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Friday, June 12, 2026
WCC NEWS: As European Christian Internet Conference opens, communicators draw strength from community
Thursday, June 11, 2026
Mission Yearbook: Honest patriotism and confronting white Christian nationalism are subjects of chapel service
The Rev. Dr. Aimee Moiso, who manages Social Witness Policy in Presbyterian Life & Witness, delivered powerful lessons from history during a recent online chapel service.
Citing General Assembly statements including Honest Patriotism for Christian Citizens as well as important work the denomination has been doing on confronting white Christian nationalism, Moiso first took those in worship through the adoption of the Pledge of Allegiance, including a pivotal 1954 worship service at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., where President Dwight D. Eisenhower heard a sermon urging the insertion of the words “under God” into the pledge, which Ike and members of Congress soon enshrined in law.
Moiso took the history of the Pledge of Allegiance to the late 1800s, a time when many immigrants were arriving from Eastern and Southern Europe. By 1892 — the year a popular magazine urged teachers to have the Pledge recited in classrooms around the country — 72% of public school students in Brooklyn, New York, were immigrants, according to Moiso.
“It’s no coincidence this influx of immigrants coincided with a mass demonstration of patriotism in public schools,” she said. “This strengthening of public education was a means to ensure the teaching of so-called American ideas to an increasingly diverse population.”
Pivoting to the evils of white Christian nationalism, Moiso noted the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy is currently writing a policy in the matter. “White Christian nationalism stands against the love of God for all people, it rejects justice and equality, it makes the nation into an infallible idol, and it places its leaders above critique and the rule of law,” Moiso said. “It is catalyzed in this moment to fully embody and embrace the racism and xenophobia we reject and which we have fought and continue to fight in our communities and in our houses of worship.”
But it’s also part of the story of the rise of American civil religion, “a development that was frequently championed by mainline churches like ours,” Moiso said. “The assumption behind civil religion is there are universal values we all share about what our nation is supposed to be and uphold, and we offer those in religious language. In the United States, our civil religion has generally reflected Protestant-oriented traditions.”
Moiso asked: What do we believe about the idea that the United States is or should be Christian?
“For the majority of our nation’s history, white Protestantism has enjoyed privileged locations in the halls of power,” she said. “We take pride in the ways our church governance is a model for American democracy, and we celebrate the role of our Presbyterian forebears in creating it. Our clergy have been chaplains to the Congress, and our members have been senators and presidents.”
“I keep thinking that our congregations are in desperate need of a pastoral approach to this moment,” Moiso said. “By all means, we need to vehemently denounce white Christian nationalism and its political ideologies of exclusion and supremacy.”
“But in addition, we’re going to need to help our people identify and name what we are experiencing,” she said.
What we need, she said, are places “to honestly and openly dismantle our American exceptionalism and replace it with humble appreciation and clear-eyed reverence.” That includes untangling “our Presbyterianism from our Americanism so that we can be faithful to Jesus and advocate for a better nation without confusing one for the other.”
Those are “hard, uncomfortable and scary things to do,” Moiso said, and they’re “not for the faint of heart.” The good news is, “we know something about how to do this.”
We come from a tradition “where confession is always coupled with repair,” Moiso noted. “We confess that we have sinned, that we have screwed things up, and we ask not only to be changed, but to help make things right.”
In all the current friction and tension, the contractions and confusion, “in the things we believe, the things we’re not sure we believe, in the things we no longer believe, we are beckoned back into God’s love in this moment, for this time, and again we come,” she said, “the body of Christ, through God — indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)
Let us join in prayer for:
Troy Marables, SVP Director of Human Resources, The Presbyterian Foundation
Katilyn Marler, Communications and Social Media Specialist, Marketing, The Presbyterian Foundation
Let us pray:
Creator God, we give thanks for opportunities to embrace humankind. May this collaboratory be a place where the community finds your unconditional love. Let their light shine with your grace. Amen.
Wednesday, June 10, 2026
Mission Yearbook: Hispanic Latina women in the PC(USA) celebrate and issue call to action
In Atlanta, a joyous and spirit-filled celebration recently marked a major milestone for Hispanic Latina women in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
The Mujeres Hispanas Latinas Presbiterianas (MHLP), or Hispanic Latina Women Presbyterian, gathered for Encuentro XI, an event that not only celebrated the 30th anniversary of the organization’s first national gathering but also issued a prophetic call to action under the theme, “Influencers del Reino De Dios, Somos y Hacemos” (“Influencers of the Kingdom of God, We Are and We Do”).
To understand the significance of this Encuentro is to understand a history of resilience and faith.
The MHLP organization was built on a foundation laid by women in presbyteries and synods who yearned for a space to connect, worship, and lead in their own language and cultural context. In the early 1990s, two pioneering lay women, Ruling Elder Yolanda S. Hernández from the Northeast and Ruling Elder Angie Garza Ábrego from the Southwest, fought to make this dream a reality.
They faced significant opposition of nationally prominent Hispanic male leaders but persevered, weaving together relationships that in 1995 became the first national gathering, Encuentro I. It was there that the MHLP organization was born.
Florence Vargas, a founding member from Puerto Rico who has been part of the journey from the beginning, recalled the first gathering. “We did that first one from scratch,” she said. “We had nothing to go on. We had over 200 women coming together.”
What brought them — and still brings them — together? “The language,” Vargas said. Being able to gather in one’s own language and one’s own culture, when most of the rest of life is lived as a “second language” is fundamental. “And the worship — being able to worship in our own language — it is marvelous. We say that Spanish is the language of angels and I can pray in English if I have to ... but really, it is much easier to pray in Spanish.”
While MHLP is an integral part of Presbyterian Women and affirms its purpose, the organization holds its own distinct mission statement: “To affirm our culture and language, To discover and nurture the gifts and talents of all leaders, and To empower MHLPs with the necessary training and resources in Spanish and Portuguese.”
The Encuentro, held every three years, is the central event, conceived and birthed by the women themselves. It is held in Spanish, with interpretation in Portuguese and English, creating a space where, as Yolanda S. Hernández used to say, Hispanic women “feel completely welcome and can be themselves.”
The theme, “Influencers of the Kingdom of God,” resonated deeply against the backdrop of current social and political challenges.
“At a moment when immigrants of color are being targeted by the government and congregations are still hesitant to extend full hospitality to their new neighbors, it’s imperative that Hispanic/Latiné (a gender neutral way to refer to those of Latin American heritage) women gather to celebrate their identity, lift up their voices and renew their commitment to build a more just and inclusive society,” said the Rev. Magdalena Garcia, another founding member.
This call to be influencers outside the church walls was a central message. Keynote speaker Dr. Agustina Luvis Nuñez, professor of Systematic Theology at the Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico, challenged the attendees directly. “In order to be influencers in the Kingdom of God, we have to leave other kingdoms,” she said, adding, “Sometimes we must even migrate from the churches to follow the project of God’s reign.”
The Rev. Carmen Rosario, a third founding member who preached at the event, echoed this prophetic call in a powerful sermon. She asked the women: “What are you constructing? Walls or bridges? What are you sowing? Hope or fear?”
“God is calling us in this hour,” Rosario proclaimed. “To leave the four walls and to abandon the normal routine, in order to influence the world.” In a world that teaches us to compete, el reino de dios (the kingdom of God) shows us a different way to live. “God is looking for collaborators — the reign doesn’t come with arms. It is cultivated with resistance.”
To support the work of MHLP, go here.
Erin Dunigan for the Presbyterian Foundation (Click here to read original PNS Story)
Let us join in prayer for:
Peter Maher, Vice President & Managing Director, Investments, The Board of Pensions
Steve Maier, Network Analyst, Information Technology Infrastructure, Administrative Services Group
Let us pray:
God, as you sow seeds within our hearts, let us also reap love throughout the world by supporting those who need our help and serving others as Jesus did. Amen.
Mission Yearbook: Discernment belongs to everyone, chaplain says
The “spirit of discernment,” as the Rev. Daniel Heath heard it growing up, was not available to everyone.
“There was this notion that some people had it and others didn’t,” said the associate chaplain and director of the Davidson Forum at Davidson College in North Carolina. Heath also serves as the chaplain for Major League Soccer's Charlotte FC.
How he reframed that notion was the topic of a recent Leading Theologically discussion with the Rev. Zoë Garry, associate director of Theological Education Funds Development for the Presbyterian Foundation. Garry and Heath were also classmates and friends at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Watch the edition of Leading Theologically here.
Discernment took on new meaning when Heath got married 18 years ago, as another person would be deeply affected by his choices.
“It hit me that I have a strong invitation to listen,” he said.
When he was invited to apply for a position at the large, white, affluent Covenant Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, for example, he paused to consider it carefully. To begin with, it was a very different faith community from the small storefront Pentecostal church of his youth.
“I asked the pastor, ‘Is your church ready for a Black person in leadership?’” Heath recalled. “However I was treated or however I experienced the congregation, I would bring it home.” With his wife’s support, he served as Covenant’s contemporary worship and arts director for eight years.
Discernment became, on a personal and theological level, a “sacred, deep listening that everyone has access to,” he said.
As a college chaplain, Heath invites students into curiosity and possibility. He asks them when, where and how they’ve experienced God at work in the world. “I’m not here to give you answers, but to explore with you, to walk alongside and maybe notice something along the path that you’re not noticing,” he told Garry.
Another frequent question he poses, especially as students process academic major and career choices, is “Who told you that?”
“I create space for people to consider what hopes, dreams and fears are theirs and which are someone else’s,” he said.
As a liberal arts college, Davidson is a welcoming space for such exploration, according to Heath. “You don’t have to choose one thing,” he said.
Heath, who also holds degrees in music and law, said he used to be ashamed of not having chosen one thing.
“I felt that folks would judge me as not being sure — trying this, trying that. In growing my faith and surrounding myself with folks who helped me reframe this, I consider that it’s one path,” he said. “It has various and maybe unexpected stops along the way, but it’s one path.”
“Has it helped with my personal discernment and helping others to discern? Yes,” he said, quoting from former Princeton Theological Seminary President M. Craig Barnes: “Nothing is lost in God’s economy.”
Another tool Heath finds useful for discernment is planning. “I like to have a five-year plan, and I mean, I have details. Basically, I do this plan and give it to God to co-sign,” he said with a smile. The job at Covenant Presbyterian, attending Princeton and his current position were not things he necessarily would have chosen on his own, he said.
“This open hand approach is helpful. I’m not holding these plans with a clenched fist,” Heath said. “If they blow away and something else lands, that’s OK.”
When he left Covenant, the metaphor extended to a gift from a fellow staff member: an open mannequin hand.
“Oh, my gosh. I was like, ‘I think I get it, but I’ve got to put this in a drawer!’” Heath recalled as he and Garry laughed.
Watch previous Leading Theologically conversations here.
Nancy Crowe for the Presbyterian Foundation (Click here to read original PNS Story)
Let us join in prayer for:
Daniel Mace, Systems Engineer II, Information Technology, The Presbyterian Foundation
Teresa Mader, Project Manager, Presbyterian Giving Catalog, Administrative Services Group
Let us pray:
God, tend to your seedbeds wherever you have planted them. When the wind blows, allow the plants to spread the goodness of your work in this world. Bring all your people and their works into your harvest. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Monday, June 8, 2026
Mission Yearbook: ‘Everyone has an ecological story,’ webinar shows
Presbyterians for Earth Care recently offered a webinar on “Coming Home to Your Ecological Self” featuring a member of its Steering Committee, the Rev. Dr. Shannan Vance-Ocampo.
Vance-Ocampo is general presbyter of the Presbytery of Southern New England, where she spends some of her spare time gardening and raising backyard chickens.
Her doctoral research included work she put in on land, food and faith formation. Among other things, Vance-Ocampo wondered what prevents pastors from preaching on climate justice. She formed a cohort to test some of her ideas and heard from clergy that some parishioners heard such preaching as political rather than biblical.
“One thing that came out is folks feel disconnected ecologically. Many didn’t have a good connection to the natural world,” she said. “It got me to thinking about this issue of the ecological self. We need to be connected ourselves before we can do the work with others.”
Briefly, Vance-Ocampo modeled a process that people in faith communities can use. “We often don’t know the stories of the people around us,” she said. “More people than we realize are pretty disconnected theologically.”
Vance-Ocampo displayed a number of photographs outlining her own ecological journey, including photos of the Jersey Shore and a beach in Puerto Rico, as well as the Catskills and Colombia, from which her husband hails.
“A whole new landscape became part of my story,” she said, displaying photos of her mother-in-law’s home along Colombia’s Magdalena River, where the family has lived for nearly three centuries. Mango trees her mother-in-law planted 60 years ago are now taller than oaks, Vance-Ocampo noted.
“During the pandemic, I supercharged my gardening here in Upstate New York,” she said, including adding a few chickens. In the summer the chickens enjoyed treats including frozen watermelon, the subject of another photo.
“Those sweet animals helped me reconnect,” Vance-Ocampo said. “It was a place to engage in prayer and have time to let my mind wander. The garden and the work I have done on it has been a significant point of reconnection.”
They constructed a pond near the garden and have rewilded the space around their house. One photo was of the alpha male American bullfrog who lives in and around the pond. The photo depicted him all alone on a rock. “He owns that rock,” Vance-Ocampo said. “No other frog will come onto it.”
Her mother-in-law died eight years ago. Vance-Ocampo and her husband work on the gardens she created when they’re in Colombia. “It’s a very different environment. I know what to do in the Northeast,” she said. Still, her ecological reconnection “has changed how I preach and what I focus on and has given me a lot of new language to consider,” she said.
Webinar attendees then spent time in small groups discussing their own ecological stories. Some reported back.
“It was good to hear from others, and it wasn’t surprising that all of us had positive experiences in nature,” said one. “Our formative years were in a natural setting.”
The group then read John 1:1–5 and verse 14, which describes Jesus as the completion of God’s Word. Vance-Ocampo quoted Victoria Loorz, the author of “Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us Into the Sacred”: “To position Jesus as more than a man crucified by the state, John sought to identify him with the logos: the divine indwelling, ‘through [which] all things were made,’ an interconnected relationship underlying and holding together the whole universe.”
“I am interested in hearing about places that have a plan for reconnecting people in their congregation to ecology,” said one participant. “We have a long way to go in our church. Not a lot of our church members are on board.”
“We may long for a simpler life, but the world is whizzing by,” said another. “We have to work hard to [highlight] things that thank God for Creation and that use Creation for good.”
“Everyone has an ecological story,” Vance-Ocampo said. “By sharing them with others, we get to know people more deeply — and we get to know God in a deeper way, too.”
Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)
Let us join in prayer for:
Janeen Lush, Accountant, Accounts Payable Office, Administrative Services Group
Catherine Lynch, Senior Relationship Manager, Presbyterian Investment & Loan
Let us pray:
Loving Gather, we thank you for the courageous and faithful. As we serve, let us all walk humbly with you as we follow the example given to us by Jesus Christ. Amen.
Sunday, June 7, 2026
Mission Yearbook: Office of Public Witness calls for an end to war, atrocities in Sudan
The Presbyterian Office of Public Witness has joined voices calling for the United States to intervene in the war and atrocities in Sudan, where people are suffering from starvation and mass killings.
The Washington-based office is among more than 30 faith and advocacy groups that recently signed a letter to U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican who chairs the House Subcommittee on Africa, asking him to stress to the White House the urgent need to help bring about peace in the African country.
“As people of conscience, we urge you to impress upon President Trump the seriousness of the crisis and the power he has to stop the killing and to bring about peace in Sudan,” states the letter, which notes that “the war between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces has likely killed more than 400,000 people, displaced over 15 million, and left over 26 million people in need of emergency aid.”
With the situation worsening, “we strongly urge you to discuss Sudan with the President, imploring him to take two immediate steps, backed by decisive action,” the letter states.
Those steps, according to the letter, are:
- Demand that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) stop sending weapons to and otherwise supporting the RSF. The president “should use all levers of influence to cause the UAE to pressure the RSF to allow unrestricted, protected, and sustained humanitarian access into El Fasher and other areas under siege, to allow people to leave these areas freely and safely, and to end its targeted attacks on civilians,” the letter states.
- Surge U.S. humanitarian assistance to address the extreme hunger and deprivation experienced in El Fasher, South Kordofan, and elsewhere in Sudan and in the surrounding countries hosting Sudanese refugees.
The letter also notes that its request of Smith is unusual but is the “best hope for immediately preventing further starvation and mass atrocities, and [is] required for securing a sustainable, democratic peace. We urge the President to make peace in Sudan a top priority of his administration.”
In recent days, various groups and noted figures, including the World Council of Churches' general secretary, the Rev. Prof. Dr. Jerry Pillay, and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, have raised concerns about the situation in Sudan.
In a press briefing in Doha, Qatar, Guterres called the war in Sudan a “horrifying crisis” that he said is “spiraling out of control.”
“For over 18 months, El Fasher and the surrounding areas in North Darfur have been an epicenter of suffering, hunger, violence and displacement,” he said.
He went on to say, “Hundreds of thousands of civilians are trapped by this siege. People are dying of malnutrition, disease and violence. And we are hearing continued reports of violations of international humanitarian law and human rights. Indiscriminate attacks and targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals. Horrifying instances of gender-based and ethnic violence. And now, credible reports of widespread executions since the Rapid Support Forces entered the city. I once again call for an immediate end to this unimaginable violence. I call for the safe, rapid and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid to all civilians in need. I call for an end to the flow of weapons and fighters into Sudan, which is making a desperate situation even worse. Finally, we need an immediate cessation of hostilities.”
The U.N. Human Rights Office issued a statement with similar concerns and noted that there are indications of “ethnic motivations for killings, and of persons no longer participating in hostilities. ... Multiple distressing videos received by U.N. Human Rights show dozens of unarmed men being shot or lying dead, surrounded by RSF fighters who accuse them of being SAF fighters.”
Anglican bishops in Sudan, led by Archbishop Ezekiel Kondo of the Episcopal (Anglican) Church of Sudan, have condemned the violence, including the killing of women and children, and noted the reported slaughter of more than 450 people at a hospital.
“We call upon all parties to the conflict in Sudan to immediately cease hostilities,” the bishops said. “The war will not bring peace or development to Sudan. Fire cannot be quenched with fire: only water can make a difference.”
Darla Carter, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Life & Witness (Click here to read original PNS Story)
Let us join in prayer for:
Samantha Lund, Administrative Manager, Legal & Risk Management, Administrative Service Group
Erika Lundbom, Associate Director of Marketing, Electronic Resources and Strategic Business Development, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
Let us pray:
Father, thank you for your love that enables us to love others. Help us to reflect the free gift of your grace to all who cross our path. Amen.
Mission Yearbook: Authors discuss being Presbyterian in a dysvangelical nation
The Rev. Alex Thornburg and the Rev. Ted V. Foote Jr., the authors of “Being Presbyterian in a Dysvangelical America: A Guide to Reclaiming the Good News of God’s Grace,” newly published by Westminster John Knox Press, appeared recently on “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast.” Listen to their conversation with hosts Simon Doong and the Rev. Lee Catoe here.
Thornburg is pastor of Heartland Presbyterian Church in Clive, Iowa. Foote, himself a longtime pastor, teaches pastoral ministry and leadership at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Previous collaborations include “Being Disciples of Jesus in a Dot.Com World” and “Being Presbyterian in the Bible Belt.”
“You can believe that immigrants and refugees are dangerous. You can believe empathy is toxic and women are second-class citizens. You have the right to believe that,” Thornburg told the podcast hosts. “Just don’t call it Christian, because it’s not.”
Thornburg said “dysvangelical” is a term coined by Foote to describe “a voice that’s articulated and has a lot of political power,” used by people who are “defining what they understand ‘Christian’ to be. We wrote this book in many ways to push against that and what Presbyterians understand what it means to be faithful” and “not defined by this very loud public voice that’s got a lot of power these days.”
The ”gospel of grace is where we all have ultimate value,” Foote said. But some instead “want to turn away from the table with everyone else and go to their own small table and change the recipe.”
There’s no better good news than God’s grace, Thornburg said. “Ted argues that some have taken the good news and turned it into something that’s bad, and that’s mean-spirited,” Thornburg said. “They have turned the good news into something dysfunctional, distorted and dystopian.”
“They have taken the good news of the gospel and used it to harm folks,” Thornburg said. It’s like Superman and the Bizarro World from the 1950s, Thornburg said, a world where everything was topsy-turvy from the world of that era.
“We freely admit that even in our own tradition, the Presbyterian Reformed tradition, we have had had times in our history that have embraced dysvangelical beliefs,” Thornburg said. “We still see some of that in the church today.”
According to Foote, one tack the book takes is to “look at historical development to see how the gospel can come alive in different times and places.”
“We’ve tried to locate people who were not the great men and women in history — everyday folks with something to say and it just wasn’t heard,” Foote said. “We don’t always get it right, but we want to trust that God’s Spirit in Christ, with love, moves us forward together to be the people God intends.”
“What the world needs — and we believe Presbyterians can offer this if we stay true to our tradition — is good news,” Thornburg said. “At the core of our Reformed Christian theology is grace — grace that embraces us in the midst of our brokenness, wherever we are.”
One thing Thornburg loves about the PC(USA) “is that it’s changed its mind,” he said. “It’s painful to have a revelation. Repentance means turning around and changing your mind. That’s what we celebrate, that we are always open to changing our mind.”
Among the examples Thornburg pointed out are historic ways some in the church treated African Americans, LGBTQ folks and “not recognizing women as full members of the church.” Fortunately, “God was a work to lead us” to where the church is now.
“I don’t want to rest on our laurels,” Foote said. “If we go through our [Presbyterian] family history, we have disagreed and people don’t come to the family reunions anymore.”
Our communities and our nation “needs a Presbyterian Church that stands up and says [dysvangelicalism] is wrong. This is not who God calls us to be,” Thornburg said. “While we’re imperfect and we sometimes show up late to the party, we have something to give the world — something to pronounce and proclaim that we think might make a difference in this moment.”
New editions of “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast” are released every Thursday. Listen to previous episodes here.
Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Servicean Life & Witness (Click here to read original PNS Story)
Let us join in prayer for:
Christine Long, Church Consultant – Tacoma, WA, Engagement & Church Relations, The Board of Pensions
Lisa Love, Deputy General Counsel, Legal, The Presbyterian Foundation
Let us pray:
Holy One, may we hear your calling us to participate in your inbreaking kingdom. May we recognize just how you have prepared us. And may we, with gratitude, give as you ask. In Christ’s name. Amen.
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