Today in the Mission Yearbook - Compassion or safe communities?

The Rev. Dr. Tracy Keenan of New Castle Presbytery offers a faithful response to the immigration debate

November 6, 2024

Editor’s note: This article first appeared here in Presbytery Pause, the newsletter of New Castle Presbytery.

Photo used by permission of Abara from Laurie 

Smith Photo, lauriesmithphoto.com)

Imagine you and your family are living a quiet life as best you can in a city in Central America and a local gang leader decides he wants your 14-year-old daughter as his “girlfriend,” and won’t accept no for an answer.

Imagine your child’s survival depends on medical care that is not available in your homeland.

Imagine militias from neighboring countries or communities have overrun your community and you have to run for your life.

There’s a lot of heated rhetoric right now about immigrants. And it’s clear that our immigration system needs a lot of work. It is underfunded, understaffed, and many of the attempts to fix it have hobbled through partisan rancor and landed in half-baked solutions. At the same time, migration numbers are up all over the world, and not just at our southern border, due to conflict, natural disasters, persecution or the desire to earn a better living.

Let’s look at three things when confronting the immigration question: our biblical mandate as Christians, our responsibility to seek the truth and our call to act faithfully.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to the biblical law to love our neighbor and to treat the foreigner as our own.

 “I was hungry and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Jesus in Matthew 25:35, CEB).

There are at least a dozen more verses along these lines.

We are called to love these neighbors of ours. At the same time, we are called to be as wise as serpents and innocent as doves (Matthew 10:16). That means separating fact from fiction.

The Immigrant Justice Committee (IJC) of New Castle Presbytery recently traveled to the Texas/Mexico border to see for ourselves how people are seeking both compassionate welcome and security.

The Rev. Dr. Tracy Keenan (Contributed photo)

We spoke with Border Patrol and Homeland Security officers, both current and retired; legal representatives who help immigrants navigate the complex system of courts, status classifications, and detention centers; a Presbyterian pastor who is also an EMT tasked with tending to the injured or the dead in the borderlands; shelter workers in Mexico where migrants await their appointment with U.S. Customs; and the Abara organization, which seeks to educate and work for holistic solutions to the snarls of immigration processes.

IJC understands the call to see the human face of the sojourner who is vulnerable and far from home and to advocate for human rights. We also understand the need for border security and the need for a well-ordered and well-supported system of immigration.

The immigration system in the U.S. is badly in need of revision, and it has been for many years and under many administrations. This is nonpartisan. We don’t have to choose between loving our neighbor and protecting our communities. Healthy policy can mean compassionate welcome, secure borders and even an enhanced economy.
Let’s be the church that is faithful in our response:

• Advocate for better policies.
• Help our new neighbors get on their feet and learn their way around this new country, so they can become a robust part of our society, economy and culture.
• Allow law enforcement, Border Patrol, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to do their work of identifying and rooting out the criminal element without painting the whole of immigrant groups as malevolent.
• Advocate to support immigrant workers, and in so doing, work for the general well-being of our economy as well as human rights. We don’t have to choose between loving our neighbors and protecting our communities.

Our visit to El Paso and Ciudad Juarez was made possible by some funding from New Castle Presbytery’s Ignite and from each participant, and was hosted by Abara, an organization with connections to Tres Rios Presbytery dedicated to building peace and pursuing a holistic border response.  We’d be happy to share more about our experience with your churches or mission teams. Email us here. New Castle Presbytery highly recommends Abara if you are interested in a trip to the border to learn more. 

Rev. Dr. Tracy Keenan, Missional Presbyter for New Castle Presbytery, Special to Presbyterian News Service

Today’s Focus: Rev. Dr. Tracy Keenan of New Castle Presbytery offers a faithful response to the immigration debate

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Kimberly Wells, Mission Specialist, Director’s Office, World Mission, Presbyterian Mission Agency  
Vivian Wesson, Executive Vice President & General Counsel, Board of Pensions  

Let us pray

Gracious God, you lavish on your people a profusion of gifts for mission and ministry, evangelism and outreach. Continue to inspire and guide us as we strive to be more responsive to the needs of our churches. Energize and equip us for those kingdom tasks to which we are called as Christ’s followers in a hurting world. Amen.

Minute for Mission: Honest Patriotism for Christian Citizens

November 5, 2024

Flag & Cover of Honest Patriotism

(provided)

“I voted.” Who doesn’t love slapping one of those stickers on their shirt, reusable water bottle or notebook? It’s a seemingly simple action and declaration.

And yet as the United States approaches another presidential election day — one in which vitriol, rhetoric and “fake news” continue to dominate airwaves and social platforms — those “I voted” stickers carry a greater weight. For to vote — in free and democratic elections — is to keep at bay the threats of authoritarian power grabs and nationalistic fervor. Voting is both a right and a responsibility to participate in the shaping of our common life. In recent election cycles, however, the guarantee of “free” and “democratic” processes has endured profound challenges.

In 2018, the 223rd General Assembly responded to the erosion of democratic principles, institutions, and practices in the United States with the resolutions and affirmations of “Honest Patriotism.” This text “lift[s] up our church’s long commitments to active civic engagement, responsible citizenship, and prophetic witness” (2). What’s more, it points to Christianity’s rootedness in a “prophetic calling” that “entail[s] a moral freedom to challenge … misuses of power” (Ibid.). This freedom strives toward justice, reveres the goodness of God’s Creation and attends to the innate dignity of all existence.

Nine affirmations open “Honest Patriotism.” These include:

• “Protection of the freedom of speech, as enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States”

• “The widest possible public access to information and to the products of cultural activity”
• the “freedom of assembly”
• the “need for free critical inquiry that is unhampered by censorship” and
• “The right of citizens to participate in the democratic process … [undeterred by] voter suppression initiatives and racially based and/or partisan gerrymandering” (Ibid., 3–5).

While grounded in constitutional and civic language, a central theological conviction rings forth: What God has set free, no person, institution or political strategy can bind up.

God’s liberation of all Creation from the snares of sin, corruption, and injustice is the bedrock from which spring the rights and responsibilities of Christians in public arenas. To vote according to one’s conscience (and as the Reformed tradition affirms, God alone is Lord of the conscience), is to exercise one’s civic, theological and prophetic call to freedom. So, the next time we’re handed an “I voted” sticker, let us bear in mind that those two simple words carry a depth of meaning and purpose.  

If this reflection resonates with you or sparks your curiosity, read the full text of “Honest Patriotism.” Be sure to explore more PC(USA) social witness policies, too. Lastly, get to know the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, which serves the prophetic calling of the whole Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) by providing the General Assembly with careful studies of pressing moral challenges (Resolution on Race, Reparative Justice and the PC[USA]), media for discussion and discernment of Christian responsibilities (Gun Violence, Gospel Values), and policy recommendations for faithful action (Investing in a Green Future: A Vision for a Renewed Creation).

Dhawn B. Martin, Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, Social Witness, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Today’s Focus: Honest Patriotism for Christian Citizens

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Laura Wampler, Operations & Accounting Associate, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation 
Maura Weil, Archive Technician, Presbyterian Historical Society 

Let us pray

Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, pour out your wisdom upon us as we participate in and contribute to the life of our communities. Remind us that we are called to prophetic witness and action. Lead us to practices of justice and equity. Guide us in the paths of compassion and truth-seeking. Open our hearts to your love, that we might express our freedoms in ways that celebrate the goodness of existence. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - How a small African American ‘rock’ church and Its community nurtured two ‘hidden figures’ who helped change the world

A cryptologist and a pioneering opera star both hailed from Hopewell Presbyterian Church in South Carolina

November 4, 2024

In it 134 years, Hopewell Presbyterian Church has produced 

an opera star and a cryptologist. (Photo by Gerald Jackson)

Travelers on Highway 5, the 50-mile stretch between Blacksburg and Rock Hill, South Carolina, often stop on the roadside to admire and take pictures of the small church perched off the highway. Hopewell Presbyterian Church, with its distinctive rock exterior, seems to glow when the afternoon sun hits at the right angle, highlighting its unique architectural charm that symbolizes strength and fortitude.

The church, however, serves more just than a place of worship, members say. Throughout its 134-year history, the church has been a rock-solid icon of cultural pride and the literal and figurative cornerstone for this small African American community called Hopewell, located 45 miles southwest of Charlotte, North Carolina.

The church’s founders — most of whom have passed away — taught their children honesty, the value of hard work, the importance of giving back, helping others and trusting in God. The elders adopted the African Proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child.”

And like the unsung heroes in the 2016 film “Hidden Figures,” about four Black women mathematicians who helped launch NASA astronauts into space in spite of systemic racism, the Hopewell community also had its unsung trailblazers it raised, who quietly impacted the nation and the world. Here are profiles of these unsung heroes from Hopewell.

Chineta Smith Gamble’s 1949 yearbook photo from Howard 

University
(Photo courtesy of Howard University)

Chineta Smith Gamble was born in 1925 in Blacksburg and attended Hopewell church, where her father, Amzi Anderson Smith, was also a member and church leader.  A Howard University graduate, Gamble became one of the first Black women cryptologists at the National Security Agency, during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Few people knew of her covert work. She decoded Soviet Union intelligence while the United States and the Soviet Union faced off at the brink of nuclear war during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Due to the nature of her work, much of her life remained a mystery, family members recalled.

Gamble continued her spy work through the Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan administrations. She died in 2009 in Columbia, Maryland, leaving behind a legacy of quiet excellence that reflects the resilient spirit of her community.

Lawrence Whisonant (stage name Lawrence Winters) was a pioneering African American opera star who broke racial barriers both nationally and internationally. Whisonant was born in Kings Creek in 1915 — it later became part of the town of Blacksburg. His remarkable career took him across the globe, and he performed until his death in 1965 in Germany.

Lawrence Winters (Photo courtesy of WDAV-FM)

His voice instructor at Howard University was Todd Duncan, the famous African American baritone that composer George Gershwin selected to play Porgy in his 1935 opera “Porgy and Bess.” He became Duncan’s understudy during a 1942 revival of “Porgy and Bess.” Winters also sang at President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s birthday ball in 1943. 

Gamble and Winters, like many others from the community, left Hopewell in the 1940s and ’50s to pursue opportunities up North. Their paths aligned with the broader movement known as The Great Migration, in which an estimated 6 million Blacks moved to northern and western cities between 1910 and 1970 to escape racism, segregation, Jim Crow laws and lynchings occurring in the South. They also didn’t want to spend the rest of their lives farming and picking cotton.

In her 2011 masterpiece, “The Warmth of Other Suns,” Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson described the migration as the greatest untold story of the 20th century.

As Hopewellians migrated to Washington, D.C., New York City and points farther north, they reaped higher-paying jobs, better housing and culturally enriching experiences. Their dignity was restored. But something drew them back to Hopewell, like ships to a lighthouse.

They returned in droves in August of every year to visit relatives and friends, sometimes bearing gifts that reflected their new, prosperous lifestyles and freedom from an unjust South.

Gamble’s top-secret work with the NSA helped shape United States foreign policy and the trajectory of global politics. Winters, with his powerful voice, broke racial barriers and opened doors for Black opera singers.

Hopewell was their starting point, a place that nurtured them and laid a human foundation just as strong and enduring as the stones that form this rock church off Highway 5.

Dr. Kim Smith is an Associate Professor at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Today’s Focus: A cryptologist and a pioneering opera star both hailed from Hopewell Presbyterian Church in South Carolina

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Beth Waltemath, Communication Associate, Communications Ministry, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 
Judy Walton, Vice President, Lending Services, Presbyterian Investment & Loan Program 

Let us pray

God of all our lives, inspire us by your Spirit to grow in mission and understanding as we work as partners with brothers and sisters to bring your compassion, vision and shalom to those places in your world where the need is great. In your name we pray. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - The ordination of one who was once ‘crushed, traumatized, and very, very alone’

The Presbytery of Ohio Valley ordains Jerusha Van Camp to a validated ministry serving small churches in southern Indiana

November 3, 2024

The Rev. Jerusha Van Camp sits in a pew of the church that 

gave her hope, First Presbyterian Church in Evansville, Indiana. 

On Saturday, the Presbytery of Ohio Valley ordained Van Camp 

to a validated ministry serving small churches in southern Indiana. 

(Photo by Rachel Mathew Photography)

Near the end of her joyous and Spirit-filled ordination service, the now-Rev. Jerusha Van Camp stood in front of the many friends and family gathered at First Presbyterian Church in Evansville, Indiana, recently and told them, “Your presence surrounds me with love.”

“About 14 years ago, I walked into this church building for the first time. I was crushed, traumatized and very, very alone. I was giving church one last chance. If I couldn’t find welcome and sanctuary, I was fully prepared to walk away from God and never come back,” Van Camp said. “I found welcome here, a place where I was loved for all my humanity, not just some parts of it,” said Van Camp, a gay woman whose wife, Kathryn, and their children Judah, Jesse and Micaiah were seated at the front of the sanctuary.

“This church was Jesus to me,” regardless of her sexual orientation, she told those celebrating her ordination. “I was gathered in, and I was loved to wholeness. I have learned that God is good, and the gospel of Jesus Christ really is for all people, without exception. To be standing here today is something of a miracle, for which I am grateful.”

Van Camp was ordained by the Presbytery of Ohio Valley. Watch the 100-minute service here.

A recent graduate of the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, Van Camp is now one of three pastors validated by the Presbytery of Ohio Valley for pulpit supply, sacraments and church governance.

For Van Camp’s ordination, the Rev. Susan McGhee, executive presbyter of the Presbytery of Ohio Valley, preached a sermon called “The One Thing that is in All Things,” based on Luke 10:38–42, Luke’s account of Jesus visiting sisters Mary and  Martha.

The Rev. Tony Larson, Co-Moderator of the 226th General 

Assembly and the Rev. Jerusha Van Camp preside at the 

Communion Table during Van Camp’s ordination. (Photo by 

Rachel Mathew Photography)

“Martha prepares for the multitudes and Mary takes a seat, and yet it’s Martha Jesus chastises,” McGhee said. “I can imagine it might have been painful for Martha to hear those words. She was doing what she was brought up to do.”

As McGhee pointed out, Jesus “doesn’t chastise Martha for working, but for being distracted by her many tasks. Jesus lifts up Mary’s example to show her the one thing that is in all things, the one thing in which all of our roles find meaning.”

“The one thing Mary has is what she gives to Jesus: her loving and willing attention,” McGhee said.

While participating in a youth ministry and spirituality project some years ago, McGhee learned about distinctions among “one thing,” “everything” and “some things.”

“One thing is paying attention, being present in the moment,” McGhee said. “Jerusha will have to do that as she travels from church to church.”

“Everything” is part of the job description of people who serve God, “walking, doing dishes, playing with children, writing, singing and looking up at the stars,” McGhee said. “The Mary in us could just as easily got up and cooked” but “Jesus doesn’t want to put an end to Martha’s homemade noodles or famous apple pie. Jesus wants to relieve her of her distractions, her anxieties. … Paying attention is the one thing we can do in all the things we do.”

Finally, the “some things,” or “some particular ways the church attends to the presence of God,” through worship, communion, the study of Scriptures and the giving of gifts. Today is one of those ‘some things,’” McGhee said, “as the Presbytery of Ohio Valley gathers to ordain Jerusha, who offers herself in new ways to the One who holds nothing back, to the church of Jesus Christ, through her energy, intelligence, imagination and love.”

“Pay attention” when it came time for Van Camp to answer the Constitutional Questions, McGhee suggested. “Pay attention and cheer her on, so that Jerusha will never forget the one thing that is in all things — her loving attention. For every moment, God is at work, and there’s nothing that God cannot redeem. She knows that, and she gives herself to that today. Pay attention to the call of God in your life,” McGhee told those gathered, “and to every waking moment.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Today’s Focus: Presbytery of Ohio Valley ordains Jerusha Van Camp

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Donald A. Walker, III, Executive Vice President & Chief Investment Officer, Board of Pensions 
Jacklyn Walker, Mission Specialist I, World Mission’s Director’s Office, Presbyterian Mission Agency 

Let us pray

Loving Christ, you have loved and welcomed many people to be your disciples, and you have called us to welcome one another and even strangers. On this day, help us to welcome those you love in your everlasting love. Amen.

Minute for Mission: World Community Day

November 1, 2024

Forty years ago, the Dutch Reformed Mission Church (DRMC) in South Africa adopted Belydenis van Belhar — the Confession of Belhar — in its first reading. Belhar was an outgrowth of the DRMC’s effort to grapple with the church’s participation in and defense of apartheid and touches prominently on themes of unity, reconciliation and justice. The DRMC adopted Belhar in its final form in 1986.

Although the Confession of Belhar is inextricably connected to its South African context, its message extends far beyond. The PC(USA) describes Belhar as a powerful statement of belief for the Christian faith that, in part, bears witness to the gift of unity and the church’s obligation to it. Interest in Belhar grew internationally around 2006, including among reformed traditions in the United States, where the PC(USA) established the Special Committee on the Confession of Belhar. On the recommendation of this Special Committee, the 222nd General Assembly (2016) approved the inclusion of Belhar in the Book of Confessions because of the clarity of its witness and its capacity to serve as a model for the PC(USA) to “speak and act with similar clarity at a time when it faces division, racism and injustice.”

The Confession of Belhar is a unique voice among the predominantly European and North American confessions. It elevates the witness of Reformed Christians living under different circumstances and serves, even now, as a springboard to discuss its key themes of unity, reconciliation and justice within a wide range of current issues.

For more on the Reformation, visit history.pcusa.org/rs.

Kristen Gaydos, Director of Communications, Presbyterian Historical Society

Today’s Focus: World Community Day

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Flor Velez-Diaz, Manager, Judicial Process & Social Witness, Office of the General Assembly 
David Votta, Housekeeper, Stony Point Center, Presbyterian Mission Agency 

Let us pray

Loving God, thank you for welcoming us to journey with you. Help us to perceive the world through the lens of your compassion so that we are abundantly equipped “to do justice, and to love kindness” as the hands and feet of Christ. Amen.

Weekend Seed Thought: Prayer is the Language of Faith

	Seed Thought for this Weekend Sent weekly to over 100,000 Christian families and growing. Prayer is the Language of Faith In Mark 11:24 Jesus said, “What things you desire, when you pray, believe that you shall receive them, and you shall have them.” In this verse, desire means sincere. And believe means faith. So we see the connection between sincere prayer and faith. Sincere faith is in the heart. The language of the faith is prayer. It takes sincerity to pray well. And without faith no one will pray sincerely. When we pray sincerely we should have confidence that we will be heard. When infants cry when hungry or tired it is natural for a parents to try to figure out what they need. They give them something to eat or put them to bed. And hope that’s why they were crying. When children mature they are more specific and clear with their requests. There is nothing feigned when infants cry when they need sleep or food. Small children have a certain innocent sincerity when they asked for something they want or need. As God’s children, we pray sincerely bringing our specific needs to God. Sincere prayer is the language of faith that God has promised to hear. Sincere prayer is the language that says “I believe.” Listen to Our Devotional Podcast At the Christian Counselor Directory - New Postings Each Week NEW Book!  Nine Fruits of the Vine and Five Little Foxes Resource for Personal Devotions, Discussion Groups, Bible Studies by Joseph Hutchison   Seed Thoughts Sponsored by: Christian Counselor Directory

Ministry Matters - Sanctimony or sanctification? | The gift of small ministry

What biblical and theological wisdom might followers of Jesus draw on in order to navigate this season in a way that tends toward holiness? Sanctimony or sanctification? John Wesley's voting advice for today by Drew McIntyre   To say that things are tense in the United States at the moment is a comic understatement. While the 24 hour news cycle treats the presidential contest as something like a sport, with betting lines changing daily with the latest polls, the cultural anxiety is palpable. From what I observe with friends, on social media, and in news coverage, people on both ends of the political spectrum and from practically every walk of life believe they are genuinely under threat. Tempting though it may be to blame political ads for catastrophizing, they would not be effective if they had no purchase on our darkest fears. Read here

If churches are not called to be constantly growing, to what task have they been called? The gift of small ministry by Allen Stanton   Our American culture carries a persistent myth that growth is always good. In election cycles, we talk about the growing national GDP and growth in the stock market. We talk about career growth, the need to have a higher income or a better job title. In the workplace, our laity are pushed to produce more: more profit, more customers, more market share. An adage in the business world is that “If you’re not growing, you’re dying.” Read here

Finding the force of love in your preaching this Sunday

Making connections in prayer and praise for worship this Sunday