Mission Yearbook: A message of courage and faith is accompanied by 102-year-old organist

Mary Conklin, who's 102, rehearses at the organ (photo by Sarah Feltman Hegar)

Pinch-hitting for Synod School preacher the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, the Rev. Stephanie Anthony, who’s recently been installed as the lead pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Allentown, Pennsylvania, brought God’s Word during a rollicking worship service that featured organ music by 102-year-old Mary Conklin.

Anthony used Isaiah 41:9–10 and 2 Kings 5:1–4 as preaching texts.

On a day when Synod Schoolers were looking at how to boost their courage, the Rev. Cathy Kolwey used the children’s time to ask the youngest attendees what they’re afraid of. Responses included spiders, getting lost, small spaces, roller coasters, rats and being late.

Kolwey, director of chaplaincy at Auburn Homes and Services in Minnesota, admitted her fear of math. “But I know with God’s help I can overcome my fear of math,” she told the children, displaying two equations to prove her point. The first was Fear-Fear=Courage and had a line striking it out. The second was Fear+God=Courage. She then prayed, telling God, “When we add you to the equation, that’s where courage comes from.”

Beginning with the 2 Kings text, Anthony noted the girl is not named, “just as we haven’t known the names of countless girls like her for millennia.” She’s a captive from Israel, which had just suffered a defeat on the battlefield. “She is a nobody in a story about power players, and still she speaks up for someone in need of healing.”

“Society tries to tell us what power looks like. It doesn’t look like a young girl who’s been taken to the ends of the Earth,” Anthony said. “Power looks like riches and wealth, people with enough connections to bend the rules to cover their indiscretions.”

This kind of corrupt power “sees itself as the only reliable source of truth,” she said. “It’s born of greed and selfishness and an undeserved sense of self-importance.”

Asked to heal the army commander Naaman, the king of Israel “assumes the other king is trying to make a fool of him. His privilege is showing,” Anthony said, “as is his ignorance and arrogance, when he doesn’t seem to know Elisha in his own land.”

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Rev. Cathy Kolwey.jpg

That kind of power “is alluring and intoxicating, but it’s not from where true healing flows in God’s kin-dom,” she said. That kind of healing “looks more like the witness of a nameless girl. It looks like listening to the needs of the person right in front of you. It looks like the courage of a girl who draws on wisdom, power and strength of the community to bring healing to one who suffers.”

The girl “gathers her courage and speaks of what she knows is true,” she said. “Even when the healing has no positive impact on her life, she uses the only thing she had in that moment: her voice.”

“What would it look like, church, if we took on this kind of courage? If we were willing to put everything on the line to do the right thing?” Anthony asked. “What would it look like if we were to do the scary thing and speak to what we know is true about how God loves and desires health and dignity for everyone? How the Spirit calls us to transform the systems that do harm to the least of these?”

As a result of the current political strife, “many of us these days are feeling like we’re lost in the farthest corners of the Earth,” Anthony said. But Isaiah’s words help us find hope: “you whom I took from the ends of the Earth and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, ‘You are my servant; I have chosen you and not cast you off.’”

“If God calls us servants of the divine, God most certainly has something for us to do,” she said. “With courage, we speak to what we know is possible: healing and wholeness for all, and justice in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

After an offering to help fund scholarships for first-time attendees, Conklin took to the organ bench to play “How Firm a Foundation.” The congregation enjoyed singing along and gave her a long standing ovation when it was over.

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

Let us join in prayer for:

Lara Kirwan, Administrative Project Manager, President’s Office, Administrative Services Group
Maha Kolko, Project Manager, Community Outreach, Human Resources, Administrative Services Group

Let us pray:

God of hope and strength, thank you for your presence of love and compassion in our lives. We rejoice that, especially when we face the storms of life, you are there to calm us. Thank you for being our Lord and for speaking words we yearn to hear: “Peace! Be still!” In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

Minute for Mission: Cultivating Economic Wholeness - Eradicating Systemic Poverty

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City Roots 

There is something incredibly haunting about the phrase “the rent eats first.” Coined by Matthew Desmond in his book “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in an American City,” these words capture the reality of the Sisyphean cost burden of the average American worker whose wages simply cannot sustain adequate housing. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, cost burden is the term used to describe the spending of more than 30% of one’s income on rent, mortgage payments and other housing costs.

The phrase also speaks poignantly to the disturbing realities of the struggle to obtain quality, affordable housing in the U.S. Affordable housing is one of the most significant key justice issues of our time. Based on a recent Pew Center Research study survey on affordable housing, 69% of Americans said they were “very concerned” about the cost of housing; this was up from 61% in April 2023.

Lack of affordable housing and the commodification of housing are also intimately linked to a variety of intersectional poverty issues. The rising costs of housing in the U.S. are directly connected to community displacement and disproportionately impact low-income, minority, elderly and disabled communities. Lack of affordable housing also shares connective tissue with overall economic instability, stress, health access and educational inequities. As I continue to think about mission and how our faith can be relevant in addressing these issues, the apodictic words of the prophet Isaiah (58:6–7) quickly come to mind:

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The Sacramento Services Not Sweeps Coalition hold a “Die In” on Feb. 26, 2021.

Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

The work of two Presbyterian Committee on the Self Development of People (SDOP) funded community partners — City Roots Community Land Trust in Rochester, New York, and Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committee (SHOC) in Sacramento, California — embody the heart of the passage’s directive to “break the yokes’’ of oppression. Both lift up God’s imperative work of dismantling systemic oppression by seeking community participation, justice and wholeness for all in our communities.

City Roots Community Land Trust does this through the provision of affordable homeownership opportunities for income-qualifying buyers who earn less than 50% of the area’s median income. City Roots also engages in the rehabilitation of vacant houses to be resold at affordable prices to income-qualifying buyers who agree to a “pay it forward” approach to homeownership. This ensures the permanent affordability of the property to help to avoid gentrification.

SHOC addresses a myriad of intersectional issues of affordable housing and homelessness through their mission of amplifying the voice of the unhoused and low-income communities to accomplish economic and social justice. With programs such as the Homeward Street Journal and the Homeless Leadership Development Program, SHOC trains and equips unhoused individuals to be advocates in amplifying their voices for social and political change. The program provides resources that educate the public on intersectional issues of poverty and affordable housing.

It is important for us as Presbyterians to understand that mission means doing justice and addressing systemic poverty by also being “very concerned” about this issue. Our concern should lead us to engage in dismantling systemic poverty and support PC(USA) ministries and programs that are significantly addressing the issue of affordable housing. Proclaiming justice, cultivating economic witness and eradicating systemic poverty is who we are called to be as God’s people. In our Book of Confessions, which is part one of our PC(USA) constitution, the Confession of 1967 reminds us of this calling:

“The church is called to bring all people to receive and uphold one another as persons in all relationships of life: in employment, housing, education, leisure, marriage, family, church, and the exercise of political rights.” (9.44)

For more information:

City Roots Community Land Trust 

Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committee

For more information about SDOP, Affordable Housing and eradicating poverty work in the PC(USA):

Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People

PC(USA) Office of Innovation

PC(USA) Affordable Housing Inventory

Presbyterian Hunger Program 

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Film

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Resource Guide for “Evicting the American Dream”

Stay tuned; a film study on “Evicting the American Dream” is underway and slated for February 2026.

PC(USA) poverty page (which includes several helpful resources)

Advocacy through the Presbyterian Office of Public Witness

PC(USA) Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy

PC(USA) policy statement on Homelessness

The Rev. Dr. Alonzo Johnson is the manager of the Presbyterian Committee on the Self Development of People. He is also the convener of the Education Roundtable through the Educate a Child initiative in the PC(USA).

Let us join in prayer for:

John Kim, Senior Translator, Global Language Resources, Administrative Services Group
Sam Young Kim, Stewardship Officer – Korean, Stewardship and Major Gift Officer, Administrative Services Group

Let us pray:

Holy God, we confess that we have failed to stand with those crushed by systemic injustice. We value property and profits over the lives of people. Courts and public safety agencies enforce unequal justice. Struggling workers are displaced and pushed into homelessness. Public functions for the common good are privatized and deregulated. The cries of those who grieve are muffled. Victims are asked to forgive and reconcile even before their wounds can begin to heal. In its silence and inaction, the church is complicit in this unrighteousness. In your mercy, Holy God, help us to confess and repent of these sins. Lead us to cry out with the prophets, until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. Empower us to become repairers of the breach, able to join with the most vulnerable among us in making our communities livable again. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen. (from the Book of Common Worship)

Mission Yearbook: Maryland church is damaged by fire

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First Presbyterian Church of Howard County, Maryland, suffered a fire on July 1. Worship services are being held elsewhere during the next 6-12 months (photo by Gregg Brekke)

A lightning-caused gas line fire ignited at First Presbyterian Church of Howard County (Maryland) in the early evening hours of July 1, triggering damage to the church’s fellowship hall, sanctuary and the structural beams that support the sanctuary floor.

The church is out of the building for worship for the next six while restoration work is underway, church officials said. The congregation is part of the Presbytery of Baltimore and is located about 20 miles south of the city. Average worship attendance is about 175, according to the most recent statistical report.

Interim pastor the Rev. Ken Page was at the church preparing for a 7 p.m. meeting when one of the meeting participants ran into the office around 6:50 p.m. saying she smelled gas. Page made his way to the nearest exit while the church’s Director of Christian Education, Virginia Callegary, went downstairs to investigate.

Callegary came outside and told the others she smelled smoke and saw water in the fellowship hall. A call to the fire department quickly brought fire crews, 10 trucks in total, to contain the blaze.

“The fire marshal suspects a lightning strike traveled through a lightning rod or up from the ground and into our gas line,” Page said. “The gas ignited and found a way out, blowing a hole in the pipe that runs in the ceiling of our fellowship hall, directly under the sanctuary stage.”

Thunderstorms had passed through the area on a hot and humid afternoon, but the fire wasn’t discovered until a few hours later.

“We never heard a local lightning clap,” said Page, who had been at the building during the storm. “Like when you see and hear the lightning at the same time and it makes you jump out of your skin.”

No one is sure how long the gas fire burned. A torch of flame burned the insulation around the pipe and set off one sprinkler, but due to the confined nature and no other burning materials, the primary fire alarm didn’t go off until after fire crews had arrived. The force of the flame from the burst pipe was intense enough that it melted part of the structural beams supporting the sanctuary’s 4-inch-thick concrete floor. The concrete floor became so hot that it ignited portions of the sanctuary stage, resulting in the smoke that triggered the alarm.

“Once the gas was turned off and things cooled down, the fire dissipated quickly,” said Page. “Crews used some water to cool off the beams downstairs [in the fellowship hall] then used chainsaws and other tools to remove the portions of the smoldering stage. It was so hot and humid, they had to swap out crews after two hours.”

In the wake of the fire, cleanup crews continue their smoke mitigation and renovation efforts. A faint “campfire” smell remained in the sanctuary a week after the fire and specialists in church fire restoration have been contracted to clean pews, Bibles, hymnals and instruments. The only instrument lost, said Page, is likely the fellowship hall piano.

“It could have been much worse,” he said. “We were fortunate the fire was contained to a small area, and it was stopped before it ignited a larger fire in the sanctuary. The fire crew did incredible and careful work.”

With the church’s sanctuary unusable for the foreseeable future, four local PC(USA) congregations stepped in to offer their support ranging from combining services to arranging for First to use their sanctuaries for worship before or after their own services.

The congregation decided to join the worship service at Christ Memorial Presbyterian Church the Sunday after the fire. The session knew there was a long road ahead for the church’s restoration and said, “at least for this first week, let’s just let them minister to us.”

A long-term plan for worship location hasn’t yet been determined. First’s original sanctuary, now used as a chapel, is a likely option, though a determination of occupancy from the fire marshal will determine these next steps.

Gregg Brekke for the Presbyterian Foundation (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Jessica Kelley, Senior Acquisitions Editor, Publishing & Editorial, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
Wilson Kennedy, Associate Director, Annual Giving, Administrative Services Group

Let us pray:

O Lord, open our lips that we might show forth thy praise! Amen.

Minute for Mission: Transgender Day of Remembrance

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cottonbro from Pexels

I’m proud of being a transwoman. I’m happy with my decision to live into my own reality and make peace with what I felt called to do both emotionally and spiritually. It is also true that life as a transgender human these days is tough. It’s scary and painful when current events are so unimaginable.

Nov. 20 each year is designated Transgender Day of Remembrance for those murdered or who died by suicide each year for being transgender. The day brings recognition to this growing concern, provides opportunities to ritualize our grief and loss, and helps build relationships and undergird community bonds against homophobia and transphobia. Unfortunately, it feels like beating your head against a wall repeatedly year after year as the number of trans people killed grows higher and higher.

My privilege as a white, educated, and well-supported person has kept me somewhat safe. I will likely never suffer the kind of transphobia that many of my siblings do on a regular basis because of the color of their skin or financial situation.

However, with so much negative legislative work, as well as governmental efforts to erase trans history and education, I feel less and less safe in the current political environment.

One of the greatest tragedies is that the United States of America continues to be one of the places where trans folx experience violence on a regular basis. In the past 12 months in this country alone, there were over 50 people who experienced a violent death simply for being transgender or gender nonconforming, while there were well over 350 globally.

If your local community of faith doesn’t have a service or special time dedicated to Transgender Day of Remembrance, I encourage you to light a candle, say a quiet prayer, perhaps take a few deep breaths, and remember lives lost for no good reason. On this day, remember lives created by God, cut down, and wiped out through hate and fear.

Grace Cox-Johnson, Blueridge Presbyterian Church, Raytown, Missouri

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff:

Andy Keeney, Information Security Officer, Information Systems, The Presbyterian Foundation
Stephen Keizer, Vice President, Ministry Relations, The Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray:

Holy Creator, knowing that you made all people and genders, open our minds and hearts to hear your call to love and justice. Guide our communities of faith to seek out and pray for all people regardless of how they look or dress. Open our eyes to see the joy and delight of every human so that we might see your holiness in each person. Direct our imaginations to find you in ways and places unexpected. Hold each of us in your love that we might remember and live as incarnations of you here and now and always. Amen.

God's Mission Our Gifts: Your December Mission and Service Stories and more!

Scroll down for congregational stewardship news! HELP AND HOPE AFTER DISASTER STRIKES In Cuba, Hurricane Melissa destroyed homes, schools, and communities. Families are beginning to rebuild but urgently need help.   In the Philippines, Super Typhoon Fung-wong struck just days after another devastating storm. Over one million people were evacuated. Immediate relief and long-term recovery are critical.   Mission and Service partners are responding – providing immediate relief such as food, shelter, clean water, medicine, and psychosocial support to those most affected. Through Mission and Service, your gift is needed to provide help for today and hope for tomorrow.   We also ask for your support in prayer for the people affected by the typhoons in the Philippines and by Hurricane Melissa. Your December Mission and Service Stories PowerPoint slides for each story are available on the Mission and Service in Worship page.

DECEMBER 7 Gifts with Joy, Gifts with Hope, Gifts with Vision [Image credit: The United Church of Canada]   As you settle into the holiday season, whether you’re a planner or a last-minute shopper, consider a gift that gives back. Gifts with Vision is just a click away.  DECEMBER 14 Strengthening Communities [Image credit: Bissell Centre]   During the 2025 federal budget announcement, Prime Minister Mark Carney delighted many by highlighting a Mission and Service partner: Bissell Centre in Edmonton. While Bissell Centre’s roots go back more than a century, their mission today is urgent and forward-looking: reducing poverty, preventing homelessness, and creating a community where everyone belongs. DECEMBER 21 An Advent Lesson from Children [Image credit: Natee Jindakum] This Advent, Mission and Service invites the church to share sparks of compassion that can ignite fires of change. When generosity is passed from one person to another, it grows into comfort, hope, and lasting impact for those who need it most. DECEMBER 28 Rooted in Hope as a New Year Begins [Image credit: Honey Haze Photography] A new year invites reflection, but it also invites imagination. It offers space to dream, to reset, and to open ourselves once again to the transforming power of Christ’s love. Congregational Stewardship and Generosity   As the church year comes to an end this month, and the calendar year end is also fast approaching, it is normal to be “wrapping things up” and starting to look ahead.   Many of your Communities of Faith may be feeling anxious or downright scared about what “year-end” will look like financially. Budgets that won’t be met. Deficits that are growing. It’s easy to be caught into the scarcity and fear cycle.   Now is the time of year to be intentional and Review – What has gone before and what has brought you to this place? Re-View – How might you see, hear, and imagine things differently? Renew – Don’t just follow the same path. Do just one thing differently. Instead of scarcity, where do you find abundance? How has God blessed and equipped the people that make up your Community of Faith and your neighbourhood?   Instead of focusing on meeting the budget, how are people growing in faith and practice? What difference is your Community of Faith making for its participants and those beyond?   The Stewardship Team is here to let you know there is another way, and we’d love to talk to you about it. Give us a call.   I wish you a blessed ending and beginning.   Take care. God loves you! Sharing and Stewardship What a difference doing a good giving program in your community of faith can make!   "Church A" had $6,000 in one-time gifts as a result of their program and are anticipating $8,000 more in PAR next year. At the end of the giving program at "Church B," 69% of those who had returned pledge cards planned to "step up" using their giving levels step chart. Both also tell really great stories of relationship building – and of better morale in their congregation.    Learn more and sign up for Setting Up Your Giving Program on CHURCHx.   Let’s Get Ready! During Advent, how will you inspire and invite generosity to both Mission and Service and local?  Everyone is talking about giving gifts. Don’t be left out!  Be sure to use a Mission and Service Story each Sunday and specifically include an invitation to give to Mission and Service with your offering.  Set and promote both a Mission and Service goal and a goal for a local social service organization – just for the Advent and Christmas season – as your Community of Faith’s gift to those in need.  Tell an inspiring story of what your Community of Faith is doing for Advent and Christmas to make a difference in people’s lives, and invite a gift to help make it grow.  Invite people who really don’t need more “stuff” to ask their family to make a gift to your Community of Faith and/or Mission and Service instead.  Shine the stewardship light of generosity during the season of Epiphany. Five complete weeks of Epiphany-themed worship materials, including liturgy and full-sermons. Download “Discover Your Gifts – Share Your Gifts” from the Stewardship in worship web page. Looking ahead to Annual Meetings – there’s still lots of time to change things up. Make this year’s meeting about abundance, not scarcity. Prepare a Narrative Budget to tell the inspiring stories of what the money does, not just how it is distributed. Throw a “thank-you party” to make sure people know they are appreciated for who they are, not just what they give. Write a nice personal message (or make a short video) for the annual meeting, to say “thank you” for 2025 and give a couple of inspiring highlights from the past year of how you made a difference in people’s lives and increased in discipleship. Resources You Need! Free Themed Stewardship Resource Kits The Starter Kit, the Digging Deeper Kit, the Stewardship Program Kit, the Planned Legacy Giving Kit. Get them at Free Stewardship Resource Kits. Coming soon: the Capital Campaign Kit! Stewardship Seconds (updated for July-December 2025!) Short, pithy sayings that pack a punch, to help infiltrate stewardship thinking into your community of faith. Add them to newsletters, worship, announcements, webpages, wherever people gather!  Find them at the Stewardship in Worship page.   Offering Introductions & Dedication Prayers (updated for July-December 2025!) The offering time in worship is NOT about collecting money! It is about growing generous disciples and stewards. These Offering Introductions and Dedication Prayers for each Sunday of the year will help. Find them at the Stewardship in Worship page. Get the Stewardship Support You Need The people and resources to help you succeed are here. Gifts with Vision News This year’s Gifts with Vision catalogue – featuring the gifts currently on the Gifts with Vision website – is small but mighty, and it’s available now! Email Gifts with Vision and we’ll send you as many copies as you need.   If you have questions, send us an email at info@giftswithvision.ca, or call us at 1-844-715-7969. Why be a Mission and Service Volunteer? What do you feel called to do? There's a place for you! You might be a Church Administrator: maybe you’d like to include some Mission and Service information in the weekly bulletin, or you’d like to give better answers when people call with Mission and Service questions. We can help you answer the questions and provide you with Mission and Service news you can use.  As a volunteer, you can send us the insights that come from working with your community of faith. You’ll get a weekly email with information you can share with your colleagues and congregation. And you’ll have help answering those difficult questions about Mission and Service.    It’s easy to take the next step to become a Mission and Service volunteer. Just call us at 1-800-465-3771 or email ms@united-church.ca. GOD’S MISSION, OUR GIFTS is your newsletter. We want to provide news and information that you can use in your community of faith, whether you’re a minister, a board member, an administrator, a treasurer, or anyone else who wants to make a difference.   What else would you like to see? What can we do to help your community of faith get where it needs to go? Send us your thoughts! Donate Facebook Website Email Instagram YouTube LinkedIn   Your generosity enables the United Church to love, serve, and minister in the world. Make an online donation or learn more about your options to support the work of the church.

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