Today in the Mission Yearbook - African American Leaders and Congregations Collecting Initiative

Collecting and sharing history about the Black Presbyterian experience

April 29, 2024

The Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS) continues to make progress on its effort to document the Black Presbyterian experience through the African American Leaders and Congregations Collecting Initiative (AALC).

The AALC brings resources to bear on collecting church and leader records — both the personal records of longtime church workers and the original records of Black congregations. Recently, a new group of churches participated in the program, including Salt and Light and New River Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, and three churches in Queens, New York: the Presbyterian Church of St. Albans, Hollis Presbyterian Church and First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica.

Along with paper records, PHS collects a wide variety of digital formats and records oral and video histories. Through AALC, PHS recorded interviews at the National Black Presbyterian Caucus conference and preserved the memorial service of Melva Costen.

In 2023, PHS added 29 new African American collections amounting to more than 25 cubic feet and 26 gigabytes of data. These included the commonplace books of Edler Hawkins and the personal papers of minister, mission worker and theologian Marsha Snulligan Haney; the elder and social worker Gladys Turner Finney; and the minister and Black Caucus organizer Maxine Jenkins.

The PHS digitization team imaged more than 10,000 pages of records for nine Black Presbyterian churches, among them Christ Presbyterian Church in Milwaukee; Davie Street Presbyterian Church in Raleigh, North Carolina; and Edisto Presbyterian Church in Edisto Island, South Carolina.

The AALC supports the free digitization of African American congregations’ earliest records. African American congregations can have their session minutes and registers imaged at PHS (up to 1,200 pages of text) at no cost. PHS can then secure the original records in the archives or return them to the church.

Video URL: https://digital.history.pcusa.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A309059/datastream/MP4/view

Because it’s impossible to understand the PC(USA) without listening to Black voices, PHS is highlighting two oral histories that bookend last year’s work: a January interview with then-Stated Clerk of the General Assembly J. Herbert Nelson, II and a December interview with Cedric Portis of Third Presbyterian Church in St. Louis.

Learn more about the African American Leaders and Congregations Collecting Initiative.

This article first appeared as a PHS blog post: history.pcusa.org/blog/2024/02/aalc-collecting-update.

David Staniunas, Presbyterian Historical Society

Today’s Focus: Black Presbyterian experience

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Catherine Gordon, Representative for International Issues, Office of Public Witness, Presbyterian Mission Agency  
Denise Govindarajan, IT Associate Director, IT Application Development, Administrative Services Group (A Corp) 

Let us pray

Dear God, thank you for hearing our cries to end the injustice of racism and to become the beloved community. Help us to respond to your call on our lives to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with you. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - What does Lithuania have to teach us about war?

PC(USA) travel study seminar to reveal the country’s lessons and history

April 28, 2024

The Presbyterian Peacemaking Program’s travel study 

seminar, “Lithuania: Healing the Legacies of War & 

Oppression,” is set for Oct. 14-24.

A small country on the Baltic Sea with lessons to teach about the travails and tragedies of war will be the focus of a travel study seminar hosted by the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program this fall.

“Lithuania: Healing the Legacies of War and Oppression” is set to take place Oct. 14–24 and will provide valuable insight into the European country bordering Latvia, Russia, Poland and Belarus.

The PC(USA) is recruiting participants, who will begin their journey in Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, then move to Klaipeda, learning about various phases of Lithuania’s history, from the Nazi and Soviet occupations to today’s Ukrainian refugee crisis. (Apply here by June 14.)

“This seminar is set in a small Baltic country that has suffered through multiple wars and occupations,” said the Rev. Carl Horton, coordinator of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program. “Its people bear the generational traumas of war and its aftermath. Today, they are faced with a refugee crisis and resource issues related to the nearby two-year war in Ukraine. Our seminar will be an opportunity for Presbyterians to learn from those who know firsthand the harms of war and live on the edge of conflict and crisis.”

Ellen Smith is World Mission’s regional liaison for 

Central and Eastern Europe.

Mission Co-Worker Ellen Smith brought the idea of the Lithuania travel study seminar to Horton after visiting there last winter with the Eastern Europe Partnership Network — formerly known as the Belarus, Ukraine, Russia Mission Network — and learning about Lithuania’s complicated history.

“The Lithuanians committed many of the crimes of the Holocaust,” and the country was later occupied by the Soviet Union, said Smith, regional liaison for central and eastern Europe.

There are “undercurrents of secrets within the society from the trauma of both the Holocaust and Soviet occupation” and the “terrible experience of being caught between those two powers at their worst,” she said. “People in Lithuania are trying to open up and talk about that history and come to terms with it, and I think that’s something we need to do in our own culture, too.”

Jean Waters, who does communications for the network, added, “When visiting Lithuania, you experience a charming old European country, cathedrals and castles, alongside Soviet-style housing. It is important to see that the people of this country suffered, and they acknowledge their history so that they, and none of us, will repeat it.”

The Rev. Carl Horton coordinates the Presbyterian 

Peacemaking Program. (Photo by Rich Copley)

Both Smith and Waters have visited the Center for Dialogue and Conflict Transformation at LCC International University (formerly Lithuania Christian College). Participants in the upcoming seminar will hear about the center’s peace and reconciliation work in Lithuania and elsewhere.

“Countries have been attacking each other, invading each other, and executing ethnic cleansing for centuries,” Waters said. “It is important for us to understand the impacts of these actions, how fellow countrymen are complicit, and the reasons people become refugees. They are so fearful and have so little choice.”

Horton said the travel study seminar is ideal for “Presbyterians who oppose war and want to learn, not only from the past but also from the work being done still today to recover from the atrocities and legacies of war.”

He added, “It will be clear to participants in this seminar that after wars end, for instance when they finally do end in Ukraine and Gaza, the hard work of rebuilding, repairing, healing and learning from history begins. It takes a long, long time and, sadly, may never be fully complete.”

For more information about the travel study seminar in Lithuania, go here.

The Presbyterian Peacemaking Program is one of the Compassion, Peace and Justice ministries of the Presbyterian Mission Agency.

Darla Carter, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Today’s Focus: PC(USA) travel study seminar to Lithuania

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Edwin Gonzalez-Castillo, Director & Associate, Disaster Response for Latin American and Caribbean, Presbyterian Mission Agency 
Theresa Goodlin, Team Leader, Raiser’s Edge Gift & Data Entry, Ministry Engagement & Support, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)  

Let us pray

God of the old and the new, the great and the small, thank you for the warmth of your love and the inspiration of your Spirit. May you continue to bring new life into your churches, that we might proclaim in a myriad of ways the wonders of your love. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Trinity Presbytery’s Vital Congregations Coordinator says older Presbyterians have plenty of wisdom to share

Dr. Phyllis W. Sanders discusses her work, ‘Gaining Wisdom Through Vital Conversations: Voices of the Aging’

April 26, 2024

Photo by Clive Surreal via Unsplash

Dr. Phyllis W. Sanders, Vital Congregations Coordinator for Trinity Presbytery, took on the study “Gaining Wisdom Through Vital Conversations: Voices of the Aging” because of what she calls “my innermost desire to continue to learn from the elderly.”

The seven women and men Sanders interviewed for the project are between the ages of 91 and 104. The report is the second installment in an Older Adult Ministry Project Report.

“I chose to interview the oldest adult individuals because they make up the largest population in most churches, especially since the pandemic,” Sanders wrote in her report. “Yet, the clarion call that is being made is for younger people.”

For Sanders, an important consideration was, “How do church leaders utilize older adults to gather information about their experience, wisdom about what the church has done in the past, and thoughts about what the church can do to grow in the future?”

Each of the seven people Sanders interviewed has been with the Presbyterian church for more than 70 years. “Should their thoughts and opinions be ignored?” Sanders asked. “Their lifelong discipleship formation has been shaped by the Presbyterian Church. They are living a long life, and they recognize there are reasons for their longevity.”

Asked about what they attribute to living their long life, a 103-year-old woman said, “God’s grace.” Two others — one  104, the other 91 — said it was healthy eating, while the 104-year-old added, “having fun and staying who you are and having good friends.”

The 103-year-old is still in her home and has lived in the same community for more than 60 years, in a neighborhood where everyone knows her. All five of her children call her every day and make one or more visits each day. She remains politically involved with city and state officials. She attends church most Sundays, and members bring her food and goodies on a regular basis.

When fellow members of her church visit people who are sick or shut in, the 104-year-old often accompanies them.

Dr. Phyllis Sanders

When asked how churches can become more vital for meeting the needs of the congregation, one 95-year-old responded with, “churches should have mixed music, hymns and gospel music.” Another 95-year-old suggested “there needs to be more teaching in the preaching for both adults and children to learn and apply it in their life.” A 91-year-old believes that the churches “must keep God at the center of our lives” and that Satan “wants to stick his head in the church, and if the church allows him to stay, people will have lots of trouble.”

The 103-year-old contended that these days, “churches are like social clubs, with no respect for worship.” Many churches “have lost their vitality for discipleship and fellowship,” this woman said. The 104-year-old said, “Sitting at home on the computer for church does not have the same effect as being in the church among others.”

“Preaching things contrary to the Bible is wicked, and God is not pleased with wickedness,” said a 91-year-old man. “Be careful with who you put in the pulpit. It can destroy a church rather than build a church.”

“This practicum experience was most meaningful,” Sanders wrote in the report. “It allowed me to review the research and apply it to what I observed, heard, and felt during my time with seven men and women who have lived to be in the ninth decade of life.”

Asking questions, according to Sanders, “can be the single most important factor in stimulating and enlivening participation in adult discussions.” It “was interesting to hear,” Sanders said, “that all of the interviewees had daily interactions, either with family and friends or through activities, telephone calls and group games.”

Dr. Phyllis W. Sanders is Vital Congregations coordinator for Trinity Presbytery, a Matthew 25 presbytery. Among those Sanders thanks for their participation in the “Vital Conversations: Voices of the Aging” project are Corine Lytle Cannon of the Presbytery of Charlotte; Jean Bell, Herbert Croxton, Willie Pollin and Nancy Scott, all of Trinity Presbytery; Sarada Mitchell of National Capital Presbytery; and Margaet Spinks of Salem Presbytery.

 Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Today’s Focus: Dr. Phyllis W. Sanders, Vital Congregations Coordinator for Trinity Presbytery

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Magdy Girgis, Middle Eastern Intercultural Ministries, Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries, Presbyterian Mission Agency  
Tammy Gish, Treasurer, Controllers, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray

Faithful God, empower these pastors for your ministry, and help them bear witness to their faith in the Living Lord as they strive to help. Glorify your name through shared witness. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - In the footsteps of the Queen of Sheba

An Ethiopian proverb says that if you educate a man, you educate one individual. But if you educate a woman, you educate a family

April 25, 2024

Along with her assistant, Banchayehu Bekele is pictured 

visiting Zeway Prison Center in Ethiopia. (Contributed 

photo)

Many may recall the Queen of Sheba, who, according to 1 Kings 10, caravanned from East Africa to visit King Solomon of the Israelites, a monarch deemed wiser than all the sages of Egypt and the Middle East.

King Solomon is perhaps best known for his wise decision in a dispute between two women, both claiming to be a new baby’s mother, with the outcome defining a mother’s love.

Historians tell us this queen came from what is today the country of Ethiopia. Modern-day Ethiopia is in East Africa, in an area known as the Horn of Africa, south of Egypt. It is next to the Red Sea and almost 2,000 miles from Jerusalem, a considerable distance in camel caravan travel time.

The remains of “Lucy,” considered to be a 3-million-year-older sister of the Queen of Sheba and an early member of the human race, were discovered in 1974 in Hadar, Ethiopia, supporting the conclusion by paleoanthropologists that anatomically modern humans now populating the world emerged from this region of Africa. Fellow paleoanthropologist and Catholic theologian Teilhard de Chardin described the expanse of humankind across the globe: “He trod so softly that when his presence was at last betrayed by the indestructible evidence of his stone tools … he was already spread across the ancient world from the Cape of Good Hope to Peking.” As this suggests, we are all of African descent and carry Ethiopian genes.

At a recent international prison reform conference in Nairobi, Kenya, with participants from 28 countries, a modern-day “Queen of Sheba” named Banchayehu Bekele, or Banchi to her friends, the founder and outreach director of the Paul International Prison Ministry, (learn more by emailing paulprisonm@gmail.com) proved spellbinding for the 100-member audience with her presentation on the suffering and tragic conditions of women and children imprisoned in her country.

She told of the 120 regional prisons in Ethiopia and six federal prisons with a combined population of about 200,000 people incarcerated, of which about 56,000 are women.

Banchi continued by explaining that women are discriminated against compared to incarcerated men relative to clothing and personal products, as well as spiritual and professional training. She said, “In Ethiopia, women disproportionally bear the burden of poverty and disease because of the gender-based division of economic resources, a lack of access to and control over political power, and the prevalence of violence against women.”

Banchayehu Bekele, at left, is pictured with members of the board 

of directors of Paul International Prison Ministry. (Contributed photo)

She brought many in the audience to tears when she detailed the often corrupt and over-crowded prison conditions with lack of education, personal and hygiene products, clothing, food, appropriate bedding, mattresses and blankets and the effects such conditions have on the many children who are born by women after entering prison or join them in prison for lack of others to care for them outside of prison.

The prison outreach project Banchi is conducting is another example of the Adopt-A-Prison concept now practiced on three continents and focuses the attention of a local community on the prison population in its midst. It reverses the colonial era criminal justice system of isolating offenders in harsh punitive structures far from their home communities. In spiritual terms, it is what the Paul Ministry does by encouraging its members to follow Jesus’ command to love one’s neighbor and applying it to the women and children incarcerated in their community and behind prison walls by supporting them with their urgent needs. This outreach of human kindness and compassion gives rise to fellowship and joy for both the giver and for the receiver.

The Mattthew 25 command that Jesus voiced to visit those in prison is not just meant as an expression of human kindness, but a requirement for establishing the kingdom of God on Earth, a social structure based upon peace, forgiveness and harmonious relations. We owe it to our Ethiopian heritage to stand in solidarity with the women incarcerated in Ethiopia, and indeed with all women incarcerated in harsh and undignified conditions around the world in countries like Russia, Mali, Cuba, Brazil and many others. Rest assured that important networks were established during the Nairobi prison conference to work toward reducing these drastic situations. The footsteps of the queens were not laid down in vain.

The Rev. Dr. Hans Hallundbaek, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is a co-founder of both Rehabilitation through the Arts and the Interfaith Prison Partnership, an outreach of Hudson River Presbytery. He is an adjunct instructor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Marist College. He lives in Katonah, New York.

Today’s Focus: a modern-day “Queen of Sheba” named Banchayehu Bekele

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Ashley Gibson, Human Resource Assistant, Human Resources, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)  
Sharon Dunne Gillies, Managing Editor, Presbyterian Women

Let us pray

Creator God, the church you created has spread throughout the globe. We give thanks for what we can learn from one another’s experience and for those who work to share such insights among the members of your family. Amen.

Minute for Mission: Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day

April 24, 2024

They left their homeland in fear of persecution and ethnic cleansing …

A heartbreaking tragedy is unfolding in Armenia due to continuous greedy and barbaric invasions by Azerbaijan. More than 120,000 innocent people of Artsakh (the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic), who endured starvation for over nine months under severe blockade, have been forced to flee their homeland to save their lives. They left in fear of persecution and ethnic cleansing, abandoning an irreplaceable cultural and religious landscape that includes at least 300 Armenian heritage sites, ranging from exquisite medieval monasteries to historic cemeteries adorned with iconic Armenian engraved cross stones. Recent history, just over the past two years, demonstrates the inevitable risk of dismantling, destruction and falsification of these cultural and religious sites.

Their escape was perilous and fraught with danger. Numerous casualties and assaults occurred along the journey until they reached Armenia. Furthermore, young men crossing the border faced the risk of unlawful detention, with many destined to join the list of over 500 missing individuals.

As of Sept. 30, 2023, more than 120,000 forcibly displaced people are in Armenia, all in critical condition: their bodies exhausted from malnutrition and continuous flight, their hope shaken by injustice and betrayal, and their minds severely traumatized by war. Most require urgent medical attention. Once nourished and healed, they will need shelter and employment to care for their families. Later, they will face a range of psychological and physiological consequences from the trauma of relocation and adjusting to a new life they never chose. We can all empathize with their plight to some extent.

What can we do together now to assist in immediate relief?

• Provide medication and rehabilitation services to those severely harmed.
• Provide food and means to cover basic human needs.
• Provide free physical and psychological treatment to the injured at the Dr. Norayr Baboumian Sevan Rehabilitation Center.

What do we plan to do later as a development program for those who have already settled?

• Provide knowledge, skills and capital to start small businesses.
• Involve children and youth in our Education and Civil Society projects to speed up their integration into their new environment.

With approximately 120,000 people affected, including children and the elderly, additional resources will enable us to assist more individuals. We are grateful to be on this noble journey together with you, inspired by your trust and generosity.

We firmly believe that acts of kindness can change the world, motivating us to remain committed to a mission that supports countries facing dire circumstances. No gift is too small. Whether you contribute to covering daily or monthly basic human needs or support a long-term sustainability plan, we know it will be life-changing for these children and their families.

For details about the Jinishian Memorial Program, please visit: presbyterianmission.org/ministries/world-mission/jinishian.

May God bless and protect you and your loved ones.

Eliza Minasyan, Executive Director, Jinishian Memorial Program, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Today’s Focus: Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Megan Genovese, Religious New Services Project Archivist, Presbyterian Historical Society 
Alexander Germosen, Cook, Stony Point Center, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

On the day I called, you answered me; you made me bold with strength in my soul (Psalm 138:3). In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - A Presbyterian chaplain who’s also a pharmacist joins a podcast to talk about health and spiritual care for Native Americans

The Rev. Catherine Witte is a guest on ‘A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast’

April 23, 2024

Catherine Witte

Already a pharmacist, Catherine Witte years ago went to seminary to be trained to be a chaplain serving the Indian Health Service. Witte recently joined the Rev. Lee Catoe and Simon Doong, the hosts of “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast,” for a 48-minute conversation that can be heard here. Witte is introduced at the 1:26 mark.

“These are my experiences. I’m not speaking on behalf of any entity or group,” Witte told the hosts after they’d introduced her, adding she worked “predominantly” with the Indian Health Service and was then part of the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service.

After becoming a chaplain, “I never stopped being a pharmacist,” Witte said, adding ethics consultations to the array of services she could provide.

“There was so much to learn!” about ministering to Indigenous people, she said. “I had no idea how much I needed to learn and what it was going to require of me. I loved the almost 30 years of serving American Indians and Alaska Natives.”

“It was learning not only as a non-Native person about cultures regarding spiritual care and well-being,” she said. “A lot of my time was spent listening and learning, watching and being present with individuals to understand the cultural and spiritual distinctions.”

Providers in the nation’s public health system “are all about collaboration,” Witte said. “It’s not only the volume of work that’s needed, but the specific areas of expertise, to be able to translate that into meaningful and excellent health-care services.” It “wasn’t just me” providing spiritual care to eligible Indigenous people, but volunteer chaplains and traditional Native healers as well. Witte would ask herself: How do I partner in the community to encourage people to seek care or preventative care services?

“As a Presbyterian minister and as a chaplain … it was, ‘this is a trusted person who’s a health care person but also someone we know, and this person knows us,’” Witte said. “When you work so long to build up trust and something comes along and there’s now distrust, how do you repair that? You continue to have conversations and continue to demonstrate your care and concern for the community. You say, ‘I’m not here for just a certain amount of time. I’m here to partner with you. Tell me how I can help.’”

“A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast” with the Rev.

Lee Catoe and Simon Doong drops each Thursday.

For many Indigenous patients and their families, “the way of communication is through storytelling,” Witte said. She learned to “listen through the stories that were being told. Sometimes someone would come in for a certain condition, and that condition may not be the most distressing thing for the individual. They could be going through a loss,” whether financial or personal or something else, she said. “To have a safe space to address that was really important to people.”

Trying to provide spiritual or emotional support during the Covid pandemic was “heart-wrenching,” she said. “You want to talk about a field of ministry that requires a lot of self-reflection and self-care and humility, that’s chaplaincy. It’s wonderful, but in order to minister to others, an individual has to be cognizant of who they are and where they’ve been.”

A story she’s told many times is meeting with Indigenous Presbyterian elders when she was just out of seminary but not yet ordained. She asked one, “Do you have any advice? I feel called to work with Native people,” Witte recalled. “He smiled and said, ‘good luck!’”

“I didn’t know what to do with that, but it was so real, and he was right,” she said. “Now I look back and translate it, ‘it will be what it will be.’ If you are going to serve and be part of our communities and minister with us and to us, then get to know us. Laugh with us. Break bread with us. Be with us in times of celebration and mourning.”

“It didn’t take long for me,” Witte said. “I really truly loved the people I worked with.”

 New editions of “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast” drop every Thursday. Listen to previous editions here.

 Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Today’s Focus: Rev. Catherine Witte is a guest on ‘A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast’

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Kristen Gaydos, Communications Director, Presbyterian Historical Society
Michael Gehrling, Associate, Northeast Region & Assessments, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Great Spirit God, thank you for your Spirit that flows from generation to generation and is always at work in us. Amen.

Yonat Shimron: Reporting is how I learn about the world

Donate Now! Growing up, RNS journalist Yonat Shimron was always a reader, her nose stuck in a book — at recess, in the car, and late at night under the pillow.  At one point, she realized maybe she could tell a story, too. Lucky for us, she started with nonfiction —   journalism. She explains that it felt like an honor to tell someone else’s story, as well as an awesome responsibility to do so fairly and accurately.  All spring, we’ve been Celebrating the Storytellers at RNS – the journalists who bring you news about faith, spirituality, and culture that shapes our world. As a regular reader, we know hearing from many voices is important to you, and that’s why we’re hearing today from Yonat on how she approaches this work:     How does storytelling impact your life?  “Writing stories is the main way I learn about the world. There’s nothing like interviewing multiple people and then writing a news story to help me understand what’s going on in the world around me. My reporting and my writing help me stay informed and allow me to wrestle on a deeper level with the issues around me. It’s also opened my heart and made me feel more invested in people’s lives and in their struggles.”    How have you seen stories connect people and cultures?  “One of America’s most respected rabbis, Sharon Brous, recently wrote a book that draws on Jewish ritual and practice but may resonate just as powerfully for Christians, Muslims and people of no faith. I interviewed Brous about her book, called “The Amen Effect,” which suggests the antidote to the plague of loneliness and isolation is compassion and community. The book is a kind of meditation on the importance of “showing up” — in good times and bad — to say ‘amen,’ essentially, an expression of solidarity.”    Revisiting a Passover story    “This year, Passover falls on Earth Day (April 22), and I’ll be remembering a story I wrote about Rabbi Ellen Bernstein, who wrote a beautiful Haggadah, called “The Promise of the Land.” This Haggadah, a retelling of the story of the Exodus from Egypt, reminds Jews of the origin of Passover as a springtime harvest festival of thanksgiving that connects all living creatures to the Earth and to their responsibility to care for it. Rabbi Bernstein died just a few months ago but I’ll be thinking of her as the founding mother of the Jewish environmental movement.” This connection through independent journalism is only possible with your support. We ask that you make a commitment to a monthly donation of $10. That works out to only a quarter per newsletter!  Your gift today ensures stories of inspiration and encouragement for tomorrow. Can we count on your support?

Yes, I want to make a gift today!

Minute for Mission: Earth Day

Earth keeping: Protecting foodways from plastic pollution

April 22, 2024

Leigh Takak, Chris Noongwook, Vi Waghiyi, Mellisa Johnson, 

Field Institute 2022 (provided)

When thinking of the Arctic, many cling to an image of pristine white tundra. This is far from reality. Research is confirming that the Arctic contains some of the most highly contaminated animals and people in the world due to the persistent industrial chemicals and pesticides that are transported on atmospheric and oceanic currents from lower latitudes. Much of this pollution comes from both plastic production and plastic contamination. 

Alaska Community Action on Toxics (ACAT), an Anchorage-based nonprofit, is seeing growing awareness of the Arctic as a place of vulnerability and an increasing interest in concerted action. They have been a grant partner of the Presbyterian Hunger Program since 2018. The PC(USA) and other groups are dedicated to learning or relearning how to listen to Indigenous wisdom as they support climate change work that protects the health and well-being of our earth, its wildlife and peoples. 

The ACAT research team has been conducting community-based participatory environmental health research on Sivuqaq (the traditional name for St. Lawrence Island) for more than 22 years. Initially, ACAT’s research collaboration began at the request of respected Savoonga elder and community health aide Annie Alowa. Annie, who died from breast cancer herself in 1999, witnessed health disparities among her people such as cancers, thyroid disease, miscarriages, birth defects and reproductive disorders, particularly among the people who lived and worked at Northeast Cape on Sivuqaq, home to approximately 1,700 Yupik residents. One of the crucial pieces of work that ACAT is doing is making connections between these health issues and the fossil-fuel driven production of plastics in the region. 

The people of Sivuqaq rely on a traditional diet of greens, berries, fish, reindeer and marine mammals for their physical, cultural and spiritual sustenance. 

Sadly, the study of these foods shows how contaminants from plastic production carried to the far north by atmospheric and ocean currents persist for years and sometimes decades, burdening the region’s Indigenous people.

The community-based research on Sivuqaq is guided by elders and other community leaders, and now includes eight universities working together with the tribes and Alaska Community Action on Toxics, who train local people as community health researchers for the biomonitoring work. The research informs government decisions and aims to improve accountability of the fossil fuel industry.  ACAT educates parents, teachers and health-care providers about ways they can reduce exposures to harmful endocrine-disrupting chemicals in their homes and environment. And the results of their research also inform environmental health policies at the state, national and international levels. Alaska Community Action on Toxics organizes with community leaders to present information to policymakers in Juneau, Alaska; Washington, D.C.; and in Geneva, Switzerland, at the United Nations. ACAT has also been active in the negotiation and implementation of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs treaty), a global legally binding treaty to eliminate the world’s most dangerous chemicals.[i]

For ideas to engage in climate education and action go to pcusa.org/climate, or to see Earth Day Sunday resources including Real Faith in a Synthetic World Plastic Jesus, visit pcusa.org/earthday.

Jessica Maudlin, Associate for Sustainable Living and Earth Care Concerns, Presbyterian Hunger Program

[i] Since 1996, in memory of the massacre of 19 Brazilian landless peasants who were brutally assassinated, the Via Campesina, an international peasants movement, has declared April 17 to be the International Day of Farmer and Peasant Struggles, a day for recognizing the struggles of smallholder food producers globally and organizing actions in support of food sovereignty and food justice.

Today’s Focus: Earth Day

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Kevin Garvey, Funds Development Specialist, Presbyterian Foundation 
Margaret Gay, Associate, International Property, World Mission, Presbyterian Mission Agency  

Let us pray

Creator, we pray today for farmers like Ibrahim who are farming because they love the land and want to nourish their families and communities. We pray for a world in which farmers like Ibrahim can ensure their children and families a peaceful and dignified future. We pray for a ceasefire in Gaza and lasting peace in the region. And we pray for small farmers all over the world who are also faced with violence and the destruction of their dreams of the future, that they may also experience God’s saving grace.