From engaging with members of Congress to developing a voter education campaign, the last few weeks have been busy and inspiring for summer fellows of the Presbyterian Office of Public Witness (OPW) and the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations (PMUN).

Dr. Corey Schlosser-Hall used his final convocation talk at Synod School on Friday in part to look at how emerging technologies are changing the ways ministry is getting done.

“Kairos is an ancient Greek word, describing a time of great change when the old ways of the world are dying and new ones are struggling to be born,” said Pauline Pisano, organizer for the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice.

Service to the church plays a key role in any General Assembly. Commissioners and advisory delegates discern God’s will to shape the church’s mission and ministry. Resource persons and overture advocates share information to aid that process. Staff from the Office of the General Assembly, the Presbyterian Mission Agency and the Administrative Services Group as well as volunteers support the assembly’s work.

Thursday’s Synod School preacher, the Rev. Katie Styrt, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Milan, Illinois, calls John’s account of the wedding at Cana “the kind of miracle that doesn’t line up with good stewardship policies. I don’t know of any church recently that has given away 180 gallons of wine. That’s about 908 bottles. That’s not in anybody’s budget.”

Picking up on his Wednesday theme of faith communities and mid councils “seeing beyond the standalone model of being church,” on Thursday Dr. Corey Schlosser-Hall told the 540 or so people attending Synod School he’s talked to several attendees about how they’re “creatively using God’s resources to be a blessing beyond themselves.”

Even though she’s 101 years old, Mary Conklin of Winnebago, Minnesota has not attended every edition of Synod School, which debuted in 1954. But she has been a part of most of the last 50 or so versions of the beloved gathering, put on each year by the Synod of Lakes & Prairies and attended by about 540 people this year, ranging in age from 5 months to 101 years.

Synod School’s excellent house band pumped out Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family.” The Scripture selection was Mark 3:31-35, an account of Jesus setting the crowd straight on who his family really is. Even Erin Kaye’s a time for children got Synod School’s youngest attendees to think about what their family means to them.

Dr. Corey Schlosser-Hall, the convocation speaker during Synod School this week, used a pair of videos to help demonstrate some of what God is up to in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Watch the videos Schlosser-Hall showed to the 540 or so people attending Synod School here and here.

Amidst the background of a “Ceasefire Now” sign and attendees holding signs with the same message, Christian groups gathered in front of the United Methodist building in Washington D.C., Wednesday morning just hours before Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was scheduled to address Congress. The Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP), of which the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is a denomination member, sponsored and organized the prayer vigil, which featured several notable Christian and Muslim leaders, including the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, director of advocacy for the PC(USA)’s Office of Public Witness.