Ecumenical leaders who are gathered in Louisville through Saturday are exploring how God continues to call the church to be a faithful witness, even during the current troubled times.
Recent controversies over migration at the United States’ southern border have been mirrored by similar fights in Europe, including England, where a surge of asylum seekers from the Syrian conflict brought the issue to a boil in 2015.
미국장로교 자료보관실Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS)은 최고 책임자를 잃을 것이다. 4년 동안 지도력 역원으로 봉사한 베스 헤셀Beth Hessel 목사는 지금과 유사한 사역인 역사 도서관이자 건축 아카이브인 필라델피아의 아떼나에움Athenaeum에서 일하기 위해 사임했다.
헤셀Hessel은 "하나님의 사람들인 미국장로교회와 더 큰 연구 커뮤니티에 봉사함이 영광이었습니다" 라고 말한다. “우리는 미국장로교 역사의 충만함을 수집, 보존 및 공유하는 포괄적이고 적절하며 빠른 반응의 아카이브라는 비전을 달성하기 위해 커다란 진전을 이루어 냈습니다."
The Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS) will be losing its executive director. The Reverend Dr. Beth Hessel, who has served in the leadership capacity for four years, has resigned to take a similar position with the Athenaeum of Philadelphia, a historic member library and architectural archives.
“It has been an honor to serve God’s people, the PC(USA), and the larger research community,” said Hessel. “We have made great strides toward achieving our vision of being an inclusive, relevant, and responsive archives that collects, preserves, and shares the fullness of American Presbyterian History.”
I wouldn’t mind if church membership dwindled to 12 people, if those 12 were on fire for serving Christ, kept their eyes on Christ — and were able to pay the pastor’s salary.
LOUISVILLE — Traci Canterbury has found a spiritual home and a willing and able partner in The Fellowship Place in Charlotte, N.C. The Fellowship Place is one of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s 1001 New Worshiping Communities and recently accepted the Matthew 25 invitation. For 15 years, Canterbury has managed the Southern Comfort Inn, an extended-stay residence for about 300 people, including 80 children. Residents are low-income or are on a fixed income. “They have been doing a lot of work here for the past few years, but this year they have stepped it up. They’re such a blessing to the residents here,” Canterbury said of The Fellowship Place, which has about 70 members. “They are the most generous church I have seen. They are so loving that you feel right at home.” The Fellowship Place is in fact so welcoming, she said, that she started worshiping there in April. “There’s a reason we have that name,” said Patricia Franks, clerk of session at The Fellowship Place. The ministry’s logo features a lower-case “t” and “p” but a capital “f.” “That’s intentional,” she said. “It’s the fellowship and the hospitality. That’s what people always say about us.” The Fellowship Place was a ministry placed in Charlotte’s West Corridor. But it had to move when the building it was renting was no longer available, Franks said. Now The Fellowship Place nests in another church in what Franks called “a more affluent section” of the community, but “we come back to the west side again and again for mission work.” The partnership began four years ago when members of The Fellowship Place delivered Thanksgiving meals to Southern Comfort Inn residents. That’s grown to include drives to collect food and personal care items and help navigating the school system as well as guidance with resume preparation and help styling the hair of Southern Comfort Inn’s younger residents. That final outreach is one of the most popular services offered. “It’s things we don’t even think about,” Franks said, adding that church members partner with stylists to offer residents haircare services. “A hairdo is way down on people’s list.” Soon church members plan on putting on a Bible study at the Southern Comfort Inn. “We are big on not imposing what we think people need,” Franks said. “We’ve learned we have to ask people what their needs are.” Services that came out of that ask-first approach include resume writing and help navigating the local school system for people experiencing homelessness. The Fellowship Place is also scouting out a van to purchase to transport residents who want to worship over to the church. The Bible study will be on “a subject of interest” to residents, Franks predicted. “Where they take you, you have to go,” she said. “I imagine they will say, ‘You know, Lord, I worked hard. I had a little bad luck and look where it has landed me. Why me, God?” Outreach efforts made to residents of the Southern Comfort Inn come about “because we are built that way,” says The Fellowship Place pastor the Rev. Dr. Michael Robinson. “It’s mandated by Jesus Christ, and doing mission beyond the walls of the church excites people,” he said. “It brings together the church and the community, and it introduces people to something they couldn’t do without Jesus Christ.” “We go out of our way to welcome strangers,” he added. “People come here and tell us they can’t believe the hospitality, from the parking lot to the pew. We sow the love of Christ no matter who you are or what you’ve done. We have found the sweet spot (at the Southern Comfort Inn) because we are all the Lord’s children. We embrace that.”
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) has deployed national response teams in Ohio and Missouri and is processing several initial support requests following a severe weather outbreak across the Midwest.
They’ve traveled from across the country. Ministers and ecumenical partners are in Louisville this week to pay tribute to the Reverend Robina Winbush. The Associate Stated Clerk and Director of Ecumenical and Agency Relations in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Office of the General Assembly, died suddenly in March after returning from a visit to the Middle East.
The group is joining PC(USA) staff for worship and conversation around the future of ecumenical work. Participants include representatives from the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, The Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, The Moravian Church, Reformed Church in America, United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church, as well as the National Council of Churches in the U.S.A., Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Progressive National Baptist Convention, Reformed Church in America, World Alliance of Reformed Churches, World Council of Churches, among others.
San Gabriel Presbyterian Church in Georgetown, Texas, has long supported the work of mission co-workers Jeff and Christi Boyd in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But when the Boyds visited their church and they heard about Congolese children like Serge, they knew they could do more, even with limited resources.
For the Co-Moderators of the 223rd General Assembly (2018) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), it has been an eventful year. The Reverend Cindy Kohlmann and Ruling Elder Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri have traveled across the U.S. and overseas on behalf of the church, meeting with pastors, congregations, and mid council leaders.