A group of Presbyterian Church officials recently returned from a trip to Malawi where they saw flood and drought ravaged communities and met people impacted by the crisis. Debbie Braaksma, area coordinator for Africa in World Mission, spoke with Presbyterian News Service about her visit and how people are being affected by the conditions.

Presbyterian identity, environmental issues, and the election of at least two top denominational leaders will be among the matters of business topping the agenda of the 222nd General Assembly (2016) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Participants of the 2015 Polity Conference got a preview of next year’s assembly in plenary sessions today at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, site of next year’s assembly that will be held June 18–25.

“We have some big issues coming to this assembly,” said Gradye Parsons, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly. He encouraged presbytery leaders to train their commissioners well before sending them to Portland. “Help those folks be prepped so they can bring their best.”

As more than 100 guests danced and sang their way into Evergreen Dining Hall to the hymn tune Siyahamba from Stony Point Center’s campus fair—featuring displays on the center’s projects and partners as well as a generous array of appetizers—for the center’s Farm-to-Table Gala, they were greeted by the glorious color palette and abundant foods of the fall harvest. 

As the United Nations prepares to celebrate its 70th anniversary, a long-serving Presbyterian minister reflects on his nearly 30 years of service in New York. The Rev. Robert F. Smylie served the church at the UN from 1975 until his retirement in 2002. 

Four new resources for Presbyterians are now available from Westminster John Knox Press. While some of these books explore the habits of living a thoughtful Christian life, others offer helpful guides for sermon and service preparation for pastors and church educators.

Preaching at the opening worship service of the 2015 Polity Conference, the Reverend Gradye Parsons, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, told several hundred church leaders to ignore the loud voices of fear and judgment and to listen instead for the quiet voices of hope.

Parson used as one of his texts 1 King 19:9–13, in which the prophet Elijah flees for his life and hides in a cave, waiting for a word from the Lord. Elijah does not find God in the wind and the fire and the earthquake, but in a quieter presence that the Scripture calls “a sound of sheer silence.”

The outbreak of Ebola in Liberia has been contained, but the economic and humanitarian recovery may take a while longer. Last year, Liberia and Sierra Leone were in the midst of a lock down as the disease claimed thousands of lives and drove their respective economies into the ground. No new cases have been reported in Liberia while Sierra Leone continues to report a few outbreaks.

Paula Sandusky spent some of the best years of her life crawling under desks and climbing into the phone closets of Wall Street traders. Until Stony Point Center—one of three national conference centers of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)—took her away from all that.

Tensions, hurt, and unrest permeate our world and even the church, but nothing can separate us from the love of God through Jesus, Heath Rada, Moderator of the 221st General Assembly (2014) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), told worshippers gathered at First Presbyterian Church of Portland.

Tragedy is all around and “we’re also a fragile denomination,” he preached. But the table still unites us, said Rada, who hosted the Moderators’ Conference here October 9–11.

“God has a plan that we don’t fully understand,” he said. “But God does.”

“This feels like a pivotal time,” the Reverend Laurie Ferguson told a roomful of presbytery and synod leaders gathered in Portland, Oregon, for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Polity Conference and five other fall meetings.

Ferguson was referring to a recurring theme in all the meetings: how to respond to the changing landscape of the church. The plenary session she led—for the Association of Mid Council Leaders—was one event in a day chock full of opportunities for inspiration, education, and training.

“From where I sit, you have the most difficult job in the church,” Ferguson told the mid council leaders. “You …