Thursday was mostly a teach-in day for the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board as members took in Matthew 25 presentations on militarism from mission co-workers in Colombia and Guatemala and climate change from Jessica Maudlin, Associate for Sustainable Living and Earth Care concerns in the Presbyterian Hunger Program.

The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II has informed the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly that he will not seek a third term as Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Nelson made the announcement during the final day of COGA’s spring meeting in Louisville on Thursday.

Radical welcome, defined as “the spiritual practice of embracing and being changed by the gifts, presence, voices and power of The Other: the people systemically cast out or marginalized within a church, denomination and/or society,” was the focus Wednesday of a webinar put on by the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Office of Gender, Racial & Intercultural Justice. Watch the hour-long webinar hosted by Samantha Davis, Associate for Gender, Racial & Intercultural Justice, by going here.

Matthew’s gospel records Jesus’ promise to be where two or three are gathered in his name. On Wednesday, two national boards and a committee of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) were doing just that, conducting a joint worship service in the Chapel at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

You could start to describe the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission (GAPJC) by comparing it to courts of final appeal in the secular world, including the U.S. Supreme Court.

Just don’t stop there. In conversation with the news service, Flor Vélez-Díaz and Brian Ellison, who together have decades of GAPJC experience, preferred to highlight the contrasts between GAPJC and non-church judicial bodies.

A busy week lies ahead for the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly as it begins its spring meeting at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville. In addition to COGA, the boards of the Presbyterian Historical Society and Presbyterian Mission Agency are also meeting in person at the Center this week. This will be the first time since early 2020 that the agencies’ committees and boards have met together in person.

Interfaith Power & Light, a partner of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), held a webinar Tuesday exploring both the political and the faith-based aspects of the Farm Bill, which expires Sept. 30 and is reauthorized every five years.

How do we surrender and seek freedom? How is Jesus both a friend to us and our Lord? How do leaders of worshiping communities tend to their souls while tending to others? How do innovators find spiritual community with companions in ministry? These were just some of the creative questions explored in the opportunities for spiritual formation sponsored by 1001 New Worshiping Communities during Lent.

Fighting in Sudan has reached its worst levels in decades, according to a recent Reuters news report, and heavy gunfire on Tuesday has shattered a 24-hour truce.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) now has its first Earth Care Congregation in Puerto Rico.