Since Jesus calls Christians to make disciples of all nations, in this blog we'll consider how we might better share the gospel to the world around us.
During the Vietnam War, as bombs fell abroad and unrest simmered at home, a group of religious activists took a stand against what they saw as a moral and spiritual catastrophe. Among them were the Revs. Neil McLaughlin and Joseph Wenderoth, two Presbyterian pastors who joined priests, nuns, and peace advocates to challenge the systems that sustained war and injustice. Together, they became known as the Harrisburg Seven, indicted in 1971 under false charges of conspiracy, including a fabricated plot to kidnap Henry Kissinger and blow up the U.S. Capitol.
Their real offense? Bold and nonviolent protest: pouring blood on draft files, burning records and speaking out as people of conscience. For these activists, their faith was not separate from their resistance. It was at the very root of it. Like the psalmist, they trusted in God as the righteous judge, crying out not in hatred, but in a deep yearning for justice and peace.
Psalm 7 is the prayer of someone unjustly accused, crying to God for help, for the wickedness of the violent to be stopped and for the righteous to be upheld. The Harrisburg defendants placed their hope not in acquittal alone, but in a higher moral order born out of reverence.
Ultimately, they were found not guilty of the fabricated conspiracy. But their true vindication was deeper: a public testimony that peace rooted in faith has the power to confront empires. Their legacy reminds us that God’s judgment is not about wrath but about righteousness. Conscience matters, and sometimes to follow Christ is to disturb the peace of the world for the peace of God.
Prayer:
Come, Holy Spirit, into our tattered hearts and minds. Fill us with your divine imagination, strength and hope, as we shoulder the burdens of our struggling world. Amen.
Alex Pickell is a candidate for ordination in the PC(USA). Born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, Alex received her B.A. in History and French from the University of Arkansas before attending Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, where she graduated with a Master of Divinity degree in 2024. This summer, Alex is serving as a Peacemaking Fellow in the Office of Public Witness.
The Rev. Hannah McIntyre, the pastor of Pisgah Presbyterian Church in Versailles, Kentucky, says what she recently did on a Friday morning for a distraught man who showed up at the door of the church in need of pastoral care is what she would have done for anybody.
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Pisgah Presbyterian Church is in Versailles, Ky. (Photo by Hannah McIntyre)
The man turned out to be Billy Strings, a bluegrass singer, musician and songwriter who was about to perform a pair of sold-out shows at nearby Rupp Arena near the University of Kentucky campus.
When the 32-year-old performer got the news from his wife that his mother, Debra Apostol, had died in her sleep, Strings said he put on his shoes and started walking. “I walked until I saw this little country church. It was like a beacon,” he told the crowd that night. “I went there, and I knocked on the door, and this kind lady let me in. She stayed with me and prayed with me and eventually gave me a ride back to where I was staying.”
At the time, McIntyre, who’s served Pisgah Presbyterian Church since 2019, was wrapping up a meeting with representatives of an alcohol- and drug-abuse recovery program that’s supported by the church.
“I went to the young man and asked him to tell me what was happening. He asked if he could come in and sit, and in my pastoral mind I heard ‘pray,’” said McIntyre, who said she had “no clue” who Strings was. Then he told her he had rolled into Lexington a few hours earlier and slept just a few hours, that he’d just learned his mother had died, and that he had two shows to perform Friday and Saturday at Rupp Arena, which has a capacity of 23,500 people.
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Billy Strings performs at a sold-out Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky. (Photo by Walter Tunis | Lexington Herald-Leader)
“I realized then he was a pretty significant musician,” but “to me he was a young man who needed someone to be with him and somewhere to pray,” McIntyre said. “That’s all that mattered to me.”
“I asked him to tell me about his mom — who she was, and about their relationship. He did,” McIntyre said. “He talked about how devastated he was at her loss, especially in such a sudden way. All of us can empathize entirely with that.” She spent about 30 minutes with Strings.
Like he later told concertgoers at Rupp Arena, Strings “just started walking” after hearing the awful news from his wife. “I saw the church and I knew it was the place I needed to be right now,” he told McIntyre.
“That day was other-worldly,” McIntyre said. “These things happen to other people.”
A friend of McIntyre attended the Friday concert. Afterward, her friend asked her, “Did you pray with someone named Billy? Do you know who that was? I need you to watch this clip.”
The friend then got in touch with another friend who had tickets for the sold-our concert on Saturday, which McIntyre attended. “It was awesome,” she said. “Billy gained a new fan.”
“I didn’t do anything for Billy Strings that I wouldn’t have done for anyone else.”
Strings “wasn’t near his mother” when he learned of her death, McIntyre said. Because of the upcoming concerts, “he couldn’t get to where he needed to be.”
“It was my decision to carry on with tonight’s show because that’s what my mom would have wanted me to do,” Strings told the crowd Friday. “She loved y’all so much. The last couple of years were some of her happiest because a lot of you folks were here. Y’all became some of her best friends, and I really want to thank you for that.”
“Instead of a moment of silence,” Strings asked the crowd, “can you please make as much noise right now for my mom?”
They did just that, and the performer was visibly moved.
“It wasn’t about me,” McIntyre said of her experience. “God just put me in a place to be God’s ears and presence in a young man’s life. We can all do that. We’re all capable. We just have to be willing to see, to hear, to go when and where we’re needed.”
Darla Carter, Communications Strategist, Mission Communications, Interim Unified Agency Heath Carter, Senior Editor of The Journal of Presbyterian History, Presbyterian Historical Society
Let us pray:
God of solidarity, thank you that your arms stretch across this broken world. Bind us close so that with you we may engage in the gospel ministry of your love. Amen.
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
As Jesus speaks, he places in the hearts and minds of those listening an alternative vision of life that trusts that God is actively involved in all things, as seen in the birds of the air. Sometimes we claim that we are God’s hands and feet in this world — which we are in many ways. Ultimately, though, God is actively summoning us to clasp hands in community with those known and unknown, visible to us and invisible, to join God in God’s unfolding plan for Creation.
For several years I served as an associate pastor at Palms Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. During my time there, we had the opportunity to partner with a group of churches in Cité Soleil and Port-au-Prince, Haiti. As our relationship grew, we were very aware of the food shortage evident in so many Haitian communities. When World Communion Sunday approached, our leadership began considering how we might extend Christ’s Table to our sisters and brothers in those churches. The Palms congregation invited other churches in the Beaches area to join in making food packets to be shipped to Haiti. The nearby Episcopal church and the synagogue joined in. Thousands of packets were made and shipped, beginning a many-year tradition of Extending the Table.
War, natural disasters and the climate crisis have brought incredible worldwide need for nourishing food. May we join others on the path of extending God’s generous table set before us to those who hunger and thirst.
Prayer:
Gracious and loving God, through Christ, you set a table before us that reminds us that you are present in and among all Creation. Guide us and lead us to extend your generosity in nourishing ways to those who hunger to be seen, heard, restored, and fed by the nourishing of their bodies and souls. Amen.
The Rev. Dr. Carol DiGiusto is honorably retired and living in Jacksonville, Florida, following pastoral calls to several churches in the Presbytery of St. Augustine.
Originating on the Indian subcontinent, a shruti box works on a system of bellows. Similar to a harmonium, it provides a drone that voices can match while building melodies. Adjustable buttons allow for tuning. It’s the size of a small briefcase.
“It comes with a foot pedal so you can play guitar and shruti box, which I think is a blast,” said Hernández, a composer-arranger, recording artist, song leader, an activist for peace and justice, retreat leader and author whose books include “The Sacred Art of Chant.” “All I have to do is remember to keep the pedal going.”
“Its superpower is chilling you out when you’re anxious.”
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Ana Hernández carries her shruti box. (Photo by Alex Simon)
With help from her shruti box, Hernández put her 30 or so students to work, picking a note and humming it for a while. “When you get comfortable on your note, start moving around,” she suggested. “You guys sing this note,” offering up higher notes in the same chord to other groups in the room. “Now go down a half-step. Now go back up, because it hurts,” she said with a grin. “See how much fun we can have with music? It can be gorgeous and all of a sudden it’s like, whoa!”
Hernández suggested that when students returned to their churches, ask “an intrepid choir member” to sing a well-known psalm, such as Psalm 51, while other choir members drone a particular note during worship. “It could be anything,” Hernández said. “Just turn that intrepid choir singer loose.”
Hernández divided the class into groups of five or six, asking each group to select a drone and a fifth, fourth or minor third. Group members sang a familiar song or the Lord’s Prayer while the others hit their note.
While students were creating, Hernández spoke to Presbyterian News Service.
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Students of Ana Hernández compose a musical prayer. (Photo by Alex Simon)
Her goal for the week was to help people “find a deeper way to pray and also have more fun praying — but not just praying, that they loosen up and are a little more comfortable being with one another doing things they don’t know,” including “a little improv, stumbling into a something beautiful and going with it” and “failing fast” and moving on. She leans on this Virginia Woolf quote: “A self that goes on changing is a self that goes on living.”
She helped students answer these questions: “How can we make sure we are actually praying when we’re singing? How can we be present in the prayer, and not worrying about the notes?”
“We find ourselves not present to the thing, and it happens in all facets of life,” she said. “Everyone knows how to [pray through singing], but they forget they know. … Most of it is giving people songs they can carry with them.” Hernández has been collecting such songs for more than 30 years.
After each group presented what they’d composed together, Hernández told a story that illustrated just how spontaneous the creative process can be. She taught students a song she composed in the car on her way to a conference. It included the lyrics, “hold my hope, hold my trembling, hold my heart, teach me to be love.”
“I do these prayer chants, but I had nothing that morning,” Hernández said. “I parked the car for a minute and thought, what do these people need to know? What’s a good prayer? ‘Hold my hope, hold my trembling, hold my heart, teach me to be love.’ I got there and handed out the parts, and I knew it wasn’t me. It’s easier in a circle, because you’re singing across to someone. … I’ve had it crash and burn only a couple of times.”
James Carey, Director of Investments & Portfolio Management Services, Trust Services, The Presbyterian Foundation Olanda Carr, Senior Ministry Relations Officer, Development Office, The Presbyterian Foundation
Let us pray:
Loving God, you call us to health and wholeness. Remind us that your transforming power is available and help us to be your hands and feet to those in need so others may find your light in the darkness. In Jesus Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware jar, in order that they may last for a long time. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.”
In the fall of 1889, a “small” group of people doing their best to follow Jesus gathered in a home in northeast Charlotte and committed to building a church. One hundred and 35 years later, a “small” group gathered in a church and committed to building homes.
Newell Presbyterian Church is not the first, nor will we be the last, to reimagine stewardship of church assets with an eye toward community development and building belonging. Today, countless churches sit on land and “own” buildings that are breaking their budgets while contributing little to nothing to the greater good. Meanwhile, in practically every city and town around “the land of the free and the home of the brave,” housing that is affordable is out of reach for countless families and individuals.
The wave of church property transition is here. Some estimates suggest that by the end of this decade, the U.S. will have seen some 100,000 church-owned real estate assets become something else (read “Gone for Good,” by Mark Elsdon). For those of us who love the Church, it is indeed a crisis. However, I am convinced that it is possible, and faithful, to leverage one crisis into a response to another.
Jeremiah knew a thing or two about navigating crises. Evicted from their homes by the power of empire, the people of God were headed for exile. Everyone and they brotha knew there would be no swift “return to glory days,” or even “normal,” and Jeremiah buys real estate? It don’t make no sense!
Call is like that sometimes. God tells Jeremiah to invest in his community, apparently, whether or not the prophet will be around to see those seeds sprout.
The Presbyterian Neighborhood Houses/Settlement Movement (1890–1965) took a similar long view. Building up the Beloved Community involved more than lip service; it involved bricks and mortar. “Congregations transformed missions and Sunday schools into settlement houses. Presbyteries and synods worked with local and national organizations to sponsor new community centers,” and the homes, centers and services all adapted to the needs of the people —– embodying a posture of semper reformanda (Presbyterian Historical Society).
Standing on their shoulders and on those of Jeremiah, I’ll add one more little Latin phrase: quid tum. What’s next?
Prayer
God of yesterday, today and tomorrow, stir within our hearts and minds that we might be stewards of a future not our own. Enable us to imagine a time and space in which all your children know the joy of home, and strengthen us to work toward it together, until the day when all will be on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
The Rev. Matt Conner has served as the pastor of Newell Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, since 2017 and is a graduate of Columbia Theological Seminary (Master of Divinity, 2017). Since arriving at Newell, Matt has been engaged in leading property redevelopment and cultivating community partnerships at the intersection of affordable housing, stewardship, and “second chance” opportunities for individuals and families impacted by incarceration and/or deportation.
I remember what he told me like a memory caught in amber, its DNA, its full body preserved, though it was nearly 20 years ago, and he died 10 years ago. It was a Wednesday evening at church, and I was free of youth ministry duties that night, so I sat in on a class on Revelation with the Rev. Dr. Timothy F. Simpson. On that night, he was pontificating, as he did, but in a way that you found spellbinding, on the dangers of the Left Behind video game, which extended the universe of the books and movies to something children and teens could participate in. And it was participation in messianic violence, redemptive violence, and religion-soaked and sanctioned violence. Because I was the resident youth minister, Simpson zeroed in on me and said, “You have to speak up about this with youth and for youth. If you don’t, who will? And there will come a time when it might cost you. You’ll have to make a choice.”
Simpson understood the cost of peace, and it was clearly his treasure. He had a towering intellect and mesmerizing charisma, which he could have employed for any master. He had left the service of his fundamentalist upbringing and pastorate. He could have crossed over to milquetoast, profitable liberalism. He could have crossed over to moderate, inoffensive, big-salaried ministry. Instead, you could find him, for instance, being arrested outside the White House in March 2007 while protesting the Iraq War through song and prayer alongside voices of conscience like now Sen. Raphael Warnock (Ga.). From the time he was my college professor, Simpson showed me, every step of the way, that we had to choose between peace and violence, justice and Mammon.
I have remembered those words as I made choices about my faith, how I raise my children, how I am involved in my church and community, and how I direct my career. Simpson helped me light the lamp; the inner eye lit up by the peace and justice of Christ. Sometimes I can only see a couple of paces ahead, but my heart and my treasure are in each step.
Prayer:
O God, your justice and peace are our joy. Help us to trust Christ’s light to guide our way, even when it is unpopular and unprofitable. Show us the treasure that is worth our hearts. Gird us up through your Spirit to make the difficult choices to serve you, that your kingdom may come more fully in our lives and your world. Amen.
Matt Hartley is the community coordinator for the Young Adult Transformation Collective. He has served in Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) youth ministry and camp and conference ministry roles for 20 years. He lives in Jacksonville, Florida.
Rev. Dr. Charles C. Heyward Sr., NBPC president (Photo by Rich Copley)
The National Black Presbyterian Caucus marked Juneteenth (June 19) with a worship service filled with powerful preaching and singing during a sacred time of gathering, reflection and renewal.
The holiday commemoration — with a sermon by NBPC’s outgoing president, the Rev. Dr. Charles C. Heyward Sr., and songs by the African American Presbyterian Congregations of Charlotte Choir — served as both an acknowledgement of the ancestors whose sacrifices paved the way for the progress and privileges of today and a call to action to continue doing meaningful work that benefits churches and communities.
“The work has to be done, and for it to succeed, each one of us has to participate in it,” said Heyward, who’s honorably retired from St. James Presbyterian Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and currently serving as temporary supply pastor of Edisto Presbyterian Church on Edisto Island in South Carolina.
Churches should be meeting “human needs,” and when that happens, “the church will grow,” Heyward said. “It will grow spiritually. It will grow programmatically, and finally, then it will grow numerically.”
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Gwen Pearson, front row center, sings with the African American Presbyterian Congregations of Charlotte Choir at the NBPC 48th biennial conference. (Photo by Rich Copley)
The two-hour service during NBPC’s 48th biennial conference uplifted and inspired those gathered.
Juneteenth, a federal holiday since 2021, recognizes the end of slavery and more specifically, the day in 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, and brought news of freedom to those who were enslaved.
Along with acknowledging that momentous occasion, NBPC honored the memories of nine worshipers who were killed by a white supremacist in a mass shooting 10 years ago at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
The service also included the calling out of names of people who’ve died in recent years and leaders, such as the Rev. Dr. Katie Cannon and the Rev. Gayraud Wilmore, whose ministries have left behind a legacy for others to stand on.
“My brothers and sisters, we are here this evening because of the faithful, the tireless and the focused labor of those who have gone before us,” Heyward said. “Their ministry for us and on our behalf is what's causing us to be here tonight.”
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The Rev. Jerrod Lowry of the Presbytery of Coastal Carolina, left, stands with the Rev. Dr. Charles C. Heyward, NBPC president. (Photo by Rich Copley)
The powerful ministering of song by the choir included a rendition of “Oh, Freedom,” a traditional Negro spiritual, and “The Storm is Passing Over.”
Throughout the service, the audience was reminded of the conference theme, “Your Labor in the Lord is Not in Vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58). It was woven into various aspects of the service, including the sermon.
Heyward talked about the importance of galvanizing around spiritual growth and the need to create programs that not only meet the needs of church members but the neighborhoods around them as well.
Heyward also took on critics who’ve questioned whether the NBPC has lost its relevance.
“The caucus is not dying,” he said. “In no way shall we be discarding and starting over. Just look around you. … Do you see any dead people in the room?”
He then had everyone turn to their neighbor and say, “The caucus is not dead.”
However, it’s crucial that people do more than just talk the talk and that they pattern themselves after Jesus, he said.
Instead of focusing on one’s own agenda, remember the words of Paul, he said. “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, we have a binding relationship. I charge you, he says, to stand firm. Let nothing move you. Not some of the time, but always give yourselves fully, not halfway.”
Earlier in the day, several awards were presented at the Lucy Craft Laney Awards Brunch. The winners were:
Innovation in Ministry Award
Recipient: The Rev. Jerrod Lowry; General Presbyter and Stated Clerk; Presbytery of Coastal Carolina; Elizabethtown, North Carolina
Drum Major for Justice Award
Recipient: The Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, Advocacy Director for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Maria Fearing Award
Recipient: The Rev. Dr. SanDawna Gaulman Ashley, Transitional Leader, Synod of the Northeast
Edler G. Hawkins Award
Recipient: The Rev. Dr. Danny C. Murphy; General Presbyter and Stated Clerk; Trinity Presbytery; Lexington, South Carolina
Peter Campbell, Team Lead Consultant, Information Technology Infrastructure, Administrative Services Group, A Corporation José Manuel Capella-Pratts, Global Ecumenical Liaison, Global Ecumenical Partnerships, Interim Unified Agency
Let us pray:
God of renewal and hope, let us humbly walk with you following the example given to us by Jesus Christ. Bless the leaders you send to inspire and encourage us on this walk as we go forth in your name. Amen.
Lindsey Hanson, second from left, chats with students in her Dance as Spiritual Practice class during the Worship & Music Conference. (Photo by Alex Simon)
Lindsey Hanson, an assistant professor of dance at Hope College in Holland, Michigan who previously had an extensive career as a dancer and actress in New York, spent the week at the Worship & Music Conference teaching students how dance can be a spiritual practice.
“What you do in your daily life is a small pocket of what your body can do,” she told Presbyterian News Service during a break in one of the classes she offered. “We are uncomfortable in our body, but God created your body beautiful and loves every part of it and delights in it. It’s a wonderful creation, and the more I learn about anatomy, the more mind-blowing it is.”
Hanson said that when she’s dancing her hardest, “it’s an act of worship.” Her goal at the conference, put on each year by the Presbyterian Association of Musicians, is “to give everyone the opportunity to move in a way they didn’t think was possible.”
Her students were taking 10 minutes to choreograph a brief dance they could teach to a partner. “They’re off their phones being creative and problem-solving, and I think that’s a beautiful thing,” Hanson said. Even her fellow professional dancers will sometimes say, “I can’t believe we created that.”
“God made us dancing bodies,” Hanson reasoned. “Why not provide them the opportunity to experience that?”
Hanson opened class sessions with a fun warmup, spending time in each of four Laban categories: weight, space, speed and flow. As they changed positions, Hanson offered encouragement. “Think of all three planes” through which the body moves, she said. “If you incorporate all three, you get a nice 3-D shape that feels good on your spine.”
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Students brainstorm with their teacher, Lindsey Hanson. (Photo by Alex Simon)
With direct space, “go to one part of the room, then another.” With indirect space, “every part of the room is interesting at the same time.”
Under bound flow, “make a decision. Free flow is spontaneous,” she said. “Surprise yourself.”
After a break, students brainstormed what pride might look like in a dance. It was an interesting choice, because the theme for the day at the conference was humility.
Students offered up qualities including exhibiting an elevated posture, taking up a lot of space, being spatially disrespectful and taking what one wants.
Hanson gave students some guidance for their brief choreography: The first movement was a turning action infused with pride. “It doesn’t have to be a triple pirouette,” she said. “Make sure it’s clear and you can repeat it. Do it a few times and get it in your body.”
The second was a change of focus. “Incorporate your body, first here, then here,” Hanson said, demonstrating what could be done.
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In groups of two or three, students put together brief choreographed movements they taught one another, then performed for the class. (Photo by Alex Simon)
The third movement is a level change — low to high, high to low, jump or lie down. It could be anything, Hanson said.
The fourth was to develop an arm movement, and Hanson demonstrated several options to give students ideas.
“This is the fastest you will ever choreograph anything,” she told students. “Find someone you don’t know and teach them your phrase. Go!”
Once they’d taught one another in groups of two or three, students demonstrated what they’d come up with. The groups did well and rewarded one another with applause.
Then Hanson asked: What was it like to take four innocent movements and make it into a dance?
“I liked the mashups of different dances,” said one.
“I liked seeing how people’s brains work,” said another.
“I like presenting and showing,” said a third.
“I think if I’d told you you’d be presenting at the start of the class, you might have hesitated,” Hanson said. “It was your own journey. Pat yourself on the back. That took a lot of courage.”
Later, she said if she’d been the one to teach students their moves, “they would have had a harder time. When you strive together with other people, you build a better memory response.”
Carl Cadet, Lead Cook, Stony Point Center, Interim Unified Agency Kelly Cahill, Administrator, Plan Operations, Board of Pensions
Let us pray:
Loving God, you have communicated with us through the gift of your precious Son. Keep us inspired to find helpful new ways to maintain contact, provide information and be a profound witness of your glory. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
When Joram saw Jehu, he asked, “Have you come in peace, Jehu?”
“How can there be peace,” Jehu replied, “as long as all the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?”
As we journey through this Season of Peace, we reflect not only on peace as a promise but also as a calling born from the midst of conflict and driven by courage. Today, we are reminded of the legacy of the Presbyterians who have come before us, who not only demanded peace but acted on it, whose faithful lives point us toward justice, courage and reconciliation. Today, we reflect on the life of Lois Stair, a visionary of racial and gender justice, who in 1971 became the first woman elected Moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly. Her leadership and devotion modeled what it means to be a steward of justice.
Peace is not always clean-cut and comfortable. In today’s Scripture, Jehu was commanded to confront the corruption caused by King Joram’s rule. The king asked if Jehu came in peace — a question typically asked of any traveler, prophet or messenger — but the king had let evil run rampant, and Jehu could no longer stand by complacently. His defiant response and actions, although violent, underscore a biblical truth: Real peace is not passive. It is not a veil of silence that disguises inequality and injustice. Peace demands we confront the injustices that disrupt it. Peace demands truth. Peace demands holy discontentment.
Stair bravely navigated the tension between peace and confrontation at a time when the Church navigated challenges of justice during a period of uncertainty and political change.
She once proclaimed,
“If we are to be peacemakers as Christ calls us to do, we must see hope in facing conflict, in letting our differences show, in being honest about hurts that haunt us in the world … about prisons that are inhumane, about racism that is ruling our world.”
Like Jehu, she knew that peace could not be obtained through complacency or ignorance but rather earned through honest struggle and transformation. As Moderator, Stair challenged congregations to move beyond their comfort zones, confront the systemic inequalities that divide our communities, and reimagine the Church as a place that embraces diversity and embodies God’s call for justice.
Prayer:
God of peace and purpose,
You call on us to confront the injustice that hurts the world, as you called on Jehu.
You call on us to lead with love and truth, as you called on Lois Stair.
Lord, I pray you give us the courage to seek justice in a world that expects us to be complicit.
Help us look to you to carry out your vision of love, justice and peace on Earth, and help us believe that peace is possible, even now. Amen.
Originally from Wilmington, North Carolina, Grace Kromke (she/they) is a rising senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill studying Women’s & Gender Studies and Public Policy. Grace has served as a young adult delegate for PC(USA) at the United Nations’ 69th Commission on the Status of Women and the U.N. High Level Political Forum. As a Peacemaking Fellow in the Office of Public Witness, Grace is engaging in ministry, advocacy and public witness while working on issues such as gun violence prevention, gender justice and gender-based violence, and anti-war and peace.
The biennial conference of Native American Presbyterian Women met on the Gila River Indian Community reservation south of Phoenix on Oct. 31 to Nov. 3, 2024, for their first conference since 2019 due to the pandemic. Participants were welcomed by keynote speaker Elona Street-Stewart, Co-Moderator of the 224th General Assembly (2020). She is a member of the Delaware Nanticoke tribe and is the first Native American elected to that office.
Workshops included:
Presbyterian Ruling Elders Training
Leadership Development – How Leaders can EQUIP for Maximum Impact
Worship and Evangelism in Native American Presbyterian Churches
The Gifts of God and Those They Serve: Opportunities to Serve National
Committees and Boards
Cultural and Multigenerational Effects of Indian Boarding Schools
Presbyterian Women Organizations (National and Local)
Native American Issues and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Response to Them
The Native American Presbyterian Women represent the 98 Presbyterian congregations. The conference is an opportunity for delegates to meet other Native women, learn from workshops, make friends and share ministries from their experiences. The ongoing tradition of an “Apron Exchange” has been a part of the conferences for many years. Many make, buy or donate aprons to exchange with each other in a drawing often created with Native American designs.
Different reservations are chosen to host the conference to highlight various Native American communities and cultures.
Irvin Porter, Associate for Native American Congregational Support, Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries, Global Ecumenical Liaisons — Interim Unified Agency
Let us join in prayer for:
PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff:
Becky Burton, Data Entry, Funds Development Operations, Administrative Services Group, A Corporation Olivia Cacchione, Outreach Specialist, Presbyterian Historical Society, Interim Unified Agency
Let us pray:
Creator God, life’s situations and concerns overwhelm us, but we can still find peace. You are this peace; you are our strength and refuge. When we acknowledge you as God of our lives, when we are still, then we know that you are God. Amen.
The Rev. Dr. James Foster Reese is widely remembered for his dedication to justice, education, community and faith. While pastoring a church on the campus of Knoxville College, he was actively engaged in the Civil Rights Movement. He participated in the 1960 Knoxville sit-ins and mentored student activists. In 1964, he aided two white ministers who had been attacked while on a trip visiting Black churches in Alabama.
Though he was the only Black seminarian who attended Pittsburgh-Xenia Seminary from 1946–49, Reese was a student leader. His time at Pittsburgh helped cement his confidence and sense of calling in a country where Jim Crow still ruled.
After attending seminary, he accepted a call to be a pastor in Alabama, a state still in the throes of segregation. In a 2015 interview with the Presbyterian Historical Society, Reese shared his story of being denied a voter registration form from the county courthouse. One Sunday morning, he received a call from the Civil Rights Commission, which requested that he make a secret statement about the incident. “To this day, I have no idea how they found out … that I was the only African American who tried to register in Wilcox County,” he said.
Reese’s advocacy for civil rights was not boisterous. It came from his desire to live a full life and to ensure that others could do so as well. “Sometimes there are some things that you really feel will make you feel more human,” he said, “and whoever is denying you of these privileges, they are keeping you away from being a total human being.”
Ultimately, his commitment to justice was rooted in his faith. Throughout his long career in ministry, which spanned seven decades, Reese held many distinguished titles: pastor, professor, consultant and presbyter, to name just a few. But no matter where he was or what his work entailed at any given time, his commitment to following Christ showed through. Reese modeled discipleship — the kind of faith that makes you go out on a limb to love your neighbor when nobody is watching.
Prayer:
Holy God, you invite us to bear witness to the good news of Jesus Christ in everything we do. Grant us courage to follow you with courageous hearts as we work toward your kingdom of justice and peace. Amen.
Alex Pickell is a candidate for ordination in the PC(USA). Born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, Alex received her B.A. in History and French from the University of Arkansas before attending Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, where she graduated with a Master of Divinity degree in 2024. This summer, Alex is serving as a Peacemaking Fellow in the Office of Public Witness.
Children got worship going by waving palm fronds. (Photo by Alex Simon)
Palm fronds, provocative liturgy and, of course, prophetic preaching marked worship at the Presbyterian Association of Musicians’ Worship & Music Conference, held at Montreat Conference Center. In all, about 1,400 people are participating.
The theme was meekness, which the conference preacher, Dr. Margaret Aymer, stressed is not weakness. “To clothe oneself with meekness or gentleness means to hold one’s power lightly, not using it to oppress or destroy,” she said, relying on John’s account of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem as her preaching text.
Children were featured throughout the service, playing chimes, processing down the aisle of Anderson Auditorium and waving palm fronds, reading prayers and Scripture, and singing an anthem, “Festival Sanctus” by John Leavitt.
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The Middler Choir sings “Festival Sanctus.” (Photo by Alex Simon)
Meekness “affects how we treat others, how we walk through the world as followers of Jesus,” Aymer said. “Too often in our culture we have concluded a truly strong person is forceful, aggressive — even a bully. The cultural myth of the alpha male affects everything from middle school text messages to the rulers of nations, including our own.”
On the day of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, the Roman governor Pilate was there as well, as were upwards of 300,000 pilgrims “suffering under the thumb of Roman oppression,” Aymer noted. Pilate made a show of force; accompanying him were no fewer than 1,000 soldiers, brought in to reinforce the Roman garrison.
“People in his day understood strength,” Aymer said. “Jesus enters Jerusalem by the Eastern Gate. He also comes in strength, but his strength is not accomplished by bluster, threat or cruelty. His strength comes cloaked in meekness and gentleness.” In the Chinese martial arts, competitors greet one another with a fist covered by the other hand, “a show of strength cloaked in meekness, gentleness and self-control,” according to Aymer.
“John tells us Jesus has something Pilate never could have,” Aymer said. While Pilate could kill, Jesus could bring people back to life, as he did to Lazarus.
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Dr. Margaret Aymer delivers a sermon on meekness and gentleness. (Photo by Alex Simon)
As Jesus rides in, the people quote Psalm 126, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” They lay palm branches at his feet and cry out, “Hosanna!” which means, “Save us!”
“In this moment, the crowd recognized Jesus’ strength, and they hope for the toppling of Rome and the establishment of their own strong man, who will use his strength and brutal ways to help them,” Aymer said. But in this brief account in John, Jesus is silent. “His one action is to find a donkey and ride into Jerusalem,” she said. In this way he invokes Solomon and the prophet Zechariah, who wrote, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Hewill cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.”
“This is the promise of a ruler with meek and gentle power,” Aymer said, “a ruler who opens the way for peace.” Jesus is “a man so certain of his own power that he can be gentle.”
“Jesus’ strength does not allow for brutality,” Aymer said. “He heals even those who would capture him.” That can be “hard to accept when you’d much rather see the legions of heaven unleashed. It is to the cross that we as disciples are called to return, again and again, that we might learn the true strength of being clothed in meekness.”
“We are not called to be minions of any strong man,” Aymer said. “We are called to be disciples of Christ, to cry out our hosannas to the meek one who emptied himself and became obedient, even unto death on the cross.”
“Dear friends,” she urged, “let us clothe ourselves with meekness.”
Monica Buonincontri, Vice President, Marketing & Commumications, The Board of Pensions Donna Burkland, Apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Interim Unified Agency
Let us pray:
Loving God, help us to love you with all of our heart, soul, and mind, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Help us to recall the story of the Good Samaritan and fill us with your Spirit so that we can go and do likewise. Amen.
