Mission Yearbook: Westminster Presbyterian Church in New Jersey seeks ‘Shalom of the City’

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Members celebrate Easter at Westminster Presbyterian Church in 2025.

Members from Westminster Presbyterian Church in New Jersey’s capital city understand themselves as “A House of Prayer and Praise for People of All Nations” that continually seeks “the Shalom of the City.” These phrases describe how the congregation sees itself as a body, committed to faith, loving unconditionally and doing the work where they are with whomever needs it wherever they are. One member observed:

We “love thy neighbor” every time we joyfully show up and shout out for our  members, our city, our nation and our world. We attend local drive-by graduation celebrations and march for racial and social justice. We  distribute food to local families and teach English in a village school in the Dominican Republic. We celebrate our God-given gifts and use them for the glory of God. We shine our light and encourage others to shine theirs, with love, commitment, patience and forgiveness. For such a time as this ...

Westminster Presbyterian Church is a historic, urban church located in the East Trenton/Wilbur neighborhood of Trenton, New Jersey. The history of the current Westminster began in the 1980s, almost a century after it was founded, when congregants of the predominantly white church were faced with deciding on a course of action when it was becoming clear that no change meant the permanent closing of the church.

Over the course of the past 40-plus years, as the congregation went through a major transformation due to white flight, Westminster has worked to better reflect the image of their community, particularly by matching their community’s complexion. They have continued to strive to be better at seeking justice and always looking to a future with more caring and love. With partners, Westminster continues seeking the Shalom of the City through a ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18).  They currently dedicate their church facility and resources in service to:

• promoting racial reconciliation
• becoming an intercultural, multigenerational worshiping congregation
• improving the quality of education in public schools in Trenton
• working to dismantle mass incarceration
• ministering to people and their families
• providing Trenton Microloan Collaborative loans to reentry/returning citizens
• reaching out to young adults who feel disenfranchised by the traditional church yet called to live and serve in the city of Trenton
• assisting immigrants to acquire English proficiency to support the education of their children and to secure gainful employment
• becoming an open and affirming congregation for the LGBTQ-plus community
• and becoming the home of Interfaith Refugee Immigrant Services and Empowerment.

Pastora Karen admits that the church is not “self-sufficient financially,” meaning they rely on grants and donations to not just meet their own budget but also to sustain their enormous array of community events, services, and missions for folks in Trenton; our Westminster missionaries serving the Misión Tú Puedes in Najayo, Dominican Republic, and Monrovia, Liberia.

Westminster operates almost like a nonprofit, hosting community programs out of its building, and taking in donations from other churches and organizations and dispensing them to the city of Trenton.

Trenton may appear to be a dying city, but Westminster considers its mission to pour out the love of Christ regardless of how Trenton may be able to invest or make good on such gifts, persisting in the radical practice of “seeking shalom in the city.” There’s both a work-a-day and a Kin-dom mindset to Westminster’s ministry: they may find themselves pressed in by the brutal realities of urban life, but God’s love compels them to imagine beauty and possibility.

Angie Belmont; Clerk of Session; Westminster Church; Trenton, New Jersey

Let us join in prayer for:

David Barnhart, Associate, Story Ministry, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Interim United Agency
Jenny Barr, Reference and Outreach Archivist, Presbyterian Historical Society, Interim Unified Agency

Let us pray:

Westminster’s Passing of the Peace in five languages is our weekly prayer.

The Lord be with you 
And also with you

La paz de Dios sea con-ti-go
Y tam-bien con-ti-go

Sa-wa-bona
Si-ko-na

Pyeong-hwa
Pyeong-hwa

Pe

Mission Yearbook: Professor and author explores easing the crisis of student debt

In a new book, Dr. Jamal Watson explores one of the nation’s most pressing civil rights questions: Who gets to go to college?

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Watson, author of “The Student Debt Crisis: America’s Moral Urgency,” was a recent guest of Simon Doong and the Rev. Lee Catoe on “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast.” Listen to their 53-minute conversation here.

Watson is also professor and associate dean at Trinity Washington University in Washington, D.C., and executive editor of “Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.”

Watson called student debt “a complicated issue. We all know education is, or tries to be, the great equalizer in our society. Yet there are many people grappling with this whole question of, should I even go to college? I’m concerned I won’t be able to get married or be able to afford to buy a house or a car because I’ll be so much in debt.”

For people of color and Black women in particular, “who are impacted more than any other group, these are even more challenging issues to discuss,” Watson said. Legislation and executive orders by the Biden administration to forgive student loans and make them easier to repay have “imploded under the new administration,” Watson noted, “but I think there are other ways. You have the private sector,” which has “basically stepped up to the plate to say, ‘we will try to provide opportunities for disadvantaged individuals and give them a leg up so they can access education.’”

Watson grew up in a church in Camden, New Jersey, which every year took an offering to help its high school seniors attend college. For Watson, that meant the gift of $9,000, secured in a plastic trash bag. A grateful Watson took the bag home and counted the offering after worship.

“These were working-class people. They were not wealthy, but they believed in education so much that they wanted to send me off,” he told Catoe and Doong. “These are what I call invisible forms of philanthropy, and they’re taking place in ways people don’t often understand.”

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Black women face even more financial barriers because they can be caregivers of children and their parents and they’re also “battling with racism and sexism,” Watson said. “The sexism piece is they’re often underpaid and undervalued. They’re often trying to shoulder work responsibilities in which they’re not making enough money to pay back their debt.”

“One of the things I argue in the book is we ought to think of student debt as a civil rights issue,” Watson said. In many other developed nations, “education is less expensive or even free.” In the United States, “we tell young people that when they graduate from high school, they ought to go to college. Shouldn’t we be cultivating a society where we make [higher education] much more accessible without people having to go into debt?”

Add to those barriers “the lack of accumulation of generational wealth because of racism and white supremacy and the way it’s been instituted into our financial system,” Doong said, adding that many students who can’t afford the cost of a four-year institution are instead earning an associate’s degree, then transferring to a state-supported university because that’s what they can afford. “There’s nothing wrong with that,” Doong said. “Some folks give them a hard time, but they were doing what they can do with the means they have. They should be proud of that.”

The reality is that “the vast majority of students in this country are at community colleges, and yet community colleges are treated like second-class institutions,” Watson said. “They often don’t get the funding they need even though they are servicing traditional-aged students who are coming right out of high school and many older individuals or those who have been laid off and are coming back to get reskilled.”

The PC(USA) provides student loan support and guidance for public service loan forgiveness through a partnership between the Office of Financial Aid for Service and the Board of Pensions. To register for the service and find out if you are eligible for free student loan coaching, visit pcusa.org/loanassist.

Listen to previous editions of “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast” here.

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

Let us join in prayer for:

Rebecca Barnes, Manager, Presbyterian Hunger Program, Interim Unified Agency
Cheryl Barnes,  Manager, US Global Ecumenical Liaisons, Interim Unified Agency

Let us pray:

Loving God, thank you for the faithful who lead us to Christ through their love, ministry, proclamation and service. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Reparative Justice Fund is approved at Presbytery of Baltimore

The Presbytery of Baltimore recently took a historic step by approving the establishment of a Reparative Justice Fund at its 908th Stated Meeting held at Catonsville Presbyterian Church. This action affirms the presbytery’s commitment to truth, repair and reconciliation in response to the enduring harm of slavery and systemic racism.

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The Presbytery of Baltimore held its 908th Stated Meeting Saturday and approved a historic Reparative Justice Fund. (Photo by Presbytery of Baltimore) 

The Reparative Justice Fund is designed to provide direct support to African American congregations and communities within the presbytery’s bounds, with a focus on empowerment, self-determination and healing. Six historically Black congregations —  Cherry Hill Community, Grace, Knox, Lochearn, Madison Avenue, and Trinity Presbyterian churches will receive initial priority in recognition of their historic underfunding and exclusion. At least one-quarter of the fund’s resources will be directed toward these congregations, while additional disbursements will support community-based initiatives rooted in equity and justice.

Unlike traditional grant programs, the Reparative Justice Fund will be governed by an independent nonprofit board of directors. Members of the incorporating board will be nominated from within the presbytery as well as African American leaders serving in historically Black communities across the region. This ensures that the distribution of funds will be led by those most directly impacted by historic inequities, reflecting the core principle that reparations must be shaped and guided by the communities they are meant to serve.

To seed the fund, the presbytery is committing 15% of its unrestricted net assets, in addition to 15% of designated mission and urban ministry funds. These resources will be disbursed in two equal installments in 2026 and 2027.

Moving forward, the presbytery’s manual will be amended so that 10% of net proceeds from all property sales will flow into the fund, providing a sustainable and long-term source of support. The Reparative Actions Fund Reserve, created several years ago from the legacy of The Center, which connected Baltimore congregations with mission, will also be incorporated into this effort, unifying the presbytery’s commitments under one banner of repair.

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The Presbytery of Baltimore's Reparative Justice Fund will support Black congregations that have historically been underfunded. Here General Presbyter the Rev. Dr. Jacqueline Taylor stands behind centenarian Susan Taylor King, who was honored during Saturday's gathering. (Photo by Presbytery of Baltimore)

The action comes after years of prayerful discernment and study led by the presbytery’s Dismantling Racism Team. Beginning in 2022, the team engaged in broad consultation, studied denominational precedents and listened deeply to congregations and community voices. The team’s recommendation emphasized the need to move beyond charity toward repair, grounding the proposal in the theological conviction that repentance requires both confession and action.

“This fund is more than a symbolic act — it is a faithful witness to the gospel,” said General Presbyter the Rev. Dr. Jacqueline Taylor. “Reparations name the harm, affirm dignity, and open the way to a more just future. Through this fund, the Presbytery of Baltimore is aligning its resources with its faith, living out God’s call to mend what has been broken.”

The Reparative Justice Fund also builds on actions of the broader denomination. In 2022, the 225th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) adopted an overture titled An Apology to African Americans for the Sin of Slavery and Its Legacy, which called on presbyteries to examine their complicity in slavery and systemic racism and to take tangible steps toward repair. The Presbytery of Baltimore endorsed this action at the time and began to study how it might live into its commitments in practical ways. The recent vote represents a major milestone in the fulfillment of that process.

By creating this fund, the Presbytery of Baltimore joins a growing ecumenical movement in the region and beyond. The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, the PC(USA)’s Synod of Lakes and Prairies, and several universities have taken similar steps, signaling that reparations are increasingly recognized as both a moral imperative and a faithful witness to justice. Baltimore’s action stands out for its scope  and its structural independence, setting an example for other presbyteries across the country.

“It is exciting to see this critical work progress. This is not only a historic moment for Baltimore Presbytery — it is a long-awaited new beginning,” said the Rev. Jermaine Ross-Allam, director of the PC(USA)’s Center for the Repair of Historic Harms. “Inspired by our Creator, their actions affirm that repairing centuries of injustice remains right, necessary and possible. May God bless this fund to plant seeds of trust and transformation that will repair, inspire and equip generations to come.”

Presbytery of Baltimore (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Clare Balsan, Associate, United Nations Advocacy, Office of Public Witness and Presbyterian Ministry at the UN
Amantha Barbee, Major Gift Officer, Stewardship and Major Gifts, Administrative Services Group (A Corporation)

Let us pray:

Dear God, thank you for raising up prophets in our midst to bring us good news. Accompany them in their journeys and strengthen their ministries. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Author discusses habits for a healthy, holy life

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Justin Whitmel Earley has served as a missionary and an attorney, but his current gig has proven even more satisfying.

Now he writes books for both children and to help grownups develop habits that lead to good health — for themselves, their family and their community.

Earley’s most recent book is “The Body Teaches the Soul: Ten Essential Habits to Form a Healthy and Holy Life.”  He was the guest recently of the Rev. Cliff Haddox and the Rev. Michelle Thomas-Bush on the “Around the Table” podcast. Listen to their 51-minute conversation here.

After a time as a missionary in China, Earley became a lawyer working at a firm that demanded around-the-clock work. “Even though professing my identity was in Jesus and my hope was in the Lord, I functionally was putting my hope and my identity into my work,” he told the hosts. It took him a “long while” to rebuild his life afterward, “but encountering, practicing and committing to creating a schedule for the spiritual disciplines was the way the Lord saw me out of that season.”

Earley learned that more than 4 in 10 of our everyday actions “are not conscious choices but default habits.” But “it’s clearly possible to choose otherwise, and this is the good news.” He suggested making invisible habits visible by naming them.

Haddox said there’d invariably be resistance in the first few weeks of trying to change a habit.

“Your brain takes a while to get used to things — usually four to six weeks,” Earley said. A powerful example in his own lawyering life was his habit of checking work email or social media posts first thing in the morning, “which was creating either anxiety or anger, depending on which I went to first.”

Nearly 9 in 10 Americans do the same thing the moment they roll out of bed, he said. “When we start our day with social media or news or our inbox or our daily schedule for our identity, those are terrible places, because they’ll never love us back the way God loves us,” Earley said. “As a habit, saying I will look at Scripture before I look at my phone every morning was immensely powerful in my life.”

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“I had to fight this internal narrative and the norm of saying, ‘I can figure this out at 8:30 when I get to the office.’ But it’s 6:30 now. That means I have two hours with my family. It can wait.”

Earley said he often thinks about Romans 12:1–2, Paul’s words about not being conformed but being transformed. “It’s important to note we’re being formed in either of those situations,” he said. “The idea is don’t passively become conformed to the patterns of the world but rather be transformed. That takes effort, thinking and choosing.”

All this transformation occurred when Earley was the father of two young boys. He now has four, ages 13, 11, 8 and 6. “One thing I’ve realized after I started writing and talking about habits and spirituality is that parenting puts us on display perhaps more than any other realm,” he said. “Parenting is the realm of habit.” In those days, Earley was “the guy who barked my kids to bed each evening.” Starting a nighttime prayer rhythm with his children “helped me think about a different endpoint for the day.”

He and his children would exchange call-and-response prayers at bedtime. “Do you know I love you no matter what bad things you do? What good things you do?” His boys would tell him yes. “Who else loves you like that?” he’d ask them. “God does,” they’d respond. “It was a way for them to land the day on the love of God being unconditional for them and me.”

Earley said a good way to change a habit is to pick one friend to do one habit for one month, either together or on one’s own. “You need community to form new habits. This is well-researched,” he said.

After you practice for a few weeks, “it’ll be an amazing day and you won’t even realize it,” Earley said. “You’ll do it without realizing it.”

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

Let us join in prayer for:

Zenia Baker, Administrative I, Operations, Presbyterian Foundation
Adriana Ballard, AVP, Director of Investment Management, Investments, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray:

Lord, help us to find new and challenging ways to support our neighbors as they seek to provide for their families. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: North Carolina church holds senior health event for members, community

Covenant Presbyterian Church, an African American congregation in Durham, North Carolina, is doing its part — and then some — to raise awareness and outcomes on health equity and health education.

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The Rev. Lakisha Bradshaw Easter addresses those attending last month's luncheon at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Frederick Brown)

Sue McLaurin, a ruling elder at Covenant, said the church recently offered a successful gathering for seniors at the church and in the community, building on its THESES Project, for Tele-Health Equity, Spiritual and Economic Survivorship.

“More and more seniors will need to become responsible for making decisions about their health as they communicate with their health-care providers,” McLaurin said. “When information received from medical professionals is not well understood and a person is unable to share their health-care needs with family or friends, it may result in poor health outcomes.”

Covenant, whose membership is more than 50% seniors, recently hosted a luncheon attended by more than 50 people. Organizers based the event on 1 Corinthians 6:19–20: “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body.”

Each of eight tables had a table tent with a topic such as “Talk back to the doctor,” “Community resources for seniors,” “Health literacy,” “Spiritual activities for seniors,” “Choosing and using information,” “Senior mobility: staying alive,” “Grandparents’ love,” and “Happiness is … .” Lunch guests sat at the table with the topic they wanted to discuss.

Event organizers collected feedback, which included “share information on various and sundry senior resources in Durham,” “bring an advocate with you to ask questions if you don’t feel capable,” “find an activity that you can commit to and stay committed,” and “being content and grateful and finding joy in what you have.”

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Those attending the THESES luncheon at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Durham, North Carolina, sat at tables with table tents describing what they wanted to discuss. (Photo by Frederick Brown)

According to McLaurin, responses were collated into groups that included interaction and topics. The former group included “communicating with groups on ideas on spirituality,” “hearing comments from senior citizens with experience” and “great opportunity for interaction with other seniors.”

The latter group included this feedback: “topics were relevant to seniors,” the importance of “choosing and using information items” and “the different points of view on how to deal with special health issues.”

McLaurin also provided some background on how Covenant has been working on health equity and health education. In 2020, the church received funding from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to address health equity among Durham’s Black and brown population, which comprise about half the city’s population of about 288,000 people.

Covenant used some of the funds to increase the community’s Covid vaccination rate. That was the genesis of the THESES project, she noted.

“As things are changing dramatically at the federal level regarding the elimination of federal funds, we have increasingly raised concerns about this as well as caution, as it relates to providing outreach to populations who are most affected by these proposed changes,” McLaurin said.

Covenant continues to collect data from the recent gathering. “Based on the summary statements from [the] participants, it is quite informative, especially from an African American population where health disparities are well documented,” McLaurin said.

When participants were asked how future gatherings might be improved, the response, according to McLaurin, was, “continue to have them!”

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

Let us join in prayer for:

Charles Baker, Production Clerk, Presbyterian Distribution Service, Administrative Services Group
Kristine Baker, Associate for Risk Management, Administrative Services Group (A Corporation)

Let us pray:

Thank you, Lord, for the privilege of seeing the transformation in our community and in our own hearts. We praise you, God, for giving us your second great commandment — to love our neighbors as ourselves. Amen.

Special Offerings - One Great Hour of Sharing Answers the Call to Do Justice

One Great Hour of Sharing Answers the Call to Do Justice Through One Great Hour of Sharing, we are responding to Christ’s call to ministries of compassion for the world’s most vulnerable. Together, we answer the prophet Micah’s call to do justice by working to address hunger, disaster, oppression, climate change and immigration/migration and refugees. Your gifts to One Great Hour of Sharing further God’s ministry in the world. When we participate in One Great Hour of Sharing... We create possibility for people forced to flee their homes in search of safety. We support recovery efforts when disasters devastate communities. We empower partners to build sustainable futures. We walk alongside our siblings to work for more just immigration laws and processes. Our gifts show people they are not alone and that people they don’t know see them and care enough to respond. Learn More About OGHS Thank you for supporting One Great Hour of Sharing! If you have any questions, reply to this email or call us at (800) 728-7228, Ext. 5047.

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Mission Yearbook: Presbyterians join with Church World Service partners to fight hunger

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has endorsed a statement from Church World Service — and 16 CWS partners — calling for a renewed effort to fight hunger.

The ecumenical statement, which has more than 60 organizational signatories and more than 800 individual signatories, is a display of faith and an answer to the call in Mark 12:31 to “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

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Contributed photo

“As people of faith, our vision is a world where everyone has access to enough nutritious food to thrive,” the statement reads. “We believe that, by standing shoulder to shoulder, our vision can become reality, around the corner and around the world.”

The statement refers to hunger as “an affront to justice” and notes that hunger is surging despite an abundance of food in the United States and other parts of the world.

Hunger is sometimes fueled by conflict, such as the Israel-Hamas war that has led to famine in Gaza, and systematic issues, such as racism, as well as economic policy decisions that undermine people struggling to make ends meet.

The ecumenical statement notes that hunger robs health and opportunity from millions of people, especially those without access to clean water and safe sanitation, and disproportionately affects vulnerable populations, such as people who are homeless, those who are immigrants or refugees, and those affected by disasters.

“By bringing together our skills, experience and passion to this vital shared mission,” the statement notes, “we can heed God’s call ‘to loose the bonds of injustice … to let the oppressed go free, to break every yoke and to share your bread with the hungry.’” (Isaiah 58:6-7)

The help of individuals and churches will be particularly important in the coming months as people begin feeling the effects of federal policy decisions that could make life tougher for people in need of food assistance.

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The Rev. Rebecca Barnes

In 2025, “major federal policies passed will drastically cut federal funds being provided to state food assistance programs, children’s feeding programs, and small local and family farmers,” Barnes said. “Most experts expect hunger to surge greatly as a result of these policy changes. Churches and charities cannot address the overwhelming need, regardless of the immense generosity and donations of well-meaning individuals. We need structural, systemic and policy change in our food and farm systems in order to ensure root causes of hunger are addressed in our communities.”

That makes advocacy all the more important. “We aren’t sure yet if there will be a ‘skinny’ Farm Bill (since so much of the food aid was already cut in earlier legislation) or an extension of the current Farm Bill,” Barnes said. However, “people of faith can lift up our voices to continue to demand that we reverse some of the worst impacts of cuts to USAID, SNAP, and other food and farm policies.”

Rick Santos, president and chief executive officer of Church World Service, said addressing hunger is critical not just for the people of today but also the future.

“Ultimately, hunger justice efforts cannot only aim to fix the social safety nets of today but must seek to safeguard those of tomorrow,” Santos said in a news release. “This generation needs to be the last to know the pain, suffering and indignity of watching their children fall prey to hunger in a world where food is abundant.”

To read the ecumenical statement on hunger or for more information, go here.

Darla Carter, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Nora Baez, lead reservation specialist, Stony Point Center, Interim Unified Agency
Amber Baker, Donor Advised Fund Specialist, Operations, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray:

Generous God, as you have given so freely to us, we give you thanks that as possible, we are able to freely give to others. May your Spirit sustain the many helping hands, and may your blessings abound for those being served. Through Christ we pray. Amen.