Mission Yearbook: Guns to Gardens Action Circles are growing

As the federal government dismantles programs that prevent gun violence, the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship begins its fifth year of another kind of dismantling: Guns to Gardens Action Circles that help churches learn to safely dismantle unwanted firearms, turning them into garden tools, art or jewelry.

Since summer 2021, volunteers from the Peace Fellowship’s Gun Violence Prevention Ministry have guided nearly 600 local church participants through the online series, growing a nationwide community of gun violence prevention activists armed with chop saws, anvils, determination and hope.

“Churches like Guns to Gardens because it is a positive response to a painful issue,” said the Rev. Margery Rossi, the Peace Fellowship’s Minister for Gun Violence Prevention. “It brings people together at a very deep level in our society — churches, gun owners, veterans, woodworkers, blacksmiths, artists and many more.  And our volunteer leaders are amazing.”

The Action Circles are ecumenical and have included participants from 21 denominations, including the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Southern Baptists and the Church of the Nazarene.    

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Action Circle participants meet online.

“What I really liked about the Action Circle was learning on Zoom with other church members around the country,” said Douglas Hunt, a graduate of the Guns to Gardens Action Circles. His congregation, First Presbyterian Church in Stockton, California, has supported Guns to Gardens events in Oakland and Sacramento.

“The federal government is not only abandoning programs and research that prevent gun violence, but they are actually cutting the staff who enforce background checks and inspect gun stores to prevent illegal gun trafficking. The church can stand by or it can stand up. Join an Action Circle and stand up,” said Hunt.

With over half a billion guns in private hands in the United States, Guns to Gardens provides a responsible way for gun owners to dispose of unwanted guns without returning them to the gun market, or risk them being stolen or accessed by children or others who may be at risk. Each gun owner is thanked with a gift card, with values from $25 for a BB gun up to $250 for semiautomatic assault rifles. Action Circle participants learn how to bring all of this to fruition in a church parking lot. See a video here as a gun owner calls on other gun owners to bring unwanted semiautomatic assault weapons to Guns to Gardens.     

Originally created by the Rev. Deanna Hollas, the first minister in the United States ordained to a ministry of Gun Violence Prevention, the Action Circles use an online curriculum with two volunteer leaders per session. The current leaders are the Rev. Rosalind Hughes, Episcopal Canon for Beloved Community in the Diocese of Cleveland, Ohio; Rita Niblack, a retired art teacher and lay leader at Most Precious Blood Catholic Church in Denver; the Rev. Rachel Sutphin, pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Hammonton, New Jersey, who grew up as part of the “lockdown generation”; Emily Bruno, a Tallahassee, Florida, attorney and recent seminary graduate; Nancy Halden, communications coordinator for the Gun Violence Prevention Center of Utah; and the Rev. Jan Orr-Harter, a retired Presbyterian pastor in Aledo, Texas.

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Action Circle Leader Rita Niblack orients volunteers at a Guns to Gardens event in Denver. (Photo courtesy of Presbyterian Peace Fellowship)

To keep Action Circles current with rules and best practices for Guns to Gardens, the Peace Fellowship partners with RAWtools, the national nonprofit that provides a network of blacksmiths to transform gun parts into garden tools, as well as oversight on safety and legal issues.

“The Action Circles are fantastic,” says Scotty Utz, a Quaker blacksmith who coordinates RAWtools South in North Carolina. “When you look at those faces on the screen, you know that you are seeing some of the finest people in our country and in the church.”

Guns to Gardens Action Circles run four times a year, with a daytime or evening option, a total of eight Circles per year. Technology allows leaders to share videos on how unwanted guns are dismantled on a chop saw, as well as diagrams for how to set up a safe disposal event in a church parking lot, and sample publicity materials from congregations around the nation.

The six weeks have distinct topics, with time for each participant to share about their efforts locally. Topics include outreach, logistics of a safe disposal event, publicity and fundraising for gift cards.

Learn more about Guns to Gardens Action Circles here. 

Presbyterian Peace Fellowship  (Click here to read original PNS Story) 

Let us join in prayer for:

Luke Choi, Church Consultant - Korean and Church Relations, Engagement & Church Relations, Board of Pensions
Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri, Interim Unified Agency   

Let us pray:

May the tender mercy of Christ cause God’s love-light to shine upon us so we can reflect light to those sitting in darkness and together follow the Spirit’s guidance into the way of peace — for ourselves, our neighbors and the world. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Presbyterians are urged to break silence on Gaza and seek justice and peace

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Photo by Mohamed Bassuoni via Unsplash

A day after this statement in June from the World Council of Churches called for an end to apartheid and occupation in Palestine, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Office of Public Witness held its monthly Presbyterian Advocacy Hour on the war in Gaza and the ongoing crisis in Palestine and Israel, which now includes Iran. More than 270 people participated.

Three people spoke as part of “Seeking Peace, Speaking Truth: Presbyterian Advocacy for Justice and Peace in the Holy Land”: Muna Nassar, a Palestinian Christian leader from Bethlehem and the World Communion of Reformed Churches’ Executive Secretary for Mission and Advocacy; Peter Beinart, a leading Jewish political commentator and journalist who teaches at City University of New York; and Noushin Framke, a Presbyterian ruling elder and leader in the PC(USA)’s Palestine Justice Network.

Asked to speak about the urgency of the situation in Gaza, Nassar said everyone viewing the webinar could agree that “this is very urgent. The situation has been escalating at an alarming speed.”

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Muna Nassar

She recalled witnessing as a 10-year-old a 40-day siege during the Second Intifada. Stopped by an Israeli military tank, the girl was asked, “What are you doing?”

“I was standing outside my house,” she said. “I felt like there is me and there is this Israeli military tank and nothing else. No one else could provide security. I remember this deafening silence.”

Today, when she sees images and videos of people “who cannot protect themselves in Gaza, I feel this on a much larger scale. For us Palestinians, the silence and the urgency have always been there.”

The sorrow “has become devastatingly familiar,” Nassar said. “If these thousands of videos cannot stop another child from being murdered, where is the urgency? People have normalized suffering and pain. How is the world still silent about this?”

Ever since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel’s retaliation, “we have woken up to gut-wrenching anxiety and this fanatical need to check the news from Gaza,” she said. “We thought patients would never be shot in a hospital ward or people would be shot waiting in line for food.” People are being “made invisible by the software of the media,” Nassar said.

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Peter Beinart

“As a Palestinian Christian, I look at the Western church and say, ‘what is the Western church saying? When will it break its silence?’”

She suggested “listening to Palestinian Christians who have written so much about this. Try to engage in ways that will broaden the conversation and not make it a polarizing issue.”

One of Beinart’s central points was that being a faithful Jew doesn’t necessarily equate with being a strong supporter of Israel. His most recent book is “Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning.”

“It is common on book tours to find people who say, ‘I can’t talk to my parents or my grandparents on this issue,’” Beinart said, calling the equating of being a good Jew with strong support for Israel “idolatrous.”

“In Judaism, idolatry is just about the paramount sin,” he said. “It is treating anything human-made as if it is sacred, and a state is human-made.”

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Noushin Framke

He pointed out that human beings are made in the image of God, while states “are mere instruments for the protection of human life and flourishing.” If states destroy human lives, “they must be reimagined, because states are secondary to human beings.”

Framke cited this timeline compiled by the Palestine Justice Network. Included are the “Breaking Down the Walls” report from 2010 and 2012 and the divestment from three companies in 2014 following what the Rev. Dr. Glenn Dickson and others from Westminster Presbyterian Church in Gainesville, Florida, witnessed during a trip to the West Bank.

“Our church prides itself in being connectional, not hierarchical,” Framke noted.

Framke was part of a Palestine Justice Network journey last year that included a stop at the Aida Refugee Camp.

“As the granddaughter of a survivor of the Armenian genocide, I fervently say silence is not an option,” Framke said. “It’s a shrug. It normalizes the dark chapter we are living through.”

“We need to speak out,” Framke said, “and do it in the name of the Prince of Peace.”

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

Let us join in prayer for:

Antonia Coleman, Administrative Project Manager, Center for Repair, Interim Unified Agency
Octavia Coleman, HR Generalist, Human Resources, Administrative Services Group      

Let us pray:

Good and gracious God, we pray that you would continue to show your face to all of us as we step out in faith to see what you have for us. We pray that you will make us good stewards of your good gifts. Amen.

Christmas Joy Offering Resources

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Mission Yearbook: Author explores racism and white flight in new novel

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Dave Larson

Dave Larsen’s historical fiction book, “Green Street in Black and White: A Chicago Story,” speaks about social issues in ways nonfictional accounts can’t. Larsen, who’s retired as executive director of the Chicago-based Bright Promise Fund for Urban Christian Education, was a recent guest on “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast,” hosted by Simon Doong and the Rev. Lee Catoe. Listen to their 52-minute conversation here.

Published in April, Larsen’s book follows Erik Pedersen and his friends, the Green Street Boys, who were growing up in the early 1960s in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. The boys confront prejudice, discover solidarity and witness the cracks in their seemingly ordinary world. As families leave the neighborhood as part of white flight, Pederson is thrust in a moral conflict that challenges his understanding of right and wrong.

Larsen’s book includes real events from the author’s childhood on Green Street, including riding in an uncle’s Chicago police car, a church hiring a seminary intern to track where Black families were moving, and a tragic shooting.

Catoe and Doong opened the episode with this question for Larsen: How do the themes and experiences that inform your book, such as reckoning with change, racism and the importance of community, relate to the justice issues of our country that we are currently facing?

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“That’s a great jumping-off point,” Larsen told the hosts. “People who’ve read the book say to me this resonates with a lot of what we’re dealing with today,” including opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion; book-banning; the rewriting of history; and police justice. “I think of the fact that white flight still happens in some forms in the Chicago area,” Larsen said. “I know of some churches who have moved four, five or even six times from the South Side of Chicago to further-out suburbs and beyond that into northwest Indiana.”

“A lot of that has to do with changing neighborhoods, and Christians and others unable to learn how to live with people unlike themselves,” he said. “That’s part of the dilemma of the book for Erik Pederson,” who along with his friends “are trying to make sense out of why churches and schools are leaving the area and their parents are talking about moving when they live in the neighborhood, feel safe and don’t see anything wrong, even though all of them would say they don’t know a Black kid in the neighborhood, never met them and don’t know what this is all about.”

A Black pastor in the book speaks about parishioners who “came north for the jobs to flee persecutions and lynchings and Jim Crow laws,” Larsen said. “Those are refugees, I think. It’s the difference between nomads and refugees, and I think there are parallels today.”

While researching the book, Larsen came across church council minutes he found “quite disturbing. I recognized the names of heroes as I was growing up who made some pretty racist decisions along the way.”

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Faith communities “had a lot of sway when it comes to segregation and redlining,” Catoe said. On the podcast, “we’re not shy about talking about how faith has been used to justify a lot of this stuff.” Catoe asked Larsen how he has seen that change over the years.

One person who read the book is the author and editor of children’s books. “He told me, ‘Children’s books typically end on a hopeful note. Do you think your book ended on a hopeful note?’ I had to say, ‘I’m not sure.’”

“I intentionally left it with Erik Pederson wondering how to put this all together in his mind for his future,” Larsen said. “He and his friends loved the neighborhood … and yet his church and his family were being uprooted. Do I see any change today? I think there are hopeful signs today.”

New editions of “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast” are released every Thursday. Go here to listen to previous episodes.

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

Let us join in prayer for:

Jill Chancellor, Reference Archivist, Presbyterian Historical Society, Interim Unified Agency
Cathy Chang, Interim Unified Agency     

Let us pray:

Sovereign God, help your church in every corner of the earth to be committed to and effective in ministries. Amen.

2025 Path of Peace reflections - Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025

Fahed Abu-Akel

2 Timothy 1:3–11

“I am grateful to God—whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did—when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands, for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”

The Rev. Dr. Fahed Abu-Akel was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the PC(USA) in 2002, becoming the first Arab American to lead a major U.S. denomination. While Moderator, his top priorities for the denomination were spiritual renewal, a focus on local and global missions, and a commitment to cultivate unity in diversity. Abu-Akel led with faith that was influenced by his experience of becoming a refugee as a young child during the 1948 war in Palestine. In the midst of danger, fear and uncertainty, Abu-Akel discovered hope in a broken world through Jesus Christ. This hope, he says, is something he discovered and is still discovering.

Any time I meet someone or hear about someone who is the first person of their background in a certain position, I celebrate how far we’ve come and simultaneously grieve about how long it took to get to this point. As an ordained clergyperson in the PC(USA), I have been privileged to have met both the first white female and the first African American female ordained as clergy in the PC(USA). It is remarkable to have met them but sobering to realize we have lived within the same lifetime.

On this World Communion Sunday, let us give thanks for our ancestors and predecessors in the faith who come from every corner of God’s diverse world. Let us find hope in the faith they lived and in the doors they opened for others to live and lead in faith as well. But let us not stop there. Let us consider the tears and the joy these leaders in the faith experienced and the courage, self-discipline, and love it took to cling to their faith in Jesus Christ and trust in the power of God to help us overcome prejudice, racism, sexism (and the many other -isms) in order to live fully into who God was calling them and Christ’s church to be.

Today, congregations throughout the PC(USA) will receive the Peace & Global Witness Offering. While some congregations receive this offering on a Sunday throughout A Season of Peace, most congregations participate on World Communion Sunday. This day is an ecumenical celebration of our oneness in the Spirit and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, bringing churches together in Christian unity. The Offering supports peace education and reconciliation on the local, presbytery and global levels.

As we give thanks for their lives of faith, may our vision today be expanded to notice the gifts of God in others while we also allow the Spirit to rekindle the gifts of God in ourselves. We need all the gifts from all God’s people to be valued, and we need to work together as we journey in faith toward the fullness of God’s justice, peace, unity and love.

2025 A Season of Peach, Path of Peace Reflections

Prayer: God, thank you for all those who have come before us who have helped further the ways your church has lived out your all-inclusive welcome, not just in word but in action and leadership. Keep expanding our visions of what faith and church should look like. Give us courage to be companions with others of diverse backgrounds, to listen and learn from one another, and to discern how together we can further God’s peace, unity, welcome and love in every corner of the world. As we journey together, may we remember that we do not do so by our own power, but by your power in Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Rev. Dr. Allysen Schaaf serves as a pastor in Charlotte, North Carolina, at Sardis Presbyterian Church. She enjoys being a part of community building and God’s mission wherever she goes. Her doctoral research focused on postcolonial mission and congregational practices of mission has inspired her to continue learning from others and to critique and adapt the ways in which we engage in God’s mission with our neighbors near and far.

Minute for Mission: World Communion Sunday/Peace & Global Witness Offering

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Romans 14:19: “Pursue What Makes for Peace”

The church was created to be connected.

Like the classic hymn reminds us, “All who follow Jesus, all around the world. Yes, we’re the church together!”

We can feel the power of the connectional church at work whenever individuals, congregations, mid councils, and our national and global partners serve together to the glory of God, creating a uniquely interconnected tapestry that reflects both the unity and diversity of God’s beautiful Creation.

This tapestry is not only a reflection of the distinctiveness of each person but also embodies the strength, resilience and powerful force — God — who connects us, even as it simultaneously demonstrates the importance of each individual thread.

Our connectional church is rooted in none other than Christ’s clear call to harmonious living. The apostle Paul tells the Romans that we are to pursue what makes for peace, to build each other up, and to not cast judgment on those who are different from us or have different customs or needs than our own.

Paul is inviting the Romans — and us — to break down the neat and orderly worlds we create for ourselves and experience the fullness of our diversity. This means leaving our comfort zones and seeing our neighbors, both around the corner and around the world, not as “them” but as “us,” friends and siblings in Christ. Whenever we welcome and embrace one another in this way, we respond to Paul’s invitation to pursue what makes for peace.

The Peace & Global Witness Offering helps to pursue peace in a variety of ways. Gifts to the Offering are combined with others to support Presbyterian mission and ministry around the world. Congregations and presbyteries keep a portion to be peacemakers in their own communities by meeting needs and ensuring every person can flourish. Our participation in supporting this Offering helps us see the face of God in all people.

This World Communion Sunday, let us pray for Christian unity and remember we are one in the Spirit and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Rev. Wilson Kennedy, Associate Director of Stewardship and Funds Development, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff:

Omar Chacon, Mission Specialist, Migration Accompaniment Ministry, Interim Unified Agency
Omar Chan, Project Manager, Unification Management Office, Interim Unified Agency

Let us pray:

Loving God, help us as we work to pursue peace. May we see your face in those we meet in our neighborhoods and around the world. Show us how we might be bringers of peace to the rich tapestry you created for all of your people. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

2025 Path of Peace reflections - Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025

Ben and Carol Weir

Matthew 8:18–27

When the storm overtakes their boat, the disciples panic. Waves crash, wind howls and Jesus sleeps. “Save us, Lord! We are perishing!” they cry. But Jesus responds not with alarm but authority: “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Then he calms the sea, and they marvel, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?”

Ben and Carol Weir knew what it meant to live through storms. As Presbyterian missionaries in Lebanon for nearly 30 years, they bore witness to both the beauty and the brokenness of the Middle East. Their work as educators and bridge-builders across religious and cultural divides was rooted in a deep commitment to Christ’s peace and justice.

But the storm came in 1984, when Ben was kidnapped at gunpoint in Beirut by Islamic Jihad, a Hezbollah-linked group. For 16 months, he was held in captivity, often in solitary confinement, never knowing when or if he’d be released. During this time, Carol and their children remained in Lebanon, advocating for his release, sustaining their community and trusting in God’s presence through uncertainty.

Remarkably, Ben emerged from captivity not with bitterness, but with a call to deepen the Church’s commitment to peacemaking. In 1986, he was elected Moderator of the 198th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), using his platform to encourage understanding, justice and dialogue — especially around U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Both he and Carol became tireless advocates for reconciliation, educating congregations and international leaders alike on the complexity of peace.

Like the disciples on the sea, the Weirs cried out to God in their storm. But they also bore witness to the One who stills the winds — not always by preventing the storm, but by giving strength within it. Their faith did not rest on safety but on the call of Christ to go where he goes, even into troubled waters.

Prayer: God of wind and wave, thank you for faithful servants like Ben and Carol Weir. When storms rage around us, give us courage to follow you, trust you and work for peace in every land. Amen.

The Rev. Katie Day loves Waffle House and live theater and serves as pastor of Pleasant Hill Presbyterian Church in Duluth, Georgia. She shares a home with her husband, Kevin, and their child, Elijah, and everyone answers to the cats, Magnificat and Fatty Pancakes.

Mission Yearbook: Aloyo urges NBPC gathering to be steadfast, unshaken in faith

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The Rev. Victor Aloyo, president of Columbia Theological Seminary, speaks at the National Black Presbyterian Caucus conference in North Carolina. (Photo by Rich Copley).

There is plenty in the world to be unnerved about these days, but “let nothing shake you. Let nothing rattle you.”

That was some of the sage advice offered by the Rev. Dr. Victor Aloyo, Columbia Theological Seminary’s 11th president, as he spoke during closing worship at the 48th biennial conference of the National Black Presbyterian Caucus (NBPC).

Among the Scriptures he quoted was Psalms 62:1–2, which accompanied a poignant story about Aloyo’s father being injured in a shooting when Aloyo was a teen. Aloyo’s father, who later recovered, kept Aloyo from running after the perpetrators and told him not to become filled with hate.

“Friends, I share this with you: God alone is your refuge,” Aloyo said. “Do not be greatly shaken. He is your rock and your strong tower,” and you can turn to him when the realities of the world crash down on you.

Earlier in the sermon, Aloyo referenced the NBPC gathering’s main Scripture, 1 Corinthians 15:58, in which the apostle Paul says, “Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

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Rev. Gregory Bentley (Photo by Rich Copley)

“What an amazing and wonderful scripture verse for the gathering these past few days,” said Aloyo, who addressed attendees on Saturday, June 21.

The conference, which began Thursday, June 19, also included electing the Rev. Gregory Bentley, former PC(USA) General Assembly co-moderator as president of the NBPC, singing and praying together, saluting outstanding leaders and attending plenaries.

Before getting into the heart of his message, Aloyo made a declaration about the church.

“We are called for such a time as this to be a connectional church,” he said. “What a joy to understand that we have been called to God's vineyard to serve God faithfully and know that we walk not alone but with each other, that in the midst of our own lives that are fractured, we know that it is through the power of the Holy Spirit that guides us, that provides healing, that provides restoration, reconciliation and gives us a purpose to live."

Challenges come in many forms, he said. Indeed, “the remnants of global health crises, socio- economic and political pandemics, climate change and environmental decay, hurricanes and deadly storms” sometimes weigh “down on the foundations of our being.”

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Singers lift their voices during worship at the National Black Presbyterian Caucus gathering. (Photo by Rich Copley)

But, he noted, there are several reasons to have hope, notably, “we do have the power of the living word that sustains us and guides us, but the power of the living word also demands of us that we tap into our humanity, that when we are angry, we'll say we're angry, that when we are anxious, we need to claim that, that when we don't know the answers … we recognize that.”

Another reason for hope is the resurrection. The apostle Paul “articulates that the resurrection is fundamental to the Christian faith, asserting that without it, faith becomes meaningless. “Friends,” Aloyo said, “we are part of a resurrection people.”

He went on to say that it’s necessary to have a “solid foundation in Christ and a commitment to living out Christ's teachings” and to “uphold a strong and unwavering faith regardless of our circumstances.”

Aloyo later stressed the importance of being fully committed to the work, noting that the scripture verse does not say to give a 50% effort.

“Keep moving ahead,” Aloyo said. “God is always with you, ensuring that your hard work is meaningful. The actions you take today will bloom with the strength of the Holy Spirit.”

To read other stories about the conference, go here and here.

Darla Carter, Communications Strategist, Interim Unified Agency (Click here to read original PNS Story)<

Let us join in prayer for:

Lee Catoe, Editor Unbound, Office of the Director of Compassion, Peace & Justice, Interim Unified Agency 
Devan Caton, SR OPS Manager & Business Analyst, Operations, The Presbyterian Foundation         

Let us pray:

Thank you, God, for the opportunity to spread seeds of life through the Word of God. We ask that you help us grow in love and service to others. In Jesus’ name. Amen.