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Daily Lectionary Readings |
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Interim Unified Agency, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, KY 40202 |
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Friday, October 31, 2025
Daily Lectionary Readings for October 31, 2025
Mission Yearbook: Young Presbyterians take part in U.N. sustainability gathering
The Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations (PMUN) hosted nearly a dozen young people this week for a high-level U.N. gathering in New York focused on Sustainable Development Goals that were adopted in 2015 to spur global progress toward ending poverty, protecting the planet, achieving peace and ensuring prosperity and partnership worldwide.
The first Presbyterian Young Adult Delegation to the U.N. High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) was comprised of participants nominated by their churches and presbyteries to observe the U.N. discussions and to take part in events organized by PMUN and its partners.
Sue Rheem, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) representative to the U.N. and manager of the PMUN office, said the delegation from around the country was strong and that she was “grateful to the mid council and church leaders for their support in getting the word out and to the Church of the Covenant in New York City for providing housing accommodations with generous support from the Presbytery of New York City.”
The forum brought together ministerial and high-level representatives of governments, as well as other experts and stakeholders, to discuss the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted at the U.N. Sustainable Development Summit a decade ago.
Members of the Presbyterian delegation hailed from churches and presbyteries spanning from Newark, New Jersey, to Southern California.
The forum was “an opportunity for young people to come to the U.N. to learn about sustainable development, to meet others from around the world who are working for change to live more sustainably and be part of the solution to create a world that is more just and equitable,” Rheem said.
The theme of this year’s forum was “Advancing sustainable, inclusive, science- and evidence-based solutions for the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs for leaving no one behind.”
The goals being reviewed in-depth were Good Health and Well-Being, Gender Equality, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Life Below Water, and Partnerships for the Goals, Rheem said.
With the deadline to reach the goals just five years away, the U.N. recently released a report that indicated that the SDGs have improved millions of lives, but change isn’t occurring fast enough to fully achieve every goal by 2030.
Despite gains such as increased access to education, electricity and the internet, “we are not where we need to be,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said during a news conference. “Only 35% of SDG targets are on track or making moderate progress. Nearly half are moving too slowly, and 18% are going in reverse. We are in a global development emergency — an emergency measured in the over 800 million people still living in extreme poverty, in intensifying climate impacts, and in relentless debt service, draining the resources that countries need to invest in their people.”
He also stressed the importance of peace, acknowledging the deep links between underdevelopment and conflicts and stressing the importance of continuing to work for peace in places like Sudan, Ukraine and the Middle East.
“We need an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the immediate release of all hostages and unimpeded humanitarian access as a first step to achieve the two-state solution,” he said. Also, “from the DRC to Somalia, from the Sahel to Myanmar, we know that sustainable peace requires sustainable development.”
Darla Carter, Communications Strategist, Interim Unified Agency (Click here to read original PNS Story)
Let us join in prayer for:
Lemuel Garcia, Stewardship Officer, Stewardship and Major Gift Officers, Administrative Services Group
Ruth Gardner, Director, Human Resources, Administrative Services Group
Let us pray:
Gracious God, grant us the wisdom as we explore new ways of serving. Though none follow your path perfectly, we know your grace goes with us on the journey. Help us to serve others along the way. Amen.
Thursday, October 30, 2025
Mission Yearbook: North Carolina group extends love and aid to flooded Texas
A grassroots organization known for being instrumental in helping the people of western North Carolina to recover from Hurricane Helene is giving back to flood-ravaged Texas as a reciprocal gesture of love.
BeLoved Asheville, a North Carolina-based grant partner of the Presbyterian Hunger Program, recently sent cleaning supplies and other goods to beleaguered Texas, where more than 130 people died as a result of catastrophic flooding in early July.
The outreach by BeLoved Asheville is the group’s way of giving love back to one of the states from which compassionate volunteers showed up when Helene devastated western North Carolina last September.
“Probably more than nine months ago, one of the first people that came to Asheville … were people from Texas,” said Ponkho Bermejo, a co-director of BeLoved Asheville. “So, when all this happened in Kerrville, our first reaction was thinking how we can support them because they supported us in the darkest time in western North Carolina.”
The outreach to Texas is documented on BeLoved Asheville’s Facebook page, which says in part, “After driving over 20 hours, we reached Kerrville, Texas — and it felt like returning to that Sept. 27 when Hurricane Helene tore through our WNC community. The devastation, the heartbreak ... but also the memory of Texans driving 20-plus hours to bring us supplies. … Love given can only be repaid with love.”
The Rev. Amy Cantrell, a co-director of BeLoved Asheville, said the desire to help was “visceral” when they heard about the destruction and loss of life in Texas. Among the casualties were at least 27 children and staff at Camp Mystic, and Jane Ragsdale, a ruling elder at First Presbyterian Church of Kerrville who was camp director at Heart O’ the Hills Camp for Girls in Hunt, Texas.
“We felt it in our bodies, that trauma and what those folks are going through, and we wanted to show up,” Cantrell said.
She added that BeLoved Asheville also is "supporting organizers on the ground in the wake of storms in Texas and central North Carolina, sharing wisdom and support as people who have been through disaster.”
Reaching out to others in need is a way to bring about unity and also to foster healing, Bermejo said.
In the days following Hurricane Helene, “I remember people coming from all over the country, and us being wowed, like, oh, people came from North Dakota, they came from Texas, they came from California, New York,” Cantrell said. Also, “I remember saying to people, ‘If it happens to you, we're coming.’ … We have this deep sense and understanding of mutuality, of kinship.”
BeLoved Asheville was a key source of help in North Carolina in not only Asheville but throughout devastated parts of the Appalachian region.
“Our impacted zone was so wide,” Cantrell said. “We were serving about 15,000 people every day throughout the impacted area here in western North Carolina, which is about two hours in either direction.”
“We shared millions of resources — food, water, hygiene, first aid. We had hike teams going out hiking five miles into inaccessible areas," Cantrell said. "We set up temporary water infrastructure for schools and childcare centers and communities to be able to function again, so we were just doing all sorts of different things,” including getting medication to people.
And the work is continuing. The group just completed its 100th major home repair/rebuild, Cantrell said.
BeLoved Asheville's day-to-day work focuses on creating home, health, equity and opportunity for all, according to the group's website. Projects include building an affordable housing village in East Asheville, and there’s a second village slated for hurricane-ravaged Swannanoa.
Jennifer Evans, an associate for PHP communications and national partnerships, said the work that BeLoved Asheville does is particularly important at a time when the powerful are unraveling the country’s social safety net.
BeLoved Asheville embodies “what it means to be a beloved community, rooted in justice, responsive in compassion and committed to collective care — not just for their local neighbors, but for those facing disaster across state lines. Their witness reminds us that community can rise up to stand in the gap when systems fail.”
Darla Carter, Communications Strategist, Interim Unified Agency (Click here to read original PNS Story)
Let us join in prayer for:
Marissa Galvan-Valle, Associate, Hispanic Resources & Relationships, Growing Faith Resources, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
Greta Garbo, Accounting Clerk, Accounts Payable Office, Administrative Services Group
Let us pray:
Most gracious God, we seek your presence whenever and wherever we gather together in Christ’s name. We know you watch over us and lead us. Continue to bless us as we look for ways to share our ministry with siblings near and far. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
Mission Yearbook: A sermon on Amos challenges assumptions about sanctuary
Whose sanctuary is this, anyway?
That was the provocative question the Rev. Dr. Starsky Wilson, president and CEO of the Children’s Defense Fund, recently explored during a sermon based on Amos 7:7–17 at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. Watch Wilson’s sermon here.
“I’m glad those are not my words!” Wilson said after relating the words of Amos’ prophecy of doom for King Jeroboam II and his people. “This is the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.”
“This conversation and conflict comes up between one who is a priest, Amaziah, and one whom we have deemed a prophet, Amos,” he noted. “Here at Bethel there is a dialogue about whose sanctuary this is.”
In this context, sanctuary “is an open-air space, spaces in nature where those who gather might have direct contact with God,” he said. “God’s open space in nature had been … sanctified and set apart by those who engage in priestly ritual to distinguish between the sacred and the profane, that this is holy ground.”
Just before this text, Amaziah engages in conversation with the king “about Amos before he talks to Amos,” Wilson noted.
“Where I’m from [Wilson served congregations in Missouri and Texas before beginning his work with the Children’s Defense Fund], we are a little bit careful about people who talk about you to the authorities before they talk to you. We’re careful about people who would rather talk to the police than talk to their neighbors. … We have a short word for that: We call them ‘snitches.’”
“Some feel more comfortable with proximity to power,” Wilson said, “than they do with [proximity to] God’s people.”
Go back to your own neighborhood, Amaziah tells Amos. “Don’t speak this way here,” is how Wilson put it, “because this is the king’s sanctuary.”
“Amaziah’s declaration may sound far-fetched. We can hardly imagine someone coming here into the hallowed grounds of New York Avenue Presbyterian Church and saying, ‘this is the president’s sanctuary.’ We would never say, ‘this is [Mayor] Muriel Bowser’s sanctuary.’ But I want to suggest there are many of us who do so each and every day.”
Amaziah “is not only claiming property rights for a building, he is also gentrifying ground, claiming a portion of Creation that God made for God’s self. Who does he think he is?” Wilson asked.
The question can also be asked, “whose sanctuary are you, anyway?”
“The challenge of dual citizenship in this world and in the kingdom of God is presented in the context of this text,” Wilson said. “The question of allegiance to the things of God or the things of the kingdom, the empire, the nations of this world, is a realistic question we must answer as we begin to shape our beings as God’s people.”
Amaziah “calls Amos a prophet and Amos says, ‘nah, bruh,’” Wilson said. “If you let others define your identity, your community, your call, you’ll be left to pick up the broken pieces of the narrative they construct for you.”
Amos’ answer to Amaziah has lessons for us today, he said.
For one, “prophecy is not a profession but a commitment to principles.”
Amos is saying, “I don’t have papers for this. I’m not a member of the guild … I am a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees. Amaziah has done what many of us have done when it comes to ministry: he has delegated the ministry of God’s Word to a select group of people who hang together in the sanctuary, tarry around the church” and wear garb like the stole Wilson wore on Sunday.
“Your call,” Wilson said, “is to live out the reality of what the red doors of your sanctuary really mean.” Church doors that are red historically signal there’s refuge and safety from violence inside. “In a world where people are knocked out and grabbed up for being different, what does it mean to live a witness that among us, they are fully and completely safe to be their whole selves?”
“It’s not a professionalized ministry that is somebody else’s responsibility,” he said, “but rather is the call of the entire congregation.”
Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)
Let us join in prayer for:
Adam Foster, Accountant, Financial Reporting, Administrative Services Group
Penny Franklin, Executive Relations Coordinator, Executive Office, The Presbyterian Foundation
Let us pray:
Loving God, help us to be people of faith, hope and love in a world that needs them desperately. Help us to express your love. Teach us to cling to the possibilities of your transforming power and allow us to help others to do the same. In your loving and welcoming presence, we pray. Amen.
Tuesday, October 28, 2025
Mission Yearbook: Finding healing in community through shared stories
PC(USA) pastor and former Boston television news anchor the Rev. Liz Walker presented what she’s learned from a community of trauma victims during a recent episode of “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast.” Listen to Walker’s 51-minute conversation with podcast hosts Simon Doong and the Rev. Lee Catoe here.
In her recent book “No One Left Alone: A Story of How Community Helps Us Heal,” Walker, the former pastor of Roxbury Presbyterian Church in Boston, discusses the “Can We Talk? Community Conversations on Trauma and Healing” gatherings that go on at Roxbury Presbyterian Church and 20 other locations. People come to briefly share their stories around trauma, then sit down and listen to other stories.
When Walker began her pastorate at Roxbury, “the neighborhood was in the midst of a gang war. Our church wanted to do something more than the usual [advocacy for] improved policies or the allocation of funds,” she said. Church leaders decided to focus on “people in pain: people who had lost loved ones to gun violence, and people who sometimes commit violence.”
Some of the research they conducted uncovered “this notion of collective trauma: an entire community could be victimized by any violent act,” Walker said.
“The way we decided to deal with it was to invite people to the basement of the church — lots of good things happen in church basements — to talk about their pain, their experiences, their trauma, their violence, but to talk about it from an emotional standpoint, not to talk about it to fix it,” she said. “We’ve learned over the past 10 years that story sharing helps people feel not so alone, to process the pain they are in, and ultimately can heal a community — not heal in the sense of fixing things or resolving these issues, but healing in the sense of bringing people together and finding ways to work with each other.”
She described the community transformation that occurred as “soft transformation, that person-to-person transformation. It’s something I believe the church absolutely is primed to do.”
The story sharing program began with a death in the church. A young member died as a result of gun violence in the neighborhood. He was out with his half-brother near his home when they were caught in a shooting.
When the man was killed, “his family was devastated, as were his neighbors,” Walker said. “The church comes alongside the family and does the best it can to support this family. There’s a funeral, and we come over and sit with the family. But then we leave, and the world moves on — but the family is stuck in that moment of trauma. There are victim support groups, but there is always an expiration date on the support of families of homicide. The pain doesn’t go away.”
As she’s listened to people’s stories, “what I have learned is grief is a rollercoaster. Trauma can happen over and over again,” Walker said. This young man’s mother, a deacon and a leader in the church, “had already dealt with the funerals of lots of other people, but had never experienced anything like this.”
“She didn’t say she felt like God had deserted her, but she didn’t want to have anything to do with God,” Walker said. “That’s what we know about trauma: You disconnect from your neighbors, from yourself, and from your higher power, from God. That’s a bad place to be lost in, and it’s an isolating place to be lost in.”
“We have made the road as we’ve walked it, in many ways,” Walker told the hosts. “We’ve realized our nation is now full of traumatized people for all kinds of reasons. By sharing your story, you start breaking out of that stuck place.”
Doong pointed out that sharing one’s story “is not going to change the fact that a loved one is gone or that someone has experienced something very tragic.” But story sharing “does allow someone to feel heard and to feel connected, and sometimes that’s worth its weight in gold, even when it’s not something you can measure.”
New episodes of “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast” drop every Thursday. Listen to previous editions here.
Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)
Let us join in prayer for:
Shawn Ford, Internal Auditor, Internal Audit, Administrative Services Group
Lynne Foreman, Major Gifts Officer, Stewardship and Major Gift Officers, Administrative Services Group
Let us pray:
Almighty God, giver of all good gifts, bless our efforts to provide to the people of this world. Through these efforts, may more of your children know the abundant life that Christ came to bring us. Amen.
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