Minute for Mission: Celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day

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The Rev. Irv Porter, left, leads participants at the Presbyterians for Earth Care Conference in the Blanket Exercise at the Stony Point Center in Stony Point, N.Y.

Traditionally, on the second Monday of October, the United States celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the Americas on Oct. 12, 1492.

However, many communities across the nation celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day rather than Columbus Day. Indigenous Peoples’ Day is part of a growing movement to end the celebration of the Italian explorer and rather honor and recognize Indigenous people, the original occupants of the Americas.

Many scholars believe it was Viking Leif Erikson who first came to what would be become known as the New World from overseas. They believe Columbus wasn't the first European to discover what we know as the Americas and that he first landed on the island of Guanahani in the Bahamas. And, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Columbus never set foot in North America but in present-day Venezuela on his fourth journey.

While Columbus didn't technically discover America, he was instrumental in the colonization of North America and its lasting effects on this nation.

In an effort to help Presbyterians realize the atrocities enacted upon Indigenous people, the Native American Intercultural Congregational Support ministry has conducted the Blanket Exercise so that individuals can better visualize the impact of Columbus and the Church’s actions against Indigenous people.

The exercise explores the tenets of the Doctrine of Discovery, the 1493 papal edict promoting the appropriation of land and the subjection of inhabitants of that land during the era of European exploration.

Part physical experience and part history lesson, the Blanket Exercise raises awareness of the systemic and systematic process Europeans, the U.S. government and the Church used to steal land, separate families, forcibly take children from parents to boarding schools and murder hundreds of thousands of Native Americans.

During the exercise, individuals are invited to stand on the blanket of their choosing among about 20 or so covering the floor. Four individuals read from a script that outlines the cruel effects the Doctrine of Discovery had on Native Americans. An assistant periodically rolls up corners and edges of the blankets until there is scant room for participants to stand.

As the blanket exercise plays out, crowd members — playing the part of the up to 30 million Native Americans present in what Europeans called the New World when Christopher Columbus landed on Caribbean islands more than five centuries ago — take a seat as disease, warfare, broken treaties, forced migration and mandatory boarding schools took their toll. In the end, very few people remain standing on what’s left of the blankets.

In one presentation of the blanket exercise, Irv Porter, associate for Native American Intercultural Congregational Support, told participants, “If you’ve never heard this before, you’re not alone. This is the kind of history nobody cares about.” The mission, he said, is to “wake us up that this happened. We as a denomination are trying to blunt this racism.”

Although the exact number of communities that observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day,  on the second Monday in October is unknown, at least 10 states, many college campuses and more than 100 cities have replaced Columbus Day with some version of Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

For many Native Americans, Columbus Day is viewed as hurtful and misleading. It’s reminiscent of centuries of violent history and colonial oppression at the hands of European explorers and the Church. For many, the hurt and ramifications of those actions and wounds still run deep today.

However, as Porter said during a blanket exercise, quoting Rio Ramirez, a Tohono O’odham educator in Tucson, Arizona: “No one here today made these things happen. But we are the ones who are living now, and we need to understand that we are all in this together.”

Gail Strange, former Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Life & Witness (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Amisi Ngongo, 1001 NWC Apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Eka Tawe, 1001 NWC Apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Life & Witness

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, thank you for inviting all of us to participate in your mission. Guide our congregations as we disciple, giving them opportunities to see your work in and through them in the world. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Faithful Resistance to ICE’ panel discussion draws hundreds

Nearly 400 people joined the recent “Faithful Resistance to ICE” discussion among three Presbyterian clergy who’ve cared for their immigrant siblings in Minneapolis and Chicago by standing against actions taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

The PC(USA)’s Office of Public Witness hosted these pastors for a 90-minute webinar:

• The Rev. Margaret Fox, associate pastor for adult ministries at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis
• The Rev. Quincy Worthington, the pastor of Highland Park Presbyterian Church near Chicago
• The Rev. David Black, senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Chicago.

Elinor Hiller, an OPW intern, asked questions of the panelists, starting with one about recent actions they and their churches have taken.

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The Rev. Margaret Fox

First Presbyterian Church of Chicago began soon after President Trump’s second inauguration, Black said, by organizing a hundred-person working group to support vulnerable neighbors. His own involvement at the Broadview Detention Center began in August, and he was struck on the head with pepper balls the following month. “I’m so proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with Quincy and so many other clergy,” Black said. “It has been extraordinary to witness, and it’s given me a lot of hope.”

Fox, who preached an extraordinary sermon the day after Alex Pretti was killed, also emphasized the importance of relying on longstanding ministry partners. Because it expanded its building two years ago and constructed underground parking. Westminster Presbyterian Church was able to host an interfaith service in late January with just 48 hours’ notice.

“I got involved specifically because of David’s hard work rallying clergy,” Worthington said. “I started going to Broadview at his invitation and saw excessive violence going on against people practicing their First Amendment rights.“

“It’s hard to think Jesus wouldn’t have something to say about that,” he said. “It has been about coalition work and figuring out how we can support [neighbors] at the congregational level. We have tried to match people with their gifts in order to serve the kingdom.”

Fox said she sees protest “as an act of witness. There is something to being visibly present as clergy. It’s a reminder there is another way of being in the world, as a connector or anchor, especially in heated moments.” Ministry “is something we are all called to. It’s not just for those ordained as teaching elders.” In Minneapolis, “the movement has been a leader-full movement of people of faith and people of no faith.”

Her first act with Operation Metro Surge was to serve tea as people emerged from an Islamic center following prayer. “It was hospitality and love, and to receive that back from our neighbors mattered a great deal,” Fox said. “Showing up in an embodied way really matters right now.”

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The Rev. David Black

Black said it’s meaningful for activists to see the moral tradition that clergy represent. Wearing a clergy collar in spaces of activism “signifies my obedience to a larger system of democratic authority.”

“When I show up in this way, people know there are people holding me accountable,” Black said. “It helps to reinforce trust when I walk into situations.”

“I am a big bearded white guy covered in tattoos who has cauliflower ears, and I’m not a Proud Boy,” Worthington said. “The clergy shirt isn’t magic, but it communicates things.”

“It’s important that people see the church of Jesus standing where Jesus would be standing,” Worthington said.

Asked about what role the church ought to play in moments of injustice, Fox said she appreciated a sermon preached around Martin Luther King Jr. day by the Rev. Anna Kendig Flores of the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area. The sermon had three touchpoints: being embodied, cultivating compassion and imagination, and moving not too fast and not too slow.

While Worthington said he usually sees the world “in Technicolor,” some things are binary. One is “we view people either as precious children of God or we don’t.”

“Our wants and desires and dreams for our lives need to be laid at the foot of the Cross” in order to follow Christ, he said. “I try to take that call to discipleship seriously, and when I do that, I find it nearly impossible to remain silent in the face of such dehumanizing practices.”

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

Let us join in prayer for:

Heather von Marko, 1001 NWC Apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Rachel Doll, 1001 NWC Apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Life & Witness

Let us pray:

Dear Lord, ruler of all nations, make our woeful hearts sing. Empower us to be faithful witnesses to the truth of the gospel. Give us the grace to bear one another as we encounter a world that seems to be slipping away from the vision of the kingdom you have promised us. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Presbyterians explore new paths to interfaith dialogue and peacemaking in Oman

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The Rev. Cathy Chang, Luciano Kovacs and the Rev. Dr. Elmarie Parker visit the Al Amana Centre. (Photo courtesy of Luciano Kovacs)

Staff from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Office of Global Ecumenical Partnerships (GEP) and the Office of Public Witness recently met with the Rev. Justin Meyers, executive director of the Al Amana Centre in Oman, a country on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, to discuss expanding educational and interfaith opportunities for U.S. congregations. Meyers highlighted the center’s long history with Reformed churches, its unique setting in the Middle East, and its readiness to support Presbyterians seeking deeper understanding of Islam, interfaith dialogue and peacemaking. 

Luciano Kovacs, the international Global Ecumenical Liaison who organized the meeting, explained how it and other correspondence with partners in Syria and Lebanon between Kovacs and staff from the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance are an expression to the General Assembly mandate INT-01, which commits “to including in our discussions our global ecumenical partners and a broad range of Christian and other faith perspectives, as well as people from marginalized communities in the U.S. and from frontline communities in parts of the world affected by U.S. policy.” 

On its website, Al Amana Centre describes its work as fostering “safe, immersive, interfaith experiences” designed to build peace through person-to-person connection. Its location in Oman offers “the safety, accessibility and invitation required for meaningful connections between diverse groups.” The center’s history stretches back more than 130 years through Christian-Muslim cooperation in the sultanate, making it one of the oldest continuously operating Christian-led initiatives in the region dedicated to interfaith peacebuilding.  

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Luciano Kovacs, the Rev. Dr. Elmarie Parker and the Rev. Cathy Chang visit with their host, Mohammed Ali Al Shuaili (photo courtesy of Luciano Kovacs).

The PC(USA) affirmed that partnership in 2023 with a visit to the center and in 2024 with a $6,000 grant in support of Al Amana Centre programming. That relationship also continues through Presbyterian representation in its governance. The Rev. Dr. Elmarie Parker recently joined the center’s board, and Jeff Japinga, retired executive presbyter of the Presbytery of Minneapolis, also serves as a board member. 

Meyers, who has served in Oman for 13 years, told staff that the center’s credibility stems from long-term relationships. The trust built with the Omani government enables the center to apply for the appropriate visas to host students, clergy and community leaders from around the world for immersive programs. 

He depicted Oman as a nation deeply committed to regional peace. Despite hosting peace negotiations that made significant progress, Oman had been the target of several missile strikes on March 1, 2, 3, 11 and 13, but Meyers expressed Oman’s desire to protect itself through the interception of drones and missiles, but to stay out of the war.   

“They truly have a genuine desire to build peace,” he said. The center’s role, he explained, emerges from that context. “I don’t think there’s a more neutral space to have religious dialogue in the world than the Al Amana Centre in Oman. … It’s no one’s home turf.” 

Meyers described how firsthand encounters dispel stereotypes. “Some of [our visitors] came wanting just to be safe and [are] very skeptical of Islam,” he said. “They left hugging Muslims on their way out the door, saying their lives were changed.” 

During the conversation, Catherine Gordon, representative for international issues in the PC(USA)’s Office of Public Witness, raised a challenge familiar in Presbyterian congregations: widespread misconceptions about women in Islam and the hijab. She noted that public discourse in the U.S., especially surrounding events in Iran or rhetoric about groups like Hamas, often reinforces Islamophobic assumptions. Pointing to online reactions to events such as New York City’s observance of World Hijab Day, the group discussed what can often be seen as “a blanket impression that women are oppressed.”  

Her observations prompted Meyers to explain how such stereotypes break down when Presbyterians meet Omani women. He shared that many Omani women choose hijab freely, lead in government roles and outnumber men in university settings. “When you talk to them, you find out in Oman that they’re not oppressed. It’s their choice,” he said. 

Gordon also emphasized the importance of learning Presbyterian history in Iran as one way to combat U.S. distortions of Islam and Middle Eastern cultures. She mentioned “America and Iran,” a book that explores the role of Presbyterian educational institutions and mission history there, noting that “some of the major schools in Iran were established by Presbyterian ministers.” 

Beth Waltemath,Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Life & Witness (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Jacklyn Marie Putnam, 1001 NWC Apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Nancy Rivera, 1001 NWC Apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Life & Witness

Let us pray:

Lord, open our hearts and minds to the Spirit at all times. Help us to look and listen for opportunities to serve you. Ground us in the present; install faith in us to face the future with hope and joy. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Faith communities join Indigenous partners in resisting harmful extraction

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Photo by Mauro Lima via Unsplash

Faith and partnerships are playing an increasingly important role in standing up for the rights of Indigenous people impacted by mining, especially of critical minerals.

The bi-monthly “Centering Partners’ Voices” recently webinar featured Daniela Andrade of the Latin American Churches and Mining Network. Andrade was interviewed by the Rev. Jed Koball, a Lima, Peru-based Global Ecumenical Liaison for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The Global Solidarity Collective, an initiative of the Presbyterian Hunger Program, sponsored the webinar, the first offered in 2026.

“It is beautiful to be here sharing this morning,” Andrade said. “It gives us a lot of hope to talk with brothers and sisters who are united in this mission.” She said she spoke at the webinar “as a woman, a mother and a person of faith.”

During the pandemic, Andrade gave birth to her first child on Indigenous land that has been impacted by oil production. “I felt what it means to be abandoned by the state,” she said. “You can feel their idea of a model of development. It’s not for the people.”

“Oil and minerals are being extracted, but we don’t have the equipment to take care of women and children,” she said. “Their lives are at risk because of the water they drink.”

Peru is a top producer of copper, silver and zinc, and has significant deposits of lithium. American and Chinese companies have large mining interests there. Critical minerals are important for developing clean energy technologies, but environmental challenges related to their extraction remain problematic.

“This is not the first wave of extraction we’ve had,” Andrade said. “For the past hundred years, entire populations have disappeared due to extractivism. First it was wood, then oil, and now they are trying to bully the [Indigenous] territories. The value [of resources being mined] is very high, and that’s why it keeps being extracted, over and over. But people are rebelling and saying no to this.”

“Extraction hurts our bodies,” she said, “and its wounds run deep in our souls.”

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The Rev. Jed Koball (photo by Rich Copley)

Koball called the extraction of critical minerals “a clash between two worlds. It’s not just taking resources — it’s hurting a relationship with the Earth that’s so valuable.”

Andrade said the more she works with Indigenous people, the more she learns from them. “I don’t defend the [Amazon] river just because it’s a space where we don’t want to see trash,” she said. “Obviously that’s part of the reason, but for the original people, it’s the strength of the river, the place where they go to heal diseases. It’s where the spirits gather, and it encompasses other types of life.”

“Imagine if my brother and sister live in the water — how damaged their lives are. Incarnating this truth is the main reason to defend life. It’s what unites people,” Andrade said. Indigenous people “gather around this topic no matter how strong the division is. For them, that’s the power of spirituality.” 

For people in the resistance movement, it’s more than just fighting against companies and the state, she said. “It’s also joy and celebrating life, saying hi to your neighbor and celebrating different types of spirituality,” she said. She thanked the PC(USA) and other faith communities “for your commitment, including the empowerment of women so they can become activists.”

“I see spaces full of love and support by the church, which says, ‘We believe in what you can do and we’re going to support you,’” she said. “People are organized around their spirituality.”

For Koball, “imagining our future sharing a common home is a spiritual transformation.” He asked Andrade to outline some of the networks being built around Latin America.

“One of the actions that brings the most hope is connection — creating networks and believing in the power of the networks when it comes to resistance,” Andrade said. It requires cooperating for “a common fight that is organized, finding motivation in the stories of others and promoting their resistance.”

The Latin American Churches and Mining Network has hosted healing and listening spaces for Indigenous women in Argentina and other countries. “It’s essential to gather and find similarities in the midst of our differences,” she said, calling spirituality “our common denominator. It’s where we find resistance and hope.”

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

Let us join in prayer for:

Laurie Newman, 1001 NWC Apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Peter Okyere, 1001 NWC Apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Life & Witness            

Let us pray:

Loving God, bless all the ways in which we live and move and have our being. Breathe in us new life and transform us in hope. We pray for the openness of your Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

What’s New for the Christmas Joy Offering in 2026

Christmas Joy Expands Its Support for Leaders

The Christmas Joy Offering is expanding the network of leaders it supports. The Offering has always supported past, present and future leaders and now, as mandated by the 226th General Assembly (2024), the opportunity for impact has expanded.

New Causes Under the Christmas Joy Offering

The new causes supported by the Offering are children-at-risk and youth & young adults, which were previously supported by the former Pentecost Offering.    The offering will still support: Leadership development for people of color. 47% Presbyterian-related schools and colleges equipping communities of color*. 47% servants of the church in need (through the Assistance Program of the Board of Pensions)*. *Set percentages will decrease 3% per year until 2030 and will stay at 35%.

Learn more about the Christmas Joy Offering by visiting our website or downloading the Leader’s Guide.

Download the Leader’s Guide

Thank you for generously supporting the Christmas Joy Offering. If you have any questions, reply to this email or call us at (800) 728-7228, Ext. 5047. Update your preferences for the latest information on the Christmas Joy Offering.

Thank you for Supporting the World Communion Offering

Thank You

Thank you for supporting the World Communion Offering. Your generosity allows the Church to do the work of reconciling all people around Christ’s table of Grace.

How to Remit

Remit through your normal receiving agency (for most congregations this is your presbytery). You can download this helpful remittance form to send in with your gift. If you are sending it directly to the national offices, you can mail your form and check to Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), P.O. Box 643700, Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700. Make the check payable to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) with the offering name on the memo line.

Download Remittance Form

Mid Councils, please remit through Payer Express or mail to Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), P.O. Box 643751, Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3751.

You make a difference

Because of you, the Church is able to follow the prophet Micah’s call “to love kindness,” expressed in action, often involving mercy, faithfulness and steadfast commitment.

We are the Church. Together.

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: Churches are encouraged to put down roots in Creation justice

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Siesta Key Chapel in Sarasota, Fla., known as God’s Treehouse, lost more than a dozen trees from hurricanes in 2024. (Photo by Rich Copley)

The Rev. Derrick Weston recently offered a webinar through Presbyterians for Earth Care that made the case for giving trees even more love and care than we do. Watch Weston's presentation here.

Weston, director of theological education and formation at Creation Justice Ministries, spoke for an hour on “The Canopy of Creation: Trees, Faith and the Work of Justice,” an online resource he helped develop for Creation Justice Ministries. Access it here. PEC’s the Rev. Dr. Shannan Vance-Ocampo, general presbyter of the Presbytery of Southern New England, moderated the session.

According to Weston, Creation Justice Ministries works with 39 denominations, including the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). “Our mission is to help churches think about better ways they can live with God’s Creation and how we bring that into outreach and activism,” he said.

In addition to a theology of trees, Weston touched on how they’re also part of American history — even the shady parts. “There’s a correlation between redlining maps and tree canopy,” he said. Lower-income neighborhoods have 26% less tree cover, and those areas on average are 6 degrees warmer than neighborhoods with more established canopies. In communities of color, the thermometer is on average 13 degrees higher during the summer months. “It’s a public health and a public safety issue,” he said.

Trees have numerous benefits, including some that aren’t as obvious as others, such as reducing stormwater runoff, improving air quality, buffering noise and reducing erosion. Creation Justice Ministries’ executive director, Avery Davis Lamb, “talks about trees as the best climate change-fighting infrastructure that we have,” Weston said.

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The Rev. Derrick Weston (photo courtesy of Creation Justice Ministries)

Citing Genesis 2:9 and other passages, Weston said that outside of human beings, trees are the part of Creation mentioned most often. “Trees are engaged in God’s first provision. Trees are also involved in our first sin — not knowing our limitations,” he said. In Genesis 2:9, trees’ aesthetic quality is “the first thing Scripture mentions as a benefit for humanity.”

In both Acts 5 and Acts 10, Luke employs the language of the authorities hanging Jesus on a tree. In “The Cross and the Lynching Tree,” James Cone says that “trees were unwilling participants in one of the worst parts of American history,” Weston said. “Trees are witness and judge for the behavior of humanity.”

Then there’s Revelation 22:1–2, where the leaves on the tree are for the healing of the nations. Weston called that role “less a future eschatological reality and more of a present reality. They can be for our healing, right here and right now.”

The resource includes some program profiles, such as the Trevecca Urban Farm’s Treecycle Program in Nashville, Tennessee, and the goal of Mennonite Men to plant a million trees over the decade. 

This online tool by American Forests can help people better understand the tree canopy in their own neighborhood or community. “Encourage your municipality to map the community’s tree coverage and heat risk,” Weston suggested. “Every summer, heat is a killer,” and because of global warming, “it’s going to continue to be a killer.”

He recommended churches identify potential community partners to work with. “In the environmental space, it’s good for churches to show up and walk alongside community partners already doing the work,” he said. “People are often surprised to see the faith community show up, and they’re really glad when it does.”

“The Canopy of Creation” has sermon starters and the scriptural basis preachers can use in their sermons, including Ezekiel 47:1–12 and Acts 10:34–43. “We are trying to get preachers to preach more on Creation justice,” Weston said. “Those churches that are doing this work are the ones who are hearing it from the pulpit.”

During a question-and-answer session following his talk, Weston encouraged participants to serve on local or regional boards “where you can have an impact. You can find people who will talk with you and are invested in listening to you.” Many people are surprised to learn their community has an urban forester. “Find your local forester and maybe befriend them,” he said. “They could use a friend right now.”

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

Let us join in prayer for:

Alicia Anderson, 1001 NWC Apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Keith Thompson, 1001 NWC Apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Life & Witness

Let us pray:

Lord, help us to care for those in need. May we offer hope in the face of chaos, confidence in the face of uncertainty and joy in service to you May all who endure loss be filled with your presence and confidence in your love, In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.