Mission Yearbook: University of Dubuque Theological Seminary invites an accomplished alum to deliver the 2025 Berger Lecture

The Rev. Gilo Gora Agwa

Rev. Gilo Gora Agwa speaks of our continued responsibility to care for God’s children on the margins.

The Rev. Gilo Gora Agwa, a 2014 MDiv graduate of the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, spoke about the importance of ministry to people on the margins during the Berger Lecture he recently delivered in Blades Chapel on the seminary campus.

Agwa’s talk, “Proclaiming and Demonstrating God’s Care for Those on the Margins,” was delivered in two parts on Monday and can be viewed here. He's introduced by the Rev. Dr. Beth McCaw, dean of the seminary, at the 8:30 mark.

“As a UDTS student and then as an alumnus, Rev. Agwa’s ministry in Ethiopia and among refugee adults and children in the United States has modeled Matthew 25 ministry,” McCaw said. “We are honored to welcome him back to refresh our connection to the global church and our commitment to God’s children at risk.”

From 2000–2011, Agwa served the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus East Gambella Bethel Synod. After seeking asylum in the U.S., he enrolled at UDTS. He currently serves the Fountain of Life Faith Community, a joint ministry that worships at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in Mahtomedi, Minnesota, and is supported by the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area and St. Paul Area Synod. He’s also a part-time chaplain at Sanford Health/Good Samaritan Society Nursing in Stillwater, Minnesota.

His current ministry in Minnesota includes arranging for micro projects focused on serving refugees from Ethiopia and South Sudan, particularly the Anuak community.

“It’s good to be here. This is my home, the place where my story started,” Agwa told those gathered online and at Blades Chapel. “The people of the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary loved me, and I love this place and its people so much. I wish I had 10 hours to talk.”

The corn in Agwa’s homeland grows nearly as tall as it does throughout Iowa, “but you have to leave when the conditions are not good,” he said, and Agwa left his family behind, later being joined by them after he gained asylum in 2011. “I left in tears,” he said, “and I came here and I was welcomed by those who didn’t know me.”

Agwa gave great credit to the work of such legendary PC(USA) mission co-workers as Don McClure, who “came from far away and lived in a malaria area with no good food where it rained all day. He spent his time listening to the stories of people.” After decades of ministry, McClure was killed in 1977 by guerillas in Gode, Ethiopia. “Even though he was killed, his work continued in Ethiopia and South Sudan,” Agwa said. Today the Ethiopian church started together by Presbyterians and Lutherans has more than 11 million members, almost three times the combined membership of the PC(USA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

“God can work in the margins,” Agwa said.

Nearly four years ago, Agwa visited the village where he grew up. He saw firsthand the work fighting guinea worm and malaria, work that had been taken up by the Carter Center. “That’s the project of your president who passed away a while ago,” Agwa noted. “We are called to make a difference in remote parts of the world — or maybe around you here, maybe in a hospital or in [fire affected] Southern California, or your neighbor.”

Agwa then asked his son to read Deuteronomy 10:12–22 from the New International Version, and Agwa read Matthew 25:31-40 from the NIV.

He told about being asked recently to coach his sons’ soccer team despite having no experience. On the first day, the young white players asked if they could rub their hand on Agwa’s forearm, pronouncing it “as smooth as a baby.” When more players came over to find out for themselves, he laughed and said, “All right! Let’s go and play.”

“We can’t understand people until we sit with them and hear their stories,” Agwa said. “You can be with someone for years without knowing who they are.”

He noted God’s accountability, which is present in both biblical accounts. “Today we don’t talk much about the Second Coming or what we might receive after the work we do,” he said. “But there is someone looking from above at the work we do.”

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

Let us join in prayer for:

• Edwin Gonzalez-Castillo, Director & Associate, Disaster Response for Latin American and Caribbean, Interim Unified Agency
• Catherine Gordon, Representative for International Issues, Office of Public Witness, Interim Unified Agency  

Let us pray:

Lord of the Universe, we lift to you your churches. Grant them wisdom as they work together to form a unique kingdom community, uniting their voices in your praise. Lord Most High. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Pasadena pastor reassures residents it’s OK to lament

The Rev. Dr. Lisa Hansen delivers her sermon on Jan. 12 at Pasadena
Presbyterian Church. (Screenshot)

Presbyterian church strives to be supportive and meet the needs of the displaced.

“By the rivers of Babylon — there we sat down, and there we wept when we remembered Zion.”

With those opening words from Psalm 137, the Rev. Dr. Lisa Hansen took the congregation of Pasadena Presbyterian Church back to a moment when people from ancient times felt the kind of anguish and heartbreak that many in her community have experienced since unprecedented wildfires began tearing through parts of the Los Angeles area.

In the ancient account, exiles from Israel are being told by their captors to sing songs of Zion, but “How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” the captive wonders. “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right-hand wither! Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy” (Psalm 137:4–6).

Hansen, the church’s senior pastor, was using the psalm to reassure listeners that it’s OK to lament in this time of tragedy when some people have been left with little more than what they could grab at a moment’s notice. Those in worship included members of the Pasadena congregation as well as some visitors who’d been displaced by the wildfires.

“It's important for people to understand that you're allowed (to mourn), God wants you to lament,” Hansen explained in an interview. “God wants you to feel your pain and to share your pain with others, and the laments in the psalms really help us to get to that place and then realize what it is we need to do and how we need to be.”

Hansen delivered her sermon Jan. 12, the first Sunday after an outbreak of fires, fueled by high winds, blazed through populated areas such as the Pacific Palisades, damaging thousands of structures and killing at least 29 people.

Before the tragedy, residents were focused mostly on routine things like watching ball games and taking down Christmas decorations, Hansen noted in her sermon.

But “on Tuesday, (Jan. 7), our lives changed dramatically, more for some than for others,” she said. “The fires that erupted and led to catastrophic destruction altered the course of all of our lives.”

Similarly, in the biblical account, the exiles were dealing with a situation in which everything had been taken away from them, Hansen said. “Their homes were gone, their place of worship was gone, their livelihood was gone,” and yet their captors were telling them to snap out of it and sing.

“That's what we hear over and over again: ‘Just be grateful for what you have; don't worry about things; it will all be OK,’” Hansen said. “But the singers and the dancers and the people sat down and they wept as they remembered their homes and what they had lost.”

Just like in ancient times, “now is the time to weep,” Hansen said. “It’s OK to want things to be the way they were before.”

But take heart in knowing that “our shared grief gives us strength” and “God provides comfort and assurance to those who trust in God, especially those who are hurting.”

Hansen cited Isaiah 43, which says in verses 2-3, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”

That and other biblical texts provide assurance that we are precious to God, who promises to be with us, even in the most difficult of times, Hansen said.

Watch Hansen’s sermon here. It begins around the 19:06 mark.

Financial support for relief efforts through Presbyterian Disaster Assistance can be designated to DR000165, which supports the church’s response to wildfires in the U.S. Gifts can be made here.

Darla Carter, Communications Strategist, Interim Unified Agency Click here to read original PNS story)

Let us join in prayer for:

• Tammy Gish, Treasurer, Controllers, Presbyterian Foundation
• Thomas Goetz, Long-term mission volunteer serving in Japan, World Mission, Interim Unified Agency 

Let us pray:

Loving God, help us to remember that we can grow to know and love you in the small congregation as well as the big congregation. Grant that all of us may find the joy of your Spirit as we drop what we have in service to others. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Church Partnerships reimagine church homes

‘Presbyterianism is global,’ says executive presbyter.

In 2024, there were 36 new worshiping communities meeting within the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta. Over two-thirds of these are considered primarily immigrant congregations. Most of these immigrant churches worship in the buildings of other established PC(USA) congregations, creating opportunities for relationship-building and collaboration among new and established congregations and among immigrants and longer-term citizens and residents of Atlanta.

“It’s kind of a symbiotic relationship that develops,” said the Rev. George Tatro, pastor of Johns Creek Presbyterian Church, which has partnered with Casa Brasil, a Portuguese-speaking new worshiping community led by the Rev. Rafael Viana.

“It’s not about the Johns Creek Church or Casa Brasil; it’s about the church of Christ in different languages, different cultures,” said Viana.

Casa Brasil recently moved its services from Saturday evenings to Sundays at 10 a.m. in Johns Creek’s fellowship hall. The change in worship service accommodates the growing number of young families attending Casa Brasil and also allows the worshiping communities to interact with the members of Johns Creek Presbyterian Church, who also worship on Sunday mornings.

Along with worshiping at the same time on Sundays, Tatro invited Viana to share office space with him during the week in hopes that the congregations would see them both as pastors of the church of Jesus Christ flourishing in the congregations that meet at the Johns Creek property. Partnering with others in ministry is essential to Tatro’s vision of ministry. Before accepting the call to Johns Creek, Tatro served as a pastor of Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Clarkston, Georgia, a popular resettlement destination for global refugees. During his tenure, Memorial Drive Presbyterian hosted three congregations that served immigrants originating from Africa, India and Burma, as well as rented space to several nonprofits that served refugee families and school children.

The Rev. Rafael Viana

One of those congregations was Shalom International Ministry, led by the Rev. Gad Mpoyo. Mpoyo has served as pastor to this growing congregation of immigrants from the African diaspora for over 13 years. As the associate for the Eastern and Southern regions for the PC(USA)’s 1001 New Worshiping Communities, he also supports mid councils, new leaders and established churches as they navigate partnerships and growth related to church start-ups. Mpoyo described the “huge impact” of new worshiping communities, established churches and presbyteries working together and called the bringing together of a rich tradition with new ideas “beautiful.” As new worshiping leaders have joined groups like the presbytery’s Committee on Ministry, Mpoyo noted important shifts in understanding the ways God is doing a new thing: “There is learning that is happening on both sides. And I think that has been having a really huge impact in the presbytery.”

Mpoyo’s congregation of Shalom still meets at the site of Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, although the original congregation that opened its doors to his immigrant new worshiping community no longer worships there. In 2021, the Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church congregation pastored by Tatro engrafted into a neighboring congregation in Stone Mountain, Georgia.

However, the vital ministry to refugees and new immigrants continued at the Clarkston location through the groundwork that the congregation laid. With the help of other congregations across Atlanta and the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit called Memorial Drive Ministries was formed prior to the church’s closure. Memorial Drive Ministries continues to be dedicated to maintaining the property and its partnerships with other nonprofits that serve refugees and immigrants in the neighborhood.

When Tatro left Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church and accepted the call to Johns Creek Presbyterian Church, the Johns Creek congregation had already developed strong bonds with Viana’s congregation of Casa Brasil, even joining their youth ministries. Viana and Tatro warned established churches against the temptation to see partnerships as a “landlord-tenant arrangement.”

“That's a real temptation for the host church,” said Tatro, who described the mindset: “Well, you know, we're providing this space, and we're providing all these things. What are they giving?” Tatro’s answer is, “They're giving us the opportunity to be the church.” The partnership between new worshiping communities and established churches sharing space works best, according to Viana, when it is approached with a “mi casa, su casa” attitude.

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

Let us join in prayer for:

• Sharon Dunne Gillies, Managing Editor, Presbyterian Women 
• Magdy Girgis, Middle Eastern Intercultural Ministries, Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries, Interim Unified Agency 

Let us pray:

Gracious God, thank you that you have given us enough to share. Remind us always to be grateful for your blessings. Move us out of our comfort zones to reach out to those who have not known your abundance. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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Mission Yearbook: Presbyterian pastor reflects on loss

Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church was destroyed by the Palisades fire
on Jan. 7. The church was evacuated in the morning, but it burned that night.
(Photo courtesy of the Rev. Matt Hardin)

Despite tragedy, members of Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church are taking solace in one another and in small acts of kindness.

For a while on Tuesday, Jan. 7, it was just an ordinary day for the Rev. Matt Hardin, pastor of Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church. That changed the moment he learned that the Southern California campus was in danger of being overtaken by wildfire.

“I was in a meeting that morning (around 11:15 a.m.) when the preschool director came and interrupted me and told me what was happening, and I stepped outside into the church parking lot,” Hardin said. “You could see the flames just across the way, coming our direction, and the wind was blowing our direction.”

After the campus was swiftly and safely evacuated, “I ran on foot down to the local elementary school because traffic was all backed up, to get my two kids,” Hardin said. “My wife met me from her work at the church parking lot, and we all got in her car and got out of there, so I didn't have a chance to go home to get anything.”

Likewise, “I didn't have a chance to get anything out of the church — out of my office,” he said. Now Hardin wonders “If I just took another minute, what would I have done differently?”

Hardin’s church is one of thousands of structures that burned down after a series of conflagrations broke out in the Los Angeles area, killing at least 29 people and damaging or destroying thousands of buildings, including many homes and businesses.

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance has provided grants and other support to three presbyteries in the affected region and has been meeting regularly with local executives who are assessing needs and compiling resources to help those affected. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) also issued a formal appeal, encouraging members and friends to support PDA’s response by giving to the ministry’s wildfire fund, found here.

On the local level and even abroad, Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church, and individuals associated with it, have been receiving an outpouring of support that has taken various forms, from prayers to the use of a fellowship hall at a sister church to hold gatherings.

“The prayers we're getting right now and the support and encouragement are making a very hard situation a little bit easier,” Hardin said. “It really, really helps.”

And church members are thankful for their lives and each other. “We've been through this terrible tragedy together, but we're here to support each other,” he said. “You just have a whole new appreciation and love for them.”

The Rev. Matt Hardin

Since the disaster, members have started gathering about eight miles away at Westwood Presbyterian Church, where Hardin previously served as associate pastor. Westwood has made essential goods — from toiletries and diapers to children’s books and stuffed animals — available to people attending the Pacific Palisades church. It’s also partnering with the First Presbyterian Church of Santa Monica to collaborate on similar efforts to help Pacific Palisades members and others affected by the wildfires.

“Lots of people are rolling up their sleeves and it's just beautiful to see,” said the Rev. Dr. Christine Chakoian, pastor of Westwood Presbyterian Church. Their handiwork serves as “a sign of the everlasting arms.”

Hardin is grateful for the small acts of kindness being offered by people, from churches to the broader community.

“It's been amazing the number of angels that we've each had put in our life by God through this,” he said. “Total strangers. People on the street giving us things as we're waiting in line” and even a pharmacist going the extra mile to provide medication. These are “just dear people.”

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is one of the Compassion, Peace & Justice ministries of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Interim Unified Agency.

Darla Carter, Communications Strategist, Interim Unified Agency Click here to read original PNS story)

Let us join in prayer for:

• Alexander Germosen, Cook, Stony Point Center, Interim Unified Agency
• Ashley Gibson, Human Resource Assistant, Human Resources, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)  

Let us pray:

O God, give us the strength to lend our help when disaster overtakes your people. Thank you for the grace that molds us in the likeness and spirit of Christ, so that day by day we may grow closer to our Savior and become more like the one who died that we might live, even Jesus Christ. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Sarah McBride, pathbreaking Presbyterian

Congresswoman Sarah McBride (Photo: mcbride.house.gov)

A sudden understanding came to Delaware’s newest member of Congress sitting in a pew on Christmas Eve at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, Delaware.

Sarah McBride, the child of a corporate lawyer — who was a teenage political activist and president of the American University student body — had always known she was a girl. Assigned male at birth, by the time she was a college junior, her life out of sync with her gender identity had become untenable. 

Back at home with her parents, sitting in Wilmington, Delaware’s Westminster Presbyterian Church on Christmas Eve, hearing “O Holy Night,” she said to herself, “I cannot continue to miss this beauty,” and resolved to come out to her parents. 

McBride’s autobiography, “Tomorrow Will Be Different,” is the story of her 20s, bracketed by two Presbyterian moments: the revelation at Westminster Presbyterian Church and the hymns sung at her husband Andy’s funeral a few years later. This youth elder is now Delaware’s sole member of the U.S. House of Representatives, the first openly transgender woman in Congress.

Born in 1990, McBride grew up with two brothers in a neighborhood of west Wilmington. She recalls dressing up as Cinderella with girl neighbors. Like Cinderella at midnight, time would elapse on her fancy dress, and she would have to return to life as a boy.

The family was active in Westminster, dad as a ruling elder, mom as a deacon, and Sarah herself in church musicals and the youth group.

Her parents were successful and politically active, and Sarah was a young politics-obsessive, writing, “Growing up, I personally knew more U.S. senators than transgender people.” Her parents hosted fundraisers for Gov. Jack Markell. 

Despite believing in her parents — who had steadfastly supported one of her brothers when he came out as gay — Sarah lived in fear of disappointing them and her political family, and losing the trust of people like Markell, who would casually point to the governor’s desk and say, “when this is your chair.”

During the spring semester, Sarah told close friends at American University that she was trans. On April 30, 2012, she posted a long note to Facebook coming out as trans, receiving support from posters on campus and immediate hugs from her frat brothers. The editor of the campus newspaper came over to her dorm to ask to run her note in the next edition, but with one request: “Cut it down to 600 words.”

In June 2012 she met Andy Cray, a lawyer with the LGBTQ+ advocacy portfolio inside the Center for American Progress. As a couple they navigated the routine 15-hour days of Sarah’s internship in the Obama White House Office of Public Engagement. In her memoir, Sarah relates the double bind of passing versus being read as trans inside the Office of Public Engagement — other staffers expressed surprise upon learning her identity, and this ironically tended to erase it.

Book cover (Publisher: Crown Archetype) 

McBride relates those struggles in part to illustrate her partner’s unwavering moral example. In one passage, Sarah is enraged by members of Congress who support regressive policies and legislation despite their being widely known as being LGBTQ+ themselves, wishing they could be outed. Andy stridently defends them, saying the good of unearthing mere hypocrisy isn’t equivalent to the harm of outing a person.

Sarah introduces her work with Equity Delaware in 2013 in terms of desperately wanting to move back to Delaware, and being terrified that the state lacked legal protections for trans people before the law. With support from Markell and Attorney General Beau Biden, Sarah and the Equity Delaware team lobbied the legislature to pass, back to back, a marriage equality act and civil protections for gender identity. SB 97 on gender identity protection passed and was signed by the governor on June 13, 2013.

The next year brought Andy’s cancer diagnosis, and struggle through treatment, remission and recurrence. The couple was married Aug. 24, 2014. Within the week, Andy had passed.

Inequitable treatment lingers for trans people even after death. In McBride’s retelling, finding a funeral home that would treat Andy in alignment with his gender identity was a struggle. 

At his memorial service, those gathered sang “Here I Am, Lord” —  “a Presbyterian hymn that Andy and I both discovered a year before had been our favorite hymn growing up as active members of our local Presbyterian churches.”

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

Let us join in prayer for:

• Michael Gehrling, Associate, Northeast Region & Assessments, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Interim Unified Agency 
• Megan Genovese, Religious New Services Project Archivist, Presbyterian Historical Society 

Let us pray:

Gracious God, you call us to serve one another with energy, intelligence, imagination and love. Bless us with your creative Spirit so that small acts of courage and kindness can become bold outpourings of your love. Connect with our neighbors near and far so that all of us may rejoice together in your good news. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Three environmental efforts honored by Presbyterians for Earth Care

Dan Dieterich (Contributed photo)

Presbyterians for Earth Care recently recognized two individuals and one congregation for their exceptional environmental achievements at the organization’s virtual Annual Gathering.

Dan Dieterich of Stevens Point, Wisconsin, received the William Gibson Eco-Justice Award for his long history of being an Earth steward and inspiration at Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church and beyond. Trinity Presbyterian Church in Hendersonville, Nort Carolina, was presented with the Restoring Creation Award for demonstrating sustainable practices (installing solar panels and reusing 50-year-old brick pavers) and encouraging continuing Earth care practices in the congregation. Gabrielle Parrulli, a young entrepreneur from Albuquerque, New Mexico, was given PEC’s Emerging Earth Care Leader Award for showing exceptional promise as a future leader.

Dan Dieterich, an environmental activist with a long dedication to Earth care, focuses on confronting the climate crisis. A member of Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, Dan is an ordained deacon and elder and a retired English professor from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. He has offered sermons on environmental topics and made community climate presentations. His words inspire the understanding of humankind’s sacred relationship with God’s Creation.

In 2001, Dietrich founded Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church’s Green Team, which is now the church’s largest committee. The church became a PC(USA) Earth Care Congregation in 2010. He and other Green Team members tend five raised-bed gardens on church property and deliver the produce from those beds to local food pantries. The Green Team also purchases and plants trees in local school forests and engages in other environmental actions. Dan and his spouse, Diane, are leaders of the Green Team, organizing many educational events, including movies, speakers and panels.

A member of many environmental nonprofits, Dietrich has a long history of being a good steward of the Earth by leading Central Wisconsin’s native plant group. He has a leadership role in the Central Wisconsin Citizens Climate Lobby as well as serving as CCL’s Wisconsin co-coordinator.

Trinity Presbyterian Church in Hendersonville, North Carolina, has been heavily involved in sustainability and environmental awareness since 2018, when three members researched solar panels for the church. By May 2019, the first 85 panels were installed. Five months later, more panels were installed, for a total of 129. With additional improvements in energy efficiency, the panels now provide 90% of the church’s energy needs. Committee members have led classes at other churches and prepared a detailed handbook about their solar process to share.

Every year since 2017, Trinity has celebrated the Season of Creation on Sundays from Sept. 1 to Oct. 4. The celebration includes special worship services, nature-based liturgical art, four stations of Creation in the woods behind the church, tree planting and an annual picnic.

Gabrielle Parrulli and her refillery, Feelin’ Funky
(Contributed photo)

The Earth Caring Ministry was commissioned in 2021, and the church became an Earth Care Congregation in 2023. In addition to solar energy, Trinity engages in other sustainable practices such as reusing 50-year old pavers for a walking path and providing education through classes, in the church’s newsletter and blog, and at a “Sustain Ability Begins at Home” table set up every Sunday in the Narthex of the church.

Gabrielle Parrulli believes that God put us on the Earth to care for it and not to damage it. She says it is time to clean up our act and clean up the Earth.

Four years ago, while a high school junior, Parrulli opened the first version of her refillery out of an Airstream trailer. She says that refilleries are one of the most honest types of stores. Most of them are independent and female-owned, offering their customers accessible, affordable and available products.

Parrulli speaks to church, civic and school groups to tell them how to best care for the Earth and the importance of eliminating plastics — especially single-use plastics — and using environmentally safe products for cleaning and personal use.

Now Parrulli has a refillery store called Fillin’ Funky. All products are eco-friendly, and there is no plastic. Customers take their own containers and fill them with eco-friendly products like detergent, dish soap, shampoo, conditioner, sunscreen and more. Fillin’ Funky is plastic and waste-free, and Parrulli hopes it will help encourage residents to clean up and green the environmental landscape in Albuquerque and New Mexico.

Presbyterians for Earth Care, Special to Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS story)

Let us join in prayer for:

• Margaret Gay, Associate, International Property, World Mission, Interim Unified Agency
• Kristen Gaydos, Communications Director, Presbyterian Historical Society 

Let us pray:

Gracious and loving God, encircle all of your creation with your grace, love and peace that passes all understanding. Open our hearts to the ways you are calling us to be the body of Christ beyond the walls of our churches. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Presbyterians for Earth Care features well-traveled observers of climate change and migration

Native Alaskans are among the hardest hit of the millions of people suffering
the effects of climate change. Photo by Zeke Tucker via Unsplash.

Rev. Gregg Brekke and Andrew Kang Bartlett share the insights that travel has helped to reveal.

A webinar put on recently by Presbyterians for Earth Care featured the travels and insights provided by two men reporting on the effects that climate change is having on migration. Watch the 69-minute webinar featuring journalist the Rev. Gregg Brekke, the former editor of Presbyterian News Service, and Andrew Kang Bartlett, the Presbyterian Hunger Program’s Associate for National Hunger Concerns, by clicking here.

More than 20 years ago, Brekke visited the Nogales, Arizona, area along the Borderlands. “I was struck by how difficult it was for people to move” as they were seeking economic opportunity, especially farming opportunity, in central Mexico, he said. He since has traveled to more than 55 countries, “working with different organizations in places that were experiencing climate disasters or climate-related themes,” Brekke said. In his work, “it’s important to see how and why people are moving and relate that to the family context.”

At about 280 million people, the global migrant population includes more than 32 million people internally displaced due to climate-related issues, Brekke said. Within the United States, 3.2 million people have been internally displaced and have relocated due to climate considerations in the last decade. “The movement tends to go toward coastal places, which have also faced climate-related disasters,” Brekke said.

Most news articles “portray migrants as issues rather than people,” Brekke said. “Reporters are only now beginning to ask questions that would shed light on climate migration.”

Learn more from Brekke’s presentation to PEC here.

He closed his talk with this quote from Amali Tower, founder and executive director of Climate Refugees: “We’ve got to approach climate displacement as a human security issue and not a border security issue.”

“I have the pleasure of bringing you a little of the good news,” said Kang Bartlett. One recent bit of good news is the reforestation of Ekvn-Yefolecv, the Maskoke eco-village in Alabama, told here and here. Kang Bartlett’s slide presentation is here.

“It is an intentional community to revitalize their lifeways on ancestral lands in rural Alabama,” Kang Bartlett explained. Fundraising has led to acquiring 4,000 acres of endangered forest that was to have been used for graphite mining.

“They do amazing green building. They bless trees before they fell them,” Kang Bartlett said of the Maskoke. Living off of the grid, the Maskoke derive most of their energy from geothermal and solar sources.

Native Alaskans are being hit as hard as anyone by climate change, Kang Bartlett noted. “Melting sea ice compromises their hunting and foraging,” he said. “It is hard on community cohesion.”

Kang Bartlett touched on the work of Nenana Land Back and Calypso Farm near Fairbanks, which purchased about 80 acres for $80,000. The goal, he said, is “to show tribes how young people can be trained to acquire old skills.”

“Indigenous people are defenders of biodiversity and the climate,” Kang Bartlett said, but they’re “often excluded from climate policy discussions and from places of advocacy.”

In Minnesota, the Presbyterian Tree Fund is helping the Forest Assisted Migration Project to bring new tree species from southern locales to adapt to climate change in the North Star State.

Kang Bartlett also closed with a quote, this from Erich Fromm in “The Art of Loving”: “The principle underlying capitalistic society and the principle of love are incompatible.”

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

Let us join in prayer for:

• Zoë Garry, Associate Director, Theological Education Funds Development, Presbyterian Foundation
• Kevin Garvey, Funds Development Specialist, Presbyterian Foundation  

Let us pray:

O God, your creation tells of your sovereignty and gives you glory at all times and places. Show us how to continually offer ourselves and all that we are to you. Let our hands, feet and voices be like those of Jesus taking good news to the ends of the earth. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Central Presbyterian Church says farewell to its pastor with music

The Rev. Dr. Louise Westfall

The Rev. Dr. Louise Westfall retired from parish ministry after 45 years of faithful service.

How did a congregation bid farewell to a beloved pastor?

In the case of Central Presbyterian Church, located two blocks north of the Capitol in Denver, it was by commissioning a cantata to be written and performed in her honor. The Rev. Dr. Louise Westfall, who recently retired from parish ministry after 45 years of faithful service, was not only the motivation for the composition, but also the subject of it. And, when it was sung during morning worship on Jan. 26 — her retirement Sunday — Westfall was singing alto in the choir, as she did each week.

A cantata was the brainchild of Westfall’s brother, Jack, a longtime Central member and a tenor in the choir, and was quickly advanced by Charis Smith, the church’s director of Music, when she observed composer M. Roger Holland II at an honors choir concert in which her daughter performed. Holland, associate professor of Music and Religion at the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver, was guest-conducting.

“I’ve been reluctant in the past about programming my own work,” Holland said. “But this particular evening, one of the five pieces I conducted was a spiritual that I had arranged.”

Both his music, and his work with the youth, made an impression on Smith, a professionally trained soprano with a long list of credits. She and Jack, who suggested most of the texts for the project, visited Holland in his office on the University of Denver campus. Then Smith and Central’s choir attended a concert Holland was conducting. The cantata was announced at the choir’s year-end party in May 2024, and the work began immediately.

Over the course of her career, Westfall served five churches — rural, urban and suburban — in Iowa, Michigan, Ohio and Colorado. She loved and nurtured each of them, and they her, and they have all given generously to “This is the Day,” named in recognition of her favorite Scripture, Psalm 118:24. “This composition specifically honors Louise,” Jack Westfall said. “But it is intended to honor all ministers — those in my family, whose combined service totals over 125 years — and ministers around the world.”

The cantata, written in four parts, traces the trajectory of Westfall’s life, with each movement representing a season in it. Growing up on the eastern plains in Yuma, Colorado, where her father, Tom, was a second-career pastor at First Presbyterian Church, Westfall experienced the meaning of “beloved community” through her family and her church. She was brought under the care of the Presbytery of Plains and Peaks, where her father was a member, as she followed God’s claim on her life.

The cantata, which is about 20 minutes long, takes on the character of an African American spiritual for its finale. Holland, having worked across genres, came to the century-old Lamont School of Music, after graduating from Union Theological Seminary, to direct The Spirituals Project, dedicated to revitalizing and preserving the music created by enslaved persons in America in the 18th and 19th centuries. The genre is one of Westfall’s favorites.

Though she has retired from pastoral ministry, Westfall will continue to serve the church — within the Presbytery of Denver, as guest preacher when the opportunity arises, and on the Board of the National Ghost Ranch Foundation. She will complete her term on the board of the Colorado Trust, a health equity foundation located in Denver. She hopes for more visits to her son, Paul, his wife, Claire, and their two young children in the Washington, D.C., area.

“I rejoice in the creation of ‘This is the Day,’” Westfall said. “I am deeply grateful for my life in ministry and the God whose presence continues to grace every day.”

Sherry Hester Kenney for the Presbyterian Foundation Click here to read original PNS story)

Let us join in prayer for:

• Ruth Gardner, Vice President & Director, Human Resources, Administrative Services Group (A Corp) 
• Shelley Gardner, Chaplain, Board of National Mission, Presbyterian Foundation  

Let us pray:

Thank you, Lord, for the gift of true friends in faith. Open us to the connections you would put in our paths and make us ready to glorify you in all we do. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Delaware churches partner to provide economic support

Innovative use of buildings and property to further mission and ministry and generate new forms of income.

The Wilmington Kitchen Collective is a community-based project that provides affordable high-quality commercial kitchen facilities, business development and economic support to culinary entrepreneurs. Together with its operating partner, Riverfront Ministries, WKC is dedicated to empowering holistic transformation in Wilmington, Delaware.

Kristen Gaydos, Presbyterian Historical Society (Click here to read original PNS story)

Let us join in prayer for:

• Lemuel Garcia-Arroyo, Ministry Engagement Advisor, Ministry Engagement & Support, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
• Debbie Gardiner, Executive Assistant, Executive Director’s Office, Interim Unified Agency 

Let us pray:

Holy God, we give you thanks with our whole hearts and sing you praise. Thank you for blessing us so abundantly with congregations who joyfully gather to serve you. May we rejoice and embrace one another to better serve God’s glorious Kingdom in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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

Your March Mission and Service Stories March 2 Hope for Mothers, Strength for Families   [Image credit: ACT Alliance and Hungarian Interchurch Aid]   In the Eastern Carpathian Mountains, far from the chaos of war, a retreat in Tukhlya, Ukraine offers rest and renewal to mothers who have given everything for their families. March 9 PIE—Public, Intentional, Explicit Inclusion       [Image credit: Affirm United/S’affirmer Ensemble]   March 14 is PIE Day, and in church circles it has nothing to do with math. “PIE” is short for “public, intentional, and explicit”—the standards we hold ourselves to when we seek to live into being affirming, welcoming, and inclusive people and communities.      March 16 Building Climate Resiliency   [Image credit: Women for Change, Zambia]   In areas where historically there has been little rain, now there are floods, and where there were floods, now there are droughts. That’s how Women for Change—an organization in Zambia that strives to improve conditions in rural communities by empowering women and girls—describes the changing climate in Zambia. Women bear the brunt.   March 23 Springtime of the Spirit      [Image credit: Jelena Safronova]   Because of you, Mission and Service partners are like the first flowers of spring—blooming where they are needed most.   March 30 Breaking Barriers: Women in Theology and Leadership     [Image credit: The Rev. B. Silpa Rani]   In India, social and cultural factors limit access to theological education for women in comparison to men. The Rev. B. Silpa Rani is actively encouraging women to pursue theological education and engage in leadership roles. The 2025 Mission and Service goal-setting form is here! Are you making plans for the Centennial year? We can help. The 2025 goal-setting form is new and improved – and ready to go whenever you are!   Questions? Email Mission and Service or call us at 1-800-465-3771. Congregational Stewardship/Generosity This is your resource to help you grow generous disciples and gather the resources you need to do God’s mission. Please modify and use these ideas in your context.   Discover the Power of PAR Month!  Wouldn’t it be great to even out the yearly cash-flow of your Community of Faith? Not be so reliant on year-end giving in December? Have more money to do more ministry? Taking part in PAR month may be your answer!  All the resources you need, including a full sermon and sample letter and announcements are ready for you to download and use, on the Giving Monthly through PAR page.  This May, discover the power of PAR! Getting Started in Stewardship What are you waiting for????   “Same old, same old” isn’t cutting it anymore?  Called to Be the Church : The Journey Introduction You can find more information and register for upcoming 2025 courses at CHURCHx.    For more information on these and other stewardship supports, contact called@united-church.ca.  It really is an exciting time to be the church!  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 here: Free Stewardship Resource Kits Stewardship Seconds (Now updated for January-June 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 webpage.  Offering Introductions and Dedication Prayers (Now updated for January-June 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 webpage.   Get the Stewardship Support You Need The people and resources to help you succeed are here. Mission and Service Volunteers What do you feel called to do? There’s a place for you! Mission and Service volunteers are people who are ready to spread the word about the great work that’s being done by the United Church of Canada through Mission and Service. They can choose the work they want to do and the amount of time they are able to spend.   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 us at 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 Twitter 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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