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World Mission
In all of Church World Service’s programs, there is an element that allows us to thrive: our partnerships. We recently took the time to appreciate one of these partnerships when our PC(USA) friends and colleagues Ellen Smith, Regional Liaison for Central and Eastern Europe, and Luciano Kovacs, Middle East and Europe Area Coordinator, visited CWS programs in Bihac in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Belgrade in Serbia.
The Eastern Europe Partnership Network (EEPN) has created a new resource — the Eastern Europe Partnership Network Toolkit — to help congregations, mission committees or individuals better engage in God’s mission in Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and other countries in eastern and central Europe.
More than 70 years have passed since an armistice agreement signed by the United States, China, and North Korea formally ceased hostilities between North and South Korea. The agreement provided a definitive end to the fighting, allowed for a drawback of military forces, and established a demilitarized zone to buffer the North and South as a strategy to help prevent incidents which could lead to the resumption of the Korean war. What the armistice did not do was officially end the war, as no peace treaty between the two nations has ever been signed.
The 53rd gathering of the National Council of Korean Presbyterian Churches that convened earlier this month felt more like a family reunion.
As in the first webinar that examined the effects of the settler-colonial experience on Palestinians, the PC(USA)’s Christian Zionism working group hosted a large audience of interested participants in its most recent in a series of webinars, titled “Nationalism and Christian Zionism.” More than 700 people registered for the Zoom-based event and more than 300 watched live. The Christian Zionism working group includes PC(USA) national staff, congregation members and grassroots Presbyterians connected to the Israel Palestine Mission Network (IPMN).
Members of the PC(USA) national staff were transported in both space and time Wednesday when they watched a recording of the Rev. Paula Cooper, World Mission’s regional liaison for East Central Africa, preach a Pentecost sermon to the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian Synod of Zambia’s Kabwata congregation in Lusaka South, Zambia.
The Presbyterian Mission Agency’s World Mission ministry is collaborating with ecumenical partners in Germany and Poland to offer multiple volunteer opportunities for young adults between the ages of 19-30.
When I asked the Mesoamerican leaders about how their experience in El Salvador influenced their understanding of migration, they all gave the same response. They expressed that they found similar conditions in communities in El Salvador that forced people to migrate north from their home countries.
During the launch of the Mesoamerican Mission and Migration Network in El Salvador last March, delegates from churches and other institutions engaged in lively discussions on migration. The voices of women working in ministries and organizations along the migratory route resounded in my ears.
Following up on their historical meeting in March, which brought together a large group of diverse church partners and groups, the Mesoamerica Mission Network (La Red de Misión y Migración en Mesoamérica), previously referred to as the Central America Mission Network, now turns its attention to the day-to-day work required for building an intercultural solidarity network around migration issues and justice.
