Elona Street-Stewart, executive of the Synod of Lakes & Prairies, delivered the keynote address during the Native American Presbyterian Women’s Conference in Minneapolis, Minn., June 18. Her message to attendees focused on the concept of kindom, and the importance of understanding and embracing richness of the Native American sisterhood in the kindom of God.

For the past 15 years, Rodger Nishioka has worked at developing hearts and minds for discipleship in the church. As the Benton Family Associate Professor of Christian Education at Columbia Theological Seminary he’s particularly interested in faith formation for youth and young adults—this generation’s leaders.

“Almost every week someone comes into the mending room and asks, ‘Can you mend a broken heart?’ ‘A broken life?’” Barbara Lappen said. “Sadly, the answer is, ‘No, we can’t, but you’re in the right place.’”

Although they can’t mend broken lives, Barb and more than a dozen other, mostly retired, women help begin the process of restoring wholeness by mending articles of clothing and other items for the homeless or hungry people served by Broad Street Ministry (BSM) at its Breaking Bread hospitality initiative in Center City Philadelphia. (BSM is an ecumenical Christian church with strong Presbyterian roots.) The …

The Rev. Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, co-pastor of Limestone Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, Del., released the hymn, “They Met to Read the Bible,” Saturday following the murder of nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C.

A workshop at the Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian Women in Minneapolis, Minn., focused on sharing strategies for successfully working to address sexual violence against women and girls.

Sixty-five year old Herb Codington wishes the 1001 New Worshiping Communities movement had come around 30 years ago. “It’s really energized me,” says Codington, who is leading three new worshiping community efforts in rural South Carolina. “It’s helped me look at ministry differently, by identifying and focusing on the underserved who live in our midst.” 

Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and Westminster John Knox Press have begun work on an ambitious new commentary series that will follow the Revised Common Lectionary, titled Connections.

Connections will be led by a stellar group of general editors: biblical scholar Joel Green of Fuller Theological Seminary, homileticians Thomas Long of Candler School of Theology and Luke Powery of Duke Divinity School, and theologian Cynthia Rigby of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. The series will begin publishing in 2019.

The new Book of Order (2015–2017) is now available for ordering. It incorporates seven constitutional amendments approved by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s 221st General Assembly (2014) and a majority of the presbyteries.

The most closely watched amendment, approved by a 116–48 vote of the presbyteries, changes wording in a section in the Directory for Worship related to Christian marriage (W-4.9000). It replaces the former description of marriage as “between a man and a woman” with the following statement: “Marriage involves a unique commitment between two people, traditionally a man and a woman, to love and support each other for the rest of their lives” (Book of Order, W-4.9001).

The Office of the General Assembly (OGA) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) joined denomination and community partners recently to spotlight the inhumanity of detention centers in South Texas housing Central American mothers and their children. Persons of faith and conscience are organizing to provide outreach to these families and to end this disturbing practice by the United States government. The film “Families Held Captive,” produced by OGA, examines these prison-like facilities and the lives most affected. Watch, share, and learn more about how you can #EndFamilyDetention.

A new slate of moderators and representatives were elected on the second day of the business meeting at the Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian Women in Minneapolis. On Wednesday evening, June 17, the 2015 business meeting began with a prayer: “May the God of freedom, hope, compassion and strength fill us, and may we stand on a foundation of hope, made possible by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.”