Today in the Mission Yearbook - Family and friends gather in Georgia to remember an antiracism giant in the PC(USA)

The life of the Rev. Dr. Otis Turner is celebrated with joy and thanksgiving

October 17, 2024

The Rev. Dr. Otis Turner, shown here with his wife, Dr. Patsy Turner, 

was honored last year by Wofford College, where he served during 

the 1970s as the first Black faculty member. (Photo courtesy of Wofford 

College)

Family and friends recently remembered the Rev. Dr. Otis Turner as a justice-seeker and a strategic, compassionate soldier for racial justice in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and in the larger society.

Turner, the first Black faculty member at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, who later worked for 25 years on the national staff of the Presbyterian Church, died Aug. 2 in Jacksonville, Florida. Sardis Missionary Baptist Church in Dawson, Georgia, hosted his service, which was livestreamed.

“No one word fully expresses the man. No one image describes completely his life,” said the Rev. Mark Koenig, who called Turner his mentor. “Beloved child of God, Jesus-follower, the first, justice-seeker, husband, father, friend, family man. … One I think we need to add is teacher,” and this great teacher had a three-part lesson plan, according to Koenig:

Ground our work in faith. “It is God’s intention that structural racism be dismantled,” Koenig said. “God cajoles us to engage in that work.”

Plan carefully and be flexible. “Remain alert to the movement of the Holy Spirit — and trust that Spirit,” he said.

Remember that we are part of a movement, because “true change happens through movements.”

“Otis took his place in the movement. He served faithfully, and he served well,” Koenig said. “Now death has come to him, and we grieve, but we grieve through hope, the hope that death is not the end.”

Koenig led those gathered in the Latin American custom of remembering the person who died by saying Turner’s name and then asking everyone gathered to respond, “Presente!”

The Rev. Dr. Otis Turner

The Rev. Belinda Curry called Turner “Big Brother,” and he called her “BC.” Four decades ago, Curry heard Turner speak on racial justice to the Presbytery of St. Andrew. “Big Brother’s words have stuck with me,” Curry said. “He was willing to come to Mississippi and speak to a small group about keeping the faith and moving forward.”

Turner taught Curry that “to get rid of racism, you have to get rid of structures that allow racism to exist, both in church and society. That’s what he was doing all his life.”

Turner’s friend Pete Silver thanked Turner for being “that soldier for racial justice.”

“If you say you appreciate the work the Rev. Dr. Otis Turner spent his life advocating for, when November comes this year, be the first in line to vote,” he suggested. “If you choose not to vote on Nov. 5 and you say you appreciate this man’s work, you’ve told the biggest lie in the world.”

Turner’s son, Leotis, compared his father to Superman, who could “rip apart cars with his bare hands. My dad could repair them with his bare hands.”

Superman wore a blue suit and a red cape; Turner wore “a shirt and tie and the coveralls of a carpenter and auto mechanic.”

Superman had X-ray vision; “my daddy had the vision to buy a car that lasted 500,000 miles.”

Superman “had courage and physical strength. My daddy had courage and a passion for justice. He was a son of the living God.”

“I say today, save your sad tears for that many or woman, that boy or girl, who did not have a Superman in their life like my dad.”

“We are grateful for your example of dedication and support. Thank you for being a pillar of strength,” said Keith Simms, whom Turner called “a bonus son.” “We celebrate the positive impact you have made.”

Representatives of three institutions read resolutions honoring Turner. The Rev. Dr. David Wallace, past president of the National Black Presbyterian Caucus, read resolutions from a regional chapter and the national organization, which noted Turner “embraced the belief it was an important task of the NBPC to take seriously the needs of the poor, the dispossessed and the disenfranchised.”

Representing U.S. Rep. Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. of Georgia’s Second District, Christopher Drake also read a resolution, as did the Rev. Raushanah N. Butler from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, which awarded Turner the first doctoral degree earned by an African American. Turner “changed the Candler School of Theology,” Butler noted.

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Today’s Focus: The life of the Rev. Dr. Otis Turner is celebrated with joy and thanksgiving

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Fred Tangeman, Manager, OGA Publications, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 
Allison Taylor, Art Director, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation 

Let us pray

Gracious Jesus, guide us in this time of challenge and change. Fill us with hope to live boldly into your divinely inspired future. Amen.

God's Mission Our Gifts: Your November Mission and Service Stories and more!

It Is Never Too Late to Be Thankful   Thanksgiving has come and gone, and if you are lucky enough to have spent it with family and friends, in a comfortable home and with abundant food, you are truly blessed. So many of us are fortunate to have all of these gifts in our lives. But while we are being thankful for our blessings, please remember those who are not so fortunate. Those who are without a home, those who are hungry, those who are lonely. This Thanksgiving we asked you to give a gift to help. We thank all those who have already done so. Your gifts will make a tremendous difference and allow Mission and Service to support those who need it. If you have not had a chance to give a gift yet, we would ask you to prayerfully consider it now. Your gift this Thanksgiving will feed the hungry, provide shelter to those who need it, and bring hope to those without any. Please make that decision now.   [Image credit: Bridges to Hope] Your November Mission and Service Stories NOVEMBER 3 Accompanying Young Adults Through Transformative Years   [Image credit: University of Guelph Ecumenical Campus Ministry]   “Thanks to support from United Church Mission and Service, the Ecumenical Campus Ministry at the University of Guelph has been able to support the UofG community and accompany young adults during some of the most transformative years of their lives.” NOVEMBER 10 Overcoming Obstacles     [Image credit: Cathie Coward, The Hamilton Spectator]   As part of a broader effort in Hamilton to address homelessness and substance use, Mission and Service partner Wesley helps people who are struggling with multiple substance use to slowly reduce their drug use with the help of prescribed medications and staff support.      NOVEMBER 17 Supporting Community Resilience in Zimbabwe   [Image credit: Zimbabwe Council of Churches]   In partnership with Mission and Service and the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, the Zimbabwe Council of Churches’ Scaling Up Resilience Project focuses on practical, long-term solutions to drought and food shortages.   NOVEMBER 24 Gifts with Vision: A Gift to All     [Photo credit: The United Church of Canada]   Instead of searching “gifts for someone who is hard to buy for,” why not give Gifts with Vision? October 2024 Content for Community of Faith Stewardship   Called to Be the Church: The Journey Called to Be the Church: The Journey stewardship modules really make a difference.  Find more information and register for all these courses at CHURCHx.     Get the Stewardship Support Your Congregation Needs The people and resources to help you succeed are here. Ask Glenn and Dave! Dave and Glenn collaborated on the answer to this question!   Q: How can our community of faith promote Mission and Service and stewardship as part of the United Church’s Centennial celebrations?   A: What an excellent question and the answer will be in multiple parts   First, pray. Pray for your Community of Faith to grow in the Spirit and in good works. Pray for members to increase their support, both for your own individual efforts and for the work of Mission and Service. Pray for a renewal of The United Church of Canada for the next 100 years, that we would continue to grow, be bold, be faithful and be true to our calling as followers of Christ.   Second, make a commitment to enroll in and complete the courses in Called to be the Church, the Journey. You can find more information and register for all these courses at CHURCHx.  And we have staff who will help you succeed in implementing what you learn. Time and again churches have experienced renewed stewardship and giving as a result of these courses. Third, plan a specific Centennial Celebration for your congregation. It can be the same date as the National Celebration – June 8, 2025 – or it can be on a date that is significant for your Community of Faith. Talk to your senior members and collect stories from the earlier times of your congregation. Share these stories in worship leading up to the event, showing how your Community of Faith has grown and lived their faith. Use these stories to include stewardship messages and share a significant Mission and Service invitation on the actual date. Feel free to ask for resources from the national church. You can reach out to ms@united-church.ca to see what is available.   Fourth, take advantage of May being focused on PAR. Use that month to do a stewardship push around getting people on PAR and encouraging them to increase their PAR giving. Again, there will be material created for this, available to you through both the Mission and Service staff and the Stewardship team. If you are focusing on the national date, May would be a great lead-up to that.   Finally, pray some more. Do you have a question for Glenn and Dave? Just send it in on our handy form. You’ll get an answer by email or in the next issue of God’s Mission, Our Gifts, or both (your choice). And if your question stumps our all-star team of two, they may even collaborate! 2025 Mission and Service goal-setting form is here! Have you started planning for the Centennial year? We can help. The 2025 goal-setting form is new and improved – and ready to go whenever you are!   Questions? Email Mission and Service or call us at 1-800-465-3771. GOD’S MISSION, OUR GIFTS is your newsletter. We want to provide news and information that you can use in your community of faith, whether you’re a minister, a board member, an administrator, a treasurer, or anyone else who wants to make a difference.   What else would you like to see? What can we do to help your community of faith get where it needs to go? Send us your thoughts! Donate Facebook Twitter Website Email Instagram YouTube LinkedIn   Your generosity enables the United Church to love, serve, and minister in the world. Make an online donation or learn more about your options to support the work of the church.

Copyright © 2024 The United Church of Canada, All rights reserved.

Minute for Mission: World Food Day

October 16, 2024

Pulses (edible seeds of plants in the legume family

Oct. 16 is World Food Day. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization theme for 2024 is “Right to Foods for a Better Life and a Better Future”:

The world’s farmers produce enough food to feed more than the global population, yet hunger persists. Around 733 million people are facing hunger in the world due to repeated weather shocks, conflicts, economic downturns, inequality and the pandemic. This impacts the poor and vulnerable most severely, many of whom are agricultural households, reflecting widening inequalities across and within countries.

 Food is the third most basic human need after air and water — everyone should have the right to adequate food. Human rights such as the right to food, life and liberty, work and education are recognized by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and two legally binding international covenants.    

 “Foods” stands for diversity, nutrition, affordability and safety. A greater diversity of nutritious foods should be available in our fields, in our markets and on our tables, for the benefit of all.

 In the Presbyterian Hunger Program, we walk alongside communities across the country and around the world as they creatively solve problems of hunger. This means supporting cattle farmers in Somalia; fisherfolk in Sri Lanka; women raising goats in Congo; Indigenous communities in the United States reclaiming land and traditional food ways in Alabama, South Dakota and New Mexico; Black farmers in New York and Virginia; community organizers and public policy advocates in Florida and Iowa; our own presbytery-based Hunger Action Advocates working across 14 presbyteries; and many more.

Where in your community and around the world do you see hunger? Where are people solving the problems of hunger? In addition to direct food relief, how can you support changing public policies and unjust systems, so all people have healthy, nutritious, affordable and safe food?

Rev. Rebecca Barnes, Coordinator, Presbyterian Hunger Program, Compassion Peace & Justice

Today’s Focus: World Food Day

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Ralph Su, Associate, Asian Intercultural Congregational Support, Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries, Presbyterian Mission Agency 
Carla Sutton, Operations Admin, Presbyterian Foundation 

Let us pray

Dear God, as we enjoy our meals at home and as we break bread together in the Lord’s Supper, help us to stay mindful of Jesus’ command for his disciples to give hungry crowds the food they need to live. Challenge us to demonstrate with our action and advocacy that we believe food is a basic human right and that all people deserve daily sustenance. In Christ we pray. Amen.

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.