Mission Yearbook: Utopia on the King Ranch

On a hot winter morning in South Texas a few weeks ago, in a chapel nestled into a corner of the legendary King Ranch, Dr. W. Joseph “Joey” King was inaugurated as the 12th president of Presbyterian Pan American School. During the ceremony, I was invited to share the story of my friendship with Fred Rogers, the late icon of children’s television.

It turns out that Fred’s life and legacy is wholly complementary to that of the Presbyterian Pan American School. Fred Rogers was the embodiment of the highest human virtues — love, compassion, wisdom and non-judgment. In its own way, the relatively obscure institution set on ranchland is the same.

At left, Tim Madigan, author of the best-selling “I'm Proud of You:
My Friendship with Fred Rogers,” is pictured with Dr. Joey King,
president of Presbyterian Pan American School in Kingsville, Texas.
(Contributed photo)

It has been that way since PPAS was founded in 1911, thanks largely to the gift of several hundred acres by Henrietta King, the wife of King Ranch founder and legend Richard King. Henrietta was a devout Presbyterian who took seriously the teachings of Jesus in the beatitudes and Christ’s admonition that “whatever you do for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you do for me.” At the time, Mexican and Mexican American children could not attend school in South Texas. So, Henrietta and other idealistic Presbyterians, most notably the first school president, the Rev. J.W. Skinner, created a school for them. At the time, Mexican people could not be treated in white hospitals. So, an infirmary was built for them on the Pan Am campus.

The Presbyterian Pan American School eventually became a coed college preparatory boarding school, but not just for Mexican and Mexican American students. Young people from around the world now find their way to the classrooms and dormitories on the King Ranch, from Africa, China, Taiwan and other countries of South America. Most of them arrive speaking limited English, but by the end of four years, they are fluent in the language, with test scores and academic proficiency sufficient for acceptance at the finest colleges and universities in the United States. All of this has been achieved at a school that adheres closely to the founding values of Henrietta King and her Presbyterian brethren.  

“Since its beginning, Pan Am has been a visionary project, and in its modern form, it continues to be,” Joey King said in his inaugural address. “Our commitment to an excellent college preparatory program, steeped in the liberal arts, with deep spiritual, service, and leadership components remains strong.”

“There is a broad spectrum of utopianism,” he said. “And as I thought about Pan Am, the idea that J.W. Skinner comes out here in 1912 and literally just starts hacking a school out of the wilderness for kids that just aren't allowed to go to school, that’s a very utopian vision.”

At a reception the night before Joey’s inauguration, I had a long conversation with Sam Trinidad, a successful businessman in a town near Mexico City, and a 1992 graduate of PPAS.

Sam and his wife, Jenny, have three children, and Sam wanted each of them to have the same opportunity. But the very idea of it terrified his oldest child, Enya, who could not imagine leaving her family, friends and school for an isolated ranch in South Texas. She was 14 years old when she arrived at PPAS, and there were many lonely and tearful calls home.

But there were also new friends from other regions of Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Korea and Rwanda. 

“It just pops the bubble you're living in,” said Enya, who graduated from PPAS in 2021. She will graduate this spring from the University of the Ozarks in Arkansas. “You are just so used to being with the same people in the same environment, doing the same things, and then you meet people that think differently, have been through different things, have lived in different environments with different cultures. At Pan Am they had the international banquet once a year. It was great to see all the different types of music, the different languages. So yeah, you just think that maybe this world is not all about me. It humbles you. It’s very unique.”

Tim Madigan, Special to Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS story)

Let us join in prayer for:

• Clare Lewis, President & CEO, Presbyterian Investment & Loan Program 
• Shelly Lewis, Administrative Manager, Controller’s Office, Administrative Services Group (A Corp) 

Let us pray:

Dear God, your blessings are always evident and give us the good pleasure of enjoying your presence. Continue to abide with us as we love and serve those in need. In Christ’s service. Amen.

WCC NEWS - International Review of Mission engages with mission in the contexts of empire

Under the theme, “Mission in the Contexts of Empire,” the World Council of Churches journal International Review of Mission examines issues of Christian mission and empire in the history of key events being marked in 2025 and the mission systems, assumptions, mindsets, and practices they created.  Image: WCC 24 April 2025 The events in 2025 include the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea – the first attempt to reach consensus in the church through an assembly representing all of Christendom – and the 140th anniversary of the Berlin Conference, through which Africa was partitioned between imperial powers.  “Our authors explore these issues from a range of contexts and perspectives, seeking to offer ways for each of these commemorations to stir fresh decolonial mission practices,” editor Rev. Dr Peter Cruchley writes in his introduction to the issue. The Council of Nicaea gathered under the patronage of Roman Emperor Constantine I as it marked the transition from Christians being a persecuted minority to becoming a church recognized by the Roman State. It led to the adoption of the Nicene Creed still being said in churches today. “Nicaea's association with a dominant Eurocentric, imperial mindset has historically influenced Christian mission and practice, sometimes implying that faith in Jesus can be imposed through power and empire,” writes Cruchley, The Berlin Conference of 1884–85 was convened by the German Chancellor Otto von Bismark for central and western European powers to discuss the portioning of Africa in their exploitation of Africans and African resources to quench the thirst of their economies, Cruchley notes. “While the political and economic impact of the outcomes of the Berlin Conference have been discussed widely and some broad agreements exist, the impact of these outcomes on European Christian churches have not always been honestly engaged,” he continues. An event in May 2025 organized by the WCC and ecumenical partners will engage with the outcomes of the 1884-85 Berlin conference and develop responses to the historic and continuing legacies of colonization. The WCC event is “imagined as a platform to remember the past, reclaim the present, and, most importantly reimagine the future,” writes Cruchley. “How can churches, broadly speaking – Black churches and white churches – contribute to the affirmation of the humanity, dignity, and hopes of Africans and people of African Descent?”   Table of Contents: International Review of Mission: Mission in the Contexts of Empire Information about subscriptions  More information about the WCC commemoration of the Nicaea anniversary More information about the WCC event to engage with the 1884–85 Berlin Conference   Open Access articles published in this issue of IRM: Joerg Rieger: On the Homoousia: The Liberative Potential of the Nicene Creed Nicolás Panotto: Decolonizing the Triune God: Contributions from Latin American Liberation Theologies Gerald O. West: Engaging with the Nicene Creed through Contextual Bible Study: Mark 10:17-22 Johannes J. Knoetze: The Nicene Creed, the Church, and Christian Mission: A Creative Tension Cristian Sonea: The Spirituality of the Nicene Creed and Its Missionary Implications in the Parish Community *International Review of Mission is published twice a year by Wiley on behalf of the World Council of Churches. See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 352 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland

Mission Yearbook: God’s story and ours are powerful resources

“Story is powerful. It does communicate across generations. It communicates across racial lines. It communicates across ancient times to modern times,” the Rev. Neema Cyrus-Franklin recently said to a Community Circle for Small Churches gathering hosted by the Office of Christian Formation. Cyrus-Franklin is the director of the Around the Table Initiative, a Lilly Endowment Inc.-funded initiative through the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

“We use this in everything that we do as faith formation leaders,” Cyrus-Franklin said as she introduced storytelling as a core practice for the initiative.

“We learned faith from the examples as we watched our parents or elders in the church or other people in the church,” said the Rev. Grace Kim, who discussed hearing the stories of how her elders came to faith, which touched her in a more profound way than instruction. Kim has served as a coach for one of the test cohorts for the Around the Table Initiative that began in October 2024.

The Rev. Neema Cyrus-Franklin

Around the Table is launching two waves of cohort learning models in August 2025 and August 2026. Applications for the first wave are due May 2 and coaches will begin reaching out to their cohort members in June and July.

Cohorts will meet monthly and will explore Sabbath practices to be observed in the home or as a church community. Storytelling is one of these Sabbath practices explored in the Faith Practices Toolkit, and it’s also the central vehicle for learning. “We are working with using story as the vehicle to use these Sabbath practices of prayer, outreach, hospitality, service and of course, storytelling,” said Cyrus-Franklin. She made space to introduce the plan for the two cohorts and answer questions for interested churches and leaders.

Churches and leaders who sign up will be organized mostly according to region, but in some cases, in relation to a special ministry concern. Churches that already have connections with other churches in their region and want to encourage them to sign up together are welcome to join a regional cohort together. The model is inherently relational and connectional, so it encourages collaboration between churches and leaders who are discerning how best to support faith formation in their contexts.

The program is free to churches and offers a $1,500 grant toward a retreat for communities that attend most of the coaching cohorts over the 9-to-18-month period. Along with the $1,500, a retreat model template is offered.

“This experience will be content rich,” said Cyrus-Franklin, who emphasized that participants will have access to a huge database of resources maintained by the Office of Christian Formation.

During the community circle gathering, Miatta Wilson, the PC(USA)’s associate for Christian Formation, shared a variety of resources developed or being developed to support the initiative. These resources are available online and include a conversation ball, Spanish and English conversation rings, and resources for Advent. Every month, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation will release downloadable conversation packets based on their children’s books on topics such as curbing plastic consumption and ocean conservancy, civil rights liberty tours, values for multiracial families, and the upcoming “Seeing and Being Jesus: How to Live God’s Radical Welcome as a Family.” The book, which is being published in collaboration with Around the Table, is organized into chapters dedicated to topics of social justice.

Wilson also directed participants to the wisdom offered in the Around the Table podcast, including a season dedicated to hard conversations to have with children and youth.

Cyrus-Franklin closed the session with a call to evangelism: “I submit that we have the greatest resource to share,” she said, “so let us go about the business of sharing what God has done through the life and witness of Jesus Christ.”

Beth Waltemath, Communications Strategist, Interim Unified Agency (Click here to read original PNS story)

Let us join in prayer for:

• Kristen Leucht, Senior Church Consultant, Los Angeles, CA, Board of Pensions
• Brad Levy, Production Clerk, Presbyterian Distribution Center, Administrative Services Group (A Corp) 

Let us pray:

Creating God, help us recognize your image in one another. Inspire us to join your transforming ministry that protects the weak, challenges the strong, frees the prisoner, proclaims peace and heals the broken. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: John Knox Ranch in the Texas Hill Country secures permanent protection through a conservation easement

John Knox Ranch contains almost 2,000 feet of the Blanco River.
(Contributed photo)

Together with Hill Country Conservancy, John Knox Ranch has announced that a conservation easement has been secured on 255 acres of the 300-acre John Knox Ranch. The HCC-led easement will protect the property’s important water and wildlife resources, and John Knox Ranch — a mission of Mission Presbytery — will continue operating as a nonprofit summer camp and retreat center.

Conservation easements are negotiated agreements under which a landowner retains ownership of their property but voluntarily restricts certain uses to protect the land’s natural features.

John Knox Ranch held its first summer camp in 1963. Today it hosts more than 1,000 children ages 4–18 each summer, providing a place for them to learn new skills, grow confidence and gain an appreciation for the natural world. The ranch straddles the border between Hays and Comal counties and is about 45 miles southwest of Austin.

The acres protected by the easement is crucial for conservation efforts, with numerous conservation groups focused on protecting water resources, wildlife habitat, public recreation opportunities and scenic views. This conservation easement adds to a network of more than 2,000 acres of completed and pending conservation projects along the Blanco River.

“Our 300 acres of beautiful Texas Hill Country, and our spring-fed Blue Hole in particular, are unique natural resources and spiritual places that must be protected,” said Henry Owen, executive director of John Knox Ranch. “By establishing a conservation easement on a portion of the JKR property, we further live into the mission of John Knox Ranch ‘to foster experiences of Christian community in the beauty of God’s Creation’ by protecting the land of John Knox Ranch forever and protecting the camp and retreat ministry program through the creation of an endowment.”

Each summer, John Knox Ranch serves more than 1,000 youth.
(Contributed photo)

“Hill Country Conservancy was blessed with an especially rare opportunity to help preserve John Knox Ranch,” said Frank Davis, HCC’s chief conservation officer. “This land is incredibly sensitive and unique, as evidenced by the incredible water resources and diverse and rare species found throughout the property.”

“More than that, many thousands of kids — many of them now grownups — have cherished experiences at John Knox Ranch, and a connection to nature that they will never forget,” Davis said. “It is wonderful to know that this place will continue to support the water and wildlife of the Texas Hill Country and instill wonder in the hearts of people for many generations to come.”

“A conservation easement is a very unique tool in that there’s financial incentives that are associated with it that allow you to keep the land intact. You can invest that money so that you have a long-term management fund to deal with,” Davis says in the video above. “There are a lot of ways that this particular property and the conservation easement on it — all of it became much more viable by way of our partnership with the ranch.”

“It’s really an ideal partnership in many ways,” Davis says. “Our idea of stewardship — we’re thinking about long-term protection of the land, and in many ways when they talk about stewardship of God’s Creation, being a church that created this, they’re thinking about long-term stewardship in just the same way we are.”

“They felt like they were creating a legacy here and they had concern for what would happen in the future if they didn’t set some things in place now,” Davis says.

“This is really a moment where we need to all be thinking 50 years, 100 years, 500 years down the road as to what kind of world do we want to live in,” Owen says in the same video. “As a summer camp and retreat center, the thing that was really striking about a conservation easement is this project is going to fulfill two major goals for us: long-term protection for our nature preserve side … and the second is protection for our program, and that is going to come in the form of the funds we receive from the conservation easement. That makes this project a no-brainer and a win-win for our organization, for the world and for the people who are going to use this space for generations to come.”

Learn more about the conservation easement here.

John Knox Ranch, Special to Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS story)

Let us join in prayer for:

• Chris Lega, Manager, General Ledger Office, Finance & Accounting, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
• Heather Leoncini, Mission Specialist, Presbyterian Youth and Triennium, Interim Unified Agency

Let us pray:

Gracious God of the possible, continue to give your congregations optimism and strength for the tasks you have set before them. Please also keep them ever mindful of, and responsive to, the other needs in your world. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Malaria vaccine advocacy, a spiritual discipline to help save lives

2024 Malaria Vaccine Introduction/ Cote d’Ivoire Credit:   
Gavi/2024/Miléquêm Diarassouba

April 25 has been instituted by the World Health Organization as World Malaria Day. Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites transmitted to people through the bites of infected mosquitoes. Worldwide, malaria kills over 600,000 people every year, with vast the majority of deaths occurring in Africa and four out of five victims being children under 5.

Presbyterians in the U.S. have long been committed to the prevention and treatment of malaria through their collaboration with PC(USA)’s international health and development ministries and by supporting health clinics and medical programs run by global partners. Presbyterian Women circles have come alongside by sewing insecticide-treated mosquito nets to keep newborns and their mothers safe from malaria infection and terminate its carriers.

2024 / Malaria Vaccination in SOA District Hospital, Cameroon Credit:
Gavi/2024/Go'tham Industry

In October 2021, the global fight against malaria was boosted by the WHO's approval of the first malaria vaccine recommended for broad use in children. This coincided with the discernment by PC(USA)-affiliated mission networks engaged with church partners across Africa how they could use the virtual platform established during the Covid pandemic to coordinate their efforts for a common cause. Advocacy surfaced as a shared ministry need, first to discover advocacy as a spiritual practice, followed by the case study of a successful Presbyterian advocacy campaign and the identification of malaria as a common partner concern to put advocacy into practice.

In consultation with global partners across Africa, the thus established Presbyterian Malaria Vaccine Advocacy Team decided it is time for PC(USA) congregations and staff to engage in advocacy for continued bipartisan legislative support of vaccine distribution in low-income countries through Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance as a cost-effective way to combat preventable child and maternal deaths. Resourced by the Office of Public Witness and the Presbyterian Ministries at the United Nations, the team organized a first letter writing campaign by circulating an Action Alert, which inspired some congregations to organize their own virtual educational event. To continue building momentum with a larger community of Presbyterian advocates to achieve a critical mass, the core team has been organizing a webinar which will be held today in observance of World Malaria Day.

Malaria Vaccine Credit: Gavi/2024/Miléquêm Diarassouba

This free online event will take place from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (EDT) and is open to all who wish to join and learn how to protect those vulnerable to malaria infection through U.S. legislation. Interested participants can register at                                                                                                      worldmalariadaywebinar.eventbrite.com

For more information contact PMVAT at info@pmvat.org. 

Resources:

• Recording of the conversation between Rt. Rev. Lydia Neshwange, Moderator for the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa (UPCSA) and current president of the All-Africa Conference of Churches, and the Rev, Jimmy Hawkins, director of (PCUSA) Advocacy Ministries
• Recording of the webinar with successful case study
• Presbyterian News Service article about the Malaria Vaccine Advocacy webinar
• Presbyterian News Service article on the Call to Action for malaria vaccine support

Christi Boyd, Facilitator for Women and Children’s Interests, DR Congo, Madagascar, Niger, Rwanda, South Sudan, Interim Unified Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

• Sangik Lee, Translator, Global Language Resources, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
• Unzu Lee, Regional Liaison for East Asia, World Mission, Interim Unified Agency 

Let us pray:

God who created humankind for wholeness, we pray for families distressed by malaria, for public health and medical care providers to prevent and treat malaria, and for advocacy champions who network to make vaccines accessible and decision-makers who hold power towards a malaria-free world. 

Mission Yearbook: Two women highlighted by Trinity Presbytery celebrate more than nine decades of friendship

Corine Lytle Cannon, at right, shares the weekly Bible lesson with DeChantal
Early, a resident in their assisted living home. (Contributed photo)

Corine Lytle Cannon, 105, of Charlotte Presbytery, and Sarada Spears Mitchell, 106, of National Capital Presbytery, met in 1934 at Logan High School in Concord, North Carolina. They shared classrooms and life lessons through the 11th grade, graduating together in 1936. During that time, high school ended at the 11th grade. It was around 1942 when the 12th grade was added to secondary schools in North Carolina. Though life took Corine and Sarada in different directions — Corine remaining in North Carolina and Sarada moving to Washington, D.C. — their friendship persisted, even into today as they celebrate their golden years in assisted living homes, a choice they each made without pressure or permission from family.

Corine fondly remembers their high school principal, Ernest James, as well as many of their teachers and the subjects they taught. Even after their lives diverged, they remained connected through occasional phone calls and shared memories. Their bond, forged in youth, has withstood the test of time, becoming a source of strength and joy in their later years.

Corine and Sarada’s enduring friendship is not the only source of inspiration. Both women have dedicated their lives to mentoring younger generations, sharing wisdom steeped in Scripture and life experience. Even now, as centenarians, they continue to offer guidance and hope to their families, communities and fellow residents in their assisted living homes.

In reflecting on their incredible longevity, Sanders asked family members of both women to describe them in just one word.

Sarada’s niece, Geraldine Travis, describes her as “wonderful.” Blonde Davis calls her “wise.” Estella Dry says she is bright, and Myrtle Thomas concludes that she is smart. Each of these descriptions speaks to her vivacious life.

Sarada Spears Mitchell (Contributed photo)

Corine’s children offer equally vivid descriptions. Her son John Wesley Cannon describes his mother as “feisty.” The Rev. Dr. Jerry Cannon describes her as faithful. Doris Cannon Love calls her mother a pioneer, citing her groundbreaking role as the first African American woman hired by Concord, North Carolina’s Cannon Mills Production Department.

Both Corine and Sarada credit their Presbyterian faith for much of their guidance in life. Sarada, a lifelong Presbyterian, speaks of the church’s influence, teaching her “who to follow and who not to follow.” She recalls her father, the late John Walter Spears, an elder and superintendent of Sunday school at Bellefonte Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg, North Carolina, where she was baptized. Sarada’s faith has remained a guiding force, teaching her to “step aside and do what’s right” when faced with difficult decisions.

Corine’s spiritual journey began as a child and grew stronger when she married Esau Cannon at age 18 and joined the Presbyterian Church at age at age 19, as she tells it. Her mother and family were Presbyterians. Her involvement with the church has been long and active, spanning multiple congregations including Cedar Grove, Bethpage, and Covenant Presbyterian churches. She still teaches Bible study at her assisted living home.

Both women’s faithfulness and commitment to the church have had a lasting impact on their communities. Corine, in particular, was honored with the Lucy Laney Award in 2019 by the National Presbyterian Black Caucus for her decades of service. Her wisdom and dedication to teaching others about Christ remain central to her identity.

Though Corine and Sarada no longer speak every day, their occasional phone conversations are filled with joy and reminiscence. They know they are among the last of their high school classmates and feel blessed to still have each other to share those memories. Both women express deep gratitude for their long lives, recognizing that they have been blessed by God’s grace. Their theme song at ages 105 and 106 is “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” a fitting reflection of the faith and friendship that has sustained them for 91 years.

The number of centenarians like Corine and Sarada is growing, with women making up the majority. Yet, few will be able to claim the depth of friendship and spiritual wisdom that these two Presbyterian women have shared for over a century. Their lives remain a testament to the power of faith, love and enduring connection.

Dr. Phyllis W. Sanders, Vital Congregations Coordinator and Commissioned Pastor Evangelist for Trinity Presbytery (Click here to read original PNS story)

Let us join in prayer for:

• Katherine Kupar, Communications Specialist, Presbyterian Association of Musicians
• Patrick Lauture, Guest Services, Stony Point, Interim Unified Agency 

Let us pray:

O God of steadfastness and encouragement, give us hope not in ourselves but in you. Remind us that you continue to call us to your work and that you work through us to share your love and grace, taking what we have and multiplying it that all may receive and have their deepest hunger satisfied. Amen.

Minute for Mission: Earth Day

My new friend Oswaldo was regaling me with stories of working for justice for Afro-Peruvians when out of the blue, he asked me, “Will you be going to Cali, Colombia, in October for the COP-16 on Biodiversity? His question took me by surprise because I would, in fact, be attending the 16th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (COP), but I could not for the life of me figure out why he was asking! It seemed completely off-topic. Before I make the connection, perhaps I should take a step back first.

Church partners gathered with Indigenous peoples, leaders from across the African
Diaspora, State and civil society representatives, and thousands more from across
the globe for the United Nations Conference on Biodiversity (COP-16) held in Cali,
Colombia, to search for ways to protect and sustain the diversity of life on planet Earth.

The previous year, after I returned from Dubai from the U.N. Conference on Climate Change, I received an invitation from the Latin American Network of Churches and Mining — a group that Presbyterian Hunger Program global partner Red Uniendo Manos Peru has participated in for over five years — to join with them at the COP-16. At the heart of their concern is an issue I had been addressing in Dubai – namely, that lands occupied by Indigenous peoples are at great risk from mining activity due to new demands related to the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies. And, if we do not support the rights of Indigenous peoples, then we risk repeating the harms of colonization once again. Furthermore, the lands on which most Indigenous peoples live represent over 80% of the world’s biodiversity, which is immensely valuable for water, climate stabilization, local economies and planetary health. So, it was in the interest of Indigenous peoples that I would be in Cali for the COP-16, which is why I did not understand Oswaldo’s question.

Seeing bewilderment in my eyes, Oswaldo explained that the lands on which many Afro-Descendent communities settled after they won their freedom from enslavement are lands that represent about 40% of the world’s biodiversity. It is land they care for and protect. Yet, these lands are also being misappropriated and contaminated by mining activity. Part of the demands for reparations for Afro-Descendent peoples in Latin America is the restoration of these lands and the protection of their rights to defend them.

What is so increasingly clear is that seemingly disparate themes of injustice that at times are pulling us in opposite directions or have us competing for time, energy and resources are, actually, deeply interconnected themes. Historic harms and present-day problems, such as those faced by Indigenous communities and Afro-descendent communities in Latin America, are intricately woven together, just as our efforts for healing and justice must be — efforts to repair the harms of the past, resist the threats of the present, and restore life for the future. To celebrate Earth Day is not only to celebrate our one common home but the interconnectedness and diversity of all life that depend on it.

Jed Koball; Global Ecumenical Liaison based in Lima, Peru; Interim Unified Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

• Laurie Kraus, Director, Humanitarian and Global Ecumenical Engagement, Interim Unified Agency
• Rebecca Kueber, Desktop Publisher & Formatter, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation 

Let us pray:

God of Creation, you have woven us into the fabric Life, making us interdependent across cultures and species. Grant us curiosity and courage to discover the unique value of all beings, that our hearts may be filled with wonder. Give us resolve to care for this Earth that all may know the joy it brings. Plant in us a deep desire to know your very presence in the midst of our interconnectedness. Amen. 

Mission Yearbook: Multiracial families can enjoy life’s blessings while facing its challenges

Two factors converged to make Nicole Doyley’s recent appearance on “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast” timely.

Her new book, “What About the Children? Five Values for Multiracial Families,” published by Westminster John Knox Press in collaboration with the PC(USA)'s Around the Table initiative, is now available.

And, with more specific questions being asked by the U.S. Census Bureau, the multiracial population demographic is the fastest growing among families.

Nicole Doyley (contributed photo)

“I wrote the book because it’s a huge demographic, and there aren’t a lot of resources out there,” Doyley told podcast hosts Simon Doong and the Rev. Lee Catoe. Doyley herself is the product of a Black father, now deceased, and a white mother. “The way your kids look — their color or other ethnic details — are not random; they are intentional. God intended them to look the way they do.”

The forebears on her father’s side were “of course, taken from Africa against their will. What they endured in the Middle Passage, on slave plantations and through Jim Crow, and the courage they had — they survived, or I wouldn’t be here. The courage they had despite all the hardship — Black people represent some of the most incredible minds on the planet.”

Doyley also pointed with pride to her mother’s heritage, including that her maternal grandfather was part of a labor union and “just what they went through during the Great Depression and World War II.” Doyley doesn’t “shy away from the white part of myself either,” but embraces both aspects of her heritage.

“I mentioned the Census finally catching up to the reality that mixed race is a thing and has been for a very long time. It’s very important,” she told the hosts. “To say to a kid, you have to choose one — which is to choose what they look most like — means denying that I have a white mom.” Mixed-race children “struggle with anxiety more than monoracial kids. … If they are not taught who they are, that can lead to a lot of confusion, anxiety — even depression.”

She quoted psychologist Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, who says that white supremacy and cultural racism “is like smog in the air. You breathe it in without even knowing it,” Doyley said.

Doyley said she’s found in most mixed-race families, “usually one person in the marriage dominates in the dissemination of culture. Often that’s the wife, even if she works foll-time and has a full-blown career.”

“When kids are mixed race, both people have to intentionally teach culture and cultural values — the music, the food, the folklore and language, perhaps. … If one of the parents is passive, that child could grow up lopsided. … The child could grow up with brown skin but be white culturally on the inside, not understanding or feeling comfortable around brown people — even though they themselves are brown, and that’s kind of tragic.”

Before Christmas, a white friend of Doyley whose sister had adopted two Black girls wanted to know what kind of gifts to buy the children. Doyley suggested Black dolls “and books about happy Black family life,” such as Crystal Swain-Bates’ “Big Hair, Don’t Care.”

“Your children are going to move through life different than you, and racism is still alive and well,” Doyley says to white parents adopting children of color. When such parents “take the colorblind approach, saying, ‘We’re not going to fixate on race and racism. We’re just going to love this child’ — that is fine for a time while the child is little.”

“But the time will come when that child will have a negative experience because of race — will experience racism or hear something ignorant or negative. If they weren’t taught to be proud of their Blackness or Asian-ness or whatever in the first place, the first realization will be a negative one: ‘Wait, I’m not white. I am Black or brown.’ Their first confrontation with their Blackness is in a negative context.”

“Your kids need to see you enjoying and interacting with people of color and they need to be around positive people of color, because they are people of color,” Doyley said. 

Previous editions of “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast” are available here.

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service, Interim Unified Agency (Click here to read original PNS story)

Let us join in prayer for:

• Melanie Komp, Operations Manager, Compliance Services, Presbyterian Foundation
• Luciano Kovacs, Coordinator, Middle East, Europe & Central Asia Office, Interim Unified Agency 

Let us pray:

God, you connect us to you and to each other in so many ways. Help us to inspire as we are inspired to challenge as we are challenged to nurture as we have been nurtured, and to live in order to make Christ known in all the world. Amen.

Minute for Mission: Easter/Resurrection; One Great Hour of Sharing

Repairers of the Breach – Fixing What’s Broken

“In a broken and fearful world,
the Spirit gives us courage
to pray without ceasing,
to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord and Savior,
to unmask idolatries in Church and culture,
to hear the voices of peoples long silenced,
and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace.”
~ from A Brief Statement of Faith of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

How do we heal brokenness and fear in the world when it feels so pervasive?

How do we offer hope in the midst of a world so divided?

Our world is fractured — political discord, cultural strife, environmental collapse and religious divides. And this brokenness isn’t just external; we feel it deeply in our own lives, too. Physical, emotional and spiritual wounds abound. Coupled with these fractures is the fear that often accompanies them — fear of the unknown, fear of the future and fear of the “other.”

Yet brokenness is the human condition. And though it’s deeply embedded in the world, it is not God's will for us. God doesn’t desire for us to accept brokenness; rather, God calls us to be repairers of the breach.

In Isaiah 58, God speaks through the prophet, calling all people to repair the breach between humanity — a breach caused by oppression, injustice, hunger, homelessness and affliction. This chapter provides us with a roadmap for how we are to act. It's not just about spiritual acts of devotion, but about tangible action. Shout. Announce. Loose. Undo. Break. Cover. House. Share.

The work of repairing brokenness is active, and it requires more than mere words. God calls us to pray with intention, to welcome those in need, to unmask the false idols of power and privilege, to hear the voices of those long silenced, and to work with others for justice, freedom and peace. Ultimately, we are called to give — our time, our resources, our hearts.

The call to repair the breach might look different for each of us. It might be offering shelter in the wake of a natural disaster, providing economic support to protect someone from poverty, or simply offering food to someone in need through participation in One Great Hour of Sharing is an important starting place. The key is that, when we answer the call, God will guide us towards a new season of justice, freedom and peace.

Remember, when we all do a little, it adds up to a lot.

Let us, by God’s grace, be faithful repairers of the breach.

Rev. Wilson Kennedy, Associate Director, Special Offerings and Appeals

Let us join in prayer for:

• Maha Kolko, Project Manager, Community Outreach and Volunteerism, Human Resources, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
• Karla Ann Koll, former Mission co-worker serving in Costa Rica, World Mission, Interim Unified Agency 

Let us pray:

Help us to delight in you, O God, that we might become agents of healing and hope, repair and restoration. Transform our brokenness and fear into justice and mercy and bless our work to share your love. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. 

Mission Yearbook: Good Friday: A service of darkness

Aliaksei-Lepik-Unsplash

“Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last,” is the way Mark’s gospel records the central event of Good Friday. When the centurion sees Jesus breathe his last, he concludes, “Truly this man was God’s son.” The women who’d “followed him when he was in Galilee and ministered to him,” including Mary Magdalene and Salome, watched the crucifixion from a distance after they’d come up with Jesus to Jerusalem.

Many PC(USA) churches will hold some kind of Good Friday observance today. I’m most familiar with the Tenebrae service, Latin for “darkness.” John’s account of Jesus’ suffering and death is divided into readings, and a candle is extinguished after each one until the worship space is more or less shrouded in darkness. It’s wrenching because it tries to mimic the darkness the followers of Jesus experienced on that day.

Growing up, I’d say Good Friday was just the price we youngsters paid for the privilege of enjoying Easter and the springtime that usually accompanies it. Older me recognizes the darkness that is descending on our world, and not only on Good Friday. We are flawed human beings who keep falling into the same old unhelpful practices and sinning in ways that are both familiar and innovative.

I plan to attend a Tenebrae service this evening. It won’t be well attended, but those of us who are present will be a blessing to one another. It helps to have other beacons in the darkness that now surrounds us.

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for:

• Jim Kirk, Associate, Disaster Response USA, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Interim Unified Agency
• Lara Kirwan, Administrative Project Manager, President’s Office, Administrative Services Group (A Corp) 

Let us pray:

Holy God, be with us today as we remember Jesus’ suffering and death. Create in us clean hearts, that we may serve you and others with clarity of purpose and with a willingness that will please you and surprise those we serve. We pray this in the name of the One whose determined willingness remains our example. Amen.

Minute for Mission: International Day of Farmers’ Struggles

Luc Celestin waits for the early rains before planting his cornfields in the high mountains of Haiti. He knows the rains come when they will, and not nearly as predictably as a decade ago. The changing climate is most jarring for those in island nations.

Ana Edith Morales and Sonia Gutierrez, members of ARUMES, a farmers’
network in El Salvador, pose at the Mana Ojushte headquarters in San Isidro.
(Cindy Correll)

The fields have been leveled, the soil turned. And when the time is right, he carries a handful of corn and bean seeds in one hand, uses the other hand to drill a shallow hole in the loose soil and drops in the seeds.

One corn seed and four beans. In a matter of weeks, the strands of bean will tangle around the corn stalk. Together they will grow.

Celestin has been a farmer all his life. In Haitian Creole, a peyizan translates to peasant or farmer. He owns a number of cornfields. Members of his community who have little access to food are welcome to harvest from these fields.

Chances are you believe the word “peasant” is a derogatory one. It might recall the poor folk of earlier times, people who had nothing and survived renting a bit of land to farm.

Centuries later, peasants continue to work the land in several developing countries, often decried as the lowest of the low, but rather are the backbone of struggling societies.

In the Presbyterian Hunger Program, we are honored to accompany those who are known as peasants. In fact, we tip our hat to the peasant movements around the world. These movements are as old as modern life.

Ana Edith Morales holds a handful of Ojushte nuts.
(Cindy Correll)

Today we honor these people who work hard against increasingly difficult obstacles to provide us with food. After a brutal attack on farmers fighting for agrarian reform in 1996, Via Campesina began the International Day of Farmers’ Struggles.

Nearly 30 years later, the struggles are ever more difficult.

War, intense political strife, drought, punishing natural disasters and oppressive governments continue to lash out at the ones who feed their communities. Famine and hunger are on the rise. Farmers are rising in protest in Europe as well as the Caribbean and Central and South America. But the uprisings don’t all look like protests or demonstrations.

Very often, farmers and peasants rise by working harder to grow healthy food and create strategies to combat toxic pesticides.

In El Salvador members of the Joining Hands network ARUMES not only fight for better working conditions of those in the sugarcane industry, but they also work hard to raise organic products. More than 80% of the food consumed in the country is imported. Such produce often is raised in or sprayed with harmful pesticides.

Sonia Gutierrez is a member of ARUMES and an activist for healthy foods, a movement she discovered in 2015. Since then, she’s studies ancestral food production in El Salvador. She’s worked with Indigenous communities and worked in several community gardens.

“Before, I wasn’t so interested in my health, but when I learned about agroecology, I understood that easting isn’t the same as nourishing oneself,” she said.

Another force in promoting indigenous and organic food is fellow ARUMES member Ana Edith Morales. For more than a decade, she has harvested Ojushte, a nut grown for centuries in Central America, but one that had fallen out of favor by contemporary consumers.

Luc Celestin, right, and several others cultivate a cornfield. In the traditional way,
he plants beans along with the corn, so they grow together. (Cindy Correll)

Ana Edith led a movement to reclaim the Ojushte into El Salvador society, It is a nutritious staple whose flour is baked into healthy, tasty goods as well as think warm drinks. Dozens of young people find work in harvesting, drying and processing the nuts. And even more attend events to spread the word of the benefits of tis ancestral product.

Like Luc Celestin in Haiti, Ana Edith and Sonia ensure that soil is kept healthy and nutritious goods can be harvested. And none of them keep the food for themselves.

Farmers around the world perhaps are facing greater struggles than ever. But it is in the spirit of the peasant to work harder so that more people have access to nourishment.

"What the skeleton is to anatomy, the peasant is to history, its essential, hidden support"--from "Owning the Earth: The Transforming History of Land Ownership: by Andro Linklater.

Cindy Corell; Joining Hands Land, Food and Agribusiness Concerns; FONDAMA (in Haiti); Global Solidarity Collective (Joining Hands); former Mission Co-Worker, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Let us join in prayer for:

• Tracey King-Ortega, Mission Coordinator II, Mission Partners & Program, Interim Unified Agency
• Oweeda Kinnaird, Trust Associate, Presbyterian Foundation 

Let us pray:

God of justice, protect and encourage those who work the land and provide your children their daily bread. Please be with those who dedicate their lives to growing produce, raising livestock and processing local nutrients. Let them know of their work, that though their efforts go without praise they are deeply valued. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Passages from the Black Presbyterian archives

In 1990, a committee of six people was empaneled by the General Assembly to compose a history of the denomination’s all-Black governing bodies. Of necessity, their work expanded from researching and writing to creating and gathering first-hand accounts and original records, in places revealing history barely two generations old.

The Rev. Dr. James Reese

Led by James Foster Reese of Knoxville College and Nellye Joyce Punch of Houston, they reckoned with the decline of Black-run institutions, laid plans for the future, and aired out serious questions about power and the production of archives that remain relevant today. Their proceedings, among others captured on audiocassette, give us passages through Black history.

On one tape, committee member Thelma McCrae Harrison relates her encounters with the archivists. A staffer asked her, when she and a colleague were writing a history of Fairfield-McClelland, to incorporate a chapter on the organization/genealogy of the whole PC(USA) and the Presbyterian Church in the United States as an introduction. She said to her cowriter, "When the Church wrote its history it didn't incorporate you!” — challenging archivists’ assumptions that a specifically Black-led history of a Black-led organization must perforce be bracketed by a white point of view.

Listen to Thelma Harrison on writing a history of Fairfield-McCelland Presbytery, from about 1992, here.

Other recordings of the period often reflect on their own historicity —interviewees think about the document they’re making, where it will reside, and who will use it later. In a 1981 interview of Gayraud Wilmore by Oscar McCloud, Wilmore begins, “I’m impressed and overwhelmed with the thought that these words may be listened to by someone at the Historical Society 25, 30 years from now.”

Listen here to a recording of Gayraud Wilmore and Oscar McCloud from a recording made on Dec. 23, 1981, in Newark, New Jersey.

So, with some wariness about white historiographical practice, Black Presbyterians nevertheless trusted the preservation functions of the archives. In the meetings of the All-Black Governing Bodies Committee, having just interviewed Robert Shirley, the committee made an appeal for his father’s personal papers. One committee member counters by asking why Black people should be expected to hand over their family's papers to the archives at all. Another committee member cuts to the heart of why racialized and marginalized people might seek out institutional archives — representation, access and security. “Black people have not been able to invade places of — sanctums, where you go to keep a thing forever,” says the committee member, adding that the committee should try to broker trust between donors and the archives, so that people should feel secure “that their papers will be displayed there for years to come.”

Robert’s father, Frank Shirley, for his part, carefully documented his work as a roving shepherd of Black churches — his history of the Synod of Catawba, and a photographic report on the work of the Belfonte Church in Harrisburg, North Carolina, were deposited with PHS in the 1940s.

Brochures of the 1950s tout Shirley’s “Lord’s Acre” program. Shirley recruited Black congregants to set aside a portion of their farmland, one acre per family, whose produce would be sold on behalf of the church, helping to build the church writ large across rural North Carolina. Though Shirley’s work was dedicated to an autonomous Black ministry and the self-sufficiency of Black churches, he left records outside the control of the Synod of Catawba, in a sanctum, where you go to keep a thing forever.

Archivists reflect on the necessity of hospitality to our work, and on the mutual bonds of responsibility to the record that we share with our people, the relationships that make it possible to hear passages through the Black archives.

David Staniunas, Presbyterian Historical Society, Special to Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS story)

Let us join in prayer for:

• Sam Young Kim, Ministry Engagement Advisor, Korean, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
• Regina Kimbrough, Trust Officer, Presbyterian Foundation 

Let us pray:

Holy Lord may our words, our work, and our hearts welcome all your children into the broad and beautiful kingdom of God. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: ‘Christ’s glow-up’ is featured in Transfiguration service

In the wake of an executive order recognizing only two genders by the new presidential administration, entities within the PC(USA) have responded with outrage. The Advocacy Committee for LGBTQIA+ Equity and the Advocacy Committee for Women and Gender Justice have issued several statements, including one lambasting such executive orders and another agreeing with the comments of Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C. These statements offer a theological lens and biblical interpretation that affirm trans and queer identities. Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary’s annual MidWinter Lectures featured two speakers, Dr. Wendy Farley and John Pavlovitz, who also addressed hatred toward LGBTQIA+ people and its antithesis to the spirit of the Gospel.

Alongside statements, advocacy and theological responses, communities and leaders search for appropriate liturgy and pastoral responses to affirm the ways humans are made in God’s image. In early January, out of concern for the mental health and possible acts of violence or self-harm toward transgender youth and adults, at least one PC(USA) community found a way to make a trans-affirming ritual during the reaffirmation of baptismal vows on the Baptism of our Lord Sunday.

A recently published worship resource by UKirk Collegiate Ministries offers a Transfiguration service that can be “trans-affirming.”

The service, titled “Trans-Affirming Transfiguration,” uses “Christ’s glow-up” as a contemporary term to describe the story at the core of Transfiguration Sunday, which is traditionally celebrated the Sunday before Ash Wednesday. The exegetical notes also call the moment when Christ appears in glittering white to his disciples a “theophany” and an “apocalyptic moment.” After this divine appearance, Jesus Christ expands the scope of his ministry.

The UKirk introduction to this service explains how this liturgy “takes inspiration from the experiences of LGBTQIA+ students through whom we encounter the Imago Dei.” Writers of the liturgy acknowledge the “undeniable need to affirm, validate and celebrate LGBTQIA+ people in the church.” The writers comment on the way the Transfiguration text lends itself to a queer interpretation while also remarking how applying an “anthropological lens” to the Transfiguration of Christ may in itself be like Peter’s desire to build a tabernacle to contain the ineffable beauty of God incarnate.

UKirk provides professional support, empowerment and community for those engaged in campus ministry on behalf of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); therefore, its worship resource (a revision of one published in 2015) reflects the experiences of young adults and students. The downloadable booklet includes liturgy to mark the beginning of an academic year, mid-terms and family visits to campus, and graduation alongside Christian rites observed during ordinary time and holy days. But there are also additional prayers and practices that speak to the struggles of students today.

The UWorship resource was produced in partnership with UKirk Collegiate Ministries with the PC(USA)’s Office of Christian Formation.

Sections titled “The Human Experience” and “Worship We Wish We Didn’t Need” reflect the trials and traumas that young adults encounter in an age with growing mental health concerns, suicide rates and mass shootings on campuses. According to UKirk’s worship writing team, “In both of those spaces, we found the need to create liturgy and resources around the vast experience of being human in our broken world, and also the unfortunate anxiety and tragedy that college students live with on a daily basis.” And yet, the writing team affirmed, “in the midst of this, there is also deep good, holy, joyful space.”

UWorship reflects the collaboration of writers and editors John Golden and the Revs. Allison Wehrung, Nathan Wheeler and Rachel Penmore. In their introduction, they explain how “remarkable and meaningful” the process of revising this resource from 2015’s original format into something reflecting the reality of students in 2024 was. “We all wrote from experience of being with students as they are falling apart and learning how to put themselves back together over and over. We all have seen students navigate the hard work of being a person in a world that is more broken and fearful than ever. And in the midst of that, nestled deeply in the words and prayers, God was already there at work.”

Beth Waltemath, Communications Strategist, Interim Unified Agency (Click here to read original PNS story)

Let us join in prayer for:

• Robert Kile, Director, Infrastructure & Operations, Board of Pensions
• John Kim, Senior Translator, Global Language Resources, Administrative Services Group (A Corp) 

Let us pray:

O God, who transforms seeds of faith into a great garden of blessings, we thank you for the witness that sees beyond their limit to the unlimited resources you provide. Through Christ our Lord we pray. Amen.