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Date: May 19, 2026
Time: 12:00 UTC
Location: Online (Zoom)
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Wednesday, May 13, 2026
Young people and the Churchwide Special Offerings
Together for the Next Generation: Webinar Invite
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Tuesday, May 12, 2026
Mission Yearbook: Voices in many languages join to bring renewal at 1001 NWC gathering
At the 1001 New Worshiping Communities National Gathering held in Estes Park, Colorado, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) celebrated a rich tapestry of multicultural and multilingual worship. With over 150 attendees, including 20 who primarily spoke Spanish and many others who were multilingual, the gathering embodied the denomination’s commitment to inclusivity and innovation in spiritual leadership.
One evening’s worship was a powerful moment of connection and vulnerability, led by pastor Marlucia Damaceno Crispim, a commissioned lay pastor serving Iglesia El Buen Pastor, an immigrant congregation in Atlanta. Preaching on Matthew 11 and Psalm 46, Crispim spoke passionately about the exhaustion felt by pastors and community leaders, especially within immigrant churches. Her sermon emphasized the deep need for rest among those who serve tirelessly and resonated deeply with people at all levels of translation.
The Rev. Sara Hayden, associate for apprenticeships for 1001 NWC, said Crispim’s sermon asked important questions of discernment for leaders of new worshiping communities who often balance many jobs alongside their ministries. After the service, Hayden, who speaks both English and Spanish, recalled an important line from Crispim’s sermon: “The Lord, the Creator of heaven and Earth, invites us to come and rest for a little while ... the question for us is, how much is ‘a little’ and is the ‘little’ you've been resting enough?”
The Rev. Laura Beth Buchleiter from Indianapolis reflected, “It was incredibly powerful to watch a majority community be the receivers of the translation. Meaning didn’t quite matter, as much as we like to think it does sometimes.”
To ensure accessibility, simultaneous translation services were provided by Stephanie Vasquez, manager of the PC(USA)’s Global Language Resources. Vasquez distributed more than 70 headsets, allowing worshipers to hear Crispim’s message in English. Vasquez’s work is foundational to many national PC(USA) events, where she often coordinates with local interpreters to provide real-time translation. Her presence and dedication made it possible for attendees to experience worship across linguistic boundaries.
Reflecting on the experience, the Rev. Nikki Collins, manager of 1001 New Worshiping Communities, noted the subversive power of shifting voice and authority. “It was just the shift of voice and power and the experience of watching people who are always so comfortable in all of our spaces have to figure out something new.” This reversal of roles — where English speakers became the ones receiving translation — created a moment of humility and shared humanity.
The next morning’s worship continued the theme of embodied grace and spiritual renewal. Led by pastors who had immigrated from Ethiopia, Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the service was both a multicultural celebration and a call to understand rest in many contexts.
The Rev. Gilo Agwa, who leads a new worshiping community in Stillwater, Minnesota, preached on Mark 6:31 and Luke 6:12–13. He spoke candidly about the relentless pace of life in immigrant communities, where rest is often elusive. “In my church, 75% of members cannot attend worship on the same Sunday. … People sleep in the church during worship service. It’s not because the worship service is boring, but it’s because there is no rest. They are tired.” His sermon was a heartfelt plea for Sabbath as resistance — a spiritual act of reclaiming dignity and wholeness.
Translation also occurred in the process of hearing the good news, not just through words but also through the body. The multicultural forms of music that morning made the embodiment of worship palpable. Gina Brown from The Faith Studio in Atlanta said, “I wasn’t able to stand and sit like everyone else. … I just closed my eyes and decided to worship that way and connected with the Spirit.”
The Rev. Rola Al Ashkar, leader of Їama Embodied Ministries in Sacramento, California, added, “I feel at home, feeling welcomed and accepted in a place that doesn’t think I’m weird for moving my body [and] accepting feeling good in the body as a form of worship.”
Together, these moments of multilingual proclamation, embodied worship, and shared rest painted a picture of a church that is learning to listen deeply — to the Spirit, to one another and to the diverse voices that make up its body.
Beth Waltemath, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Life & Witness (Click here to read original PNS Story)
Let us join in prayer for:
Patricia Haines, Executive Vice President, Benefits, The Board of Pensions
Ian Hall, Interim President and CFO/COO, President’s Office, Administrative Services Group
Let us pray:
Lord God, thank you for your gift of love that transforms our lives. Thank you for giving us opportunities to share and receive that love. Continue your work in our churches. We ask all of this as your children. Amen.
Monday, May 11, 2026
Mission Yearbook: Transformation like Paul’s is urged by Palestinian pastor
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| The Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac leads Bible study for the 27th General Council of the World Communion Reformed Churches. (Photo courtesy of the WCRC) |
Preaching from 1 Timothy 1:12–17, Isaac reflected on Paul’s gratitude for God’s mercy and how the encounter with Jesus fundamentally changed his life. The service also included members of the Indigenous Caucus, who participated in a symbolic planting of reed sticks “to affirm the holiness of this place, this gathering and this act of faith.” A team of dancers carried the Bible forward before the congregation called out the names of martyrs and saints from their own communities.
Isaac centered his message on four ways Paul was transformed after meeting Christ.
The first change, Isaac said, was in Paul’s understanding of God. “Gone is Paul’s view of a tribal God, the God of violence,” he said. “Instead, Paul encounters a God who seeks people, not to judge them, but to save them.”
Second, Paul’s perception of himself shifted. “Before knowing Christ, Paul was very proud of himself,” Isaac said, drawing laughter as he compared Paul’s Pharisaic pride to boasting about holding a doctorate in theology. Paul’s encounter with Jesus, he added, “shattered supremacy into pieces.” Calling himself the worst of sinners, Paul embodied a “theology of humility” that Isaac said is sorely needed today.
The third transformation was in how Paul viewed others. Before his conversion, Paul looked at people with condescension. But, Isaac reminded the congregation, “When we despise others, let us remember we despise the Creator.” After Damascus, Paul saw every person as an object of God’s love. “May God deliver us from the sin of religious fanaticism,” Isaac said.
Finally, Paul’s understanding of religion itself changed. “Even Christianity can degenerate into a religion of laws,” Isaac warned. “Paul now positioned himself with the persecuted, not the persecutors.”
Isaac said such transformation is needed now more than ever. “I look at myself and I see the elements of Saul of Tarsus,” he said. “How much we all need — I need — to be transformed.”
He pointed to global and regional suffering — war in Sudan, persecution of Dalits in India, and the ongoing devastation in Gaza — as evidence of humanity’s continued blindness. “Children in Gaza are bombed and killed,” Isaac said. “We have apartheid in Palestine — a Zionist apartheid — and many Christians enable it.”
The war in Gaza, he said, has revealed a painful truth. “Many in the West, including in some churches, do not look at us Palestinians as equals,” Isaac said. “Human rights do not apply to us.”
He criticized silence and complicity among Christians in the face of suffering. “There is overwhelming evidence recognizing what is unfolding as genocide,” he said. “Many in the church chose silence, or worse, chose to defend genocide. Their silence was too loud to ignore.”
Such responses, Isaac said, “turn theology into ideology.” Only a “Damascus-like encounter,” he argued, can shatter violent theologies.
Isaac urged the church “to be shaped by the liberating power of the gospel, not by the politicians and the ideology of the day.” He lamented how difficult it has become to distinguish “the church’s voice from that of political leaders and powers.”
“The church must identify with and be shaped by those on the receiving end of marginality,” he said. “Only when we ourselves are transformed can we be agents of transformation.”
Closing his message, Isaac reminded worshipers that “the One who transformed Saul into Paul is still transforming lives today.”
“We need Christ today more than ever — the Christ who meets us on the road and confronts our blindness, who transforms our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh,” he said. “As new creations in Christ, we can bear witness to hope in a broken and suffering world. Amen.”
Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)
Let us join in prayer for:
Patricia Haines, Executive Vice President, Benefits, The Board of Pensions
Ian Hall, Interim President and CFO/COO, President’s Office, Administrative Services Group
Let us pray:
Dear Lord, we give thanks that you have gifted each of us for your purpose. May our hearts be open to your leading that we may use those gifts to your glory. We give thanks that we are part of a great family. May we always encourage and support one another in your work in your world. Amen.
Sunday, May 10, 2026
Minute for Mission: Mother’s Day
On my third day in the Stewardship & Funds Development office of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), I saw a sign for the Pillars recurring gifts platform: “What if you could change the world every day?”
Mothers often do. Children change constantly — what worked last week rarely works this week — so the adults raising them must keep reshaping their worlds so they can thrive.
And the world does need changing. People are dying. Hatred is mistaken for power. Compassion is mocked. Division spreads. What we need isn’t just any change, but the nurturing change Jesus envisioned: a beloved community grounded in grace and love.
That vision was never about elevating ourselves — our power, prestige or wealth. It was about serving one another and cultivating communities where all can flourish, even as circumstances — and we ourselves — change.
It isn’t easy. Matthew 23:37 pictures Jesus longing to gather God’s children like a mother hen gathers her chicks, yet we scatter. Hosea 11:3–4 shows God teaching Israel to walk, leading with “cords of human kindness … bands of love” lifting them close.
This kind of nurturing love isn’t limited to mothers, but it reflects the best of motherhood: steady, adaptive care that helps others grow. Through that love — in our families, congregations and communities — we participate in the change that moves the world closer to Christ’s vision.
Mothers have the chance to change the world every day. Their choices ripple far beyond their own lives. And you don’t have to be a mother to do the same. Each of us can nurture, encourage and shape the world around us for the better starting now. Mother’s Day is a fitting place to begin.
If you want to explore how you can change the world every day by joining the Pillars community, go to PILLARS | Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and find out more.
Mary Beene, Stewardship Officer West, Office of Stewardship & Funds Development, Administrative Services Group, Inc.
Let us join in prayer for:
PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff:
Suzi Gwinn, Manager, Investor Services, Presbyterian Investment and Loan Program
Beth Haendiges, Associate for Marketing & Client Services, Presbyterian Investment and Loan Program
Let us pray:
God of Life, Change and Love, bless us with the vision of Jesus for a world that allows all people to thrive. May we be a part of the change to make that vision a reality through the grace and power of your Holy Spirit. Amen.
Minute for Mission: World Fair Trade Day
World Fair Trade Day, first celebrated in 2004, takes place on the second Saturday in May. But what is it? The World Fair Trade Organization set aside this day to commemorate progress made around the world regarding fair trade. This also includes issues such as poverty, climate change and many others targeted by this movement. 
Trade empowers farmers by improving economic
security and allows them to invest in their businesses
and communities. Fair trade also promotes better
farming practice, reduces the use of harmful
agrochemicals and supports sustainable farming
methods. (Photo by Nicole Bryant)
Many congregations may associate fair trade with their coffee hours or possibly even their palms for Palm Sunday, but it is so much more! It is a trading partnership that is concerned with the human rights of all those involved with the creation and distribution of a product, including people being paid a fair wage, ensuring that the product or the materials for the product are ethically sourced, as well as fighting against issues concerning the economy, gender, inequality and climate change.
Pausing to consider the deeper implications of our purchases is an important practice in considering how our economics are a way of practicing our faith.
The prayer below for World Fair Trade Day is adapted from the Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand.
Jessica Maudlin, Associate for Sustainable Living and Earth Care Concerns, Presbyterian Hunger Program, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Let us join in prayer for:
Christopher Grissom , Investment Analyst, Trust Services, The Presbyterian Foundation
Vicente Guna, Manager, Digital Strategy & Information Systems, Administrative Services Group
Let us pray:
God of love and justice, we thank you for this world which you created, which you love, and which you are reconciling to yourself. In a world where unjust global trade laws and unrighteous western consumerism darken the plight of those without influence and without a voice, make us a holy people. We pray for those people around the world who produce the things we eat and buy. We pray that they get a fair price for the things we buy from them. We pray that we be reminded of the power of our support to these people by buying fair trade goods so that we can help create a better and more just world. We give thanks for the gifts planted in all of us. We remember the power we embody when we share these gifts: compassion and understanding, the fire and the vigor. We honor your Word living within us, inspiring people to protest at greed, to work for justice, to passionately share their resources and cherish all life. Yours is the outspoken love, yours is the outrageous hope, yours is the extravagant mercy. Amen.
Friday, May 8, 2026
Mission Yearbook: Author and Episcopal priest discusses everyday objects of spiritual people
The Rev. Laurie M. Brock, an author and Episcopal priest in Lexington, Kentucky, recently stopped by the virtual studios of “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast” to talk about her new book, “Souvenirs of the Holy: Encountering God Through Everyday Objects.” Listen to her 54-minute conversation with podcast hosts the Rev. Lee Catoe and Simon Doong here.
Brock said she has wrestled with the question, “What place are possessions taking in your life?”
While we’re not all called to be monastics, “I also think having so many things that you don’t even know what you have gets in the way of our relationship with God,” Brock said. “If you need 48 lip balms, go see a dermatologist. Something’s wrong.”
As Christians, we ought to be having a conversation with ourselves about how much is enough, Brock said.
A thing can bring us joy, Doong noted. “There’s a difference between that and you deriving joy from the purchasing and having something,” he said.
That’s true, Brock said, and advertising is largely to blame. “Advertising works on the simple belief that we’re going to tell people that they aren’t enough,” she said. “Compare that to the Christian message that you are enough, full stop.”
“Not only are you enough, but you’re enough in your messiness,” she said. “You can’t buy your way to enough.”
Brock wondered if we can “stand up to the advertisers who are constantly telling us what is quite honestly an anti-Christian message, which is, ‘you’re not enough.’ God says, ‘no, you are, and nothing that you buy will make you enough.’”
“It’s OK to derive joy from things,” Brock said, “but the accumulation and the process of trying to be enough is never going to work for you.”
Catoe wondered: “What does it look like to look at material goods differently?”
Do more than just consider the price of things, Brock suggested.
With community-supported agriculture, “I know the local farmers. It’s a deep connection,” Brock said. “The money that I put into that is an investment in holiness and grace. What if I did that same process as much as I could” with everything else she buys, she said. We can start with the question “why?”
“Why is a powerful and holy question we don’t ask enough in our world,” Brock said. “Sometimes we Christians don’t think our faith walks with us as we walk into stores. It does, and it should dictate how we consume things and the things we keep around us.”
Noting that Brock’s book features a cast-iron skillet on the cover, Catoe said that image takes him back to his grandmother and great-grandmother. “An object can invoke the senses. I can smell their cooking,” he said. “Objects are the fingerprints of the past and of our loved ones. I think some objects can enhance our spirituality.”
“God is always speaking to us, wanting us to stop and listen,” Brock replied. “I have realized that everyday items in our lives have so much to say about love and how hard and complicated love is sometimes, and amazing and breath-taking.”
Every time she cooks with her own cast-iron skillet, which she inherited, “I know my grandmother and great-aunts are with us. The fat bonds with the iron, I think,” Brock said. “I am cooking with molecules that have existed for a hundred years.”
Objects can hold both memory and love. Sometimes the memory they hold is painful. “Filling our space with the things that matter give us a way to be present with God and those who have loved us through eternity,” Brock said.
Brock said she wonders what happens “when we as Christians begin to think about the things in our lives that have stories.”
“Not everything has one. Cheap faith? Cheap grace? Cheap is not generally good,” she said. “I think frugality is a wonderful value, but cheap drives down value.”
New editions of “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast” drop every Thursday. Listen to previous editions here.
Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service, Presbyterian Life & Witness (Click here to read original PNS Story)
Let us join in prayer for:
Ken Green, Church Consultant - Chicago, Illinois, Engagement & Church Relations, The Board of Pensions
Paul Grier, VP, Project Regeneration, Development Office, Presbyterian Foundation
Let us pray:
May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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