Teaching has always been in Valerie Neubauer’s genes. The retired high school Spanish and English teacher — who has also taught Sunday school for more than 50 years at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa — took a mere few years off from teaching at church only when her own children were high schoolers.
The Rev. Dr. John G. McFayden, whose first employment in the Church was at age 13 as an employee of a Presbyterian camp on the North Carolina-Virginia line, has retired as Executive Vice President and Chief of Church Engagement for The Board of Pensions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). His service spanned more than 40 years, 12 of them at the Board.
When it came time to minister to the families of recent asylees from Central America, it turns out a global pandemic was no match for the 60 or so members and friends of Beechmont Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky.
The Special Committee on Racism Truth and Reconciliation has issued its final report in advance of this summer’s 225th General Assembly, when commissioners and advisory delegates will consider its 11 recommendations.
당신은 우리 교단의 신앙고백서에 표현된 개혁 신앙의 기본 교리가 우리로 믿고 행하게 하는 성경의 확실하고 믿을 만한 해설서로 진지하게 받아들이고 채택하며, 아울러 당신이 하나님의 백성들을 인도할 때 이들 신앙 고백서에 의해 가르침을 받고 인도함을 따르겠습니까?
안수식 및 임직식에서 몇 가지 좋아하는 부분이 있습니다. 저는 다양한 사람들이 하나님의 부름으로 지도자가 되는 것은 좋다고 생각합니다. 저는 예배의 다양한 영역 - 뒷줄, 발코니, 합창단 -에서 지도자가 되는 사람들이 배출되는 것을 고무적으로 생각합니다. 신앙의 여정이 어디에서 시작되고, 어디서 왔는지 상관없이, 그들은 함께 언젠가 앞장서서 지도자가 되는 길을 가고 있습니다. 저는 그들을 그 순간으로 인도한 신앙에 대한 개인적인 이야기들을 알게 되면 매우 기쁩니다.
¿Recibe y adopta usted sinceramente los principios esenciales de la fe reformada, según se expresan en las confesiones de nuestra iglesia, como exposiciones auténticas y confiables de lo que las Escrituras nos dirigen a creer y a hacer, y será usted instruido o instruida y guiado(a) por esas confesiones al conducir al pueblo de Dios?
Tengo varias partes favoritas de la ceremonia de ordenación e instalación. Me encanta contemplar la variedad de personas que Dios llama al liderazgo. Me encanta verles aparecer desde diferentes áreas en la fila de adoración, balcón, coro, y no importa dónde comiencen sus viajes de fe o dónde los hayan llevado, se abren camino juntos al frente. Me encanta conocer algunas de las historias individuales de fe que les han llevado a ese momento.
Ellen Smith, World Mission’s regional liaison for Eastern Europe, has just returned from a visit with partners in Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland to see first-hand how they are coping with the enormous task of caring for refugees fleeing Ukraine and how the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) can accompany them.
Do you sincerely receive and adopt the essential tenets of the Reformed faith as expressed in the confessions of our church as authentic and reliable expositions of what Scripture leads us to believe and do, and will you be instructed and led by those confessions as you lead the people of God?
I have several favorite parts of the service of ordination and installation. I love seeing the variety of people God calls into leadership. I love to see them pop up from different areas in worship—back row, balcony, choir—and no matter where their faith journeys began or have taken them, they make their way together up front. I love knowing some of the individual stories of faith that have led them to that moment.
I never really liked Easter — the pastel holiday of springtime flowers, the tired imagery of an emptied tomb, the hollow cheers of “He is risen” — until I had friends buried away in prisons. It wasn’t until I spent time in a jail as a volunteer with people awaiting actual trials that Holy Week became troubling and electric for me.
You can find examples Rev. Jenny McDevitt’s creative spark on her Instagram site, found here. To hear about where that spark came from, listen to her Wednesday conversation with the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty of the Presbyterian Foundation and the host of Leading Theologically, which can be found here or here.