Today in the Mission Yearbook - Presbyterian Hunger Program associate reports on White House conference for faith leaders

Jessica Maudlin was among faith leaders convening on climate, clean energy and environmental justice

October 15, 2024

Jessica Maudlin of the Presbyterian Hunger Program 

attended the White House faith Leaders Convening on 

Climate, Clean Energy and Environmental Justice. 

(Contributed photo)

The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) recently held a White House Faith Leaders Convening on Climate, Clean Energy and Environmental Justice.

The event, attended by Jessica Maudlin, associate for Sustainability and Earth Care Concerns in the Presbyterian Hunger Program, along with other board members and staff of Creation Justice Ministries, gathered faith leaders and representatives of faith-based organizations from across the country, with the goal of discussing opportunities to benefit from and further engage their communities on President Biden’s climate, clean energy and environmental justice agenda.

That agenda includes Direct Pay, a novel provision provided through the Inflation Reduction Act that enables tax-exempt entities, including houses of worship, to benefit from federal clean energy tax incentives. Participants at the 226th General Assembly learned more about Direct Pay during the Environmental Justice Committee’s presentation when Ronald Newman addressed the Assembly and during a recent Presbyterians for Earth Care webinar.

The event recognized faith leaders for their unique ability to connect their communities with the information, resources, and support needed to create a more equitable and just clean energy future.

“It was truly an honor to be gathered together at the White House with so many people of faith,” said Maudlin. “I get to do this work with Presbyterians, day in and day out, but to be reminded again that we are not alone in our commitment to care for Creation and to see the ways in which policy and federal funding can support those commitments was so encouraging. People of faith truly bring something special to this shared vocation of ours.”

White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi pointed out that post-pandemic, houses of worship have been faced with what he called powerful head winds, citing less giving, being asked to do more with less, increased prices of energy costs and unprecedented heat waves requiring more use of energy. And despite all of that, Zaidi said, people of faith are asking themselves, “Are we powerful enough to deliver the services our most vulnerable need? Do we have the ability to be the light that is still on while the storm is raging?”

Board members for Creation Justice Ministries, including 

Jessica Maudlin, second from right, pose for a group photo. 

(Contributed photo)

Participants also heard from several church and nonprofit leaders as they shared success stories and best practices for leveraging Direct Pay and other federal investments.

RE-volv Executive Director Andreas Karelas was one such leader. As he started to share, he pointed out a wall sculpture hanging in the ornate gathering room. An angel holding a gear, keys and a toolbelt graced the sculpture. Karelas drew the comparison between the artwork and the work of faith leaders in the room having all the tools and keys to creating a just and equitable transition. Solar panels are just one of the ways houses of worship can be part of the transition to clean energy. He went on to share data from a Berkeley Lab study that indicates that the result of one house of worship installing solar panels could translate to as many as 80 residential installations over the next five years.

The Rev. Betty Holley, a presiding elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the Ohio Conference, a professor of environmental ethics at Payne Theological Seminary and another member of CJM’s board who also attended the meeting, shared that she was struck by another example of Direct Pay utilization: battery storage updates, which allow houses of worship to retain energy even when power grids are hit.

“One group talked about how they became a resilient community church. People could come to them to get their phones recharged, to get their medication stored in a battery-operated refrigerated machine, both of which were one of the church’s projects through this IRA initiative,” Holley said.

Holley believes that religious leaders should be a “beacon” for their communities in the environmental movement.

“We’re looking toward sustainability. How can we sustain ourselves on Earth?” she said. “You know, we all have but one home and one future.”

Jessica Maudlin, Associate for Sustainable Living and Earth Care Concerns, Presbyterian Hunger Program

Today’s Focus: Jessica Maudlin was among faith leaders convening on climate, clean energy and environmental justice

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Keren Strothman, Mission Specialist II, Theology, Formation & Evangelism, Presbyterian Mission Agency 
Shawnda Styles, Client Services Specialists, Presbyterian Foundation 

Let us pray

Dear Creator, help us make every day one of celebration of and protection for your creation. For all the wonders of Creation, we give thanks. Help us remember members of Creation, human and non-human, who are threatened. Give us strength to stand up for the most vulnerable, who are the most affected by environmental degradation.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - A rally cry for lifelong formation

Office of Christian Formation offers resources

October 14, 2024

The theme of “bee-longing” energizes the start of the Christian 

formation year at Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church in Severna 

Park, Maryland, in 2023. (Contributed photo)

The PC(USA)’s Office of Christian Formation has collected and updated resources for congregations of all sizes wishing to mark Christian Formation Week, which was designated Sept. 8–14 but can be celebrated anytime.

Covenant Presbyterian Church celebrates Rally Day with a Sunday School Kickoff during the Christian Formation hour, which includes breakfast, a few energizers and singing before teaching teams and children meet and explore the classrooms. Adults remain in the fellowship hall to learn about opportunities for adult education and discipleship at the Activities Fair.

In worship, major milestones are honored with Bibles for second graders and T-shirts for sixth graders as they move up to the “Youth Division.” After church, people of all ages gather for a picnic potluck, crafts and games. “We are using the resources on the Christian Formation webpage as a way to dream of new ways to celebrate our traditions,” said Watson, who pointed out how helpful the resources were in planning for intergenerational connections. “We will be including conversation starters at our tables to build intergenerational conversation on Rally Day!”

For JoAnne Sharp, director of Faith Formation at Hodges Boulevard Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville, Florida, the first week of September is a time “to remind the folks that faith formation is a lifelong process that doesn’t end at confirmation or graduation from high school.” Over her career as a Christian educator, Sharp has seen the traditions and patterns of the church change in regard to Sunday school and how formation is approached.

“It is hard to get people to let go of the old language of Rally Day,” said Sharp, who explained how the term worked “when society rallied at the end of summer to start the new program year.” Now, Sharp acknowledges the church attendance trends and “the struggle to see families more than twice a month during the program year.” Currently, Hodges Boulevard Presbyterian Church doesn’t have a dedicated faith formation time on Sundays, so there is no promotion to new classes as part of Christian Formation Week. But Sharp pointed out there are still ways to recruit and honor participants through recognizing volunteer leaders during worship and hosting a “covered dish brunch with ministry teams’ information booths.” The church has renamed the occasion “Celebration Sunday,” and will use the Office of Christian Formation’s QuickSheet with recommended liturgy and worship for the occasion.

Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church in Severna Park,

Maryland, celebrates the return to Christian formation

programming with “puppet parables” in worship. (Photo 

by Kat Green).

“Balloons may or may not be involved on Celebration Sunday as folks are coming into worship. Confetti will not be in play, nor glitter!” said Sharp.

Recently, the PC(USA)’s Office of Christian Formation hosted an online community circle focused on listening to the needs of small churches. “So often in a small church you feel like resources for Rally Day don’t fit because you feel you aren’t kicking off something,” said Sandy Safford, a Christian educator and commissioned lay pastor. In her work as a consultant and coach in Denver Presbytery, Safford encourages leaders to adapt resources to scale and to take their time with launches. One leader shared that in her church of fewer than 75 members, they don’t try to bless the backpacks, commission the new teachers and throw a launch party all on the same Sunday. Instead, they space each of these special celebrations out over August and September.

Safford said that small churches tend to be “community-oriented” and recommends that small neighboring churches rally together to host such an event for the community.

Miatta Wilson, associate for the Office of Christian Education, is hopeful for what may come from the rallying cry that came out of the 226th General Assembly (2024) that approved a resolution to research and develop curriculum and resources in the small church context (CF-01). The Office of Christian Formation has already compiled existing small church resources and looks forward to adding more.

Beth Waltemath, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Today’s Focus: Christian Formation Week

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Chenoa Stock, Mission co-worker serving in Peru, World Mission, Presbyterian Mission Agency 
Rebecca Storti, Director, Meetings & Special Events, Board of Pensions 

Let us pray

Gracious God, we plant and water the seeds, but you alone give the growth to our mission and outreach projects. Keep us faithful in our work in your vineyard that our labors may bear fruit and we may help others grow in the knowledge of your love and grace. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - ‘If I showed up at your church, somebody other than Jesus would be happy to see me’

Co-Moderators, Stated Clerk team up to share their insights during worship at the Presbyterian Center Chapel

October 13, 2024

From left, the Rev. Jihyun Oh, the Rev. CeCe Armstrong and 

the Rev. Tony Larson sing a hymn during worship Wednesday 

in the Chapel at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky. 

(photo by Rich Copley)

With Ephesians 2:10 as their scriptural basis, the co-moderators of the 226th General Assembly, the Rev. CeCe Armstrong and the Rev. Tony Larson, joined the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Rev. Jihyun Oh, to lead a recent hybrid worship service in the Chapel at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville. One by one, the three recently elected denominational leaders spoke on “Created,” “Called” and “Commissioned.”

Created

Put your hand in front of your face, Armstrong suggested. Inhale and then exhale, blowing air at the hand. “Do you feel anything? That means you have breath in you, and breath means you’ve been created by God,” she said.

Genesis 1 tells us that everything God created is good. “When we consider being created by God, it’s all right if we declare, ‘That’s good!’” Armstrong said. “Friends, I want you to acknowledge that you have been fearfully and wonderfully made and to acknowledge that you have been made good. That ought to make you walk different.”

“I encourage you to be a good creation of God and wear the smile that proves that’s so,” she said. “To God be the glory for the great things God is doing.”

Called

Larson spoke about a recent time and an unlikely place to which he and his wife, Heather, were called: a dive bar in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where a trivia night had been organized.

During the two hours of the trivia contest, people would walk in and out of the bar, Larson said. Some hadn’t had particularly good days. One person told him, “I’m Catholic. I go to Mass every Sunday. People fuss at me all the time. They say, ‘but we see what you’re doing on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.’”

“I go every Sunday, and I get forgiven, but the only person happy to see me there is Jesus.” Then he asked Larson, “Would I be welcome in your church?”

“I said, ‘Of course you’d be welcomed at our church,’” Larson said, telling the man about the ministry of Trinity Presbyterian Church of Surfside Beach, South Carolina, including “our ministry for those in recovery, our ministry to children and families, and our fundamental ministry to people who pick up from some place on the map at this stage of their life and come here and generally have no connections, no roots. They have left their roots behind, and we help those rootless people find roots in the church.”

“I just really get the sense talking to the two of you,” the man replied, “that if I showed up at your church, somebody other than Jesus would be happy to see me.”

“We don’t know,” Larson said of why we are called. “We are called to be in spaces where we are, and to be the very presence of Christ to whoever might be there. Thanks be to God.”

Commissioned

For many people in the worship, the term “commission” has a specific meaning, said Oh, who started her duties as Stated Clerk on Aug. 5. There are commissions, both judicial and administrative, and commissioners to assemblies “who have been given power and authority to speak on and act on behalf of a particular body of people.”

We can think of “commissioned” as “being given the power and authority to speak on and act on behalf of Christ Jesus our Lord, who has called us to be salt and light in the world,” the Stated Clerk said.

Being commissioned can also mean “being taken off of standby, being taken off the sidelines to places where God is calling us.” Ephesians 2:10 calls us “God’s handiwork,” which got Oh to thinking about “what it means to be commissioned to that work. The person creating that handiwork is thinking about a particular context or purpose when the work is commissioned. There is a particular thing we are to be doing in the world.” There can be “a sense of joy that emerges from that commission.”

“We are created, called and commissioned. Thanks be to God. Amen.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Today’s Focus: Co-Moderators, Stated Clerk team up to share their insights during worship at the Presbyterian Center Chapel

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Larry, and Inge Sthreshley, Mission Co-workers serving in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, World Mission, Presbyterian Mission Agency 
Mindi Stivers, Financial Assistant, Presbyterian Women 

Let us pray

Mighty God, we bless you for the rich soil in which your church is nourishing the seed of your gospel. Continue to transform our lives, congregations and communities so that all will know us by the fruit we bear. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Lifting up singleness and found family

Podcaster Mary B. Safrit is a recent guest on the ‘A Matter of Faith’ podcast

October 12, 2024

Mary B. Safrit

Mary B. Safrit, a communicator, creator, coach and the host of the Found Family podcast, did the hosts of “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast” a favor in a recent broadcast, appearing as the guests of Simon Doong and the Rev. Lee Catoe on an episode of “A Matter of Faith” called “Knowing Ourselves (and Singleness).” Listen to their 67-minute conversation here.

“It’s exciting to have a fellow podcaster with us,” Catoe told Safrit. “It’s always good to connect with someone who does something similar.”

The hosts posed this question to Safrit: “Let’s talk about everyone’s favorite subject: ourselves! How does knowing and understanding ourselves impact the kinds of friendships we make and the community that we seek, both inside and outside the church?”

“When I think about the church and my relationships with people at church, it’s had a huge impact on me since I moved to New York,” Safrit said. An admitted “recovering people-pleaser,” Safrit said if “I see myself as this irreparably damaged person, of course I’m going to show up in my relationships with a posture that’s not very empowered. Therefore, I will accept all sorts of nonsense from other people because I don’t think I deserve better.”

Safrit “turned a corner through therapy and empowering relationships.”

For Safrit, family “has always been a pretty expansive term. It’s really about a prioritization of relationships.”

“When we talk about ‘found family,’ it’s not found by biology or a legal agreement,” such as marriage, Safrit said. “It’s something we can define for ourselves based on our values and what works for us. It’s something I’ve learned a lot about since joining the queer community for sure. There’s such a rich history of chosen family and found family in the queer community.”

Safrit spent about five years podcasting and writing on singleness in the church. Recently, “I’ve branched out more on inclusion” since coming out.

In addition, some churches “don’t know how to celebrate single people. It’s not a disease or a problem,” Safrit said. “They are human beings looking for a community who have a lot to contribute to the community.”

“Church is not supposed to be a place where hierarchy exists,” Safrit said. “What if we did the Jesus-y thing and flipped the tables and said, ‘These people who don’t have social privilege or power — what is the goodness of the gospel in those people’s lives?’ How can we showcase them, so we know God better? To me, it’s a missed opportunity in a lot of churches.”

There’s a difference between “interacting with a big group of people, which is what the church can be, and our found family, our people we have deep relationships with or are cultivating deep relationships with,” Safrit said.

Doong told Safrit he’d never thought about being single as a lower rung in institutions including the church, where invariably “there will be questions about ‘are you on dating apps?’ or ‘are you seeing anybody?’ People don’t need to be asking those questions. It implies there is a direction your life should be headed. I applaud you for bringing this up,” Doong told Safrit.

During podcasts, Safrit enjoys discussing “the specific value that single people bring to the church outside their usefulness or marriageability. What I noticed when I got into the singleness conversation was that there are lots of folks focusing on getting single people unsingle and a lot about getting singles content, which in a lot of ways means getting them to stop complaining. ‘Be quiet and do your service and be faithful. Go over there and stop bothering us,’” was the message single people often received.

“I was more interested in, if our goodness and identity isn’t contingent on our relationship status, what is the inherent goodness that God has for people who are single?” Safrit said. “Who are we leaving out when we relegate [leadership] to this tiny corner of how singles can be useful to the church, and how they can get unsingle. There is so much we are missing.”

New episodes of “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast” drop every Thursday. Watch previous editions here.

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Today’s Focus: Podcaster Mary B. Safrit, guest on the ‘A Matter of Faith’ podcast

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Angie Stevens, Manager, Communication Specialist, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 
Cameron Stevens, Mission Associate II, Constituency Relations, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Presbyterian Mission Agency 

Let us pray

Loving God, we know you through your Son, Jesus Christ, and we serve you as led by the Holy Spirit. May we respond to your call as servants even as we seek to be leaders in your church. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - We are indeed ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’

Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, the Rev. Laura Mariko Cheifetz tells PW’s 2024 Churchwide Gathering

October 11, 2024

The Rev. Laura Mariko Cheifetz offers a charge to 

conclude the opening devotion remembering recent 

gun violence and the anniversary of the Charleston 

shootings at the 222nd General Assembly of the 

Presbyterian Church (USA) in Portland, Oregon, 

on June 18, 2016. (Photo by Michael Whitman)

At times, do you have negative thoughts playing in your head that conflict with the biblical statement, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made”?

If so, you’re not alone, according to the Rev. Laura Mariko Cheifetz, transitional associate pastor for Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church in Sunnyvale, California.

“God knit us together,” Cheifetz said. “We are created wonderfully and fearfully and yet, many, if not most of us, walk around with negative tapes going in the back of our heads. We could all keep therapists in business forever.”

Cheifetz made that declaration while speaking at the Presbyterian Women’s 2024 Churchwide Gathering, where she raised thought-provoking questions about envisioning body image, loving one’s neighbor and having the courage to love oneself.

“What message did you receive about your body as a girl, as a teenager?” Cheifetz asked. “If you gave birth or didn’t, what message did you receive about your body and its processes? If you were an older or a more seasoned person, what message did you receive about your body as it aged? Did you ever perceive your body as your enemy, as something that had to be controlled, as something that had to be modest in order not to tempt men?”

While continuing to raise uncomfortable questions, Cheifetz, who has served as an assistant dean at Vanderbilt Divinity School, revealed that some people have thought she looked “too white” or “too Asian.”

She went on to ask, “Did you have to unlearn some messages about your body to discover the truth? To learn that you are the right size, to learn that you are strong, to learn that you are capable, to learn that body hair or cellulite are not a measure of your humanity or your morality? To learn that hair and skin are racialized and enforcing beauty standards is both racist and misogynistic? To learn that you are the right shape, to learn that you are the right weight, to learn that you are beautiful?”

Dr. Veda Pendleton

In addition to nudging audience members to explore their own body image and inner dialogue, Cheifetz tied together how failing to love oneself can affect interactions with others. “When we do not love ourselves well, sometimes that bleeds over to how we treat other people,” she said. “When we do not love ourselves, we may not always be great at loving our neighbors.”

Cheifetz has experienced that negative treatment personally. “After living in this body, in this society, I know that I, as a biracial, queer Asian American of Japanese and Jewish descent, an ordained woman, I fall into several categories that are regularly dehumanized in our society,” she said.

She went on to say, “In the most broad sense, there are people out there who want me dead, or at least quiet,” so for Cheifetz, self-love means understanding “I am created in God’s image, that I am loved, that I deserve to be a human who is alive and free to live, that I live in a society that makes space for me to flourish. This, as you know, is not a given for all people.”

Cheifetz also showed how the importance of loving oneself intersects with forging helpful public policy and creating a less dangerous world.

“We deserve to be safe and valued,” she said. “Our bodies need health care. They need a clean environment. They need healthy food and safe outdoor spaces. They need community. They need a home free of abuse and violence. These bodies sometimes produce other humans who require education, child care, safe neighborhoods, safe schools free of bullying and gun violence and bomb threats and evacuations and hate crimes.”

Regarding the role of religion, she said, “When we are able to wake up in the morning and do what we are meant to do, and our families, neighborhoods, states and country support us in getting that done, we will feel loved and supported, and when the theology taught in our churches proves to us over and over again that we are loved and created in the image of God, we will be free to love ourselves,” she said. “After all, loving ourselves should not always have to be a revolutionary and defiant act.”

Darla Carter, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Today’s Focus: Rev. Laura Mariko Cheifetz speaks at PW’s 2024 Churchwide Gathering

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Tim Stepp, Associate Director, Internal Audit, Administrative Services Group (A Corp) 
Andrea Stevens, Charitable Gift Advisor, Presbyterian Foundation 

Let us pray

God of the old and the new, the great and the small, thank you for the warmth of your love and the inspiration of your Spirit. May you continue to bring new life into your churches, that we might proclaim in a myriad of ways the wonders of your love. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Who needs a heart?

We need one to join a God who’s brokenhearted and yet still loves us, the Rev. Cindy Kohlmann tells the 2024 Presbyterian Women Churchwide Gathering

October 10, 2024

The Rev. Cindy Kohlmann, co-moderator of the 

223rd General Assembly and the connectional 

presbyter and stated clerk of New Castle Presbytery. 

(Contributed photo)

Answering the question “Who needs a heart?” was the Rev. Cindy Kohlmann’s task during the opening plenary of the 2024 Presbyterian Women Churchwide Gathering, which was recently held in St. Louis.

Kohlmann, co-moderator of the 223rd General Assembly (2018) and the connectional presbyter and stated clerk of New Castle Presbytery, came on to Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got To Do With It.”

Kohlmann centered her talk, which she acknowledged would be more like a sermon, on Isaiah 54:7–8, a reminder that God briefly abandoned God’s people when God’s heart was sufficiently broken by their actions. What would happen, Kohlmann asked, if God decided to let go of God’s heart? She traced episodes of God’s heart breaking back to the story of sin entering the world in the Garden of Eden. “To me,” Kohlmann said, “it feels like an absolute miracle that God continues to choose to love us. … The God whose indelible image is interwoven with our very selves reaches out to us, again and again.”

“Make no mistake. God’s love is fierce. It is powerful. It is certainly not ‘a secondhand emotion,’” Kohlmann said with a nod toward Turner’s hit song. “God’s love isn’t fickle or temporary. This is a love that imagined the endless possibility of Creation, then breathed them with God’s own breath into being. How fearfully and wonderfully we are made in God’s love!”

Another truth about God’s love is that it’s “focused on the tangible, everyday aspects of life,” according to Kohlmann.

“All that God desires with fierce longing and passionate dedication is entrusted to us to bring to fruition, here on Earth as it is in heaven,” she said. “We are meant to be the expression of God’s powerful, fierce, life-changing love in this world. So, we need to acknowledge that a good portion of what breaks God’s heart is the very fact that we claim this amazing love for ourselves, and then deny it to others.”

Photo by Aziz Acharki via Unsplash

“We know the stories. We know the words of the prophets and the psalms. We know God’s love is tangible, and our expression of God’s love is meant to go beyond thoughts and prayers,” she said. “We know that we are meant to have hearts, hearts that can indeed be broken, hearts that go beyond charity to long-term solutions. But my God, it’s hard. … It’s hard to hold tight to compassion when confronted every day with cynicism and apathy, and that’s in our churches as well as in our communities.”

Choosing to have a heart “is life-changing and habit-forming, and, my friends, it is world-altering,” Kohlmann said. “It is who and how and what we are called to be — fiercely, passionately, whole-heartedly advocates for the love of God.”

“When we open our hearts to this world, our hearts will be broken, and we will join God in that brokenness,” she said. “We need hearts that can be broken so they can overflow even more. In the power through whom all things are made possible, tonight we open our hearts to all the holy triune God can and will and intends to do through us. We open our hearts. Hallelujah! Amen.”

A number of speakers welcomed attendees to the gathering, which is normally held in person every three years, but saw a pandemic-caused interruption in 2021.

“I wish you could see what I see,” said the Rev. Dr. Diane Givens Moffett, president and executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, gazing into the faces of those gathered. “It is good to see everyone in person.”

Moffett thanked Dr. Susan Jackson Dowd, the executive director of Presbyterian Women, as well as PW’s officers and members for the opportunity to bring them greetings.

While “churches are learning to thrive in a post-pandemic world,” times of crisis “can leave us weary,” Moffett said. She recalled raising three daughters who were carted to their after-school and weekend activities by their father and by extended family members. “I experienced days when nothing seemed to be working but my nerves,” Moffett said. “I did what I did because of love, and I believe there are a few women here for which that is true.”

“For mission and ministry projects, for your support and embodiment of the Matthew 25 focus, for your per capita donations … for your willingness to keep pressing and leaning into new ways, for the audacity to believe that God is doing a new thing, for being disciples who are love with skin on it — for Presbyterian Women past, present, and future, I say thanks be to God for your witness and your ministry. Blessings on this, your 2024 Gathering.”

Read a report on the second plenary here.

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Today’s Focus: Rev. Cindy Kohlmann speaks to the 2024 Presbyterian Women Churchwide Gathering

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Marsha Stearley, Desktop Support Analyst, Information Technology, Administrative Services Group (A Corp) 
Elaine Stepp, Operations Reconciliation Specialist, Presbyterian Foundation 

Let us pray

Great God of Hope, may the river flow through us this day in sharing help and gladness to God’s city as the morning dawns. Touch our hearts with love for all, especially by encouraging the weak and giving tenderness to the strong. Amen.

WCC NEWS: Storyteller and playwright shares the mind and faith behind her craft

Kristine Greenaway, who has held many roles with the World Council of Churches (WCC) communications team, is a playwright and producer who is currently co-producing, with Nicole Arends, Shadows in the Nooks: Spirited Women in Theatre. She is member of Alumnae Theatre, a nonprofit theatre in Toronto, Canada that was created more than 100 years ago and is the oldest women-run theatre company in North America. Photo:Nicole Arends 10 October 2024 Shadows in the Nooks is a series of original five-minute monologues depicting 14 women in a unique immersive experience that takes the audience from one location to another throughout the theatre. The women depicted in these monologues found welcome and refuge in the theatre when they faced some of the most significant moments of their personal and artistic lives. Greenaway took time to share about her work as a playwright, the art of storytelling, and how her faith informs her creative endeavors. How did the idea of Shadows in the Nooks first come to your mind? Greenaway: I had the original idea of producing monologues about women who had contributed to Canadian theatre. Another Alumnae member, Nicole Arends, caught the vision and brought her skills as a director and producer to the creation of the project. We quickly realized we wanted it to be an immersive theatre experience with the audience moving from place to place throughout the theatre, where they would discover women with a story to tell about a crucial moment in their theatre careers. I had the vision of the production being simple, raw theatre, which meant I wanted to use natural lighting (at most a handheld work light) and foley sound effects—such as using a thunder sheet and a rainstick to create the sounds of a rainstorm. Did your work with the church inform your storytelling talents? Greenaway: I believe that theatre is created from stories that ring true and speak to the interests, concerns, fears, joys, and dreams of the public. As a playwright I draw on my ability to listen with an open mind and heart to the stories I hear. This ability to open up to people and situations I don’t know and to treat the people I “meet” with respect is based in what I read of Jesus’s life. He listened to, and spoke with, people from a wide range of backgrounds and sought to hear what was behind the situations in which they found themselves. My career in the church and in church organizations like the WCC and my lifelong membership in the United Church of Canada have allowed me to meet and work with a wide range of people. It has taught me to listen carefully to what I hear and to ask myself why they are reacting as they are. This is vital for my work as a playwright. Why is a play a great way to tell a story? Greenaway: I don’t believe in preaching through a play—that’s a sure way to turn off an audience. But I do believe that vivid storytelling reveals the stories of people and situations to which we are called to respond in our daily lives. Plays offer people insight into situations and characters that they might not have understood before. Hopefully they will then be a little more open to accepting people they previously rejected. A play can also show people what is happening in oil fields, retirement homes, or student dorms—situations that reveal racism, misogyny, or misinformation—and can reveal too the joy of new friendships or new beginnings. The call to seek truth, be reconciled, and start anew is at the heart of my faith. I think the best theatre—be it tragedy or comedy—speaks to that call. I guess that’s why I’m a playwright! How did you choose the women depicted in Shadows in the Nooks? Greenaway: Nicole and I produced a list of women who were involved in all aspects of theatre, from backstage to onstage. We then invited playwrights who are part of Alumnae Theatre to either choose someone from the list or to find someone themselves. The only limitation was that the woman had to have worked in Canadian theatre and to have passed away. We accepted every script that was submitted and were simply lucky that we ended up with a mix of stories about actors, directors, playwrights, theatre founders, a critic, a costume designer, and theatre educators. Will you produce a second version? Greenaway: Yes. Our one concern is that all of the women selected and all of the playwrights are white. Our hope is that this first version of the production will be a success, and that we can use that success to attract funding for a second, more-inclusive production of stories from Black, Indigenous, and people of color. For now, we have someone playing the role of The Guide who is a young woman of South Asian descent. In that role, she shares her perspective as a young racialized woman who is keen to tell stories from the diverse communities that make up Toronto.   How did playwrights go about developing their stories?    Greenaway: It was a creative challenge for each of the writers to find the authentic voice of the woman whose story they were telling. We wanted them to choose a turning point moment in the woman’s career where she had to make a decision. The story would reveal her priorities, passion for theatre, skills, and legacy. Fortunately, the Theatre Museum of Canada has a rich online collection of video interviews which includes some of the women the playwrights chose to profile. Also, some of us were lucky enough to be able to connect with people who had worked with the woman we were writing about or who were family members. In that case we could interview them and get a sense of the woman through their eyes and ears. You chose to write about Martha Mann, a costume designer. Why?    Greenaway: I chose to write about a costume designer because I wanted to tell the story of someone who had worked backstage. When I discovered that Martha Mann had direct links to Alumnae Theatre, I knew she was the one for me to write about. I was lucky enough to interview both her daughter and a woman at Alumnae Theatre who served for years as our costume mistress and designer and who had been mentored by Martha Mann. One of the other Shadows playwrights, Anne Tait, had even worn a costume designed by Martha Mann when she appeared in an Alumnae production of Ben Jonson's The Alchemist as Dame Pliant. By a wonderful twist of fate, the director of the Martha Mann monologue, Liana Del Mastro, had also worn a costume designed by Martha Mann in a production at the University of Toronto’s Hart House Theatre in the 1990s. Liana has vivid memories of Martha’s larger-than-life presence, her distinctive voice, and her determination that the costumes not only look but feel authentic. This meant that Liana, playing a soldier, had to wear very uncomfortable boots as a soldier in that situation would have done.    Do you think Martha Mann would approve of what you have written?    Greenaway: I believe she would like that I zeroed in on her belief that an authentic costume is vital for an actor to bring a character to life and vital, too, for an audience to recognize and believe in the character. She would like that I built the monologue around her conviction that for a costume to do that, every detail has to be authentic—down to the buttons. I think she would like too that I recreated an actual moment of her working with an opera company's artistic director and convincing him of her approach. The woman she worked with at Alumnae was delighted with the performance of the monologue. I hope that when Martha Mann’s daughter sees it, she too will approve. Shadows in the Nooks: Spirited Women in Theatre was presented at Alumnae Theatre on 8-9 October, and will run again from 11-14 February 2025. See more

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