Living Waters of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) — will be converted to solar power.

At least 10 of the 20 clean water systems installed in Haiti over the last five years were destroyed in the Jan. 12 earthquake,LWW Director Wil Howie told the Presbyterian News Service in a Jan. 25 interview during the synod meeting in Nashville. More than $1,500 was collected for LWW at the synod’s worship service.

“The co-moderators of LWW’s Haiti Network arrived in Haiti today to …

The General Assembly Special Committee on Civil Union and Christian Marriage has approved its final report — ending its journey with civility and mutual respect, but also with the clear possibility of a minority report.

The committee did not recommend any change in the definition of Christian marriage currently in the constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).  That definition — that Christian marriage is between a man and a woman — was off-limits to the committee, according to its mandate from the 2008 General Assembly.

Nevertheless, three evangelical members of the committee voted against the committee’s recommendations, expressing concern they …

The committee picked Diane Millner of Stockholm Pottery of Stockholm, Wisc., a potter who has created hand-thrown functional stoneware for more than 25 years, as the communion ware artist.

She will produce 450 chalices and 225 patens (plates) which will be available for purchase as collector’s items after being used to serve communion to the estimated 8,000 attendees at opening worship.

According to the Rev. Paula Sanders, executive coordinator for the Committee on Local Arrangements, the committee chose Millner and her pottery based on her style which aptly illustrates the General Assembly theme, “Rivers of Living Water.”

The road to El Ingenio is not smooth.

To get to the small community, near the city of Jinotepe in southwestern Nicaragua, visitors have to navigate bumpy, unpaved roads that are almost overcome with trenches and holes. Driving on the roads is not easy, and traveling by foot can mean an arduous and time-consuming journey.

But for the people of El Ingenio, such a trek was a daily necessity. Until about three months ago, residents had to walk two kilometers to get water from a river every day.

But now, thanks to the Evangelical Council for Aid to Development (el …

Ten years ago, 22-year-old Tamara Pridgen would have never imagined she would be back in her old middle school as a long-term substitute teacher and behavioral interventionist, working with students in the same classrooms where she herself once sat.

Pridgen — who lives in Wilmington, Del., with her grandmother, Edythe — spends each day assisting the school’s librarian, teaching sixth graders, working with students to prepare them for state proficiency exams and mentoring students with behavioral problems in the in-school suspension room. 

When Pridgen talks about where she is now, what she is doing, and how she got there, she …

The Rev. Thomas Dillard, Jeffersontown, Ky., Police Department chaplain and pastor of Hopewell Presbyterian Church, today delivered a $4,000 check from the Jeffersontown City Council to Louisville-based Presbyterian Disaster Assistance to assist with relief and recovery efforts in Haiti.

“We are very grateful to have the support of Jeffersontown,” said Randy Ackley, coordinator for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. “These funds will go a long way toward helping the people of Haiti recover from this devastating earthquake.”

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, in operation since 1946, works with ecumenical and international partners to provide humanitarian relief such as food, water, shelter, emotional support and …

The prophet Isaiah promised, “you shall go out in joy and be led back in peace” (Isaiah 55:12). At the 2010 Peacemaking Seminar, “Re-Membering Peace: Still the Believers’ Calling,” generations of Presbyterian peacemakers from across the United States will gather for a joyful homecoming among the mesas of northern New Mexico, celebrating 30 years of Presbyterian peacemaking. The event will take place Aug. 25-28, at Ghost Ranch, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) conference center in Abiquiu, N.M. This event especially seeks to call forth a new generation of Presbyterians committed to building those things that make for peace.

“This seminar will …

Research Services now provides its popular Presbytery Ten-Year Trends report online, in addition to the existing printed format.

The report, which provides the compiled data from the Session Annual Statistical Report for each congregation in the presbytery over the past 10 years, is highly valued by presbytery executives, as well as synod and congregational leaders.

“I've used Presbytery Ten-Year Trends in work with eight presbyteries and a synod,” said Tim Rogers-Martin, executive associate pastor at North Avenue Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. “These trends give a bird’s eye view of a presbytery’s health and direction — and they let you delve …

Hôspital Sainte Croix (Holy Cross Hospital) and an affiliated nursing school in Léogâne, Haiti, have been approved to receive a $200,000 grant from Louisville-based Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA).

The grant request was sent to PDA by email on Friday, Jan. 22, and the much-needed funds were approved within two hours. The hospital and nursing school are ministries of the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti and have been a major focus of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission in Haiti. Léogâne is near the epicenter of the Jan. 12 earthquake and both facilities sustained serious damage.

“We’ve been told by our Episcopal partners in …