Fifty years ago, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood before a crowd at Montreat’s Anderson Auditorium and spoke on racial tension. He was late to the conference because of rioting in Watts, Los Angeles. While a half century has passed, the message remained the same this past weekend as nearly a thousand people gathered at the Montreat Conference Center to commemorate the speech during a three-day conference.
A group of cyclists will hit the road in September in an effort to fill the shelves of food pantries along the northern California coastline. The Presbytery of the Redwoods is launching its second Pedal for Protein ride Sept. 20-26, 2015. Eighteen riders will make their way down California’s Highway One in an effort to raise $30,000.
Malish James Morris was only seven when his village in South Sudan was raided. He stood powerless as soldiers lined up all the male members of his family and shot them one by one while his mother and sisters watched. When they turned the gun on him it misfired three times.
Fifty years to the day after the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at Montreat Conference Center, more than 900 people gathered in Anderson Auditorium to celebrate the historic visit and take up King’s unfinished agenda. An opening plenary and evening worship service energized the crowd with inspirational music and moving messages. Dr. Tony McNeill, director of worship and arts at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta led the music.
A compilation of news from Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) seminaries including Columbia Theological Seminary, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Princeton Theological Seminary and Union Presbyterian Seminary.
The Young Adult Volunteer Program (YAV), part of Presbyterian World Mission, is beginning its 21st year this fall. It continues to grow and includes new national and expanding international sites for the 2015-2016 academic year. All align with the critical global initiatives adopted by World Mission, including poverty alleviation and reconciliation in cultures of violence.
Saeed Bakr thinks about his family often. Especially now, in light of recent horrific and tragic stories being told by Yazidi women and young girls, who recently escaped from the self-declared Islamic State (ISIS) where they were being held as sex slaves. Bakr, who is Yazidi, worships at Middle Eastern Presbyterian Fellowship in Tucson, Ariz.
The Rev. Berthe Kalombo Nzeba, believed to be the first female Presbyterian clergy person in the Democratic Republic of Congo will be sharing insights from her native country with other Presbyterians as part of the International Peacemakers initiative this fall. She will tour the U.S. to speak about improving women’s self-sufficiency, surviving sexual violence and helping communities to support orphaned children.
The Elder Leadership Institute (ELI) was developed as a church leadership training program—holistic in nature—in the Reformed tradition. ELI develops and supports spiritual leadership for the church by training ruling elders, members of a church’s leadership team—the Session, together with their pastor, a teaching elder. It accomplishes its goal through a two-phase program of teaching plus a retreat, practicums, spiritual disciplines and leadership opportunities.
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) racial and ethnic leaders, nominated by their Presbytery or Synod, began a three-day executive leadership training institute Wednesday evening at the Montreat (N.C.) Conference Center, sponsored by Racial Ethnic & Women’s Ministries (RE&WM).