Mission Yearbook: A mountain of faith - San Francisco’s Mt. Davidson and its ecumenical legacy

On April 10, 1955, around 5:42 a.m., worshipers gathered atop Mt. Davidson for the 33rd annual Easter Sunrise Service. KYA broadcast the service from 5:30 to 6:15. The Rev. Dr. John A. Gardner, elected executive director of the San Francisco Council of Churches five months earlier, preached “Hail Him Lord of All!”

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Easter sunrise service atop Mt. Davidson, San Francisco, 1946, Religious News Service photograph collection.

Gardner, an ordained Presbyterian minister, helped lead the ecumenical movement in San Francisco and Chicago during the 1950s and 1960s. Born Nov. 17, 1904, in England, he immigrated with his family to Chicago in 1913. He became pastor of Essex Community Church in 1926 and used group activities to draw young people into church life during the Great Depression. In 1937, he moved to First Presbyterian Church in Midland, Michigan, remaining there until the San Francisco Council of Churches called him in 1954.

Gardner led the council for three years. At the 1955 Easter service, he said, “We, too, have been waiting through the night for this dawning light. And the night itself is a symbol of every dark, uncertain passage. With the new day we sense the miracle of the trees and the sky and the sea. Here in this sacred spot we gather as the children of God, as those who seek light, with hearts open to the central miracle of existence.”

The first Easter Sunrise Service on Mt. Davidson was held April 1, 1923. A program described the 1955 gathering as the 33rd consecutive, nonsectarian service, noting that as many as 50,000 people had climbed the mountain for Easter worship.

Mt. Davidson is the tallest of San Francisco’s hills, crowned by a 103-foot steel-and-concrete cross. Materials in the Rev. John Ashworth Gardner Papers at the Presbyterian Historical Society describe its construction: 750 cubic yards of concrete, 30 tons of reinforced steel and 30,000 feet of lumber for forms. Its arms span 39 feet. The cross was first illuminated March 24, 1934, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a gold key in Washington, D.C., sending a signal over Western Union wires to switch on the lights.

At its 1956 annual meeting, the council celebrated the previous year’s work, including the 16,000-person “Festival of Faith,” an interfaith prayer service for peace and the United Nations. It also announced that the Mount Davidson Easter service, sponsored since 1923 by a citizens’ committee, had become a council project. Gardner had preached in 1955, with music provided by church choirs.

In “Dr. Gardner’s Message,” the council’s executive director called 1955 “a thrilling year,” citing the Festival of Faith, the Easter Sunrise message and his colleagues’ support.

McKenna Britton, Presbyterian Historical Society (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Nicholas Campbell, Associate for Data Oper. & Accounting, Presbyterian Investment & Loan Program
DeGaria Gowdy, Associate II, Partnerships Beyond the PCUSA

Let us pray:

Lord of all times, nations and peoples, help us to see each other through your eyes, celebrating the love you have given that binds us together. We ask your blessing upon the churches and peoples so that we might be and make disciples in your name. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: PDA webinar explores how faith communities can play a big role in preventing addiction

During the second of six online installments in a series called the Disaster Care Academy offered by Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and its partners, participants learned how faith communities can play a vital role in prevention, early intervention and resilience-building when it comes to mental health and the avoidance of drug and alcohol addiction.

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Emily Morrow-Mueller is senior prevention programs manager for the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health & Substance Abuse Services (contributed photo).

Emily Morrow-Mueller, the senior prevention programs manager for the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health & Substance Abuse Services, led the 90-minute webinar.

Before getting to how faith communities can play what is a significant role in the fight for a healthy society, Morrow-Mueller offered descriptions of promotion, prevention, treatment and maintenance.

Promotion is about helping people thrive by improving mental and emotional health for everyone, she said. Examples run from more neighborhood bike paths to improved sleep habits.

Prevention is reducing risk and protecting mental health early on. It can be universal, such as anti-bullying programs; selective, including offering support groups for at-risk groups; and educated, targeted at people with early warning signs including alcohol and drug abuse. Prevention strategies can work upstream to eliminate or reduce the root causes of, say, substance abuse, or downstream.

Treatment and maintenance are included in recovery. “It’s about getting better and staying well over time,” she said.

Risk factors are predictive for half or less of the population, while protective factors are predictive in up to 80% of the high-risk population, she said.

Morrow-Mueller then spent time exploring the different domains or contexts for promotion and prevention strategies as well as treatment and maintenance. Those contexts are individual, family and relationships, community, and societal, and Morrow-Mueller also touched on some of the risk factors associated with each.

She then turned to a brief discussion on Adverse Childhood Experiences, also known as ACEs, including abuse, neglect, separation or divorce, a family member with mental illness, a family member addicted to drugs or alcohol, a family member who is in prison, or witnessing a parent being abused.

Positive Childhood Experiences, or PCEs, are supportive and nurturing experiences in childhood that help a child grow up to be healthy and resilient and able to cope with stress. It impacts lifelong health, behavior and successful relationships.

PCEs, she said, “can buffer the effects of ACEs.”

“The presence of one caring adult can change a life,” she said, and faith leaders are often the ones to buffer those ACEs effects. As Mother Teresa put it, “Faith in action is love, and love in action is service.”

Then she answered the question many were on the call to consider: What is the role of the faith community in all this?

Faith communities have “a long history of leading positive change and supporting the well-being of members,” Morrow-Mueller said. Churches are available and accessible. Many people turn to their faith community when they’re in a crisis because they see it “as a safe place,” she said.

People who serve faith communities have a lot in common with prevention specialists, she noted, including engaging populations across the lifespan, focusing on community wellness and resilience, and employing evidence-based approaches.

Action steps that faith leaders serving in their local faith community can take include:

• Address mental health and addiction in sermons
• Host workshops and panels to explore mental health topics
• Use church bulletins and newsletters to “serve as a gentle reminder that support exists,” Morrow-Mueller suggested
• Educate the community and the congregation
• Strengthen relationships and support systems through mentorship programs, small groups or youth circles
• Engage in “compassionate leadership,” which “helps build trust across the community,” she said
• Foster strong family relationships through parenting workshops and family activities
• Strengthen economic and social stability through resource navigation, skill-building programs and community networks
• Promote positive identity and purpose through values-based education and leadership opportunities, and celebrate milestones
• Provide safe and structured environments through after-school programs and other safe spaces

“Ultimately, your leadership helps create an environment where young people feel guided and grounded,” she told the faith leaders present. “You are strengthening their well-being in meaningful and lasting ways.”

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

Let us join in prayer for:

Ezra Krumhansl, Director, IT Infrastructure, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation
Tamron Keith, Chief Financial Officer, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation 

Let us pray:

Dear God, we thank you for the witness community, who reveal to us that the most important thing we can do is be present for our neighbor in need, just as you are present for us in Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.

Help Applying for a World Communion Offering Grant

Resources to Help You Apply for a World Communion Offering Grant

You have until Jan. 15, 2027, to apply for a World Communion Offering grant. Any council of the church engaged in reconciliation work is eligible to apply. The following resources can help make the application process easier.

Grant FAQs This section answers common questions about the World Communion Offering grant. It covers everything from who can apply and how often to what documentation is needed to complete the application. Check out our Grant FAQs.

Visual Guide This step-by-step guide includes screenshots showing what to expect as you complete the application. Use it as a reference if you get stuck or have questions about the process. Download our visual guide.

Video Tutorial Watch this tutorial to see exactly how to apply for a grant in real time. Pause or rewind the video to see any steps you have questions about, or follow along as you complete the grant application. Watch the Video Tutorial.

Apply for a Grant

If you need additional help, contact Marla Edwards in the Grant Management Office at marla.edwards@pcusa.org or 502-569-5088.

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Christmas Joy Offering Resources for Children and All Ages

Christian Education Resources from the Christmas Joy Offering

The Christmas Joy Offering has resources for congregations of all sizes, including an intergenerational lesson plan, activities and lessons tailored to children of various ages.

Intergenerational Lesson Plan Use this lesson plan, based on Micah 6:8, for an intergenerational experience. It can be offered as a stand-alone event or incorporated into weekly congregational gatherings.

Download Intergenerational Lesson Plan

Activities for Children Use these activities when you have extra time at the end of Sunday school, children’s church or a small group session. You can also use them to create your own special one-time event for children.

Download Activities for Children

Younger Children Lesson Plan Use this lesson plan to introduce younger children to Micah 6:8 and the Christmas Joy Offering. It is geared for preschoolers and children in the lower elementary grades.

Download Younger Children Lesson Plan

Older Children Lesson Plan Engage older children with this lesson plan, designed for upper elementary and possibly some younger middle school students. Teach them about Micah 6:8 and the Christmas Joy Offering.

Download Older Children Lesson Plan

Thank you for generously supporting the Christmas Joy Offering. If you have any questions, reply to this email or call us at (800) 728-7228, Ext. 5047. Update your preferences for the latest information on the Christmas Joy Offering.

Minute for Mission: Honest Patriotism for Christian Citizens

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“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 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.” What’s more, it points to Christianity’s rootedness in a “prophetic calling” that “entail[s] a moral freedom to challenge … misuses of power.” 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.”
• “The right of citizens to participate in the democratic process … [undeterred by] voter suppression initiatives and racially based and/or partisan gerrymandering.”

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, Formerly on Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

April Davenport, Vice President & General Counsel, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation
Denise Hampton, Vice President & Controller, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation 

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.

Mission Yearbook: Author discusses how churches can change their own stories to hopeful

Mark Yaconelli remembers receiving a story Bible from his grandmother when he was 5 years old. 

“It had all the glossy pictures; I especially remember an image of Jesus carrying a lamb,” Yaconelli recalls. “The cover was what looked like Jesus’ passport photo. I wondered what it would be like to be able to read this massive, thick book all by myself.” 

Her gift became the foundation of his belief that “story is relationship — the morals, values and plot lines that teach us how to live.”

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Mark Yaconelli speaks at the Luminosity Conference, presented by the Presbyterian Foundation to spark inspiration and innovation in church leaders.

Yaconelli is founder and director of The Hearth and a community builder, retreat facilitator and author of “Between the Listening and the Telling: How Stories Can Save Us.” He delivered one of the plenary session addresses at the inaugural Luminosity Conference, sponsored by the Presbyterian Foundation and held in Orlando, Florida. The conference was designed to offer pastors and church leaders inspiration and thoughts on innovation.

Yaconelli shared his nostalgia for the stories of his childhood — “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” and tales of wayward ships floating into the fog off the shore on Nova Scotia. In a time when the world can seem “horrifying,” it is the telling of stories that anchors us in what we believe, he said.

“Remember what we know is true: Each of us came into the world as light. When a baby comes into a room, everyone smiles,” he said. “That was you at one point! You were the light, hungry for experience, hungry for connection, so excited by every new face. That was you; that was me. And we didn’t know what to do with all of that energy. One of the ways we figure it out is that people tell us stories that let us experience courage and creativity. They tell us stories that project the light into the future.”

Churches need to revisit the power of story, Yaconelli said, and especially the story they are telling about themselves.

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The audience at a plenary session led by speaker Mark Yaconelli at the inaugural Luminosity Conference, sponsored by the Presbyterian Foundation and held March 9-11, 2026 in Orlando, Florida.

“Many of our churches are stuck in a bad story,” he told the pastors and church leaders in attendance. “If you as pastors feel anxious, isolated, bitter, hateful, or bored, you are stuck in a bad story. Change it! The story of Jesus is full of life and adventure. It’s like a roller coaster or riding the rapids. Even when disaster comes we know what to do. A pastor friend of mine, who leads a church in Minneapolis and has been deeply involved in the protests, told me, ‘This is what we trained for. We know what to do as the church.’”

Yaconelli then offered an unexpected comparison for the pastors in the audience: competition cooking shows on television.

“You know the shows I’m taking about — chefs are given a set of crazy ingredients, and they have to make a dish out of them,” he said with a grin. “Here’s sardines, a pineapple, and some Cream of Wheat. Go!” The chefs are connoisseurs of taste, he said. “We are supposed to be connoisseurs of light. We are supposed to be connoisseurs of love.”

He invited the audience to imagine a church with three widows, a multilingual congregation and a bunch of kids. “Go! How do we make this church work? This is what we should have been learning in seminary. We are the healing response to the separation the world imposes. How do we bring us closer together?”

The rules of the cooking competition say you have to make something delicious out of the ingredients you have. The rules of being a pastor say you have to make light and love with the people you have in the pews. “Trust what you know,” he implored. “You know the thing in your church that needs to die — do it! You know what brings you and others light — do that! In living churches, the pastors are doing what brings them light and the church follows. Do the thing you love.” 

Read reports about Luminosity Conference workshops here and here.

Chuck Toney for the Presbyterian Foundation (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

John Wilkinson, Vice President, Stewardship and Funds Development, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation
Ruth Gardner, Vice President, Human Resources, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation              

Let us pray:

O God, may the saving power of your Holy Word and Holy Spirit continue to bring us out of darkness and into your wonderful light. In the name of Jesus, our Savior, we pray. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: A small congregation, a legacy of hope

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Exterior of the Witherpoon St Presbyterian Church (Lia Abrams)

Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church in Princeton, New Jersey, has a rich history of faith, education and working for justice. Its roots reach back to the 1830s, when Black worshipers from Princeton’s First Presbyterian Church began forming a separate worshiping community amid racial exclusion. Its history includes Betsey Stockton, a formerly enslaved missionary and teacher, and the Rev. William Drew Robeson, father of Paul Robeson, who served as its pastor.

Today, I see that history reflected in the congregation. Witherspoon is a small church whose members bring so much knowledge, experience and talent. As I get to know them, I am struck by how intelligent, well-educated and accomplished they are. Their stories and conversations teach me things that go beyond the classroom.

As a first-year seminarian at Princeton Theological Seminary and a person of color, being among these members gives me hope. They are role models who help me see what is possible in my own future. They are encouraging me by seeing their accomplishments and how they use their knowledge and experience with the church and the wider community. 

Witherspoon reminds me that even a small congregation can make a lasting difference. This church holds a rich history and a community of people who continue to inspire those around them — including a seminarian just beginning her journey.

Lia Abrams, Princeton Theological Seminary

Let us join in prayer for:

Lynnette Berkhimer, 1001 NWC Apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Vicente Guna, Vice President, Digital Strategy, Presbyterian Church U.S.A., A Corporation 

Let us pray:

Loving God, thank you for Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church, its rich history, and the people who share their faith, wisdom and gifts. Bless this congregation as it continues to serve and inspire others. Guide those of us beginning our journey in ministry and help us learn from their example. May we carry that same hope and love into our communities. Amen.