Today in the Mission Yearbook - Chaplains describe pandemic-caused trauma and grief experienced by families, patients and staff

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Chaplains describe pandemic-caused trauma and grief experienced by families, patients and staff: Union Presbyterian Seminary hosts a panel discussion with graduates who work as chaplains in health care settings August 31, 2020 Gr...

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Chaplains describe pandemic-caused trauma and grief experienced by families, patients and staff

Union Presbyterian Seminary hosts a panel discussion with graduates who work as chaplains in health care settings

August 31, 2020

Graduates of Union Presbyterian Seminary serving as chaplains in health care facilities took a moment Friday to affirm one another’s work while discussing the long-term impact of trauma and grief in their communities and on the facility they serve during webinar hosted by the seminary.

The Rev. Dr. Lynn McClintock did a graveside service recently for the son of two residents she serves at a long-term care facility for seniors in Richmond, Virginia.

The man died during the COVID-19 pandemic, so as director of pastoral care at Westminster Canterbury in Richmond, Virginia, McClintock presided over the service while a member of the funeral home staff held out her cellphone and videotaped.

Then they downloaded it to YouTube for the parents to watch. Sadly, the parents were not living in the same part of the campus facility.

“I can tell you that was one of my hardest days in ministry,” McClintock said. “Having to take my laptop into two different parents’ rooms and show them their son’s funeral service.”

A 1987 graduate of Union Presbyterian Seminary, McClintock was one of four Union graduates sharing their experiences during a recent Zoom panel discussion hosted by the seminary.

Thinking about the long-term intergenerational impact on families and their communities unable to experience the ritual of being together when a loved one dies, McClintock said, is a huge unknown.

“I know how hard it was for me,” she said. “Think of the funeral home directors. It’s something we’re all dealing with.”

One of the ways the Rev. Laura Kelly, chaplain at Cleveland Clinic Hospice, has tried to deal with the trauma and grief during this time of physical distancing is by helping residents build their own rituals. She said people can find within their own grief journeys ways to address what they’re feeling.

So, while telling her patients that she knows she can’t physically hold their hand, Kelly asks them if they can both put their hands on their hearts, and then rest their minds as if they’re together.

“At the end of the day people want to know they’re connected,” she said.

By listening to and affirming what they’re going through, Kelly, a 2017 Union graduate, can mark what her patients are feeling.

The two other chaplains who were part of the panel discussion, the Rev. Dr. Matthew Sauer and the Rev. Dr. Harry Simmons, talked about the increasing role technology is playing in rituals that continue to occur during the pandemic.

Simmons, a 1984 graduate, serves as a staff chaplain at one of five veteran polytrauma centers in the nation, in Richmond. Acknowledging the anxiety among residents and staff, he said patients at the Hunter Holmes McGuire Medical Center use electronic tablets to talk to chaplains, who are outside their room.

“Medical staff says if you don’t have to, don’t go in, even though the patient can see us on the iPad,” he said. “You’re present without being present.”

As co-pastor of the Manitowoc Cooperative Ministry, Sauer, a 1996 Union graduate, also serves as an on-call chaplain at a local hospital in Wisconsin. He said that even when technology is used to connect patients to the families, it can come with challenges. One example: A family needed a piece of equipment to make the connection happen with their loved one. But hospital staff couldn’t get it to them because they were quarantined.

During the past few weeks, Sauer has spent much of his time listening to staff members, trying to provide care for them by listening to their anxieties. Topics include what they’re reading and hearing about those in the community opposed to staying home — and how they’re being treated by some as they walk out in scrubs in public places.

“Sometimes that is not always met with positive responses,” he said.

When the coronavirus crisis first began, chaplains had to rethink everything as they tried to maintain contact, ritual, worship and pastoral care. Doing chaplaincy from a distance was a rapid change. Now, as they’ve learned how to find intimacy and connection over the phone or in video or conversations on a tablet, it’s time, Kelly said, to start thinking about what the process will be for transitioning back to face-to-face visits while ensuring that patients and families choose what is safest and most effective for them to feel supported.

“So, it’s constant change and constant learning, but I think chaplains are wonderful innovators in ministry, so we just go with it,” she said.

 Paul Seebeck, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:   

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Steve Maier, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
Troy Marables, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray:

Gracious and loving God grant that our hearts may be filled with joy for the gifts given to us. May our voices join the chorus of the saints in all ages who declare the wonders of your blessings. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Creative giving catches on during coronavirus pandemic

Some Presbyterians are giving for the whole year to shore up their church’s finances

August 30, 2020

St. John Presbyterian Church, 1307 E. Elm St., in New Albany, Indiana, is a field education placement for students at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. (Contributed photo)

The COVID-19 pandemic encouraging new ways of giving among Presbyterians. Teachers, nurses, physical therapists, small business owners, professors, technology workers, lawyers and older people on fixed incomes are giving faithfully to their churches and worshiping communities during this challenging time of virtual church.

At St. John Presbyterian Church in New Albany, Indiana, some members — of their own accord — have chosen to give their full-year pledge up front, said the Rev. C. Allen Colwell. “Pledges have been rolling in steadily. Half-dozen or so come straight from bank accounts, but others are faithfully mailed in every week. It’s humbling, really,” Colwell said.

St. John celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2016. The church can trace its beginnings to eight members who formed the congregation, which was then Union Church of New Albany and Jeffersonville, in 1816. A year later, Union Church was renamed First Presbyterian Church of New Albany, which was the first church in Indiana to have a Sunday school. Twenty years later, in 1837, the congregation divided to establish Second Presbyterian Church at Third and Main streets, where they worshiped until the current St. Joh Presbyterian was completed at 1307 E. Elm St. in 1890.

Since about mid-March, members of St. John have been worshiping together through services on Facebook Live and YouTube.

“May we draw on the Holy Spirit to do what we can for one another, whether it’s by wearing masks and keeping to our X’s [while shopping], making phone calls, sending cards or text messages, checking in on one another, or simply staying home and being faithful in prayer,” Colwell said.

At least four members of St. John are making masks for members and others who need them, he said.

“One good thing about this virus scare is that it reminds us that we are in this life together — rich or poor, Christina or non-Christian, American, Italian, Chinese, Spanish, Mexican, Korean — the whole world has been brought to a standstill together,” he said. “For me, when it comes down to it, if only for a brief moment in time, we are all one race — and that race is humankind.”

One change that Colwell hopes will come from all the social distancing is that people may become even more grateful for “community.” He said, “I even pray for a revival of people who realize how much they miss having a church community.”

Once the stay-at-home order is lifted, Colwell said, it may be similar to the beginning of the Drew Carey TV show, where everyone pours out onto the streets at 5 p.m., singing and dancing to “Cleveland Rocks!”

I just imagine that’s how we’re going to be when we can all finally leave our homes,” he said, adding that it’s tough for a Cincinnati kid to use a Cleveland reference, but that’s what comes to mind.

“More than ever, I believe we need to see ourselves as brothers and sisters,” Colwell said. “More than ever, I believe we need to overcome our prejudices and biases, and just learn to come together. More than ever, I believe the world needs each other, and if it took a global pandemic for us to realize it, then so be it.”

Tammy Warren, Communications Associate, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Monica Maeyer, Board of Pensions
Peter Maher, Board of Pensions

Let us pray:

Gracious God, each day we encounter your gifts and the joys of engaging with your world. Orient our service to meet the needs of your creation Outfit us with your love and give us eyes to see that in serving we are most like Jesus, our brother and Savior, in whose name we offer this and every prayer. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Outdoor sanctuaries: Churches find potential in their property

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Outdoor sanctuaries: Churches find potential in their property: Ministry flourishing in church lawns and fields August 29, 2020 Lori Mercer helps harvest wheat that was planted around the perimete...

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Outdoor sanctuaries: Churches find potential in their property

Ministry flourishing in church lawns and fields

August 29, 2020

Lori Mercer helps harvest wheat that was planted around the perimeters of Emmanuel Farm, a ministry of Emmanuel Presbyterian Church in Bothell, Wash., that focuses on sustainable farming techniques. Courtesy of Emmanuel Presbyterian Church

It’s a weekday afternoon in Parsippany, New Jersey. The bumper-to-bumper morning commute has long been over; the harried evening rush home has yet to begin. Still, the traffic whizzing by Parsippany Presbyterian Church has not let up — nor will it. “Thousands of cars” easily pass by the church daily, the Rev. Donald A. Bragg explains.

Like many 18th century buildings that have been spared the wrecking ball of development, the church — founded in 1755 — now sits on a major thoroughfare known as U.S. Route 46. As one of New Jersey’s notoriously congested roads — a 2014 Department of Transportation report cited 40% of the Garden State’s roads to be operating at or near capacity — Route 46 has become even busier in recent years, with families seeking a better quality of living that is still commutable to Manhattan. Parsippany lies just 30 miles west of the city.

Yet beyond the busyness of the road in front of the church lies a surprising secret garden of sorts known as Parsippany Presbyterian’s Meadow Garden. It’s a space where native plants have been allowed to grow back, where wildflowers provide much-needed pollen and nectar for bees, and where chickens — “Yes, we have chickens running around the church,” Bragg says — scratch at the ground foraging for insects.

Parsippany Presbyterian’s property wasn’t always this magical. “A large part of the property was neglected,” said Bragg, who came to the church as pastor 23 years ago.

In 2014, the congregation took a closer look at the potential of its property. A walk around it revealed places where garbage was being dumped and where weeds were choking native flowers that once bloomed. In addition to the property that was neglected and abused, there was also a budgetary matter to consider. “We have a lot of property and it was a lot to maintain,” said Bragg. “Why not return most of it back to nature, rather than spending thousands of dollars to keep part of the property well-manicured?”

The idea of a Meadow Garden emerged and began with the transformation of the church’s 50-foot-by-50-foot picnic area into plots to grow an abundance of vegetables. Herbs were also planted that would then be dried and packaged and sold through the church. Five additional gardens were established solely to help nature’s pollinators — including butterflies, beetles and the most vulnerable of all pollinators, the bee. Bragg’s interest in bees led to the addition of five hives on the church property, where the pastor-turned-beekeeper now collects and bottles the honey for his church family and community. Of course, one cannot forget the chickens, Bragg laughs.

The Meadow Garden has not only become a refuge for those in Parsippany in need of a little green therapy in an ever-growing asphalt jungle, it has also provided educational and spiritual opportunities for all ages. Bragg also intentionally placed one of the pollinator gardens near the church’s playground so that children could see the butterflies and not be scared of the bees. In the summer, the youth make meals using the produce grown in the garden while the preschoolers enjoy growing their own popping corn, Bragg says, adding that “they are all learning to appreciate nature.”

Another church that found a new use for their three acres is Emmanuel Presbyterian in Bothell, Washington. In the spring of 2018, Emmanuel Farm was created. Ground was broken, seeds were planted and raised beds — with “lips on the edges, allowing seniors a comfortable place to sit as they garden,” church member Lori Mercer says — were built. The adventure in sustainable food production soon broadened to include classes on canning and seed saving. Among the highlights of Emmanuel Farm has been the planting of wheat within the fence line of the farm, which led to the baking of many loaves of communion bread.

And Southern Heights Presbyterian Church in Lincoln, Nebraska, turned two acres of land into a food forest and outdoor classroom. “We’ve been commanded to be good stewards, and this includes how we use the church’s land,” said the Rev. Leanne Masters.

 Donna Frischknecht Jackson, Editor, Presbyterians Today

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Catherine Lynch, Presbyterian Investment & Loan Program
Teresa Mader, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

Dear God, please open our eyes to the mission fields in our neighborhoods. Help to make us bold in sharing Jesus’ love by giving our time and energy as your missionaries. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Prodigious Old Testament scholar Pat Miller dies at 84

The author of 16 books, Miller taught for decades at two Presbyterian seminaries

August 28, 2020

The Rev. Dr. Patrick D. Miller Jr.

The Rev. Dr. Patrick D. Miller Jr., a prodigious scholar at two seminaries affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), died May 1, in Black Mountain, North Carolina after a long illness. He was 84.

According to his obituary, Miller taught at what is now Union Presbyterian Seminary  in Richmond, Virginia, and Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey.

Born to Dr. Lila Morse Bonner and Dr. Patrick Dwight Miller in Atlanta on Oct. 24, 1935, Miller spent his childhood and youth in San Antonio and Atlanta. After graduating from Davidson College in North Carolina in 1956, he enrolled at what was then known as Union Theological Seminary, where he met Mary Ann Sudduth from Louisville. They were married in 1958.

Following graduation from Union, they traveled to Harvard University, where Pat earned his doctorate.

To the surprise of some, instead of immediately pursuing teaching, Pat accepted a call to serve as pastor at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Traveler’s Rest, South Carolina.

In 1966, Pat and Mary Ann traveled to Israel, where he engaged in independent research while preparing to begin his teaching ministry at Union Theological Seminary. He became professor of Biblical Studies later that year, the first of an 18-year stay. Both Pat and Mary were mentors, teachers and friends to generations of UTS students, and Pat’s contributions to Old Testament scholarship proliferated.

“I met Pat in 1992,” the Rev. Dr. Brian K. Blount, president of Union Presbyterian Seminary, said in a statement. “I had recently graduated from the Graduate School of Religion at Emory University. I was beginning my call as an assistant professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary where Pat was the chair of the Bible department. As he had been and continued to be for countless young biblical scholars, Pat became both role model and mentor. A gifted scholar, he was also one of the most beloved professors on campus. His lectures were akin to sermons. In his deep, rich voice, he captivated students as he introduced them to the Old Testament and the various books of which it was composed. Determined to see students engage the texts in heretofore unimagined ways, he pushed them to see beyond their scriptural and theological horizons. He did not, though, only convey information; he invited focused concentration and energetic debate, using powerful lectures as invitations to think with him in preparation for later conversations.

“Watching him, listening to students talk about him, observing the way faculty colleagues respected him, I learned much about the craft of being a professor,” Blount said. “And I deeply appreciated the way that he made time to help me think about course preparation, student engagement, and scholarly publication. Pat was a significant mentor whose influence I, along with many others, count as instrumental to my growth as a teacher and an interpreter of the biblical text. Like those many others, I shall miss him greatly. And I will give great thanksgiving continuously that I had opportunity to be his colleague and his friend.”

In 1984, Miller came to Princeton Theological Seminary as the Charles T. Haley Professor of Old Testament Theology, where he served actively until his retirement in 2005. During his years at Princeton he was editor of “Theology Today,” undertook responsibilities with numerous professional societies, and wrote 16 books and a multitude of journal articles — all while always giving heart and soul to teaching and inspiring students.

Together with Mary Ann, Pat was constantly engaged in the weekly worship and ministry of local churches — notably to ministries of music.

Upon retirement, Pat and Mary Ann moved to Louisville to be close to Mary Ann’s mother, and then to Black Mountain/Montreat, North Carolina in 2012. Mary Ann preceded him in death.

In the household in which he was nurtured as a child, Pat absorbed theology he believed to be magnificently expressed in Psalm 103. In Pat’s own words, “Praise responds to the experience of God’s grace and power, exalts the Lord, and bears witness to all who hear that God is God.” His life came to express the refrain of Psalm 103: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless God’s holy name.”

.Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Erika Lundbom-Krift, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
Janeen Lush, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)

Let us pray:

Dear God, may there be many men and women whose lives might be a channel of your blessings and power for many others. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Focusing on mental health during the coronavirus pandemic

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Focusing on mental health during the coronavirus pandemic: Ministry releases eight steps for congregations and pastors to get active August 27, 2020 The COVID-19 crisis has “brought home the re...

Today in the Mission Yearbook - A dead robin and a departed Pop-Pop

Presbyterian Older Adult Ministries Network offers ‘intergenerational hopscotching’ webinar

August 26, 2020

The Rev. Dr. Eileen Lindner spoke during a Presbyterian Older Adult Ministries Network webinar on “intergenerational hopscotching.” (File photo by Gregg Brekke)

Presenting during a webinar sponsored by the Presbyterian Older Adult Ministries Network, the Rev. Dr. Eileen Lindner discussed what sociologists have labeled “the Bernie Effect,” natural bonds that can form between millennials and people old enough to be their grandparents, or even great-grandparents. What’s going on there resembles the way millions of young people were drawn to U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, during his presidential runs in 2016 and 2020.

The Bernie Effect has changed the way that researchers study how many millennials have hopscotched past their parents’ generation to learn from and befriend people in the age group of their grandparents and older, Lindner said. Studies used to target the benefits in those relationships for older folks, including increased physical and mental health. Now they’re more likely to focus on, say, how young people benefit from working on a Habitat for Humanity home construction project alongside older people.

Millennials have had “a bumpy ride,” Lindner noted, with 9/11 occurring during their childhoods and the current pandemic in adulthood — all the while strapped with student debt and dicey career prospects. “They have some criticisms of the system, and they perceive the older generation is more effective in their social critique,” even as their own parents may blame them for their shortcomings, Lindner said.

“Young people know that reform is a communal activity, not a solitary enterprise,” Lindner said, “and they take great hope that it can be achieved.”

Lindner said “Bernie Effect” studies “stay constant across gender, race and class. That is truly astounding.” What we don’t know, she said, “is if this intergenerational romance will endure the whole of life.”

Lindner, who has 47 years’ worth of experience in Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ministry, told the story of her then 4-year-old son, Peter, who spied a dead robin while on a walk with his mother. “Mommy, make it better!” he told her. “Oh Peter, I can’t. The robin died.” Lindner told her son that all living things die someday. “But not you, Mommy — right?” “Yes, Peter, one day even Mommy, but not for a long, long time. And when it does happen, I won’t be the most important woman in your life.”

“Now he is 37, and that has come to pass,” Lindner said.

A few days later, the two visited Lindner’s mother. “Why don’t we have a Pop-Pop here?” Peter asked his grandmother. “Oh, he was a wonderful man, but he’s gone now,” his grandmother told him. “He had a wonderful life and he’s with God now. He’s very happy and very proud of you.”

On the way home, Peter turned to his mother and said, “Mommy, you don’t have to worry about dying. You go to God and you can see everybody.”

“That’s what I thought I’d said,” Lindner told the 40 or so webinar participants. “But he didn’t hear it from me. He heard it from Nanna.”

Webinar participants then broke into small groups.

One said she had the privilege of having her mother live with her during the last 10 months of her mother’s life. Young church volunteers would “come over to hang out. What they were doing was asking her questions knowing she would not be judgmental” while answering them.

“We have certain expectations, but grandparents are past that,” another said. “What a blessing to have grandparents or grandparent-like people to fill in the gaps.”

“Nobody in our group was surprised by this research,” said another. “Church is a great venue for this to happen, and they are seeing more of that in their churches.”

As she wrapped up the workshop, which was enhanced by online worship led by the Rev. Jon Brown, pastor of Old Bergen Church in Jersey City, New Jersey, Lindner said she “longs for our church to enunciate not when do we get back to normal (following the pandemic), but how can the new normal be more equitable and generous? We are doing what the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told us to do 40 years ago, to honor and respect all labor, all jobs.”

“I look for the church to enunciate this new heaven and new Earth,” Lindner said. “I think that would be wonderful.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for:   

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Ivy Lopedito, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Lisa Love, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray:

Loving God, we remember being part of your family. We are blessed in many ways. You call us to share our love with others and so we continue to spread the good news that you are with us forever. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Understanding reparations

Making amends for wrongs is a spiritual issue

August 25, 2020

James Tissot, “Zacchaeus in the Sycamore Awaiting the Passage of Jesus,” Brooklyn Museum, ca. 1886–1894.

“Reparation” is a word sparking public curiosity — and controversy. Defined as “making amends for a wrong one has done,” the reparations conversation has recently gone from ambiguous talk to concrete actions as politicians, academic institutions and even denominations offer solutions to right the wrongs in our country’s past, specifically the wrongs of slavery.

In 2019, public interest in reparations spiked when H.R. 40 — a bill brought to Congress in 1989, calling to remedy slavery’s aftereffects — was revived and endorsed by the Speaker of the House. Soon after, a Wall Street Journal study revealed that Twitter mentions of H.R. 40 increased by 150%. The same year, Princeton Theological Seminary announced it would set aside nearly $28 million for slavery reparations.

Reparations, though, are not limited to America’s slave-owning past. At the end of 2019, Hudson River Presbytery transferred the title of the former Stony Point Church in New York to the newly created Sweetwater Cultural Center “to promote the education, health and welfare of indigenous or native peoples.” The Ramapough-Lenape Nation encompasses parts of north New Jersey and New York, where Hudson River Presbytery is located.

In the book “Passionate for Justice: Ida B. Wells as Prophet for Our Time,” Dr. Catherine Meeks and the Rev. Nibs Stroupe list steps to lessen the power of race in our lives: recognition, repentance, resistance, resilience, reparations, reconciliation and recovery. The most controversial of them all, Stroupe says, is “by far, reparations.”

Stroupe says that “reparation is the idea that public acknowledgment and economic recompense must be made to the descendants of those who were held in slavery. Slavery and neo-slavery (or modern slavery, as it is defined) were designed to use unpaid and cheap labor to create economic wealth. That is a fundamental fact of the American story. Many more stories are revealing the depth of slave and neo-slave labor in creating wealth that was not shared by the laborers and their descendants.”

Stroupe points to Old Testament passages like Leviticus 25:1–10 and Deuteronomy 15:12–18, which “remind us that this idea of reparations was built into the codes of Israel, but also intriguing is Luke 19:1–10. In this passage, the hated tax collector Zacchaeus is welcomed by Jesus, and in return, he promises to make reparations to those whom he has cheated. Our Reformed heritage also reminds us that we will not know the true power of the gospel until we begin to work on the breaches in the community.”

Stroupe adds that “the consideration of reparations requires us to swim against the stream of the idea of individual achievement. This idea emphasizes that if one has ‘stuff,’ it’s because they’ve worked hard and earned it, while if someone does not have ‘stuff,’ it’s because they’ve been irresponsible and idle.

“Even if we agree that reparation is an idea whose time has come, the practicalities of implementing it are mind-boggling. How would we determine an amount? Who would be eligible? How would we pay for it? Given the divisive nature of our current public life, it will be difficult to make much progress on this in governmental life.”

According to Stroupe, “we could strongly encourage our church judicatories to designate parts of our budgets to supply floors of income to descendants of people held as slaves. While there are many problems inherent in this approach, it can be done.

Stroupe says that “reparations force us to face the false gods in our lives. They also offer us the opportunity to engage the joy that Zacchaeus experienced when Jesus, moved by the pledge for reparations, made the great pronouncement, ‘Today salvation has come to this house.’”

Donna Frischknecht Jackson, Editor, Presbyterians Today

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Patricia Longfellow, Presbyterian Women
Lisa Longo, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray:

O God, help us to know each other and to appreciate the rich, cultural diversity that defines our sisters and brothers in the world. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Presbytery of Detroit writes an open letter to soften closed hearts

Letter seeks end to division and inequality ‘laid bare’ by coronavirus

August 24, 2020

In an open letter, leaders of Presbytery of Detroit seek compassion and care for those suffering from the effects of the coronavirus. The letter also seeks an end to division and inequality “laid bare” by the pandemic. (Photo courtesy of Yavno | Wikimedia

Presbytery of Detroit leaders recently published an open letter, written “from a place of deep pain and anger as we witness the division and inequality laid bare by (the coronavirus), particularly in our region.”

Detroit and surrounding Wayne County have been hit particularly hard, and the high number of COVID-19 cases tells “a story of a community with a disproportionately poor population, with high rates of asthma, diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure — the very conditions that make it more likely for COVID-19 to cause serious symptoms, the very conditions that can end in death when the new coronavirus comes knocking,” the letter says.

The virus “is exposing what was already present in the city of Detroit and many of its suburbs,” the letter states, including:

• The lack of good health care and insurance, resulting in health issues including heart disease
• The lack of “proper living wages,” resulting in poverty and limited access to healthy food leading to higher rates of obesity and diabetes and high blood pressure
• Poor environmental living conditions, resulting in increased cases of asthma
• Lack of access to personal care items, including such basics as laundry detergent, dish soap and bleach, common household items that can decrease the spread of the virus
• Lack of access to safe transportation and the challenges of close living conditions, which do not allow for social distancing
• Lack of access to quality educational opportunities
• The vulnerability to disease aced by people living in mass incarceration, particularly African American men.

In the letter, presbytery leadership calls on:

• Government leaders to make testing and health care accessible to all
• Faith leaders, including those in the presbytery’s 75 churches, “to embark on concrete actions that show the value we place on all human life regardless of race, creed or economic status”
• Churches not to compete to “open up first,” but rather to “work across religious, denominational and theological lines to keep our communities safe”
• Majority-race churches to stand beside their minority-race siblings, particularly in the African American, Latino and Asian communities
• “All who follow God in the Kairos moment to serve one another, even to the point of self-sacrifice.”

The Rev. Julie Delezenne, moderator of the Presbytery of Detroit, has begun weekly interviews with representatives of some of those 75 churches within the presbytery. The first, posted on the presbytery’s website on April 20, was with Sharon Moore, a ruling elder at St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Detroit, which celebrated its 100th anniversary last year. Moore also chairs the presbytery’s Multicultural Ministry Committee.

Moore told Delezenne she particularly misses the guests to whom St. John’s Presbyterian Church fed lunch three times each week pre-pandemic.

“That time at St. John’s was their coffee klatch,” she said. “Now that we have had to shut down our hunger ministry, we don’t have ways to connect with them.”

It’s not for lack of trying. Church members involved in the ministry have driven around to known encampments, “but we have not seen them. It’s a heavy burden on our heart. … What more can I do to find them and make sure they are safe and OK?”

 One of the church matriarchs died recently at age 96. For the church’s 100th anniversary, “she’d provided us with a beautiful genealogy report. It’s hard to have these people go away and not have a formal way to grieve together,” Moore said. “There is something about that ability to come together that is making this very hard.”

Asked by Delezenne what churches can do, Moore had at least two concrete ideas: Pray and write letters.

“We as Christians know that prayer works,” Moore said. She suggested that churches unite during a designated hour “to come together and pray for the end of this virus and for compassion for those who are suffering,” she said.

Letters to elected officials — local, statewide and national — can focus on valuing “human life over dollars,” Moore said. “We need supplies without all the snarky remarks.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

David Loleng, Presbyterian Foundation
Kim Long, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

God of amazing grace, may we see the face of Christ and respond with your compassionate love in ways that transform lives. Amen.

Minute for Mission: Young Adult Volunteer Commissioning Sunday

August 23, 2020

PHOTO CREDIT: Katie Jenkins

On the last day of Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) orientation, we are sent off to be commissioned at churches in the Hudson River Valley near Stony Point Center. Several churches in the area agree to host small groups of YAVs for worship where we are commissioned for our year of service, followed by a meal and conversations. We as YAVs come as we are, bringing our whole selves, exhausted from the past week of orientation, to a table of strangers, to share our intentions for our year of service and what we have already begun learning during the first week. 

Personally, as a YAV commissioned for my first year of service in the fall of 2018, the process started out wildly terrifying. This would be the first of many times we would be introduced to a group of people and asked to explain who we were and why we felt God was calling us to partake in the work of the church. After spending a week discussing the troublesome, and frequently harmful, history of mission work (along with three intense days digging deep into the pervasive nature of structural and systemic racism in the world, our country and our church), I truly didn’t have answers to the questions that I feared they would ask. I ended that week of orientation feeling nervous, intimidated and scared of the tasks before me. In no way did I feel prepared or confident to discuss my mission with a room of strangers. However, looking back at my experience of being commissioned, I can tell you that these fears I carried around were quickly released as the service began. 

My experience being commissioned after orientation, at my home church and local churches in Asheville and Tucson has allowed me to understand that commissioning services are a valued piece of the YAV experience. Worshiping with a new congregation, having a group of strangers stand beside you and commission you, is a way for the YAV class to understand that during this year of service, while we are struggling to identify who God has called us to be, we are not alone. The church is our family. They are here for us, they support us, and at the service, they pledge to walk alongside us in our journey. 

Being a YAV has been one of the deepest privileges of my life because it has introduced me to the most amazing, loving and kindhearted people. After spending a week confronting the issues of the church, race and mission, as well as recognizing a world torn and in anguish, commissioning Sunday allows YAVs to remember and embrace that they are not alone. That any stranger can become a friend. That this journey is not just ours, it’s God’s. We go through the year as disciples learning and serving just as many others have done before us and will continue to do. Commissioning Sunday is a way to tell incoming volunteers that they are not in this experience alone. My own experience led me to feel heard as a young leader of the church. I am not sure that is the case for all YAVs, but I know that many walk away feeling more at ease, loved and cared for by strangers in Christ, our neighbors.

 Katie Jenkins, a Member of the PC(USA) church who calls Mason City, Illinois, home, served as a YAV in Asheville, North Carolina, during the 2018–19 year, and Tucson, Arizona, during the 2019–20 year

Let us join in prayer for:   

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Elizabeth Little, Board of Pensions
Ann Logan, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)

Let us pray:

Creator God, you have crafted each of us for a purpose, with a plan in mind that will change the world and influence us to struggle, learn and grow. Just as you sent prophets, Samaritans and the Messiah to us, you have sent strangers and friends to let us know that we are not alone. We may not yet know what is asked of us as individuals, but as a whole, you have commanded one thing: to love one another. May we move through life remembering that request. As we struggle to find ourselves and to reshape this broken world, help us to remember we are not alone. United in faith, a family of love, forgiveness and grace. Amen. 

Today in the Mission Yearbook - A prayer tree grows

Youth create a way to pray for one another

August 22, 2020

The Rev. Joe Clifford, pastor of Myers Park Presbyterian Church, hangs prayers on the prayer tree that the youth created. Courtesy of Myers Park Presbyterian Church

At the end of March, when schools, businesses and churches began closing their doors to curb the spread of COVID-19, the youth of Myers Park Presbyterian Church came up with an idea. The Charlotte, North Carolina, teens wanted those in the community to know that they weren’t alone.

“The youth of the church wanted a way to represent our collective faith, grief and need for God and each other,” said the Rev. Michelle Thomas-Bush, associate pastor for youth and their families. And since the youth had experienced the power of prayer in spirituality centers created within the church’s walls, they had several creative ideas for outside the church.

Among them was creating a prayer tree by the church’s front entrance. Using colored strips of fabric — each color signifying either family, church, the world, etc. — and markers, prayers were written down and then tied to string hung over the tree’s limbs. The string was anchored into the ground with garden stakes. The result was a beautiful fluttering of prayers that blew in the wind, attracting the attention of those passing by who, while mindful of social distancing, found themselves in need of fresh air and exercise. The Rev. Joe Clifford, pastor of Myers Park Presbyterian, advertised the prayer tree through social media, inviting members to add their prayers.

While the prayer tree was a way to connect with others during a time of sheltering in place, the idea of offering prayers for the community in creative ways will continue in the future.

Donna Frischknecht Jackson, Editor, Presbyterians Today

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Gabriella Lisi, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Sara Lisherness, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

O God, you sent your Son to show us how to live in love as the community of faith. Empower us by the Holy Spirit to take action to ensure voices are heard and lives cherished, in both the church and society. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Strengthening connections: D.J. Lee of the Board of Pensions serves PC(USA) Korean churches

To 400 Korean ministers and congregation leaders, he’s the face of the Board

August 21, 2020

D.J. Lee is the Board of Pensions’ Senior Specialist for Korean Membership. (Contributed photo)

In a small conference room at the Board of Pensions, before COVID-19 led to staff working remotely, D.J. Lee recalled how he chose to travel from his home in South Korea to Philadelphia to earn an MBA. He spread an imaginary map of the United States across the conference table and ran his hands across it, one westward, one eastward.

“I opened up the map, and I had a few choices,” said Lee, senior service specialist for Korean membership at the Board, referring to his university admissions. “Philadelphia, I had never heard of. Philadelphia has the longest spelling. Hmm, Philadelphia is the place to go. I want to explore. I like adventure.”

Today, Lee gives back to his adopted city as a volunteer at Greater Philadelphia Health Action Inc. (GPHA), where he has served on the Quality Oversight Committee and Strategic Planning Committee since 2019. GPHA provides comprehensive health services to uninsured and underinsured people in the region. “It has been a great opportunity to share my knowledge and experiences gained from the Board and my education,” he said. “This is my way to return something back to Philadelphia.”

Dong Jo Lee arrived in Philadelphia in August 1994, his first time in the United States. “When I was young, I always dreamed about America,” he said. “I loved Western movies and World War II movies.” He had no family or friends in the U.S., but he had been introduced to the Presbyterian church in high school by a friend and soon, he was worshiping with a Presbyterian congregation in Philadelphia. “It brought me back to my faith,” he said.

By February 2000, he had two master’s degrees, a wife, a young son and a new job as Benefits Specialist at the Board of Pensions. Twenty years later, he and his wife, Heayoung Shin, share their home with son Nathan, a college sophomore, and daughter Hannah, a high school junior. And D.J. Lee is helping to strengthen church ties with Korean congregations.

His father-in-law, the Rev. Dr. Sang Gil Shin, was thrilled when his son was hired by the Board. Shin had moved to the U.S. from Korea in 1983 with his family — when Heayoung was 13 — for a Presbyterian leadership exchange program. He retired in Korea in 1997 after 30 years in ministry that included serving Presbyterian churches and in validated ministries in Korea, a PC(USA) congregation in the U.S., and as a missionary in Mexico.

Shin saw his son-in-law as a connection between Korean Presbyterians and a valuable church agency. Today, that connection is direct. Since January 2019, Lee has served as the face of the Board for Korean Presbyterian ministers and congregational leaders in the approximately 400 PC(USA) Korean churches. He travels, educating these congregations on the church Benefits Plan and how to use Benefits Connect.

“The people I meet with really appreciate the outreach,” said Lee, who has expanded face-to-face service for the constituency. “The word spread out. I have a total of 18 outreach activities scheduled in 2020, including workshops, Korean retiree luncheons, and NCKPC [National Caucus of Korean Presbyterian Churches],” he said, although COVID-19 has forced schedule changes.

His understanding of Korean culture has been critical to conveying the richness of the Benefits Plan. Korean plan members traditionally haven’t made the most of their benefits because plan information was not always reaching the one responsible for wielding it.

“We used to train the ministers,” he said, but it is the spouse who oversees family medical claims and expenses. “In Korean culture, many spouses are women who have sacrificed their professional careers to support their husband’s ministry and child care. Once I took over this role, I said, ‘Hey, bring your spouse.’ Now, I see more engagement.”

His outreach supports the efforts of the Board, as part of the PC(USA), to strengthen the community of faith. In 2019, for the first time, the Chief of Church Engagement for the Board of Pensions attended the NCKPC. Translations of documents on pensions.org continue to grow, and this year, the Board plans to deliver Healthy Pastors, Healthy Congregations in Korean.

Lea Sitton, Agency Writer for the Board of Pensions

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Dick Liberty, Board of Pensions
Lora Limeberry, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)

Let us pray:

God of warmth and compassion, let us be filled with the light of Christ. Lead us out into the world, where the lost, lonely and hungry can be the face of Jesus for us. Amen.