Today in the Mission Yearbook - Whistle while you worship

The takeaways abound during PAM’s Worship and Music Conference

November 6, 2021

Photo by Rafik Wahba via Unsplash.

One Sunday morning, Tom Trenney, the Routley Lecturer for the recent Presbyterian Association of Musicians’ Worship and Music Conference and the minister of music at First-Plymouth Church in Lincoln, Nebraska, invited the choir and whoever wanted to in the congregation to whistle during the hymn “Lord of the Dance,” except during the somber fourth verse. He tried the same thing Tuesday, inviting class participants to pucker up behind their masks and whistle.

“I’ll bet you feel a little different in your body or your spirit than you did a few minutes ago,” he said. But on that Sunday morning, Trenney received unexpected feedback from a woman in the congregation, who after the service grabbed Trenney’s arms through his choir robe and told him, with tears in her eyes, “Thank you so much. This morning, when you let us whistle — that was the first time I ever heard my husband make music in church.”

Trenney has a knack for illuminating his daily talks during the in-person and online conference with illustrative stories from his musical experience. When he was in his 20s and 30s, Trenney played organ recitals all over the country. When he’d arrive at a concert stop, typically his host would want to show him a few church organs around town. One day in upstate New York, he was taken to an organ reconstruction project. A full rank of pipes — 61 of them — lay scattered on the floor. The organ builder lifted one of the pipes and told Trenney about his dilemma: “We are still trying to figure out what these pipes want to do.”

“How many times,” Trenney wondered out loud, “do we want our choir to be another sound?”

Worship leaders “get to choose each week what words will be on people’s lips and hearts,” Trenney said. “We can get so concerned about everything in our service fitting together. I think that kind of care and thoughtfulness is beautiful, because the opposite of that is anarchy.”

However, he noted, “We can watch a sitcom and follow three storylines at the same time. In worship, people can track more than one storyline.”

The Rev. Meg Flannagan opened her talk at Montreat Conference Center by sitting down at the piano to play and sing “Rain Down.”

Flannagan is co-pastor of St. Giles Presbyterian Church in Greenville, S.C.

Flannagan’s class, designed to give participants ideas from the conference they can take home with them, allowed participants time to talk about Sunday services as churches return to in-person or hybrid worship.

One student said her congregation has become “over-zealous with passing the peace. We are trying several different things. It’s an awkward moment for us.”

Calling those zealous greeters back into worship can be tricky, Flannagan said.

“How you call people to worship matters,” she said. “’The Lord be with you’ are not meant to be shush words. … Preludes and postludes are not piano bar music. Help your people understand this is what we’re doing and why. We ask you to be seated quietly so you can prepare your heart for worship. The average pew sitter may have never had reason to think about it. Help them think that what we’re doing has intention and purpose.”

Flannagan discussed both baptism and communion as churches re-enter in-person worship. During children’s time, Flannagan said she enjoys from time to time touching children lightly on top of their head with a few drops of baptism water on her fingertips.

As to communion, “Jesus is the host at every table, with every meal, and has given you the gifts you need for that day,” she said. “We are not breaking one loaf, and people are scrounging [for communion elements] at home [during online worship].

“I know people who are not receiving communion at home because they feel it’s not authentic,” Flannagan said. “That is a long time to abstain from the holy feast.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Laura Caruthers, Client Specialist II, Presbyterian Foundation 
Jennifer Cash, Copy Editor, Communications Ministry, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Gracious God, you give strength to the weary and power to the faint. Lift up those who have given so much. May they know the peace of Christ, the peace that surpasses all human understanding. In your gracious name we pray. Amen.

Minute for Mission: World Community Day

November 5, 2021

World Community Day began in 1943 as a day for church women across denominations to study peace. After World War II, leaders of denominations felt that they should set aside a day for prayer and ecumenical study. The leaders thought that while many denominations were performing peace and justice work by themselves, having a day when they could study together would be beneficial to all. The theme for this year’s World Community Day is “New Places, New Faces at the Table.” As Christians, we are called to nurture and cultivate life-giving community — within our families, our churches and throughout God’s world. So let us extend welcome in love and mutual respect.

Resources for World Community Day are available from Church Women United. Write to 5 Penn Plaza, 19th Floor, New York, NY 10001; email info@churchwomenunitedinc@gmail.com; call 212-835-1507; or visit churchwomenunited.net/store.

Carissa Herold, Marketing Associate for Presbyterian Women in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Nathaniel Carter, 1001 Apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Katie Carter, Associate, Faith-Based Investing & Corporate Engagement, Compassion, Peace & Justice, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

God of welcome, God of home, fill us so completely with your loving spirit that we can only respond in love to others and in ways that truly better your world. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Not just a pastor’s job

A ‘Year of Leader Formation’ helps laity step up to serve

November 4, 2021

In the late ’90s, Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri became a member of a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregation in Puerto Rico with a membership of fewer than 20 people. The congregation, the co-moderator of the 223rd General Assembly (2018) recalls, had gone through a schism, and her spouse, the Rev. José Manuel, was called to be its redevelopment pastor. When the couple arrived, they discovered that there was no session, no deacons, no Christian education programs and no musicians. “Church” consisted of Sunday worship only. An administrative commission appointed by the presbytery served as the session.

“The sanctuary had worn-out rusty office chairs, a chancel without a cross and a pulpit that was falling apart,” Cintrón-Olivieri said. “The first two years were the toughest, but we pressed on, identifying those people who could serve as worship leaders, elders and deacons.”

Slowly, the work of the church began taking shape. Leaders began to emerge and the church began to grow. A church member took it upon himself to build a cross for the chancel and installed it with the help of others from the congregation. A member of a sister congregation donated the communion set. Volunteers took turns preparing the sanctuary for Sunday worship.

“Gratitude and wonder abounded, and so did frustration and discouragement,” said Cintrón-Olivieri, adding a sentiment that many Presbyterian congregations can relate to: “Doing ministry in survival mode was no easy feat.”

“Some of our members had been ‘doing church’ the same way for many years. Trying to fit what had always been done to a new reality would not work, and new ways of being church were feared,” she said. “Others got discouraged by what seemed like an enormous task or could not imagine worshiping a cappella for an extended period of time.”

Yet while it was a difficult time, Cintrón-Olivieri says it was “a period of redefining what it meant to be church in our community and a period of many firsts: first-time members, first-time leaders, first-time elders and first-time deacons.”

“If we were to succeed in this endeavor, we would have to surrender to these facts: This was God’s church, not ours; we needed to work together to move the mission forward; and we would have to commit to learning new things,” she said.

The hard work, perseverance and prayer, lots of it, paid off. By the time the administrative commission was dismissed, a four-member deacon board and a five-member session were installed to lead and serve the small congregation.

Cintrón-Olivieri often thinks back on the time in Caguas, Puerto Rico. “We were small, and we were also mighty. We made it through by the grace of God; no doubt about it.” And she knows that her experience is not an isolated one.

“Our Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations are facing, and will face, many challenges in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the pandemics of racism and divisiveness. In the midst of it all, we have seen the Holy Spirit busy at work. This is God’s church, and whomever God calls, God empowers,” she said. But securing leadership in churches as they dwindle is not just about calling a pastor. Empowering the work of elders and deacons is needed.

 The specific roles that ruling elders and deacons play in the life of the church may vary between congregations, but their significance in the ministry of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) cannot be overlooked. Leaders in the Office of the General Assembly are in the midst of a yearlong initiative focusing on the ecclesial formation of these leaders.

The initiative, a “Year of Leader Formation: Investing in Ruling Elders and Deacons,” incorporates a new training resource, a series of articles, a webinar series and other tools to help participants grow in the role. “As a denomination, we haven’t offered new training resources for our ruling elders and deacons for quite some time. This really goes beyond how you are prepared to serve in these roles but also how you live that out,” said Martha Miller with Ministry and Education Support in the Office of the General Assembly. “It is a continuous process focusing on relationships with God and with each other.”

Rick Jones, Director of Communications for the Office of the General Assembly. Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri contributed to this article.

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Darla Carter, Communications Associate, Communications Ministry, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Jackie Carter, Project Manager, Media & Publishing, Communications Ministry, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Dear God, we thank you for the witnesses in our community who reveal to us that the most important thing we can do is be present for our neighbor in need, just as you are present for us in Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.

WCC NEWS: As Bread for the World visits WCC, the focus is on common witness

The leadership team of Bread for the World visited the World Council of Churches (WCC) on 2 November with a focus on being together in the midst of the changing COVID-19 pandemic—and what togetherness means for common service and spiritually.  Photo: Gloria Koymans/WCC 03 November 2021 Discussions centered on what has been learned about communicating a sense of care in creative ways as the COVID-19 pandemic changed the world forever. WCC acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca shared how the WCC is preparing in earnest for the 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany with an eye toward nurturing the next generation of the ecumenical movement. In his opening remarks, Sauca expressed gratitude, even amid pain and suffering. “The world changed in ways we could not imagine,” he said. “We lost many friends, members and leaders.” He shared how the WCC adapted in serving the fellowship, as well as some of the challenges the WCC is facing. “We have entered a new phase of work in the pandemic,” he said. “Things are beginning to open up. We have begun to travel again for in-person meetings.” He also emphasized that we must continue to protect one another and the people we meet.  Sauca shared a sense of joy in anticipating the assembly in 2022. "The assembly comes at a time when the world seems more divided than ever with increasing disparities, increasing racism, increasing populism and increasing violence,” he said. “More than anything, the vision of being together under the theme ‘Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity’ inspires us and compels us to keep moving forward.” The meetings included discussions on the cooperation between Bread for the World and the WCC. The visit included time at the WCC Bossey Ecumenical Institute and an encounter with Bossey students. The Bread for the World leaders joined a round table discussion on WCC programmatic work. The delegation also visited ACT Alliance and other ecumenical organizations in the Ecumenical Centre.    Learn more about Bread for the World  The Ecumenical Institute Bossey  See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 550 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC acting general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, from the Orthodox Church in Romania. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches 150 route de Ferney Geneve 2 1211 Switzerland

Today in the Mission Yearbook - We’ll understand it better by and by

For now, Festival of Homiletics preacher says, we must be visionary people ‘more moved by our possibilities than our present realities’

November 3, 2021

The Rev. Dr. Neichelle Guidry

The Rev. Dr. Neichelle Guidry opened a recent Festival of Homiletics worship service by singing a hymn she’s returned to often during the pandemic, “We’ll Understand It Better By and By”:

“When the morning comes/All the saints of God are gathered home/We’ll tell the story how we’ve overcome/For we’ll understand it better by and by.”

“I think of this song, and it’s hard to divorce the lyrics from the memory of mass choirs decked out in robes, rocking from side to side and singing those powerful words,” said Guidry, the dean of Sisters Chapel and director of the Women in Spiritual Discernment of Ministry (WISDOM) Center at Spelman College in Atlanta.

“We the saints of God will gather in our eschatological home and we will tell the story of how we got there. It will be clear to us how we persevered and made it home to glory, how we endured trials and tribulations and made it over to eternal life on the other side, and why we were born at this time,” Guidry said. “The song talks about hope for the future, and it also speaks to a hope that can hold us in the present.”

Those lyrics make her think of her grandmother. “When I was confused about anything, she always said this: ‘You’ll understand it better by and by. Just keep on living.’”

Paul says something similar in the text Guidry selected for her sermon, “A Visionary People,” heard by more than 800 people during the final day of the online festival. In 1 Cor. 13:12–13, Paul writes: “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.”

“We don’t see everything as we ought to, but we will,” Guidry said. “We will understand it better by and by.”

In the verses of 1 Cor. 13 preceding verse 12, “Paul laid out the case for love. He says we won’t understand it fully until completion comes,” Guidry said. “We need to live in a state of not knowing,” much like we have for the past months, living in multiple pandemics. “For some time, we’ve become accustomed to ambiguity and confusion,” Guidry said, and our vision “is often obscured” by police violence, poverty and hunger, “continuous mass shootings with no legislative intervention in sight,” migrant families “held captive,” misogyny, patriarchy and domestic violence, among others.

“These are but some of our domestic narratives,” Guidry said. “They threaten our ability to hope and see and pray for a different future.”

“How are we supposed to hope,” Guidry asked, “if right here and right now some of us are literally choking on hopelessness?”

The tools of God “aren’t given to us merely to exist,” Guidry said. “These days are ours to claim, to create. It’s time to become visionary people more moved by our possibilities than by our present realities.”

It’s time “to become visionary people who can speak our dreams into existence and subvert the apathy that has become our norm,” Guidry said. “This text provides a roadmap to becoming a visionary people.”

The first step is to renew our faith, because “it gets hard to keep our vision when it’s obscured by bad news and hatred,” Guidry said. “We can’t get to a future if all this turmoil is the only thing we see.”

That renewal includes refreshing one’s spiritual sources, also known in Guidry’s tradition as the “spirit of Sankofa,” the symbol taken up by the Co-Moderators of the 224th General Assembly, the Rev. Gregory Bentley and Ruling Elder Elona Street-Stewart. “You may feel the world is crashing down around you, but it isn’t the first time,” Guidry said. “What happened back then did not break us or stop us from pressing through to the present. We are proof that God is not done yet.”

“Every now and then,” Guidry advised, “remind yourself that this is precisely when God does God’s best work. God is still doing new things. Can we not perceive it?”

 Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
César Carhuachîn, Mission co-worker serving in Colombia, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Olanda Carr, Senior Ministry Relations Officer, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray

O God, may the saving power of your Holy Word and Holy Spirit continue to bring us out of darkness and into your wonderful light. In the name of Jesus, our Savior, we pray. Amen.

Minute for Mission: Honest Patriotism for Christian Citizens

November 2, 2021

It is the beginning of November again, and that means that Election Day is around the corner.  For some of us, that excites the passions, reminding us of our right to participate in the governance of our country. For others of us, whose confidence in our government has been damaged or who are suspicious of the role of government altogether, this time of year may not hold the same sense of promise and hope. Politically, we find members of our denomination all along the spectrum of opinion. And increasingly our faith in, or our suspicion of, government, is a significant marker for where we stand along that spectrum.

Governments, of course, are institutions made up of human beings, and subject to all of the frailty, pettiness and ignorance that we humans share. Government can fail us, can betray us, can anger us to the point that we throw up our hands in disgust. But it is also worth remembering, as Presbyterians, that we stand in a Reformed tradition that acknowledges government as instituted by God, for the ordering of God’s earthly creation. John Calvin devotes the final chapter of his “Institutes” to civil government, and writes, “It is perfect barbarism to think of exterminating [civil government], its use … being not less excellent than that of bread and water, light and air, while its dignity is much more excellent.”

We may see active participation in the body politic as a right to be embraced or as a chore to be endured, but for Reformed Christians it is something more. It is a responsibility of our faith. We spend our lives in communities, and the theology we embrace calls us to serve in those communities as children of God, calling our communities as best we can to their most noble purposes, to justice and to compassion. And in a democracy, Election Day provides us with one of the most direct ways to live into our responsibility.

In the 2018 policy statement “Honest Patriotism,” our denomination issued a call to thoughtful participation in an institution we know to be flawed and subject to error. And we asserted that only through the protection of full participation in the democratic process can we be faithful to our vocation:

Committing ourselves to honest patriotism means an uncompromising attention to full democracy. It means that our government must protect the full participation of all of its citizens. And that most direct means that democracy gives us of making all voices heard, the vote, must be protected without qualification. This is a bare minimum of what we must expect from our government.

We stand in a time and a place where full participation is at risk, and where the protection of democracy has become a necessity. Attempts to limit the right to vote are increasing. Being faithful to our theological tradition means being forceful in rejecting such attempts.

As much as we might want to stay away from the fray (and given the current level of debate, that option becomes more and more tempting) we must know that versions of our faith are already part of the political conversation, and they are loud. The question going forward is what version of the Gospel will our country hear? If we cede the field to those who attach the name of Jesus to hatred and division, we have made a political and a theological decision. We have chosen to accept, by our silence, these pernicious teachings. When we exempt ourselves from being Christians in our public lives, we are acting out a theology. But is it a faithful one?

Robert Trawick, professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at St. Thomas Aquinas College and member of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
James Carey, Director of Investments & Portfolio Management Services, Presbyterian Foundation
Tim Cargal, Manager, for Ministry Preparation & Support, Office of the General Assembly

Let us pray

God of grace, grant us the strength to live as your disciples. Grant us wisdom to guide our decisions and humility to acknowledge when we have been mistaken. And create in us receptive hearts and minds, that we may hear your Word in the aspirations and dreams of those with whom we share your creation. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Global partners in Southern Europe gather virtually to discuss mutual ministry

Presentations focus on the interconnection of justice and solidarity

November 1, 2021

Pikpa Camp was a setting for some of Greece’s most vulnerable refugees and was closed in October 2020 by the Greek government. Kathy Melvin

Presbyterian World Mission’s Office of the Middle East and Europe brought together representatives from global partners in Southern Europe virtually recently to discuss the interconnections of justice, solidarity and mutual ministry.

Presentations of creative ministry and advocacy within each individual context were shared from global partners in Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal. After the presentations, three representatives of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), including the Rev. Dr. Diane Moffett, president and executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency (PMA), responded to common threads identified between the work of partners and the priority foci of the PC(USA).

“The Mediterranean is one of the crucial regions of the world with many geopolitical implications and we know our partners, small, minority reformed churches and NGOs active in their societies to promote peace with justice,” said Luciano Kovacs, coordinator of World Mission’s office of the Middle East and Europe, who moderated the webinar.

Dimitris Boukis, secretary of the executive committee of the Evangelical Church of Greece, said the church takes seriously its prophetic voice for the sake of the gospel.

For the past 25 years, the church has taken an active role in working with refugees and immigrants, opening the first center for people in need in downtown Athens. After addressing the immediate needs of food and clothing, the church went on to create shelters and offer language classes, medical care and legal advice. The work is done by a church community of just 5,000 people throughout Greece.

“It is not always easy,” said Boukis. “We are not always successful, but as long as we see even one or two people have found a new life and new opportunities, we feel well.”

Boukis told the participants that their work would not be possible without partners from around the world who have supported them with prayers, financial help and, most importantly, their presence.

“We are grateful for Nadia Ayoub, mission co-worker in Katerini, who works in one of our large refugee centers,” he said. “In her, we see all of you. We know we cannot do much, but with a family behind us with a common desire to serve the gospel of Jesus Christ, we feel stronger and have the power to continue what we are doing here in Greece.”

Human rights activist Efi Latsoudi, one of the founders of Lesvos Solidarity, talked about the current situation in Lesvos, after the government closed the Pikpa Camp she helped found for some of the island’s most vulnerable refugees. She said there is a desperate need for decent refugee accommodations, with many living in terrible conditions. Even though the camp has closed, they have started a new center for women and families. They are also working with a local network to help people find jobs.

“We try to send the message that we can all live together, that the solution is not to keep people out but to try to address this as a society and to find solutions the human way,” she said.

Representing Mediterranean Hope, Paolo Naso, a member of the Waldensian Church of Italy, one of the smallest Protestant churches in the world, has created a global and inclusive approach to refugees despite the church’s small numbers.

“We have evidence of hundreds of people dying because there is no safe route for the asylum seekers,” said Naso. “We don’t have land borders or deserts as you have in the U.S. We have the Mediterranean. And this wonderful sea, instead of being a bridge of communication among cultures and people, is becoming an immoral cemetery for our generation.”

The church has focused its efforts on creating legal ways to find refuge in Italy. Through advocacy, lobbying and political campaigns, they have convinced the Italian government to develop a humanitarian corridor for refugees and hope others can learn from their success.

He talked about the Bible passage recounting the resurrection of Lazarus.

“These people were dead. Their bodies were dead. Their hopes were dead. Their fantasies were dead and their dreams,” he said. “But through the actions we started, we have seen people taking back their lives, their dignity and those who were dead start to live again and live in richness with hopes and dreams.”

Kathy Melvin, Director of Mission Communications, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Kelly Cahill, Business Administrator, Information Technology, Board of Pensions
Suzan Cantrell, Mission Associate, Mission Personnel Payroll & Finance, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Lord Christ, fill your followers in Vietnam with bold faith and the power of the Holy Spirit. Continue to increase the number of believers, one house church at a time. May we be inspired by their witness and support them through the gift of prayer. In Jesus’ holy name. Amen.