Today in the Mission Yearbook - Presbyterian history made in Manhattan

Chartering of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Fort Washington Heights marks Ghanaian immigrants’ 14-year journey

October 4, 2024

The Rev. Dr. Ebeneezer Christian Annor (Photo 

by Jim Nedelka)

Shortly after 7 p.m. on Sunday, July 28, a historic transformation occurred inside a historic sanctuary in the Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights: The Trinity Presbyterian Fellowship was officially chartered as Trinity Presbyterian Church in Fort Washington Heights within the Presbytery of New York City.

The presbytery’s newest congregation, lauded for its fortitude during its 14-year journey as a fellowship largely comprised of people from, or who trace their heritage to, the African nation of Ghana, will continue being ministered to by the Rev. Dr. Ebenezer Christian Annor, now elevated to the position of founding pastor.

The Trinity congregation is already rejuvenating its new home, a sanctuary opened in 1914 for the then-new Fort Washington Presbyterian Church. During the church’s 110 years and counting service to the community, the building became an icon in the surrounding neighborhood.

The most recent iteration was as Iglesia Presbiteriana Fort Washington Heights, which expanded the church’s Spanish language-based ministries beginning in 1948.

As a coda to this ministry, the Rev. Miriam Shelton, Iglesia’s final interim pastor, passed the torch — well, actually, the dust bucket and broom. This gift was presented to Shelton on her first day by the neighbors who came to know the pastor who, in the absence of a custodian, handled the janitorial duties of sweeping the generous amount of sidewalk outside the church.

Shelton explained how the neighbors engaged the pastor in conversations of all stripes, often including pleas to “keep the (church) doors open,” a symbolic sign of life in a transitioning neighborhood that frequently saw the downside of life. The request was received, and a promise made became a promise kept: the “Ministry of the Broom,” a unique way to expanded God’s reach.

But on this particular afternoon, the heartbeat of the festivities was Presbyterian tradition with a hint of an African beat, the celebration kicking into a higher gear when soloist Lilly Morgan, soon to be a member of Trinity’s first-ever Board of Deacons, led the choir in a rousing version of “How Great Thou Art.”

The Rev. Dr. Mary Newbern-Williams (Photo by Jim 

Nedelka)

In her sermon, the Rev. Dr. Mary Newbern-Williams, transitional executive presbyter of the Presbytery of New York City, referenced the third chapter of John in describing that day’s event as a prime example of “Jesus enlightening the life of God’s created; it is about Jesus revealing himself. This passage is about all of us — about Trinity Presbyterian Church in Fort Washington Heights. It is about lifting You up.”

Newbern-Williams continued, “Today, we lift up God’s grace and love in the chartering of a faithful congregation to God’s plan for ministry. Today, we lift up God in Christ Jesus and the congregation that has never given up, never let go, never forsaken the journey. We celebrate the next steps on the journey with Trinity Presbyterian Church Fort Washington Heights this day. Ultimately, we celebrate who Jesus is and how God in Jesus Chris is at work in the world and in our presbytery.”

“By doing all we do in the name of Jesus the Christ,” she concluded, “(we) show the world what it means to lift up the love and justice of God in Jesus Christ. Trinity Presbyterian Church in Fort Washington Heights, we lift you up in the Name of Jesus Christ — we lift up Jesus Christ. Believe in the gospel and be at peace!”

The presbytery’s moderator, Selma Jackson, gathered the congregation’s initial set of ruling elders and deacons, along with its first pastor, to renew their baptism vows, followed by the laying on of hands by the ministers, ruling elders and deacons in attendance.

Finally, the end to 14 years of waiting, praying and gearing up to smile, to shed tears of joy and — yes — make that biblical joyful noise to the Lord had arrived! Symbolically seated with his family among his congregants, Annor, dressed in a brilliant green robe with black doctoral chevrons, climbed up from the pews into the chancel, where he was met by the Rev. Dr. Yaw Frimpong-Manso. The two men embraced and then, wearing a smile of his own, the presbytery’s representative from the Chartering Administration Commission presented the framed charter proclaiming the church as “Trinity Presbyterian Church in Fort Washington Heights.”

Jim Nedelka, a member and ruling elder at avenue church nyc in Manhattan, has contributed to Presbyterian News Service since 2008. His career honors include an Associated Church Press award, a duPont- Columbia University Silver award and a George F. Peabody award.

Today’s Focus: Trinity Presbyterian Fellowship was officially chartered as Trinity Presbyterian Church in Fort Washington Heights

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Shelvis, and Nancy Smith-Mather, Mission co-workers serving in South Sudan, World Mission, Presbyterian Mission Agency 
Rebecca Snipp, Administrative Project Manager, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Presbyterian Mission Agency 

Let us pray

Gracious God, we pray that we may follow your instruction to show our love for you by feeding your sheep as we work to spread the good news of your love. We pray we may bear fruit and help our brothers and sisters grow in their knowledge and love of you. Amen.

Ministry Matters - Bringing intercession back | The divine speeches

What does it look like to make intercession an essential part of worship today? Bringing intercession back by Glenn Stallsmith   This set of articles is meant to inspire congregations to correct this imbalance of liturgical priorities, especially as it regards intercessory prayer. While I would be delighted to learn that these articles inspired some pastors and worship leaders to increase the number of minutes devoted to intercessions, my aim here is to dig a bit deeper into the reasons why the church prays together in the gathered assembly. Read here

How should we respond to one another when suffering inevitably comes? The divine speeches: Evil and suffering in Job by Carol Newsom   As Job discovered, events do occur that challenge and sometimes overturn the paradigms that have shaped one's perceptions. Yet people do not readily let go of the frameworks that have shaped their vision of reality. Read here

When life unravels and hope finds a place in your sermon this Sunday

Making connections in prayer and praise for worship this Sunday

The Voice of the Martyrs - Willing to Lose for Christ

Prisoners for Christ, Letting “the Lord Shine Through”

In 2021, a group of Hmong water-buffalo traders brought an unexpected gift to Cai’s village in Vietnam — the gospel of Jesus Christ. Six families came to faith in Christ, including Cai’s. The new Christians weren’t quite sure what it meant to be a church, but they were eager to learn. “We wanted to worship God, but we didn’t know how,” Cai said. He said they began to meet together, often early in the morning or late at night to avoid the watchful eyes of government officials. The families of this fledgling church decided that the best way to gain more freedom to worship would be to register with one of Vietnam’s official denominations. They reasoned that being registered would put the local officials at ease, demonstrating that they were being good citizens. It had the opposite effect. Choosing to Lose

When the registration paperwork was brought to the local government, it set off an angry backlash that resulted in these families losing their land, being ostracized from the community and being cut off from even basic community services like electricity. Even worse, authorities arrested the three leaders, including Cai. As registered Christians, these brothers reasoned, they could have enlisted human rights organizations to fight for their rights and help them avoid prison. But at what cost? The fight, they knew, would permanently damage their Christian community. Instead, they chose the path of humility and meekness. “We talked to each other, and we said that we could not win them over by arguing with them,” Cai said. “So we decided that we would accept the loss and go to prison so that the Lord will shine through us. We had no one to help us, humanly speaking, but God is with us. The Lord will help us during our time in the prison. We said that we will lose so that the Lord will win.” What Happened Next

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Today in the Mission Yearbook - East Texas PC(USA) pastor celebrates Creation during solar eclipse

Synod School’s closing worship preacher wasn’t so sure he’d get to witness the rare cosmic event

October 3, 2024

The Rev. Brendan McLean, associate pastor of First Presbyterian 

Church in Tyler, Texas, preaches during closing worship at Synod 

School Friday. He displayed pictures his friends tool of the April 

8 solar eclipse. (Photo by Kim Coulter)

The Rev. Brendan McLean is associate pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Tyler, Texas, one of the communities shrouded in darkness for nearly two minutes during the April 8 solar eclipse.

Only just before it happened, someone forgot to urge the clouds over Tyler to go away.

“I felt like I had a front-row ticket,” said McLean, the preacher during closing worship at this year’s Synod School. “But I was watching it from the balcony behind a pillar.”

But at 1:43 p.m. Central Time, the sky grew dark like twilight, the clouds parted, “and I could see the total solar eclipse,” he said. “How incredible it was to see it with my own two eyes — with solar eclipse glasses on.”

For two minutes, McLean and millions of other North Americans “experienced a world fundamentally different than the ordinary world we experience every day, a world where we experienced the shadow of night when we virtually always experience the light of day,” he said. “It was other-worldly.”

Later, he and his friends shared pictures of what they’d seen via social media. He called the nearly two minutes “unadulterated and unfiltered communion with the cosmos,” and he preached at Synod School using Job 12:7–13 as his text.

“This passage from Job tells us the whole of Creation — every part of the universe — calls us to awe and reverence of God.”

Job’s “beautiful theological statement” is the answer to Job’s “friend,” Zophar, who’s sure Job did something wrong to justify all his suffering. “Job knows this is entirely untrue,” McLean pointed out. “Our suffering is not connected to God’s retribution.”

The wisdom of God is not something we can grasp, “and yet all of Creation — the entirety of the cosmos — has something to tell us about God,” McLean said. If we want to encounter God, “all we need to do is simply ask the cosmos, the world around us, at any given time. We are surrounded by the beauty of Creation that calls to us. … We are made and claimed as God’s children and are redeemed and resurrected in Jesus Christ.”

“Friends, all of Creation is waiting to tell us something about God,” he said. Unlike that solar eclipse, “the window of opportunity to observe something about God is as wide and big as you can imagine — and yet more.”

“All we need to do is stay curious and ask, open our ears and our eyes to see that God is good and that Christ died and rose for us, all of us,” McLean said. “The God who is more than we can ask or imagine — it is that God who loves you, who cares for you, and who wants you to flourish — not because you’ve earned anything, but because you are you, and God loves you for it. Amen.”

As part of worship, children and youth were given special sunglasses and told, “When you put them on, you can see the kingdom of God.” They and all the others in worship were the recipients of a reproduction of a two-sided watercolor signed by most of the 540 people who attended Synod School and bearing this saying: “Remember, God is able to do more than all we ask or even imagine.”

Synod School celebrated its 70th anniversary this year. It’s put on each summer by the Synod of Lakes and Prairies and held at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa. Learn more here.

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Today’s Focus: Synod School’s closing worship preacher celebrates Creation during solar eclipse

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Natalie Smith, Product Manager, General Reader Books, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation 
Stephen Smith, Security Trading & Assistant Portfolio Manager, Trust Services, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray

Creator God, we thank you for this day. We give thanks that each of us can reach out to those in need around us; help us to be particularly mindful to children in need. Guide us each and every day as we strive to serve you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Thai Presbyterians gather

Asian assemblies are fostering community

October 2, 2024

First Thai-Laotian Church in Las Vegas, Nevada, hosted the 

Thai Presbyterian Assembly. (Contributed photo)

The Thai Presbyterian Assembly recently gathered in Las Vegas for its 28th annual conference.

Delegates from seven churches in the United States met at the First Thai-Laotian Presbyterian Church and were hosted by the Rev. Dr. Prachuab Dechawan, the church’s founding pastor.

Dechawan has been instrumental in starting Asian new worshiping communities on the West Coast. Currently, Dechawan is leading his church in a financial campaign to purchase a much-needed new building in Las Vegas to serve as the church’s sanctuary and the center for training for Asian churches.

The Rev. Ralph Su, Associate for Asian Intercultural Congregational Support with Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries, says that the 10 Asian assemblies across the denomination help to put resources in the hands of congregations.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is home to 

10 Asian assemblies. (Contributed photo)

As the associate for Asian congregational support, it is important for Su’s office to keep the churches informed and connected. One of the biggest challenges is the language barrier. While Su speaks four languages, he is not versed in some of the languages represented. Many faith communities have built an ecosystem that allows for their Sunday worship services to be held in both English and their native tongue.

Moderating the assembly was Ruling Elder Aimee Patimeteeporn, who also serves as the newly elected moderator of the National Asian Presbyterian Council. The keynote speaker for the conference was the Rev. Dr. Boonratna Boayen, moderator of the Church of Christ in Thailand, the PC(USA) partner in that country. Boayen said we must have the “courage of a lion” to share our faith in Jesus Christ and build new churches in our world.

The Vietnamese Assembly also recently convened in Houston. This was an opportunity for fellowship and worship to connect with colleagues in ministry and further build and strengthen communities. That is especially important as immigrant communities of faith have felt the aftereffects of Covid. One-fourth of these congregations have not returned to in-person worship.

“Our presbyteries will welcome the immigrant communities and offer them the hospitality of Jesus,” Su said, “empowering them with our support so they can become vibrant Presbyterian churches.”

Shani E. McIlwain, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Today’s Focus: Asian assemblies are fostering community

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Melaina Smith, Design Content Specialist, Presbyterian Foundation 
Melody Smith, Digital & Marketing Communications Director, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 

Let us pray

Gracious God, help those who are engaged with the work of providing for our communities. May they be strengthened to move forward and pass on the glories of the goodness they receive. Amen.