Christine Pohl has a great love for the Reformed tradition. It’s that love—coupled with her extensive academic and practical expertise—that she looks forward to sharing with participants at this summer’s Big Tent, the biennial national gathering of Presbyterians to be held July 30–August 1 on the campus of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Pope Francis will bestow sainthood on two Palestinian nuns on Sunday (May 17), a move that’s being seen as giving hope to the conflict-wracked Middle East and shining the spotlight on the plight of Christians in the region.

Project Homecoming, Inc. (PHI) recently announced the appointment of Kris Pottharst as Executive Director effective April 8, 2015. Pottharst succeeds the Rev. Jean Marie Peacock, founder of Project Homecoming, who returns to pastoral and community ministry in the New Orleans area.

The Drug Policy Reform Task Force, authorized by the 2014 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to educate the church and make recommendations to the 2016 General Assembly for reforming drug laws, met May 1-3, 2015, in El Paso, Texas, and the neighboring city of Juarez, Mexico.  

The Christian season of Lent has historically been a time of preparation: 40 days of fasting and study leading to a new convert’s reception into the church during the celebration of Easter. More recently, the season has been known as a time to “give something up,” such as meat, alcohol or sugar, as a sign of fasting. But others, like the Rev. Miriam Leupold of First Presbyterian Church in Albany, N.Y., see the season as a time to embrace new practices that enhance one’s faith through action.

In 1984, John Robinson was a community minister in North Carolina working with refugee resettlement. But something happened that year that changed the course of his ministry. A historic outbreak of tornadoes took Robinson down a path he couldn’t have expected.

Presbyterian World Mission’s office of Equipping for Mission Involvement is offering a series of free webinars to provide practical tools and resources for mission leaders. Each of the webinars lasts approximately one hour. The World Mission Today webinar series is designed to help in planning meaningful and mutually beneficial mission experiences at home and around the world.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Public Witness in Washington, D.C., has recently taken on the look and feel of an art gallery. The office has been hosting a series of paintings from noted Artist Lucy Janjigian. Eighteen of her works entitled “Homeless” have been on loan to the office.

Following her election last fall, Elona Street-Stewart was installed as the executive of the Synod of Lakes and Prairies on April 26. She becomes the first American Indian to serve in that capacity in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

In the 1970s, when the United Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) was faced with bringing mission personnel home from international service due to funding, the Synod of the Trinity said, “Don’t do that without first letting us know.”