Minute for Mission: Public Education

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Beechmont Presbyterian Church in Louisville is home to La Escuelita Learning Hub. La Escuelita embodies what churches can do to support public education and child advocacy by providing homework help, enrichment activities, ESL support and therapy for over 30 children, and case management for families connecting them with educational, health and social services. (Photo Credit: La Escuelita)

Recently, a friend asked, “How did you become Presbyterian?” I shared that I joined a Presbyterian church at 17. I’d been invited to the church’s youth group by a newfound friend in my first year of high school. I thought that Presbyterian was a funny name for a church. At the time, the pastor (now one of my mentors) invited me to consider joining. Knowing I would have to explain all of this to my mother, I asked the pastor to “tell me, in one word, what Presbyterians are about.” His answer was swift and profound — “Alonzo, Presbyterians are about education.” Over 30 years later, as an ordained pastor working in the national ministries of this “church with a funny name,’’ I carry his words in my heart deeply and I am still empowered by them.

Presbyterians are about education, and education is about growth and empowerment. Support of public education is also an attestation of possibilities of growth and empowerment for all children. Jesus’ radical hospitality and his invitation to all children should remind us as people of faith, that all children are created in God’s image and included in God’s life. Supporting public education shows our commitment to living in God’s life by meeting the needs of all children. Access to quality education plays an integral role in building the fullness of life for which God created them. Recent attacks on public education threaten this fullness by impeding access to vast educational opportunities for children, especially those in vulnerable and marginalized communities (children are the most poverty-stricken group in the U.S.).

Here are four ways that we as Presbyterians can covenant to live into supporting and defending public education. You can find this education covenant in its entirety here: pcusa.org/sites/default/files/2025-01/EaC-Covenant.pdf.

• Be involved in direct service. This means that we can create ministries and early childhood programs within our churches to address impediments to children’s academic, developmental and social needs. We can walk with families, listen to communities and invest in organizations and programs that meet the needs of young people and their families.
• Create opportunities to engage in raising consciousness about these issues. Here, we become aware of the lack of access to education as one of the root causes of poverty. Effectively ending poverty in this country means that children must have the basic skills that will allow them to live lives of self-determination. Schools cannot accomplish this alone. It is also here that we can better familiarize ourselves with our historical commitment to education and commitment to advocacy and call to engage in justice and public life. 
• Engage in systemic change, which allows us to partake in a deeper engagement in advocacy and public witness. One quick way to do this is by signing up for Action Alerts from the Office of Public Witness. Attend school board, city council and campaign town hall meetings and advocate for legislation and safety net programs that benefit children and their families.         
• Practice Christian disciplines by including children, families, teachers, administrators, and all who work with children in the church’s worship and spiritual life. We should be intentional about connecting Scripture to what is happening in public life. We should integrate the concerns of educators, children and families in spiritual practices like prayer, worship and Bible study. Congregations can take up a collection for teachers to offset out-of-pocket school supply expenses. 

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Lucy Craft Laney (Presbyterian Historical Society)

In Matthew’s Gospel, Christ warns against those who place “stumbling blocks” in the way of children (18:6). As people of faith, we are called to commit ourselves to the missional work of removing stumbling blocks from children and young people by supporting and defending public education. In doing so, I am inspired by Lucy Craft Laney (1854–1933), the pioneering Black Presbyterian educator and civil rights advocate who was born in slavery and in 1883 organized a school for Black children in the basement of Christ Presbyterian Church in Augusta, Georgia. Fighting segregation, racial animus, terror and poverty, Laney believed that education was also integral to survival. Education equips all of us. Thriving communities (and democracies!) benefit from access to quality education. For many children in our country, access to public education is integral for their survival.

Here are some links that I believe you will find helpful in learning more about how you can be involved in the work of supporting public education and its intersectional issues:

Educate a Child website: pcusa.org/about-pcusa/agencies-entities/interim-unified-agency/ministry-areas/self-development-people/educate-child-transform-world

PC(USA) policy on public education: pcusa.org/resource/loving-our-neighbors-equity-and-quality-public-education-k-12

PC(USA) Poverty Page: pcusa.org/how-we-serve/justice-peace/poverty

More on Lucy Craft Laney: pcusa.org/news-storytelling/blogs/historical-society-blog/lucy-craft-laney-and-haines-institute

Rev. Dr. Alonzo T. Johnson, Manager of the Presbyterian Committee on the Self Development of People and Convener of the Education Roundtable

Let us join in prayer for:

Monty Anderson, Vice President/COO & Corporate Treasurer, Operations, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
Rachel Anderson, Global Ecumenical Liaison-US, Global Ecumenical Partnerships, Presbyterian Life & Witness

Let us pray:

Holy God, teacher of all, show us how to have courage in removing stumbling blocks and taking care of the least of these. Loving God, teach us again the lessons Christ taught us in welcoming and caring for all children. Remind us in our sacraments that we are called to love, accept, provide, advocate, strengthen, protect and include all children. In Christ the teacher we pray. Amen. 

Resources for the World Communion Offering

World Communion Offering Resources for Churches Here are some of the great resources to use as you prepare to receive the World Communion Offering. Leader’s Guide This guide has everything you need to plan, prepare and receive the World Communion Offering this year. Look inside for information on World Communion Sunday, how World Communion Offering funds are used as directed by the General Assembly, and even minutes for mission you can use in worship services leading up to the day you receive the Offering.  Download the Leader’s Guide Social Media Images Use these premade social media images to share the World Communion Offering with your community. Just schedule these posts on your platform of choice. It’s that easy. Download the Social Media Images World Communion Sunday Liturgy Our World Communion Offering worship liturgy, prepared by the Presbyterian Association of Musicians, gives you a beautiful and meaningful way to craft the worship service for receiving the World Communion Offering. Download the Liturgy Coloring Page Coloring is not just for children. Use this coloring sheet that is a visual representation of Micah 6:8 and make it available for everyone in your congregation to use in classes, meetings and worship. Download the Coloring Page Check out even more World Communion Offering resources on our website. Thank you for supporting the World Communion Offering. Thank you for generously supporting the Churchwide Special offerings.  If you have any questions, reply to this email or call us at (800) 728-7228, Ext. 5047.

Copyright © 2026 Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation, All rights reserved.

WCC NEWS: “Nun Dul Dega Eomne” (Nowhere to Lay My Eyes) wins Locarno Film Festival prize

The film “Nun Dul Dega Eomne” (Nowhere to Lay My Eyes) earned the prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 79th Locarno Film Festival, held 5-15 August. Photo: © Jeonwonsa Film 19 August 2026 The Ecumenical Jury, appointed by INTERFILM and SIGNIS, awarded the prize, donated by the Evangelical Reformed Church and the Roman Catholic Church in Switzerland, to director Hong Sangsoo (South Korea). The film centres on a daughter’s first visit to her mother in ten years.  The daughter, Sanghee, together with her brother, visits her mother in the South Korean city of Jeju, where her mother runs a successful restaurant. Sanghee’s stepfather is making a film about a “grass grave,” and his daughter has taken up painting. They exchange news, unsolicited advice, and insincere compliments. On the morning of their departure, the other family members watch a film made by Sanghee.  The jury selected the film for its extraordinary human depth. “What do we focus on in our lives? Do we see the obvious or the invisible? How do we tell a story of truth?” The jury begins its statement with these questions.  “Nun Dul Dega Eomne takes us on a brief journey to a family reunion where expectations and relationships can be rekindled,” the jury comments. “The dialogues unfold like precious pearls of universal and existential themes, offering an intense reflection on creativity and art.”  The statement continues: “The film achieves extraordinary human depth in what is only seemingly superficial. With great empathy and subtle humour, it explores alienation and how difficult it can be to truly see one another and accept one another mutually.” More about the movie: https://www.inter-film.org/filmarchiv/2026/nun-dul-dega-eomne See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland

Mission Yearbook: UKirk executive director makes a case for evangelism

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Photo by Robert Koorenny via Unsplash

Is there a faithful way for progressive Christians to do evangelism?

That was the topic for the Rev. Dr. Gini Norris-Lane, executive director of UKirk Collegiate Ministries, during this year’s Annual Event of the Association of Partners in Christian Education, held online and in Pittsburgh. Norris-Lane led a workshop that held space for participants to both listen and weigh in on a topic many Presbyterians find increasingly important, if a little uncomfortable.

Participants defined evangelism as sharing one’s faith, telling the good news, listening to others to see what their good news would be and mutual transformation. Norris-Lane asked, what do you think a person not in church would use as a definition? Responses included “conversion,” “preached at,” “judged” and “let me tell you how you need fixing.”

In her “Unbinding the Gospel: Real Life Evangelism,” the Rev. Martha Grace Reese compares evangelism to a water pitcher. “Her theory is if you don’t believe in heaven and hell, other things need to fill the pitcher up, and so you’re willing to get out of your comfort zone and share your faith,” Norris-Lane said. “Alternatively, any negative experience or discomfort about evangelism creates a leak in the pitcher.”

She asked participants to discuss a few questions around their tables, including “what is filling your individual and community’s pitcher to overflowing?” and “what difference does it make in your own life that you are a Christian?” and “what negative experiences have you had that form the backdrop for your feelings about evangelism?”

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The Rev. Dr. Gini Norris-Lane

One workshop participant recounted her two years with a group that put a premium on evangelism before she found her way back to the PC(USA). “During spring break, we took gospel tracts” to people having a few drinks at a local bar, this person said. “I don’t think that was the most effective evangelism. It came from a place of ‘I’m better than you.’”

In Texas, where Norris-Lane lives, “what has happened in a larger narrative in our culture is that the Christian faith is anti-intellectual, and it’s mandated,” she said. “The Ten Commandments are in every classroom.” Her son, who’s 16, told her that most of his friends “don’t believe in dinosaurs because they’re not mentioned in the Bible.”

One thing progressive Christians have to offer to folks with that in their faith upbringing, she said, is “a way of understanding that not everyone has had our experience of love and grace and community.”

“A campus minister I know said the question is not ‘will I go to hell?’” she said. “It’s ‘where is hell on Earth, and how are we to address it?”

“Are we helping this person move into a relationship with God? Are we helping this person move into Christian community? If the answer to either is yes,” she said, “we are going to call it evangelism.”

She spent a few minutes discussing the PC(USA)’s 8 Habits of Evangelism: radical, worship, sacraments, prayer, justice, teaching, fellowship and generosity. “We have not articulated why we’re showing up in these ways,” she said, then asked: “How does this align with God’s work in the world.”

She closed with this quote by Henri Nouwen in his “Life of the Beloved”: “The truth, even though I cannot feel it right now, is that I am the chosen child of God, precious in God’s eyes, called the Beloved from all eternity, and held safe in an everlasting belief.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

 Ahmad Ali, Vice President and Managing Director, Investments, The Board of Pensions
Denise Anderson, Lead, Restorative Justice, Presbyterian Life & Witness

Let us pray:

Creator God, we thank you for all the people you bring forward to help. Please be with all those you call to serve and with those who need to feel your comforting presence. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: APCE event speaker preaches that ‘You are enough’

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Miatta Willson, associate for the Office of Christian Formation in the PC(USA), at the 2026 APCE event.

When a parishioner facing job loss amid government chaos asked the Rev. MaryAnn McKibben Dana “What is even the point?” she felt utterly unprepared to answer.

The Washington, D.C.-area pastor had just listened to the man describe jumping through bureaucratic hoops under constant threat of termination while grieving his cousin's untimely death. McKibben Dana's instinct was to seek expert guidance, more training, better tools — anything to fill what felt like a deficit in her pastoral toolkit.

“I thought to myself, I am not equipped for this moment of ministry,” McKibben Dana told hundreds of Christian educators gathered at the Association of Partners in Christian Education Annual Event. “Anybody else feeling that way?”

Her solution was to invite a mentor to meet with area clergy, hoping for concrete skills to address the trauma their congregations faced. Instead, the mentor spent the entire day focusing on the pastors themselves — their gifts, their leadership and their inherent capacity.

“I remember feeling so frustrated,” McKibben Dana said. “Just pour some stuff into my brain. I don’t know enough for this moment.”

But her mentor, trained in family systems theory, kept redirecting them. “What you have to offer is you. There’s no magic category of information that’s going to make this easier," she said. "It’s just you, and you are enough.”

That message became the foundation of McKibben Dana’s keynote address on self-love, the second of four daily themes drawn from Jesus' greatest commandment. The Annual Event was held in Pittsburgh, the hometown of Presbyterian icon Fred Rogers.

The conference followed a progression with sermons by the Rev. Theresa Cho and workshops tying to the daily themes explored in each keynote address. On the first day, the Rev. Paul Roberts addressed the command to “Love God.” The next day, McKibben Dana explored “Love Self,” while “Love Neighbor” was the topic for Rabbi Evan Moffic the following day, and on the last day, workshops and closing worship held space to contemplate what it means to “Love Others.”

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The Rev. MaryAnn McKibben Dana

McKibben Dana opened by sharing her husband's childhood encounter with Rogers, whose mother attended the church in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, where her husband’s father was pastor. True to form, Rogers bypassed the pastor to focus entirely on the 3-year-old boy.

“It’s all about the kids, and that is who he was,” McKibben Dana said, calling Rogers “our patron saint,” whose spirit infused the gathering themed around love in all its dimensions.

McKibben Dana challenged Rogers’ famous advice to “look for the helpers” during difficult times, arguing it creates an unhealthy hierarchy between helper and helped. Drawing on physician Rachel Naomi Remen’s work, she distinguished helping — which implies inequality and creates debt — from serving, which recognizes the relationship between equals.

“"When I help, I feel satisfaction, but when I serve, I have a feeling of gratitude,” McKibben Dana said, quoting Remen. “Service rests on a basic premise that the nature of life is sacred.”

She grounded her talk in the mantra “we are creative, resourceful and whole” — words from coaching training that undergird her leadership work and her book “Better Than Normal.” 

McKibben Dana used statistics about the “median American” named Jessica to illustrate how societal structures cater to averages rather than celebrating human diversity. She screened a video of artist-activist Alok Vaid-Menon explaining how gender-nonconforming people face violence because they remind others of the authenticity they’ve repressed in themselves.

“Can you help me get free?” Vaid-Menon asked. “Not can you help me help you?”

McKibben Dana connected this to Genesis 1’s sevenfold repetition of “God saw that it was good,” arguing that religion isn’t about solving wickedness but helping people touch what was always true.

She closed with a story from the TV show “Shrinking” about a woman named Grace who escaped an abusive relationship only after hearing friends’ testimonies about her inherent goodness.

“It is grace that allows us to love self with our heart, soul, mind and strength,” McKibben Dana said.

Beth Waltemath, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Life & Witness (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Christopher Abney, VP, Director of IT, Presbyterian Foundation
Ruth Adams, Director, Assistance Program, Engagement & Church Relations, The Board of Pensions

Let us pray:

Lord, you have called us to bring your good news. Help us to minister faithfully in our congregations, neighborhoods and municipalities so that your love may be known and your church may be strengthened. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Rabbi explores what it means to love our neighbor

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Photo by Sincerely Media via Unsplash

Rabbi Evan Moffic, who serves Congregation Solel in Highland Park, Illinois, took on the topic of loving our neighbor during his illuminating talk at the Annual Event of the Association of Partners in Christian Education. He used the Jewish tool of Midrash to study Leviticus 19:18: “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”

Moffic called Midrash “the Jewish sage’s way of making a timeless text timely.” He cited 10 ways of understanding the Hebrew word “Re’a,” a core term in Hebrew ethics, emphasizing a relationship of care, friendship and responsibility.

• “Re’a should not be translated as ‘neighbor,’” he said. “We think of neighbor as one next door or someone who knows our dog’s name.” One rabbi taught that it’s anyone with whom we have a relationship.
• Moffic offered a pragmatic interpretation. In the Talmud, a young man asks the greatest rabbi of the time to teach him the entire Torah while standing on one foot. The rabbi said it’s this: What is hateful to you, do not do to another person. “It’s a beautiful way of following the rabbinic tradition of making laws of Torah practical in each generation,” Moffic said. “The underlying idea here is empathy.”
• The most spiritual interpretation is to say that neighbor refers to every human being, which Moffic called “the fundamental underlying principle of Torah. This teaching embodies the core principle of the Hebrew Bible, that everybody is created in the image of God.” This interpretation “is the easiest to teach in principle but the hardest to carry out.”
• More attainable is what Moffic called the contextual approach. In Leviticus 19:17–18, we’re told not to hate anyone of our kin, to reprove our neighbor and not to take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of our people. 
• While the “love your neighbor” commandment appears only once in Leviticus, “love the stranger” appears 36 times. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks points out it’s much easier to love our neighbor than to love a stranger, but Torah “calls us to love the stranger as we love the neighbor, to expand what ‘neighbor’ means,” Moffic said. But one could argue the opposite, that it’s easier to love a stranger than your neighbor, he said.
• Theologian Martin Buber, who gave us the “I and Thou” framework, would say that our definition of “thou” determines our definition of who our neighbor is. “Does a refugee with documents change the ‘thouness’ of the person?” Moffic asked. “I don’t think it would for Buber.”
• The French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas said that every human being has a claim on us, just as we have a claim on others. We’re born with rights, but also with responsibility. 
• The Hebrew word ‘kadosh’ can in translated as “holy,” “but the actual physical meaning is ‘set apart’ or ‘different,’” Moffic said. Sacks suggests that “loving our neighbor is not just something pragmatic — it’s something sacred and holy. It brings us closer to God.”
• Rabbi Maimonides, who lived more than eight centuries ago, said that loving your neighbor as yourself “is not about a feeling. It’s about action,” Moffic said. His Ladder of Tzedakah ranks eight acts of charity from “you only give a little, and you do it grumpily” to “help someone find a job or start a business.” “Maimonides puts love in a practical place,” Moffic said. “It’s about obligations.”
• Moffic’s final interpretation is “the one that may speak to us today.” It’s the covenantal approach. “What I think we can do in today’s interconnected world is extend our responsibility to all people,” he said. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel reminds us that “not all people are guilty, but all of us are responsible.”

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Rabbi Evan Moffic

“Love your neighbor as yourself is about working together to create something good,” Moffic said. “It’s part of the divine task to bring redemption to a fractured world.”

“People of faith working together is now more important than ever. I hope in the coming days we can follow Heschel’s vision,” Moffic said. “Our religious voice is critical in maintaining that expansive voice we’re rooted in.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Ashley Wiley, Administrative Support, Young Adult Volunteers
Vivian Blade, Program Manager, Unification Management Office, Presbyterian Life & Witness

Let us pray:

Dear Lord, thank you for the blessings brought to the many who have been called to serve your mission, We pray that you would bless throughout their lives as they serve others in Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.