News from theological seminaries related to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

A Russian pastor whose grandfather was killed for being a Christian toured the U.S. recently, studying church ministries and providing a rare, first-person look at Russia's complex religious landscape after widespread persecution ended.

In the wake of the bombing of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines chapel in Pikit town on Wednesday night, the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) issued the following letter of support. Two worshipers were killed and three others were injured in the blast.

Korea’s medical modernization began with brave and self-sacrificing American medical missionaries of the PC(USA), including Drs. Horace Allen, John Heron, Oliver Avison (originally from Canada), Cadwallader Vinton and Lillias Horton Underwood, beginning in 1884. Their work was financed by Louis Henry Severance, a wealthy Presbyterian in Cleveland.

Church World Service is calling for increased assistance to 1.7 million people in Pakistan who are coping with losing homes, livelihoods, access to food and clean water following devastating floods, before a lack of assistance creates more complex challenges.

The Board of Directors of the Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico (ESPR) has elected the Rev. Doris J. García Riveraas the school’s president. She assumed office August 1 and was installed on Sept. 28 ― first woman to hold the position.

On this sunny Monday afternoon (Sept. 22), the Rev. Lala Haja Rasendrahasina, denominational head of The Church of Jesus Christ of Madagascar (FJKM) and one of a dozen members of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program’s 2014 cohort of International Peacemakers, finds himself sitting in a small office inside the headquarters of the Presbytery of New York City, located near the Hudson River.

United Methodists in Pennsylvania have agreed to resolve a complaint filed against three dozen clergy who blessed a gay wedding without taking the case to trial.

An interview with Nicole Asherwood,  International Peacemaker from Jamaica.

It was a scene that will not soon be forgotten: Presbyterian leaders kneeling in prayer alongside Christian partners in the Middle East. They spoke slowly, painfully, to God of a mounting crisis that has enveloped the people of Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. Heads bowed together, they called out for healing and hope.

Led by Heath Rada, the newly-elected moderator of the  General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the visit is a direct response to the 221st General Assembly (2014) and its call on the church to direct its attention to the “maltreatment, sectarian violence, and the persecution in Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Palestine, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, and other parts of the world.”