Mission Yearbook: Book explores Book of Isaiah’s pivotal moments

 In “Unwavering Faithfulness: Pivotal Moments in the Book of Isaiah,” Walter Brueggemann and Brent Strawn lead readers through the prophetic book of Isaiah, moving between looming predictions of punishment against Israel for breaking covenant with God and exultation in the ultimate hope of Israel’s restoration.

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Dr. Walter Brueggemann

“Unwavering Faithfulness” provides an accessible guide to Isaiah, helping contemporary readers grasp both the uncompromising demands of God’s holiness and God’s unshakable faithfulness to covenant relationship and desire to bring about a good future for God’s people.

Isaiah is a dramatic book of prophecy and oracles that sweeps through the histories of Israel’s kings and dealings with surrounding nations, levying judgment but also offering the hope of restoration, blessing and shalom.

This great prophet’s words are a lot to take in. Israel is taken to task for exploiting the poor and seeking security in political treaties and the human economy rather than in the fidelity of God.

Ignoring the call of covenant to enact economic justice and righteousness for neighbors, Israel experiences the holy rule of God as working through geopolitical events that lead to the destruction of Jerusalem.

But Isaiah doesn’t rest here, and “Unwavering Faithfulness” forecasts ahead to the promise of Israel’s return to Jerusalem from the Babylonian exile and to the imagination of the early church, inspired by the poetry of Isaiah to place its hope in Jesus the Messiah.

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The ultimacy of God’s governance and faithfulness in the swirl of global political chaos anchors this Bible study, helping readers grasp Isaiah’s vision of the covenantal fidelity of the Lord who wills newness and redemption amid failed histories.

This book will help readers seek to identify the movement of God in the midst of the natural consequences of forsaking the holy way on a global scale (climate disaster and the self-destruction of fearful, power-mongering governments) and to continue to look for the inbreaking of God’s shalom.

Questions for reflection and discussion are included at the end of each chapter, making this book ideal for individual or group study.

Strawn is Professor of Old Testament and Professor of Law at the Duke Divinity School. He is the author of numerous articles, chapters, and books, including “The Old Testament Is Dying: A Diagnosis and Recommended Treatment” and “The Old Testament: A Concise Introduction.”

Brueggemann was a beloved and prolific writer, astute biblical theologian and Old Testament scholar, and an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. Brueggemann, who died in June 2025 at age 92, taught for 17 years at Columbia Theological Seminary. He wrote dozens of acclaimed books, including “Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now,” “Interrupting Silence: God’s Command to Speak Out,” and “Truth and Hope: Essays for a Perilous Age.” Often heralded as a prophetic voice in our time, Brueggemann constantly reminded readers of God’s covenantal love and God’s call to speak truth to power, to remember that grace abounds and to loosen the bonds of injustice.

Westminster John Knox Press (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Rhonda Martin, Financial Manager, Presbyterian Women
Dina Martinez, Customer Service Representative, Operations, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation 

Let us pray:

Holy God, you honor us by calling us to be your people and sending us into the world to be your servants. May all those who suffer hardship know the comfort of your Spirit. Prosper the work of the hands that reach out to help rebuild lives. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Pastor of Harlem church discusses preaching from a biblical character’s perspective

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The Rev. Dr. Derrick McQueen (photo courtesy of St. James Presbyterian Church).

The Rev. Dr. Derrick McQueen recently led participants in the Synod of the Covenant’s Equipping Preachers series in a master class on preaching from the perspective of a biblical character.

McQueen is well qualified: His undergraduate degree is in theater, and he’s preached from the perspective of any number of biblical characters, including the donkey that carried Jesus into Jerusalem.

Watch McQueen’s 88-minute presentation here. Synod Executive the Rev. Dr. Chip Hardwick introduces him at the eight-minute mark.

McQueen is pastor of St. James Presbyterian Church in Harlem, which was founded in 1822 as Shiloh Presbyterian Church, an abolitionist faith community. “We are still in the work of liberation — not just in Harlem, but around the world,” said McQueen, who also teaches at Union Theological Seminary.

McQueen reminded webinar participants, most of them preachers, that:

• We do not preach about the Bible; we preach from within it
• The pulpit is not performance — it is presence
• Through exegesis, embodiment and imagination, we listen to the heartbeat of the text
• Preaching is persuasive speech
• The Word becomes flesh again when we dare to enter the story — not as observers, but as participants.

In theater training, “I learned that truth is discovered in the body before it is spoken by the tongue,” McQueen said. “Preaching is an act of radical empathy, a rehearsal for justice.”

Much of McQueen’s preaching style comes from listening to people like his Aunt Dot tell stories, or his grandparents recount their fishing trips to Jacksonville, Florida. “You all have those stories in your histories, those embodied memories,” he said. “It’s about resurrecting that feeling you had.”

McQueen suggested this approach:

• Choose a biblical companion. “Find solidarity in voices like Esther, Moses, or the woman with the alabaster jar” and others, he said. “Freedom begins when silenced voices find resonance. The pulpit can be that resonant chamber.”
• Research and contextualize the character. Study their world. What empire surrounds them? What theology sustains or constrains them? What power dynamics define their courage? McQueen recommended drawing on critical tools, including feminist and womanist interpretations and post-colonial readings.
• Journal the journey. “Write as if the companion is speaking directly to you,” McQueen suggested. “What fear do they ask you to face?” When McQueen was journaling with the prophet Hosea, “I heard him whisper, ‘love even when it hurts your dignity. That’s how God loves you.’”
• Construct the sermon from their world to ours. “The preacher stands with one foot on the world of the Bible and one foot in the world of today,” said McQueen, quoting Dr. Tom Long. “The Word lands among us. The preacher’s task is to carry that voice across time without losing its accent of compassion or its rhythm of protest.”
• Preach with embodiment and celebration. “Trust your voice as an instrument and your body as a vessel to make sure you are not acting — you are incarnating,” McQueen said.

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

Let us join in prayer for:

Neal Martin, Service Desk Technician, Administrative Services Group
Michael Marrone, Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, Strategic Planning, The Board of Pensions

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus Christ, your sacrifice came in dying. May ours come through living — in the shadow of the cross. Amen.

WCC NEWS: As European Christian Internet Conference opens, communicators draw strength from community

Agnieszka Godfrejów-Tarnogórska is a spokesperson of the Lutheran Church in Poland, and president of the European Christian Internet Conference (ECIC) network. As the ECIC opened on 10 June in Rome, Godfrejów-Tarnogórska took time to reflect on the role of the ECIC for churches in Europe, and highlights from nearly a decade of organizing the conference.  Agnieszka Godfrejów-Tarnogórska, spokesperson of the Lutheran Church in Poland and president of the European Christian Internet Conference (ECIC) during the annual gathering of the ECIC network in Bossey and Geneva, 9 September 2024.  Photo: Ivars Kupcis/WCC 10 June 2026 As the ECIC gathering in Rome opens, what is the significance of this network for churches in Europe? Godfrejów-Tarnogórska: ECIC is a unique network for cooperation, the exchange of experiences, and learning from one another. It is also an opportunity for church communicators to discuss current media-related topics, such as the impact of technology on media development, digitalisation in churches, or the most topical issue of the moment: the use of artificial intelligence. At the same time, ECIC is a space where media specialists can learn about the situation in other churches and maintain direct contact with one another, for example, in cases where fake news or disinformation about a particular community appears in the media. Thanks to the relationships we have with one another, we can identify the source of a particular piece of news and have access to direct information. Another component of the network is its spiritual and ecumenical dimension. ECIC provides an opportunity for prayers and building communion. By visiting different European countries, participants learn about the churches and ecumenical situation in each country. As your term as president of ECIC comes to an end, what are the major issues from past conferences that are strong in your memory?  Godfrejów-Tarnogórska: Since my first conference in 2015, each subsequent one has been a chance for me to discover something new, or to explore a topic in greater depth that isn’t always addressed in this way in the churches in my country. This has given me a unique impulse for growth every time. In fact, I could mention every single one of the conferences. I remember what a revelation gamification was for me, and the ways it can be used in youth work, for example the Fisucraft platform created in the style of Minecraft by the Church of Finland. An interesting topic was discovering which emotions matter online and how they can be used not only for good, but unfortunately also for manipulation. In Warsaw, when I was the local organiser, we explored the topic of virtual reality, pondering what a virtual community might be. In a way, we were ahead of our time, because in 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic, certain topics became particularly relevant. In subsequent conferences, various aspects of artificial intelligence became an increasingly prominent topic: the misuse of AI for disinformation, the creation of fake news or deepfakes, but also a focus on the ethical aspects of AI use within the churches. After organizing so many ECIC annual gatherings, what is your message of hope for the future of ECIC?  Godfrejów-Tarnogórska: I hope that the ECIC network will endure and that “in-person” conferences will continue to take place. Although many of us operate in the digital space, ECIC has allowed me to discover that online is not enough for us. When putting together the programme for each conference, we try to find space for networking because it is the participants' wish. I believe this is no coincidence, because as Christians we need a real community where we encounter the living Christ, where we get to know our sisters and brothers, and where, drawing strength from this community, we can build bridges in the increasingly divided world. European Christian Internet Conference (ECIC) ECIC conference in Rome 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: Honest patriotism and confronting white Christian nationalism are subjects of chapel service

The Rev. Dr. Aimee Moiso, who manages Social Witness Policy in Presbyterian Life & Witness, delivered powerful lessons from history during a recent online chapel service.

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Photo by Wade Winslow via Unsplash

Citing General Assembly statements including Honest Patriotism for Christian Citizens as well as important work the denomination has been doing on confronting white Christian nationalism, Moiso first took those in worship through the adoption of the Pledge of Allegiance, including a pivotal 1954 worship service at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., where President Dwight D. Eisenhower heard a sermon urging the insertion of the words “under God” into the pledge, which Ike and members of Congress soon enshrined in law.

Moiso took the history of the Pledge of Allegiance to the late 1800s, a time when many immigrants were arriving from Eastern and Southern Europe. By 1892 — the year a popular magazine urged teachers to have the Pledge recited in classrooms around the country — 72% of public school students in Brooklyn, New York, were immigrants, according to Moiso.

“It’s no coincidence this influx of immigrants coincided with a mass demonstration of patriotism in public schools,” she said. “This strengthening of public education was a means to ensure the teaching of so-called American ideas to an increasingly diverse population.”

Pivoting to the evils of white Christian nationalism, Moiso noted the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy is currently writing a policy in the matter. “White Christian nationalism stands against the love of God for all people, it rejects justice and equality, it makes the nation into an infallible idol, and it places its leaders above critique and the rule of law,” Moiso said. “It is catalyzed in this moment to fully embody and embrace the racism and xenophobia we reject and which we have fought and continue to fight in our communities and in our houses of worship.”

But it’s also part of the story of the rise of American civil religion, “a development that was frequently championed by mainline churches like ours,” Moiso said. “The assumption behind civil religion is there are universal values we all share about what our nation is supposed to be and uphold, and we offer those in religious language. In the United States, our civil religion has generally reflected Protestant-oriented traditions.”

Moiso asked: What do we believe about the idea that the United States is or should be Christian?

“For the majority of our nation’s history, white Protestantism has enjoyed privileged locations in the halls of power,” she said. “We take pride in the ways our church governance is a model for American democracy, and we celebrate the role of our Presbyterian forebears in creating it. Our clergy have been chaplains to the Congress, and our members have been senators and presidents.”

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The Rev. Dr. Aimee Moiso

“I keep thinking that our congregations are in desperate need of a pastoral approach to this moment,” Moiso said. “By all means, we need to vehemently denounce white Christian nationalism and its political ideologies of exclusion and supremacy.”

“But in addition, we’re going to need to help our people identify and name what we are experiencing,” she said. 

What we need, she said, are places “to honestly and openly dismantle our American exceptionalism and replace it with humble appreciation and clear-eyed reverence.” That includes untangling “our Presbyterianism from our Americanism so that we can be faithful to Jesus and advocate for a better nation without confusing one for the other.”

Those are “hard, uncomfortable and scary things to do,” Moiso said, and they’re “not for the faint of heart.” The good news is, “we know something about how to do this.”

We come from a tradition “where confession is always coupled with repair,” Moiso noted. “We confess that we have sinned, that we have screwed things up, and we ask not only to be changed, but to help make things right.”

In all the current friction and tension, the contractions and confusion, “in the things we believe, the things we’re not sure we believe, in the things we no longer believe, we are beckoned back into God’s love in this moment, for this time, and again we come,” she said, “the body of Christ, through God — indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

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

Let us join in prayer for:

Troy Marables, SVP Director of Human Resources, The Presbyterian Foundation
Katilyn Marler, Communications and Social Media Specialist, Marketing, The Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray:

Creator God, we give thanks for opportunities to embrace humankind. May this collaboratory be a place where the community finds your unconditional love. Let their light shine with your grace. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Hispanic Latina women in the PC(USA) celebrate and issue call to action

In Atlanta, a joyous and spirit-filled celebration recently marked a major milestone for Hispanic Latina women in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

The Mujeres Hispanas Latinas Presbiterianas (MHLP), or Hispanic Latina Women Presbyterian, gathered for Encuentro XI, an event that not only celebrated the 30th anniversary of the organization’s first national gathering but also issued a prophetic call to action under the theme, “Influencers del Reino De Dios, Somos y Hacemos” (“Influencers of the Kingdom of God, We Are and We Do”).

To understand the significance of this Encuentro is to understand a history of resilience and faith.

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Mujeres Hispanas Latinas Presbiterianas held its 11th Encuentro gathering last month in Atlanta. (Photo courtesy of Erin Dunigan)

The MHLP organization was built on a foundation laid by women in presbyteries and synods who yearned for a space to connect, worship, and lead in their own language and cultural context. In the early 1990s, two pioneering lay women, Ruling Elder Yolanda S. Hernández from the Northeast and Ruling Elder Angie Garza Ábrego from the Southwest, fought to make this dream a reality.

They faced significant opposition of nationally prominent Hispanic male leaders but persevered, weaving together relationships that in 1995 became the first national gathering, Encuentro I. It was there that the MHLP organization was born.

Florence Vargas, a founding member from Puerto Rico who has been part of the journey from the beginning, recalled the first gathering. “We did that first one from scratch,” she said. “We had nothing to go on. We had over 200 women coming together.”

What brought them — and still brings them — together? “The language,” Vargas said. Being able to gather in one’s own language and one’s own culture, when most of the rest of life is lived as a “second language” is fundamental. “And the worship — being able to worship in our own language — it is marvelous. We say that Spanish is the language of angels and I can pray in English if I have to ... but really, it is much easier to pray in Spanish.”

While MHLP is an integral part of Presbyterian Women and affirms its purpose, the organization holds its own distinct mission statement: “To affirm our culture and language, To discover and nurture the gifts and talents of all leaders, and To empower MHLPs with the necessary training and resources in Spanish and Portuguese.”

The Encuentro, held every three years, is the central event, conceived and birthed by the women themselves. It is held in Spanish, with interpretation in Portuguese and English, creating a space where, as Yolanda S. Hernández used to say, Hispanic women “feel completely welcome and can be themselves.”

The theme, “Influencers of the Kingdom of God,” resonated deeply against the backdrop of current social and political challenges.

“At a moment when immigrants of color are being targeted by the government and congregations are still hesitant to extend full hospitality to their new neighbors, it’s imperative that Hispanic/Latiné (a gender neutral way to refer to those of Latin American heritage) women gather to celebrate their identity, lift up their voices and renew their commitment to build a more just and inclusive society,” said the Rev. Magdalena Garcia, another founding member.

This call to be influencers outside the church walls was a central message. Keynote speaker Dr. Agustina Luvis Nuñez, professor of Systematic Theology at the Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico, challenged the attendees directly. “In order to be influencers in the Kingdom of God, we have to leave other kingdoms,” she said, adding, “Sometimes we must even migrate from the churches to follow the project of God’s reign.”

The Rev. Carmen Rosario, a third founding member who preached at the event, echoed this prophetic call in a powerful sermon. She asked the women: “What are you constructing? Walls or bridges? What are you sowing? Hope or fear?”

“God is calling us in this hour,” Rosario proclaimed. “To leave the four walls and to abandon the normal routine, in order to influence the world.” In a world that teaches us to compete, el reino de dios (the kingdom of God) shows us a different way to live. “God is looking for collaborators — the reign doesn’t come with arms. It is cultivated with resistance.”

To support the work of MHLP, go here.

Erin Dunigan for the Presbyterian Foundation (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Peter Maher, Vice President & Managing Director, Investments, The Board of Pensions
Steve Maier, Network Analyst, Information Technology Infrastructure, Administrative Services Group

Let us pray:

God, as you sow seeds within our hearts, let us also reap love throughout the world by supporting those who need our help and serving others as Jesus did. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Discernment belongs to everyone, chaplain says

The “spirit of discernment,” as the Rev. Daniel Heath heard it growing up, was not available to everyone.

“There was this notion that some people had it and others didn’t,” said the associate chaplain and director of the Davidson Forum at Davidson College in North Carolina. Heath also serves as the chaplain for Major League Soccer's Charlotte FC.

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The Rev. Daniel Heath, the associate chaplain at Davidson College, was the Rev. Zoë Garry's most recent guest on Leading Theologically.

How he reframed that notion was the topic of a recent Leading Theologically discussion with the Rev. Zoë Garry, associate director of Theological Education Funds Development for the Presbyterian Foundation. Garry and Heath were also classmates and friends at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Watch the edition of Leading Theologically here.

Discernment took on new meaning when Heath got married 18 years ago, as another person would be deeply affected by his choices.

“It hit me that I have a strong invitation to listen,” he said.

When he was invited to apply for a position at the large, white, affluent Covenant Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, for example, he paused to consider it carefully. To begin with, it was a very different faith community from the small storefront Pentecostal church of his youth.

“I asked the pastor, ‘Is your church ready for a Black person in leadership?’” Heath recalled. “However I was treated or however I experienced the congregation, I would bring it home.” With his wife’s support, he served as Covenant’s contemporary worship and arts director for eight years.

Discernment became, on a personal and theological level, a “sacred, deep listening that everyone has access to,” he said.

As a college chaplain, Heath invites students into curiosity and possibility. He asks them when, where and how they’ve experienced God at work in the world. “I’m not here to give you answers, but to explore with you, to walk alongside and maybe notice something along the path that you’re not noticing,” he told Garry.

Another frequent question he poses, especially as students process academic major and career choices, is “Who told you that?”

“I create space for people to consider what hopes, dreams and fears are theirs and which are someone else’s,” he said.

As a liberal arts college, Davidson is a welcoming space for such exploration, according to Heath. “You don’t have to choose one thing,” he said.

Heath, who also holds degrees in music and law, said he used to be ashamed of not having chosen one thing.

“I felt that folks would judge me as not being sure — trying this, trying that. In growing my faith and surrounding myself with folks who helped me reframe this, I consider that it’s one path,” he said. “It has various and maybe unexpected stops along the way, but it’s one path.”

“Has it helped with my personal discernment and helping others to discern? Yes,” he said, quoting from former Princeton Theological Seminary President M. Craig Barnes: “Nothing is lost in God’s economy.”

Another tool Heath finds useful for discernment is planning. “I like to have a five-year plan, and I mean, I have details. Basically, I do this plan and give it to God to co-sign,” he said with a smile. The job at Covenant Presbyterian, attending Princeton and his current position were not things he necessarily would have chosen on his own, he said.

“This open hand approach is helpful. I’m not holding these plans with a clenched fist,” Heath said. “If they blow away and something else lands, that’s OK.”

When he left Covenant, the metaphor extended to a gift from a fellow staff member: an open mannequin hand.

“Oh, my gosh. I was like, ‘I think I get it, but I’ve got to put this in a drawer!’” Heath recalled as he and Garry laughed.

Watch previous Leading Theologically conversations here.

Nancy Crowe for the Presbyterian Foundation (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Daniel Mace, Systems Engineer II, Information Technology, The Presbyterian Foundation
Teresa Mader, Project Manager, Presbyterian Giving Catalog, Administrative Services Group

Let us pray:

God, tend to your seedbeds wherever you have planted them. When the wind blows, allow the plants to spread the goodness of your work in this world. Bring all your people and their works into your harvest. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: ‘Everyone has an ecological story,’ webinar shows

Presbyterians for Earth Care recently offered a webinar on “Coming Home to Your Ecological Self” featuring a member of its Steering Committee, the Rev. Dr. Shannan Vance-Ocampo.

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The Rev. Dr. Shannan Vance-Ocampo is pictured alongside her favorite chicken, Madonna (Photo courtesy of Shannan Vance-Ocampo).

Vance-Ocampo is general presbyter of the Presbytery of Southern New England, where she spends some of her spare time gardening and raising backyard chickens.

Her doctoral research included work she put in on land, food and faith formation. Among other things, Vance-Ocampo wondered what prevents pastors from preaching on climate justice. She formed a cohort to test some of her ideas and heard from clergy that some parishioners heard such preaching as political rather than biblical.

“One thing that came out is folks feel disconnected ecologically. Many didn’t have a good connection to the natural world,” she said. “It got me to thinking about this issue of the ecological self. We need to be connected ourselves before we can do the work with others.”

Briefly, Vance-Ocampo modeled a process that people in faith communities can use. “We often don’t know the stories of the people around us,” she said. “More people than we realize are pretty disconnected theologically.”

Vance-Ocampo displayed a number of photographs outlining her own ecological journey, including photos of the Jersey Shore and a beach in Puerto Rico, as well as the Catskills and Colombia, from which her husband hails.

“A whole new landscape became part of my story,” she said, displaying photos of her mother-in-law’s home along Colombia’s Magdalena River, where the family has lived for nearly three centuries. Mango trees her mother-in-law planted 60 years ago are now taller than oaks, Vance-Ocampo noted.

“During the pandemic, I supercharged my gardening here in Upstate New York,” she said, including adding a few chickens. In the summer the chickens enjoyed treats including frozen watermelon, the subject of another photo.

“Those sweet animals helped me reconnect,” Vance-Ocampo said. “It was a place to engage in prayer and have time to let my mind wander. The garden and the work I have done on it has been a significant point of reconnection.”

They constructed a pond near the garden and have rewilded the space around their house. One photo was of the alpha male American bullfrog who lives in and around the pond. The photo depicted him all alone on a rock. “He owns that rock,” Vance-Ocampo said. “No other frog will come onto it.”

Her mother-in-law died eight years ago. Vance-Ocampo and her husband work on the gardens she created when they’re in Colombia. “It’s a very different environment. I know what to do in the Northeast,” she said. Still, her ecological reconnection “has changed how I preach and what I focus on and has given me a lot of new language to consider,” she said.

Webinar attendees then spent time in small groups discussing their own ecological stories. Some reported back.

“It was good to hear from others, and it wasn’t surprising that all of us had positive experiences in nature,” said one. “Our formative years were in a natural setting.”

The group then read John 1:1–5 and verse 14, which describes Jesus as the completion of God’s Word. Vance-Ocampo quoted Victoria Loorz, the author of “Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us Into the Sacred”: “To position Jesus as more than a man crucified by the state, John sought to identify him with the logos: the divine indwelling, ‘through [which] all things were made,’ an interconnected relationship underlying and holding together the whole universe.”

“I am interested in hearing about places that have a plan for reconnecting people in their congregation to ecology,” said one participant. “We have a long way to go in our church. Not a lot of our church members are on board.”

“We may long for a simpler life, but the world is whizzing by,” said another. “We have to work hard to [highlight] things that thank God for Creation and that use Creation for good.”

“Everyone has an ecological story,” Vance-Ocampo said. “By sharing them with others, we get to know people more deeply — and we get to know God in a deeper way, too.”

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

Let us join in prayer for:

Janeen Lush, Accountant, Accounts Payable Office, Administrative Services Group
Catherine Lynch, Senior Relationship Manager, Presbyterian Investment & Loan

Let us pray:

Loving Gather, we thank you for the courageous and faithful. As we serve, let us all walk humbly with you as we follow the example given to us by Jesus Christ. Amen.