In the summer of 2022, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) directed the Presbyterian Mission Agency to offer the denomination’s official apology and monetary reparations for the racist manner in which Memorial Presbyterian Church in Juneau, Alaska, was closed in 1963.
As their two years of service as Co-Moderators of the 225th General Assembly come to a close, the Rev. Shavon Starling-Louis and the Rev. Ruth Faith Santana-Grace shared their thoughts in this 14-minute video on the highlights of their years in office uniting under the theme of “Unbounded We Thrive.”
Columbia Theological Seminary has appointed the Rev. Shavon Starling-Louis — fresh off the culmination, as of June 30, of her term as Co-Moderator of the 225th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) — as campus minister, effective August 1.
Congregations, presbyteries and synods have a new opportunity to help the planet by participating in an effort to reduce the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s carbon footprint.
In 2022, the 225th General Assembly approved an overture to meaningfully address the wounds inflicted on Alaska Natives, who were directly impacted by the sin of the unwarranted 1963 closure of Memorial Presbyterian Church, a thriving, multiethnic, intercultural church in Juneau, Alaska.
Last year, commissioners to the 225th General Assembly approved a recommendation by the Family Leave Policy Task Force — later ratified by the presbyteries — to provide ministers a minimum of 12 weeks of paid family medical leave. The Advocacy Committee for Women and Gender Justice has published the resource below to help congregations — especially smaller congregations — with ideas for seeking out worship leadership during each of those 12 weeks.
The Rev. Denise Anderson, director of Compassion, Peace & Justice in the Presbyterian Mission Agency, had an hour-long conversation with an old friend last week and invited the rest of us to listen in.
Meeting for second time on Saturday, members of the Commission to Unify the Office of the General Assembly and the Presbyterian Mission Agency — known informally as the Unification Commission — determined the online platform they will use to share their work with each other and with the Church at large.
Following Tuesday’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the continued expulsion of asylum seekers from the United States until justices oral arguments on Title 42 in February, the Rev. Carolyn Winfrey Gillette has written a new hymn, “Mary, Joseph! Take Young Jesus!” and based it on Matthew 2:13-18, part of the lectionary reading for Jan. 1, 2023.