Mission Yearbook: Young adult advocates hold vigil at Michigan State Capitol in solidarity with immigrants and refugees

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Leaders and people attending the Young Adult Advocacy Conference gathered on the steps of the Capitol in Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Alex Simon)

Standing on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol, Isabella Shutt prayed passionately for God to be with immigrants and refugees who are under heightened scrutiny by U.S. authorities.

After asking God to be with the attendees and “all who wander,” Shutt prayed: “Lord, you know the names on my heart today, but there are so many unnamed. There are so many people who are part of Jesus’ story that we don't know, and we remember them as we remember all who are in fear” due to enforcement actions. “May we be witnesses to your love.” 

Shutt, a former summer fellow for the Presbyterian Office of Public Witness, was one of about 30 people who took part in a silent march and brief vigil on the final day of the Jesus and Justice Young Adult Advocacy Conference in Lansing, Michigan.

The social justice action served as an opportunity to stand in solidarity with immigrants and refugees amid increased immigration enforcement and to speak out against the violence targeting immigrant communities.

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The Rev. Jihyun Oh thanks the young people who gathered for the Jesus and Justice conference at First Presbyterian Church of Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Alex Simon)

The federal crackdown has included sending National Guard troops to Los Angeles; deporting people to dangerous and sometimes unfamiliar countries; restricting due process; conducting massive workplace raids; enacting travel bans; and confounding people’s efforts to receive permanent legal status or maintain work permits, and to live without fear.

In brief remarks at the Capitol steps, the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, advocacy director of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), spoke about the importance of not remaining silent about hurtful policies and practices, such as targeting people because they have a particular skin color or language.

“Church, this is wrong and we stand opposed to it,” said Hawkins, adding, “We have been called to do what we do, as ministers, as elders, as deacons, as choir members, as those who work in the kitchen, as those who sweep the floor, as those who have a strand of Christian dignity, to say that this is not of God.” 

Prior to the march and vigil, OPW’s the Rev. Christina Cosby led a time of prayer and reflection at the First Presbyterian Church of Lansing that included visiting stations of the cross and a send-off by the Rev. Jihyun Oh, who expressed her gratitude to those gathered, who included some church members as well as some conference participants. Witnessing and advocating in different places where justice needs to happen is part of “the sheer goodness that we can do together,” said Oh, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the PC(USA) and executive director of the Interim Unified Agency.

Along with remarks, hymns, Scripture, singing and prayers, participants were given the opportunity to place flowers on the steps.

The flowers served as symbols of compassion and love and as connectors to prayer vigils around the country being led by grandmothers, mothers and aunties seeking the return of their disappeared loved ones, said Amanda Craft, manager for Immigration Advocacy in the Interim Unified Agency.

“We stand here today and remember siblings,” she said. “The siblings who have been kidnapped, the siblings who have been disappeared, the siblings who have been taken violently, the siblings who have been stripped from their families, the siblings who have been deprived of their legal, civil and human rights, the siblings who have been sent to countries they have no ties to,  the siblings who live in constant fear.”

In an interview with the Presbyterian News Service after the vigil, Shutt explained why advocating for immigrants and refugees is important to her.

“The question of immigration is the question of what do we want our community to look like moving forward and who are the people that we want to be surrounded by?” Shutt said. “For a lot of us, including myself, immigrants have been formative and have loved me into being, as Mr. Rogers says, and so making sure that’s a possibility for future generations is really important to me.” 

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

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:

God of compassion, you see every person who lives in fear, every family separated, and every heart longing for safety and belonging. Be present with immigrants, refugees and all who feel vulnerable in this moment. Amen.

Minute for Mission: Mr. Rogers Day

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Last month, Lady Gaga sang Mr. Rogers’ “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” as part of a Super Bowl ad featuring neighbors of all ages supporting one another — after a storm, during a move and when a dog was lost. It ended with children riding their bikes down the street and the tagline: “America could use a neighbor just like you.” It was heartwarming, but also heartbreaking, as we witness so many unneighborly actions across our communities, our country and our world. And so, on this day, we lift up the life and ministry of Fred Rogers and are reminded of God’s call to love our neighbor.

Fred Rogers was a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) pastor whose work was recognized as a validated ministry. He is a notable public figure whose lifelong commitment to peace and reconciliation is worth remembering. Rogers was also a pioneer in media literacy, inclusiveness, Christian education and the spiritual formation of young children. March 20 marks his birthday, a fitting time to highlight his enduring legacy.

We live in a world filled with personal, community, and global conflict, where it can sometimes be difficult to cope or remain hopeful. Fred Rogers’ peacemaking sensibilities — both on and off camera — continue to inform our lives today. He practiced deep listening, deep thinking and deep understanding. He modeled the building of neighborhoods rooted in compassion and peace through the Neighborhood of Make-Believe on his television program, through his testimony before Congress, and through curriculum such as Peacemaking in the Family: Four Intergenerational Events, originally written with the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program.

Author Michael Long, in his book “Peaceful Neighbor: Rediscovering the Countercultural Mister Rogers,” writes: 

“Peace is possible, according to Rogers, first because each of us is equipped with a powerful moral imagination — the ability to see goodness in moments of crisis and danger. As Mister Rogers puts this in his concluding monologue, ‘You see, people can imagine bad things, hurtful things, angry war-like things, but people can also imagine good things, helpful things, happy peaceful things.’ … Peace is possible because we are actors, not passive victims, who can always choose to create the peace we have envisioned.”

May we follow God as Rogers did — choosing peace and building neighborhoods of compassion.

(A wealth of resources to celebrate the legacy of Fred Rogers, engage in peacemaking, and practice neighborliness can be found at pcusa.org/about-pcusa/agencies-entities/interim-unified-agency/ministry-areas/christian-formation/mr-rogers-day-resources. These resources may be used on March 20 or any day throughout the year and include Walking in God’s Path of Peace, an intergenerational worship liturgy; the hymn “Jesus, Teach Us to Be Neighbors”; a coloring page; the Building a Neighborhood Together intergenerational peacemaking project; and Neighboring Sunday activities.)

Miatta Wilson, Mission Associate for Christian Formation, Interim Unified Agency, PC(USA), pcusa.org/formation 

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff:

Vivian Blade, Program Manager, Unification Management Office, Interim Unified Agency
Margaret Boone, Project Manager, Special Offerings, Administrative Services Group (A Corporation)

Let us pray:

Gracious and loving God, come near and be with us today and help us to look for ways to be a neighbor, to share love and to build peace. Come near, and be with those who are hurting in homes, communities and around the world. Come near and be with the peacebuilders and those finding ways to show your love in both difficult and ordinary situations. Amen.

Minute for Mission: Old Testament scholar likens Book of Esther to modern-day survival manual

The Rev. Dr. Judy Fentress-Williams recently provided insight on how the Book of Esther can be used as a modern-day survival guide. Fentress-Williams, professor of Biblical Interpretation at Virginia Theological Seminary, spoke as part of the McClendon Scholar-in-Residence Program at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. Her presentation, “For Such a Time as This,” is here. 

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The Rev. Dr. Judy Fentress-Williams

Fentress-Williams invited those attending her talk to think of Esther as a survival story. David M. Carr’s book, “Holy Resilience: The Bible’s Traumatic Origins” makes the case that “the reason we actually have the Bible today is because the people of the religions that are represented in the Bible suffered trauma and felt completed to preserve their traditions,” she noted. “The reason they were written down and preserved was so that they could survive.”

If we’re in a space where “we’re waiting for the other shoe to drop, if you’ve had the exilic experience of waking up and feeling like you’re in a foreign land, and the place that you knew as familiar and home is away from you, then you might know what motivated the children of Israel,” she said.

“I believe the stories that we have were preserved to be told,” Fentress-Williams said. Such biblical stories were told not just to instruct and warn and help people form an identity, “but they were told to delight us,” she said.

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Photo by Chase Kennedy via Unsplash

Esther is dated between 400 and 300 BCE, “a couple of generations into the exile,” Fentress-Williams said. We can think of it as a story in three acts: how Esther becomes queen, the crisis that evolves and the resolution.

Fentress-Williams read chunks from Esther and interspersed the readings with her insights. Esther is a court tale, she explained, where the king “is always mercurial … making rules that can’t be changed and being subject to his advisors, who have their own ambitions going on.” It’s a similar dynamic in the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, “where the king makes a rash decision he can’t undo,” she said.

Esther “is a story about a people who find themselves where the world they used to know no longer exists,” she said. “If they want to survive, they have to figure out how to assimilate.”

Another thing we struggle with in these court tales is “the concept of exceptionalism,” she said. “What happens when you have access or opportunity and others don’t? How do you sit with that?”

Esther is now in a place of privilege, “but the world hasn’t changed,” she said. “While she’s being introduced to the duties and privileges of being queen, she has a people who are still exiles in a foreign land who are subject to whatever the king might do next.”

The crisis comes, of course, when Haman is introduced in the second act. He’s “depicted as a character whose hatred for Mordecai is almost insatiable,” she said. “The other thing we have in the narrative is that Mordecai doesn’t bow down to Haman.” That could be because Haman is descended “from people who have historically shown a lack of hospitality toward Israel.”

Other Jews may have bowed down to Haman, “but Haman cannot help but focus on this one person, as though one person’s defiance somehow threatens his entire being.” In response, Haman “is willing to eliminate an entire people over one offense.”

One of Fentress-Williams’ favorite Bible scholars, Dr. Regina Schwartz, says that the first act of violation is “the creation of other.” Haman tells the king the Jews are “a people who are not like anybody else. They don’t obey your laws [which Fentress-Williams noted ‘is a lie’). He forms a narrative and uses these words: ‘It is not in your majesty’s interest to tolerate them.’”

“Other human beings are not here as commodities to serve our purposes,” she pointed out. “Remember the genre of the story. It is the role of the king to be duped into doing whatever Haman wants, which means that in these stories we have this figurehead, the king, but power is really in the advisors, the people who surround him, OK?” When her audience laughed, Fentress-Williams smiled and assured them, “it’s all in the Bible. It is.”

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, Interim Unified Agency
Ricky Blade, Customer Service Representative, Constituent Ministry, Interim Unified Agency

Let us pray:

God of courage and wisdom, you are present with your people even when your name is not spoken, guiding us through uncertainty and fear. When we feel displaced, vulnerable or unsure how to respond to the challenges around us, grant us discernment like Esther, resilience in hardship and courage to act for the good of others. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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

Scroll down for congregational stewardship news! Mission and Service Worship Resources   Downloadable Mission and Service worship resources for the Easter season – including slides, an impact report, a video, and a prayer card – are now available under “Mission and Service This Season.” Support Mission and Service This Easter!   Your Easter gift can nurture and sustain rural ministries across Canada and around the world through Mission and Service. Donate online, by mail, or by phone at 1-800-465-3771.   And did you know you can give to Mission and Service through PAR? See how below. Let’s Get Ready! Congregational Stewardship and Generosity   Will this be your time? Will this be the time you step out in faith and hold a Congregational Giving Program to finally address the financial and stewardship issues you see in your Community of Faith? We are praying it is because we know it will make a difference! But if this story sounds familiar, then you need to hear these stories: Instead of yet another deficit, Trinity United Church, in Beamsville ON, finished 2025 with a $10,000 surplus by doing an annual stewardship plan and giving program in the fall of 2025. AND… With an intentional program, White Oaks United Church, in London ON, increased their November and December 2025 donations by $20,000 to tackle a deficit. When they compared their income from donors from 2023-2025 they were happy to find that the amount had increased. Why can’t this be your story? Find out more and register for Setting Up Your Giving Program on CHURCHx, or contact us to talk. Seriously, isn’t it about time? Celebrate your congregation with personal stories of why it matters. Invite greater generosity as a commitment of faith. Be thankful for God’s blessings.   Take care. And remember, God loves you! Easter is coming When you have a fuller house for worship on Easter Sunday, family, friends, people you have never met, it's really important to tell your story. People want to know, what is your Community of Faith doing, what makes it different, because of Jesus’ resurrection? Connect the dots for them. And hopefully one of those stories is about generosity as a spiritual practice.   Easter worship resources Look no further. Worship, Liturgy, Sermon, Kids Activities, for the 5 weeks following Easter are all available in the The Early Church in Eastertide: Worship for Five Sundays after Easter file on the Stewardship in Worship webpage.   May is PAR Month How will you Inspire, Invite and Thank people who are not giving consistently to try it? By using PAR (Pre-Authorised Remittance) to give monthly, of course. And consider how will you Inspire, Invite and Thank people already using PAR to increase their monthly giving.   All the resources you need for PAR month will be available under Downloads at the bottom of the United Church PAR webpage in March. Sample letters. Social media. Sermon. Planning template. And watch for the new PAR Video (hopefully before May!). Get the Stewardship Support You Need The people and resources to help you succeed are here. Team Changes. Welcome to the Rev. Sarah Giles!! Sarah will be covering for Vicki Nelson while she is on medical leave. Those of you in the Prairie to Pine, Living Skies, Northern Spirit, Chinook Winds, and Pacific Mountain regions can reach Sarah at sgiles@united-church.ca Beginning on January 1, 2026, The Rev. Roger Janes has retired! We will seriously miss him, but wish him the best. Those in his regions are still welcome to reach out using stewardship@united-church.ca. We hope to have a staffing update for you, soon. Your April Mission and Service Stories

April 5 Rooted and Rising  [Image credit: Michelle H. | Adobe Stock]   Easter reminds us that new life often begins in unexpected places. In rural communities across Canada, churches are continuing to gather, serve, and nurture faith in ways that keep hope alive. April 12 Anchored in Every Season  [Image credit: Tobermory United Church (sign created by Jan MacDonald)]   At the northern edge of the Bruce Peninsula, Tobermory United Church is a place where people gather in every season. From shared worship to community events and a welcoming thrift shop, care and connection happen year-round.  April 19 Flowing Beyond the Banks     [Image credit: Chipman United Church] For more than a century, Chipman United Church has been woven into the life of its town. From preparing meals for neighbours to sharing worship online, this small congregation shows how care can ripple far beyond its walls. April 26 Room to Speak, Space to Listen  [Image credit: Amy Zavitz] In Kenya, a mentorship circle offers young people something powerful: a safe space to speak openly and be listened to. For Christine, conversation changed her life – and now she’s helping others find their voice. Gifts with Vision News Our small but mighty Gifts with Vision catalogue has been updated – featuring brand new gifts, as well as your existing favourites. Take a look now! Questions? Email Gifts with Vision. You can also call us at 1-844-715-7969. Why be a Mission and Service Volunteer? What do you feel called to do? There's a place for you! You might be part of a small congregation: you’ve been promoting Mission and Service in your community of faith for a while now, and sometimes it seems like you’re doing it all alone. We want to give you the support and resources you need, and listen to what you have to say. As a volunteer, you get a weekly email with information you can use, plus resources to help you spread the word about Mission and Service in your community and online. You also get the chance to share your own stories of Mission and Service with a wider audience.   Contact us today to learn more!    Mission and Service Volunteer Program   The United Church of Canada Foundation ms@united-church.ca   1-800-465-3771  GOD’S MISSION, OUR GIFTS is your newsletter. We want to provide news and information that you can use in your community of faith, whether you’re a minister, a board member, an administrator, a treasurer, or anyone else who wants to make a difference.   What else would you like to see? What can we do to help your community of faith get where it needs to go? Send us your thoughts! Donate Facebook Website Email Instagram YouTube LinkedIn   Your generosity enables the United Church to love, serve, and minister in the world. Make an online donation or learn more about your options to support the work of the church.

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