The Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has issued a policy paper on Israel-Palestine titled Israel-Palestine: For Human Values in the Absence of a Just Peace. The February 25, 2016, report calls for the church to focus its energy on strategies for coexistence and opposing human rights violations—perpetrated by both Israelis and Palestinians—rather than waiting for a two-state solution.

A new generation of ecumenical Christians has engaged preeminent issues of contemporary global Christianity in a new publication from Globethics. The new volume, edited by David Field and Jutta Koslowski, probes themes and questions explored at the World Council of Churches (WCC) 10th Assembly, held in Busan, Republic of Korea, in 2013.

Toya Richards, 커뮤니케이션 담당자 및 정서기 보조

제 222차 미국 장로교 총회 (2016)를 위한 해당 위원회 리더들이 선출됨으로 인해, 교회를 위한 우선 사항들을 설정하는 격년제 총회에 한 걸음 더 나아가게 되었다.

13개의 위원회들은 6월 18-25일 사이에 오레곤 포틀랜드에서 열리는 총회 앞에 상정되는 안건들을 받고 일을 진행하게 될 것이다. 현 총회장인 Heath Rada에 의해 선출되는 의장과 부의장이 각 위원회를 인도해 나갈 것이다.

Rada는 다음과 같이 말한다: “나는 위원회를 인도해 나갈 대표들의 다양성과, 그들의 회의 진행 능력으로 인해 감사한 마음을 갖고 있습니다. 나는 자신들이 가지고 있는 개인적 의견들이 하나님의 심의 작업에 방해를 끼치지 않을 사람들을 찾기 위해 부지런히 움직였습니다.”

선출된 의장들 중 …

Acercándose la denominación a la reunión bienal que establece las prioridades de la iglesia, se han seleccionado a líderes de los comités para la 222a Asamblea General (2016) de la Iglesia Presbiteriana (EE.UU.).  

Los asuntos entregados ante la Asamblea General, en  Portland, Oregón desde el 18 al 25 de Junio, serán recibidos y presentados por trece comités. Cada comité estará dirigido por un moderador(a) y vice moderador(a) seleccionados por  Heath Rada, moderador de la 221a Asamblea General (2014).

Presbyterian and other Christian leaders, in a show of ecumenical support for the care and reverence of creation, released a letter today thanking President Obama and other government leaders for permanently protecting public lands. The action establishes three new national monuments, Mojave Trails, Sand to Snow and Castle Mountains, in the California desert. 

Doug Sensabaugh wears a lot of hats in his work with the Shenandoah Presbytery, serving as communications director, mission coordinator and hunger action advocate (HAA). Each week, he devotes time to all three jobs and the immediate needs usually become his top priorities.

Not only is the Rev. Debra Carl Freeman’s extended family “well-steeped in Presbyterianism”—with a father, husband, two brothers, and a brother-in-law, who are all PC(USA) teaching elders, along with additional ministers on her husband Jim’s side of the family—but so is the congregation she currently serves. 

In early September, a television station in Madagascar screened a horrifying video. The clip purported to show a young Malagasy woman being tortured to death by members of the Kuwaiti household where she was a domestic worker. Although the Malagasy government later determined that the video was not from Kuwait and the victim was not Malagasy, the broadcast incited popular outrage and placed the issue of human trafficking back on Madagascar’s national agenda.

Few people are more painfully aware of the tragic consequences of trafficking than pastor Helivao Poget, the director of ministry to marginalized people (SAFFIFAA) at the Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar (FJKM), one of Presbyterian World Mission’s global partners.

In October 2010, a body bag arrived in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar. The black vinyl bag, which had been shipped from Lebanon, contained the body of a young woman.

Willow Grove Presbyterian Church in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, has a long history of opening its arms to people coming to this country for a new start. In the 1970s, the church welcomed a Vietnamese family escaping the trappings of war in their homeland. Relationships with this family, according to pastor Cynthia Cochran-Carney, are still strong today.

Tony De La Rosa, interim executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), has published the first edition of his e-newsletter called “Keeping Faith.” Accompanied by a newly launched video digest of inspiring stories from around the PC(USA) and planned for monthly release, “Keeping Faith” carries on the tradition of regular informational updates from PMA leadership.