Mission Yearbook: ‘Presbyterian bureaucrat’ covers decades of social upheavals

“My father started a business cutting pine trees for paper. He did well with that until racism destroyed it. The banks told him overnight you can't get any more money.”

In 1981, the Rev. Dr. Gene Turner, a self-described “Presbyterian bureaucrat” and former executive of the Synod of the Golden Gate and the Synod of the Northeast, was interviewed by Charles Quirk, part of a series on the UPCUSA and racism. In 2025, David Staniunas interviewed Turner at his home outside Syracuse, New York. The passage of 40 years in places sharpened and elsewhere completely changed Turner’s responses.

Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IjvZd5J3oM

Turner was born in Macon, Georgia, in 1934, and was educated at Knoxville College and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. His earliest pastoral work was in Friendship Community Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, an intentionally interracial church in the shadow of the University of Pittsburgh, in a portion of the Hill District recently cleared by urban renewal and rechristened Terrace Village. Turner’s work, alongside future moderator of the UPCUSA Ganse Little, was to develop the church’s youth fellowships.

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The Rev. Dr. Gene Turner is pictured in 1963 or 1964. (Photo courtesy of Presbyterian Historical Society)

From 1963 to 1968 he was regional coordinator for Philadelphia as part of the UPCUSA Department of the Urban Church. Deployed to the presbytery offices for the first time, as he described it in 1981, “I had no desk, no telephone, no secretary.” His role was to serve as an advocate for the residents of Philadelphia’s Mill Creek Homes, helping to connect residents of Louis Kahn’s public housing “acropolis” with social services, and to shepherd them into the nearby Reeve Memorial Presbyterian Church. He described the dynamic: “The people I was serving had a negative view of Reeve Memorial Church. It was a middle-class church. Reeve was not going to receive those people. Racism created a classism, and Black people, I think sometimes, unconsciously bought into that social system.”

Turner served as executive in the UPCUSA Synod of the Golden Gate in 1970 and 1971 as the Synod, responding to a request from St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Marin City, sought support from the national agency offices for the legal defense of Black Power activist Angela Davis.

In 1981, Turner was asked about successes and failures of the denomination in responding to the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s. He identified support of the Angela Davis legal defense as “not what the denomination accepts as success,” adding, “The denomination to this day doesn't appreciate the expression and the exhibition of the gospel inherent in that move and in that grant. And probably when I'm dead and gone and all of my associates are dead and gone, the historians will say that that was a great day in the life of the United Presbyterian Church.”

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Gene Turner scrapbook page, 1982, including Synod of the Northeast banner, a portrait of Turner, and Turner with Board of Visitors Syracuse University.

He left the West Coast to serve as the first executive of the newly organized Synod of the Northeast, supporting congregations and presbyteries in New Jersey, New York and New England. In 1981, he described the challenges of aligning the synod’s 1,200 congregations in just and liberated worship, saying, “Worship is not worship when you have all white people leading it, especially all white males. And white women have joined with Black women and racial and ethnic people to say the same thing. And in a sense I know that hurts some people, some white people, to know that we reject that as the true worship. And a presbytery has to deal with that. They cannot have worship and have all white male leadership.” 

It was through bureaucratic work — convening meetings, taking minutes, keeping correspondence, which are all ways of gathering human input — that the barriers to true community would, at least in part, be overcome. In 2025, he described Presbyterian bureaucratic work as a calling — the art of transforming groups into communities. 

That focus on relationships carried into his post-synod career. In 1993, he began work as the PC(USA) Associate Stated Clerk for Governing Bodies, Ecumenical Agencies and Relationships, serving as liaison to the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., the World Council of Churches, and other ecumenical groups, traveling to Yaoundé, Geneva and Rome. 

After retirement, beginning in 2009, he was part of the General Assembly’s Special Committee on the Belhar Confession — another text dedicated to transforming merely assembled people into communions. 

Learn more:

Gene Turner and J. Oscar McCloud, The Angela Davis Legal Defense 50 Years On (2021)

Gene Turner papers, ARCHIVES 18-1037

This article first appeared as a Presbyterian Historical Society blog entry here.

David Staniunas, Presbyterian Historical Society (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Andrew Browne, Executive Vice President, Engagement & Church Relations, The Board of Pensions
Laura Bryan, Grant Management Office Lead, Presbyterian Life & Witness

Let us pray:

Gracious God, in Jesus Christ you reached out with your love for all. Make us generous in reaching out with the love of Jesus Christ to those we know and to those we are just meeting. Especially bless those who go out of their way to care for others in Jesus’ name. For it is in Jesus’ name that we pray. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: CREDO offers Black ministers time to come together

A Designated CREDO offered by the Board of Pensions included visits to significant
civil rights sites. (Photo courtesy of Byron Wade)

Affirmation was on the menu when participants from a CREDO gathering of Black ministers broke bread in November 2025 with folks at a small African American church in Little Rock, Arkansas. Seated all around were Black Presbyterians from across the country, validating African American membership in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). “That was important for people in my congregation,” said the Rev. Marion Humphrey Sr., pastor of Allison Memorial Presbyterian Church in Little Rock and a CREDO participant.

This CREDO conference, held Nov. 4–10, 2025, at Ferncliff Camp and Conference Center in Little Rock, responded to the unique experience of being a Black minister in the PC(USA). It included visits to Little Rock Central High School and the Daisy Bates House, sites on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail.

Generally, CREDO conferences connect to a particular phase of ministry — recently ordained, mid-career and late career. This Designated CREDO, a version of the popular weeklong conference, was designed around the unique vocational characteristics of what it means to be a Black minister in the PC(USA). 

Attending CREDO with others who face similar opportunities and challenges can enhance the experience of the conference, which provides an intimate space for participants to examine, in small groups, their lives and ministries, said the Rev. Dr. Michael Wilson, director of Education for the Arc of Ministry at the Board of Pensions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). “Our denomination is rich in diversity of people and ministries,” Wilson said. “Designated CREDOs acknowledge that our lived realities can vary greatly.”

At each CREDO, experienced faculty guide participants in a visioning and discernment process through key areas of well-being: spiritual, vocational, physical and emotional health, and financial. At this CREDO conference, the entire faculty was African American, and the programming was designed for Black ministers, unlike the first African American CREDO, in May 2019.

“It made a huge difference,” said the Rev. Dr. Byron A. Wade, the Conference Leader, who also led the first CREDO for Black ministers. Simply having “someone who looks like me” was important, he said, as was focusing on such things as physical and emotional health through the lens of being Black in America. 

CREDO is known for creating safe spaces, which was essential if ministers were to feel comfortable sharing concerns during financial and other discussions at Ferncliff. 

Humphrey, who has pastored Allison Memorial for 41 years while practicing law and serving as a judge, saw financial worries tied to declining PC(USA) membership. “People are serious about their calls,” he said. “They have this feeling that it’s not an easy journey for those who aren’t bivocational.” He said it’s important that the CREDO experience be made available to more ministers.

“There is a great commitment by the Board to make sure that all types of pastors have the opportunity to participate,” said Wade, who the general presbyter of the Presbytery of Western North Carolina. CREDO eligibility was extended in 2025 to any PC(USA)-ordained minister enrolled in the Medical Plan and/or Defined Benefit Pension Plan, and there was a “groundswell” of demand from African American pastors who were previously ineligible, he said.

The gathering in November, which drew 22 PC(USA) ministers, included three Indigenous Africans. “That was a new experience itself,” Wade said. 

The Rev. Mwat Asedeh, who is from Nigeria, said the conference was “mostly geared toward the social context here. … At the beginning, it was trying to catch up.” But when the African ministers told the group that they were struggling a bit to keep up with the program, they received recognition and acceptance, he said. 

“It was truly a blessed time for me,” said Asedeh, who pastors Stewartstown Presbyterian Church, in York County, Pennsylvania. “I met a lot of people from all over. I’m not alone. I have a lot of people in my boat.”

The Board of Pensions will offer a Specialized Ministry CREDO in fall 2026, designated for eligible ministers who work in validated ministries beyond the congregation. In 2027, there will be a Designated CREDO for eligible mid council leaders.

The Board of Pensions supports wholeness in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) community and care for Benefits Plan members. For information, contact info@pensions.org.

Board of Pensions (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

 Analise Brown, Registrar & Administrative, Office of Presbyterian Youth and Triennium, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Joey Brown, Associate, Direct Mail and PILLARS, Administrative Services Group, A Corporation

Let us pray:

O God of love greater than we can imagine, teach us how to love all your children as you have loved us, especially those who suffer unnecessarily. Give us boldness to argue and plead for your reign, especially in your house. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: SDOP ministry team co-chair discusses ‘Working for the Common Good’

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Photo by Sincerely Media via Unsplash

The Rev. Dr. Jermaine McKinley, the co-chair of the Self-Development of People Ministry Team for Pittsburgh Presbytery, recently spoke to PC(USA) staff as part of the weekly online Chapel Service about SDOP Sunday. Learn more about SDOP’s “People Investing in People” toolkit here. The “Working for the Common Good” meditation by McKinley is included in the resource.

McKinley based her meditation on 1 Corinthians 1:10 and 1 Peter 4:10. She told those worshiping online, “One should never give a preacher the opportunity to speak” because “they’re going to engage in what is referred to as ‘the foolishness of preaching,’” which McKinley called “the interconnectedness of humanity.”

“God intends for all of us to work for the common good,” McKinley said. People “thrive best when we all maintain an environment of respect and love.”

The gifts we’re given by God enable us to contribute to the common good, McKinley said. “When I look at the world, I believe our beloved world would work a whole lot better if we acknowledged that all we have or ever hope to have is good and that God gave it to us. We should be generously sharing it.”

As one committed to working to empower others, “I firmly believe in looking at what we have and working on what we can do to make [things] better,” McKinley said. Asked a few years ago to serve on Pittsburgh Presbytery’s SDOP team, “I thought, ‘That’s what God is calling us to do!’ God calls us to use our skills, grace and talent.”

McKinley acknowledged her own gifts as a baker and a cook, but not so much as someone who grows the ingredients that bakers and chefs need to work their magic. God gives us gifts “to share equitably,” McKinley said. “We each have a need, and we would be better off if we understood we are not to selfishly hoard” our gifts. “We all ought to be doing something to contributed to the common good.”

As an advocate for empowerment, “I love the Self-Development of People,” McKinley said. At Pittsburgh Presbytery, “we work and we coach groups to help them understand all the voices that need to be heard. We understand that some haven’t had the education and skills that others have, but they do have the skills, grace and talent” needed to establish and grow a business.

That got McKinley to thinking of “Face” or “Faceman,” the part Dirk Benedict played on “The A-Team.”

When the need arose, Face, a police detective, would go into a business setting “and work things out,” McKinley said. All of us have our gift, and “I appreciate what can be done to improve socio-economic conditions for everyone” when we use our gifts.

“We are called to love one another as God loves us. I want to invite you to read these two passages” found in 1 Corinthians and 1 Peter, McKinley said. “If you’re a preacher, go ahead and engage in that foolishness of preaching. Preach on the difference SDOP is making.”

McKinley also suggested those in worship read the many articles that are found in the Sunday yearbook and toolkit. “God has prepared something that will touch your mind, your heart and your spirit,” McKinley said. “We as the people of God — we as humanity — are called to live a life of unity, caring for and seeing one another. To God be the glory! Amen.”

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

Let us join in prayer for:

Kendra Bright, Operations and Accounting Associate, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
McKenna Britton, Communications Associate, Presbyterian Life & Witness 

Let us pray:

God, you called us before we knew our names; you walk beside us when our steps are uncertain; you whisper before we know the words to speak. Continue in your teaching and help us to bear witness to your unfolding story among us. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Hispanic, Latino and Brazilian ministry is focus of re-imagining encounters

As Hispanic, Latino, and Brazilian Presbyterians gathered in Puerto Rico for the last of six regional re-imagining encounters across the denomination over five months, organizers were clear about where the work began.

Latin American liberation theology famously emphasizes “theology from below” — prioritizing the faith and lived experience of everyday people, particularly those on the margins, over top-down authority within the institutional church. For Hispanic, Latino and Brazilian leaders in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), re-imagining the church has likewise begun with listening to the wisdom of the people in its pews.

From 2022 to 2023, more than 70 Hispanic, Latino and Brazilian Presbyterians engaged in a comprehensive discernment process that began with grassroots conversations about the needs, gifts, and available resources of their communities as they looked toward the future of ministry. This deep communal work led to RSG-05, “A Resolution Addressing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and the Realities of Hispanic Latino-a-e Ministry,” which was overwhelmingly approved by the 226th General 

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Assembly in June 2024.

According to a report written for this past summer’s 227th General Assembly, the goal of these conversations and eventual resolutions was “re-imagining before God how to serve during a time when the Hispanic/Latino/a/é and Brazilian constituencies face unique realities shaped by the U.S. sociopolitical context.”

The resolution directed the Presbyterian Mission Agency and the Office of the General Assembly (since jointly succeeded by Presbyterian Life & Witness) to organize an in-person gathering to re-imagine Hispanic Latino ministry in the PC(USA), develop resources and follow-up plans, and allocate $180,000 in additional funding over the course of 2025 and 2026 to that work. With the institutional church officially on board, the Re-Imagining Coordinating Team returned to where the work started: the Hispanic, Latino and Brazilian congregations within the PC(USA).

In partnership with the National Presbyterian Hispanic/Latino Caucus and IUA staff, the coordinating team organized and facilitated five Re-Imagining Hispanic/Latino/a/é Ministries Regional Encounters in synods across the United States along with the final reimagining event in Sínodo Boriquén in Puerto Rico.

The previous gatherings have taken place in Synod of the Pacific, Synod of the Northeast, Synod of the Sun, Synod of the South Atlantic, and Synod of Southern California and Hawaii.

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The Rev. Rosa Miranda serves in the Interim Unified Agency as the US-based Global Ecumenical Liaison for Hispanic and Brazilian Ethnic Groups.

The Rev. Rosa Miranda, who serves in Presbyterian Life & Witness as the U.S.-based Global Ecumenical Liaison serving Hispanic and Brazilian ethnic communities, says they were intentional about calling these events “encounters” or “Encuentros” in Spanish to emphasize the contextual and collaborative nature of the re-imagining process. Organizers also wanted participants to feel empowered to lead and take ownership of the re-imagining work in their own communities.

Each regional event has been unique, informed by the particular identities, communities and realities of the various contexts. Miranda points out that Hispanic, Latino and Brazilian ministry— while a relatively small percentage of the overall denomination — is actually a large umbrella. In fact, Miranda says that diversity of context and needs informed the decision to facilitate multiple regional gatherings rather than one large national event.

“It’s not the same to do ministry in Puerto Rico as it is in Alaska or North Carolina or Texas or California. It’s very different,” Miranda said. “This is also a way to break away from paternalism and colonialism. It’s not one program fits all — this is our program, in our own context and in our own realities. It’s not a translation or adaptation.”

Organizers developed a Re-Imagining Toolkit to help regional encounter participants. The toolkit includes foundational essays with questions for critical reflection. Participants were challenged to identify two priorities to pursue in the re-imagining process with their faith communities, and then share their learnings with others, inviting collaborators into the ongoing process of discernment and transformation.

Nearly 300 people participated in the regional encounters, with an estimated impact reach of 5,800 Hispanic, Latino and Brazilian Presbyterians.

Miranda points out that while Hispanic, Latino and Brazilian churches are the emerging majority among Christians globally.

“This is a time in which the PC(USA) needs to — in Spanish we say ‘turn around the tortilla’ — turn around and say ‘OK, you are the experts doing this. You know what you need. How can we come along, journey and support our Hispanic Brazilian Ministries in the PC(USA)?’”

Layton Williams Berkes, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Life & Witness (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Dan Braden, Managing Editor, Publishing, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
Tara Brannigan, Financial Administrative Assistant, Stony Point Center, Presbyterian Life & Witness

Let us pray:

Gracious God, you call us as partners in Creation. Through your Son, Jesus Christ, fill us with blessings and grow in our lives, that by the Holy Spirit we may go out into the world to do your will. Amen.

Minute for Mission: World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation

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Water credit: Kayla Eickholtz

Each year, starting on Sept. 1 (World Day of Prayer for All Creation) until Oct. 4, the ecumenical community unites for the Season of Creation, a worldwide celebration of prayer and action to protect our common home. In this season, we celebrate God as Creator and acknowledge Creation as the divine continuing act that summons us as collaborators to love and care for the gift of all that is created. 

The Season of Creation Biblical text for this year is drawn from Ezekiel 47:1–12, which portrays God’s life-giving water flowing from the temple of God. The river grows deeper and deeper restoring barren land, reviving waters, and sustaining flourishing ecosystems. This vision invites human responsibility: recognizing ecological damage, embracing interconnectedness, we are called to immerse ourselves in the water, and actively safeguarding and working for the renewal of Creation so that environmental healing and human well-being may flourish together.

The Season of Creation is a perfect opportunity to include the entire congregation, from the oldest to the youngest members. Some ways to do that could be:

Nature Walks and Exploration: Encourage participants to observe the natural world around them, noticing changes in plants, animals and the weather. 

Creative Expression: Invite participants to draw, paint, or sculpt representations of Creation, or to write poems or songs about nature. Collect leaves, rocks, sticks or flowers to make nature-based art works.

Acts of Service: Engage in simple acts of caring for Creation, like planting seeds, making bird feeders or cleaning up litter. 

Prayers and Reflection: Pray together for the protection of Creation and for those who are most affected by environmental problems. 

Creditto the Celebration Guide for the Season of Creation, which is available to help congregations and can be downloaded here.

Please join the Presbyterian Hunger Program and Creation Justice Ministries on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026 at noon Eastern time for a webinar to launch the Season of Creation with special guest Queen Quet, Chieftess and Head-of-State of the Gullah/Geechee Nation. 

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

Let us join in prayer for:

Shonita Bossier, VP, Operations, Presbyterian Foundation
Terri Bowman, Customer Service Lead, Hubbard Press, Administrative Services Group (A Corporation)  

Let us pray:

Holy God, whose Spirit hovered over the waters at the beginning, we gather as part of your community of all Creation, thirsty for your grace. May God who brought water from the rock sustain us in the desert. May Christ our Lord who is Living Water refresh us for the work of restoration. And may the Holy Spirit carry us on currents of grace until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Amen.

Ending Gun Violence by Supporting the World Communion Offering

The World Communion Offering Supports Ending Gun Violence The World Communion Offering supports reconciliation efforts such as racial justice, gender justice, peacemaking, global witness, ecumenical and interfaith relations. One of the ministries that falls under this umbrella is the commitment by the PC(USA) to End Gun Violence. The PC(USA) urges congregations to take action of their own to end gun violence, such as promoting secure gun storage, taking part in the Guns to Gardens initiative, or praying for the emotional, mental, and spiritual health of children growing up in an era rife with gun violence.

The Office of Public Witness created a prayerbook on ending gun violence. You can learn more about this prayerbook How Long, Oh Lord on the PC(USA) Store.

The impact we have when we all do a little can add up to a lot through the World Communion Offering.

Thank you for generously supporting the World Communion Offering.   If you have any questions, reply to this email or call us at (800) 728-7228, Ext. 5047.

Mission Yearbook: Sojourners magazine’s editor in chief discusses ‘Light for the Way’

Betsy Shirley, the editor in chief of Sojourners, recently told the hosts of “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast” that resilience in difficult times such as the present can be strengthened by knowing what our forebears went through, and what helped them to stand.

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Betsy Shirley

Shirley joined the podcast, hosted each week by Simon Doong and the Rev. Lee Catoe, to also talk about the Sojourners compendium, “Light for the Way: Seeking Simplicity, Connection and Repair in a Broken World.” Listen to her 53-minute discussion with the hosts here.

When Shirley hears a reference to “resilience,” she said she thinks about “the Christians who have come before us who have been through, maybe not the exact same issues we’re facing today, but have lived through issues or timelines … where people seem to have forgotten how to share, whether that’s power or resources.”

“We’re not the first people to experience that,” she said. “God has been faithful through those people and those situations, and that gives me a little more confidence to say, ‘This is not the world as we would prefer it to be, and yet God is present, as God has ever been in the past.’”

For months now, “our readers and our staff and I have had this feeling of anxiety,” Shirley said. “Are we doing enough to protect the people being harmed by this onslaught of policies? Are we showing up in the right ways?”

One thing that’s important to remember is “the United States has never been a place where the national ideals of liberty and justice for all have ever been realized,” Shirley said. “We can look at people in our church and in our cities who have not experienced radical flourishing for themselves or their communities.”

Catoe asked Shirley to describe some of the impacts that Sojourners articles have had on readers and on others.

She noted that the word “magazine” comes from the root for “storehouse.” Shirley said in her mind, a magazine is like “a pantry full of all kinds of snacks. The variety is an important part of what it means to have a magazine.”

Sojourners includes reporting, opinion pieces, Bible studies and more. “We have spiritual reflections and the fun stuff that happens in our culture. It’s a real intentional mix,” she said. “We have a mix of authors who write for us, and I’m grateful for that.”

The mission at Sojourners is to articulate the biblical call to social justice, she noted. “We don’t want to be the journal of the right opinion on Christian justice. That’s impossible,” Shirley said. “We are a table around which a lot of people are gathered.” The editors try to “bring conversations we think are important to this ongoing conversation and to be in dialogue with others who are asking these questions and living these issues.”

As a reader, “that’s what I want from publications,” she said.

Last summer Shirley interviewed Jarvis Williams, a former pastor who’s now a pro-democracy organizer. “I was sharing with him some of these anxieties,” including worries around “are we doing enough?” she recalled. “He very kindly answered my questions, and then he said to me, ‘Let me put on my pastoral hat for a second.’” Then he said, “If you think the world is all evil and you are just bringing the goodness to help it, you have thought a thought that is not Christian. You are telling yourself a story that’s not even authentic to the Christian faith. Humanity didn’t just start having these problems this election cycle.”

“Whew!” Shirley told the hosts. “I thought that was really powerful and important.”

“I have moments of greed and prejudice and disliking things and not being true,” she said. “It’s not, ‘Let me and my posse come and help with these problems or solve the issues those people have caused.’ It’s more a sense of, ‘We are all facing these, and yes, certain people bring different things to the conversation, but we’re all in this together’” in an effort to bring about “mutual flourishing and liberation.”

New editions of “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast" drop here every Thursday.

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

Let us join in prayer for:

Teresa Bidart, Mission Specialist, Self-Development of People, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Ricky Blade, Customer Service Representative, Constituent Ministry, Presbyterian Life & Witness

Let us pray:

Dear Lord, we lift up your children who are burdened with the trauma of their childhood. We pray that your healing peace might wash over them, so that they might overcome their history and become light for others. Amen.