Minute for Mission: Legacy Giving Sunday

May 7, 2023

A dear friend from my church passed away in July 2022. Kevin was just 55 years old. Just writing that pricks my eyes with tears.

He loved, loved, loved my three daughters. They loved him right back. He was their confirmation mentor, their Sunday school teacher, their chaperone, and a foundational rock in their lives and in the life of our church. He was the kind of person you called when you couldn’t make sense of the world, and his rational, calm read on things would calm you down and give you hope. In many ways, Kevin was an “adulty adult” who made everything feel like it would be OK.

Kevin and I had some time to talk about the meaning of legacy, and the things he wanted to accomplish before he passed. Kevin was ill for a few years – and in some ways, this slow departure from our planet is a gift. It is time for you think through what matters to you, and how you want to be remembered. It gives you time to tell people you love them, and people get the chance to tell you how much you influenced them.

While many of us are in denial about death — and secretly think, well, maybe I won’t die! — Kevin knew it was coming, and made his plans to ensure that his earthly matters would be entrusted to the organizations and people he loved. He cared deeply for his family and wanted to ensure that they felt cared for and loved after his passing.

As I write this, I think about my own legacy. What, and who, do I love? What organizations have made a huge difference in my life, the life of my family, and my community? Who is changing the world?

I’d put my own church at the top of that list, and I hope that you would, too. For many of us, our churches are places we’ve spent an enormous amount of time, and given so much of our lives and energy. They’ve given back to us, too, surrounding us with love in difficult times, buoying our spirits when we’ve faced personal traumas, and bringing us meals when we were exhausted and couldn’t bear to think about cooking.

One of the best gifts Kevin gave to his family and to our church is the preparation he did in the past few years. It’s a wonderful gift for you to give your family, too. Express both verbally and on paper (in a legal document) where you want gifts to go. It’s also crucial to tell the church or other ministries what your plans are, so that they know your intentions and know how you would like your gift to be used.

You may not feel you have much to give. It’s not about the amount; it’s about acknowledging the importance of your church or an important ministry in your life and in the life of your family. Your estate plans tell your family what matters to you, and sets an example for the next generation. Your estate is the largest gift you’ll ever have to give.

What’s more, once this item is checked off of your to-do list, you’ll feel better. What a sense of relief to know you’ve had this hard conversation, you’ve made these plans, and you have been able to make choices that will both communicate your legacy and ensure that your church, the ministries you supported and so much more will continue to benefit from your generous spirit.

I have a will. It’s been in place since my oldest daughter was born. I’ll be getting it out and reading it over, and ensuring that the plans I made still make sense, and also considering making a larger gift to my church in my estate.

In life and death, we belong to God. And so does our stuff.

The Presbyterian Foundation is able to assist congregations and church members who are ready to think about how to share all that God has given to us. Your Ministry Relations Officer can help. You can find yours at presbyterianfoundation.org/mro.

Robyn Davis Sekula serves as Vice President of Communications and Marketing for the Presbyterian Foundation. She is a ruling elder in the PC(USA) and member of Highland Presbyterian Church.

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Diana Burgos, Kitchen Assistant, Stony Point Center
Becky Burton, Data Representative, Ministry Engagement & Support, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)

Let us pray

Dear God, teach us to be generous with all that we have, which all comes from you. Help us to discern the best path in caring for all that has been entrusted to us. Teach us to hear your call. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Presbyterians Today columnist: Breath prayer eases anxiousness

Ancient practice synchronizes breathing with sacred words

May 6, 2023

Originally published May/June 2020

Diane Stephens Hogue

Whether it’s threats like climate change or a pandemic — or whether we feel powerless after news of another shooting or natural disaster — we live in a state of fear and constant vigilance.

Take a deep breath, I tell those who come to me for spiritual direction. Let’s breathe together, slowly, I say.

These are anxious times. And they are taking a toll. We find ourselves restless and indecisive. Tears flow at every injustice. We are less patient and more snappish. Self-doubt, stress eating and insomnia have a hold on us. Our creativity is shot.

Just breathe, I hear myself saying again and again.

While we cannot avoid stress in our lives, we can develop healthy ways of managing stressors, beginning with mastering “breath prayer” — a spiritual practice tracing its roots to the desert fathers and mothers in the third century CE.

We take about 25,000 breaths per day. The air we breathe contains 21% oxygen, 0.04% carbon dioxide, 78% nitrogen and small amounts of other chemical elements. The air we exhale is different only in the amounts of oxygen and carbon dioxide, now 16% oxygen and 4% carbon dioxide. In that exchange, we have oxygenated our blood with nutrients our cells need for energy, intelligence, imagination and love.

But we tend to be shallow breathers, using only about 15% of our lung capacity, which exacerbates fear and any anxiety we may be feeling. Deep breathing (also known as diaphragmatic breathing, abdominal breathing and belly breathing) is the antidote, and it is as straightforward as filling the lungs by inhaling deeply through the nostrils, holding for three counts and exhaling slowly through the mouth.

In the past few years, the health care profession has been touting breathwork for improved health. All the while, religious traditions worldwide have known for millennia the benefits of breath awareness, from Taoist Qigong breathing to Tibetan Pranayama to Zen breathing practices. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, we understand that we are animated and enlivened by the breath that was breathed into us at Creation. Interestingly, in Hebrew the word for “breath” and “spirit” are the same — ruach.

In our Christian faith, we also know the power of prayer. If we turn our attention to God, we can catalyze our deep breathing with breath prayer. This prayer invites us to synchronize our breathing with sacred words. The psalms, with their raw emotions and poetic language, are well suited to breath prayer. Sacred poetry and hymn texts work, too.

Breath prayer is simple to do, requires minimal preparation and can be done anywhere. The repetition of words that mean something, our breathing — they engage us body, heart, mind and soul. We rest in the Spirit and discover new dimensions of trust in God.

These are anxious times.

Yes, they are. But just breathe and pray, I remind myself.

Put into practice

• Choose a phrase of up to 12 sacred words.
• Divide it into two parts. You will pray the first part on the inhale and the second on the exhale.
• Sit comfortably. Close your eyes. Tune out any distractions.
• Take three deep breaths, slowly. Resume your normal pace of breathing.
• When ready, introduce the first part of your prayer on the inhale. Exhale the second.
• Repeat the phrase in the silence of your heart as you breathe naturally, up to 20 minutes.
• Slowly let the words fall away. Tend to your breathing. Open your eyes and reorient yourself.
• Carry your breath prayer with you as God’s word to you today.

Diane Stephens Hogue for Presbyterians Today, Special to Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Monica Buonincontri, Director, Enterprise Marketing, Board of Pensions
Cherrie Burch, Senior Accounting Clerk, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray

God of grace, we ask that you would give us creative ways to serve the people and that they would one day claim the hope and joy of abundant life in Christ. Amen.

Minute for Mission: National Day of Awareness & Action for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit People

May 5, 2023

Photo courtesy of Alethia Oatman

Indigenous communities have been struck by the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit people (MMIW) for decades. This epidemic is a systemic failure where Indigenous women are going missing and being murdered at alarmingly high rates with minimal justice. Within the past several years, the MMIW movement has brought awareness of this violence to the public’s attention. Still, there is much work to be done.

On average, four out of five Indigenous women will experience violence in their lifetime. In some areas, the rates of Indigenous women being murdered is 10x the national average (found at csvanw.org). This epidemic of violence on Indigenous women is devastating for the families and communities. Indigenous women have always been placed on a pedestal for being the creators and caretakers for each community and losing even just one person is a loss in the language, culture and historical lineage.

As the MMIW movement continues to grow, there is hope that Indigenous families can find healing and justice. However, justice can only be found when the systemic barriers within the justice systems on the tribal, state and federal level are addressed. Indigenous communities are advocating for federal policies to be put in place that would protect their nations’ sovereign rights over their people and homelands. Supporting legislative policies such as Savanna’s Act and Not Invisible Act are the first steps in addressing these systemic barriers.

Indigenous communities may find healing when the tragic situations of their loved ones are recognized on a national level with a sense of urgency for the tragedy to be addressed. It is crucial for the survivors’ stories and voices to be heard so they can mourn with the peace of mind knowing justice will be served.

Some possible ideas to assist in the work of MMIW would be to use your own social media to bring awareness to everyone you know about the cases. You can also call the local law enforcement department working on the case to see what you might be able to do to bring awareness to the seriousness of the situation, perhaps calling local media sources and national media sources in the search for missing people.

You can find more information at the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women at csvanw.org .

Danelle Crawford McKinney and Madison McKinney, co-writers

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Laura Bryan, Coordinator, Financial Aid for Service, Theology, Formation & Evangelism, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Lucy Bryant, Manager, Online Services, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray

Creator From All Directions, we pray for strength and confidence for Indigenous women who feel invisible but need to know they are strong warriors, and for your powerful hand to assist men when they feel helpless to protect and comfort families, and for all Indigenous people as they strive to teach the young people on how to protect and prevent harm to their future communities. Help us to give them a voice and support them through our actions in areas they need it the most. In your most holy name, we pray. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - ‘Just Creation’ panelists describe the places on Earth that helped form them

Columbia Theological Seminary conference offers up three speakers with varied experiences but a common goal of environmental justice

May 4, 2023

The Rev. Kate Mosley

A plenary session during Columbia Theological Seminary’s Just Creation conference included panelists remembering a patch of Earth that’s special to them.

The panel, moderated by the Rev. Dr. Mark Douglas, the seminary’s professor of Christian Ethics, included:

Dr. Richard Milligan, a geographer and assistant professor at Georgia State University

The Rev. Kate Mosley, a PC(USA) pastor and Columbia Theological Seminary graduate who co-founded Soul Ventures International and is executive director of the International Enneagram Association

The Rev. Dr. Melanie Harris, professor of Black Feminist Thought and Womanist Theology and director of the Food, Health and Ecological Well-Being Program at the Wake Forest University School of Divinity and African American Studies program at Wake Forest University.

For Harris, the presence of God made the place they were in at that moment sacred space. “I’m deeply grateful for this space on the planet.”

The Rev. Dr. Melanie Harris

Milligan said it’s the 180 or so square miles of the Upper South River watershed southeast of Atlanta, where 85% of the 480,000 or so residents are people of color and have experienced environmental injustice over the years.

Mosley recalled being a 4-year-old girl immersed “in a small intimate grove of pine trees” in her neighborhood. Her mother gave her a brown paper bag, which Mosley used as a sleeping bag while she “looked at the trees and appreciated the silence. I thought these trees were enormous companions of mine. … In that ordinary place I realized these are all sacred patches.”

Later the family moved to South Texas and lived among the refineries. “We had a postage stamp of a yard,” Mosley said. “In that space I became friends with kids whose parents had good jobs at those refineries. What matters is we see each other. Those faces inform the work I know.”

Milligan takes people on paddle trips along the South River, where “we look at the resilience and the beauty that are there. … You see the pristine, pure places getting resources [from grant sources] and the damaged places not getting them. It’s a deeply segregated enterprise.”

Dr. Richard Milligan

In the Black church tradition, to notice is to act, Harris said. “To be a person of faith is to act. There is no privilege to sit back and acknowledge guilt or struggle with guilt, or to call 25 committee meetings to discuss what environmental justice ought to be in the denomination. The Black church still speaks so powerfully in this moment. Of course, we are to act.”

Some people, Harris said, “are moved [to act] by the ethical argument, and others by the great grandchildren argument, while others [are motivated] by the discount they get on [an electric vehicle].” But “most people,” Harris said, “will be moved by the Spirit.”

Increasingly, geographers have enhanced the use of Geographic Information System mapping “to create this equivalence between Black lives and harm,” Milligan said. He said the National Science Foundation has approved a five-year grant that will allow him and other partners to work with two Black-led organizations to recruit and engage with Black geoscientists “to better understand and repair environmental injustices in frontline communities.”

The work that Fannie Lou Hamer and others call for includes dismantling “white supremacist modes of the sense of ownership of the Earth,” Harris said. “How can you own the song of a bird? The thought is ridiculous. It’s not just blasphemous.” Hamer “loved the white supremacist who beat her when she was arrested in the same way Black Lives Matter [advocates] loved themselves and the planet and democracy itself enough to stand 3 inches from fully armed police officers.”

“That’s God’s love,” Harris said. “We’ve got to do the work to get to love.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Andrew Browne, Senior Vice President, Church Relations, Board of Pensions
Vernon Broyles, Volunteer, Office of the General Assembly

Let us pray

O God, your name reaches to the ends of the earth. We rejoice that we may go out and spread your word that you are our god, forever and ever. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Environmental Defense Fund vice president opens Just Creation conference with insights into a beloved psalm

Heather McTeer Toney says caring for Creation is ‘going to take a little bit of science, a lot of money and a whole lot of faith’

May 3, 2023

Heather McTeer Toney

Heather McTeer Toney, vice president for Community Engagement with the Environmental Defense Fund, opened the Just Creation conference at Columbia Theological Seminary by diving into Psalm 24:1–2, a favorite passage among those advocating for and working at Creation care: “The Earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world and those who live in it, for [God] has founded it on the seas and established it on the rivers.”

However, Toney said, many Bible translations render that last word “floods” rather than “rivers.” The difference got Toney to reminisce over being the first Black mayor of Greenville, Mississippi, an office she won at age 27. “I knew what a flood was. You get a whole lot of rain and your street floods first. Your sewer backs up first. That’s what comes to mind for a lot of communities of color when they read ‘flood’ in the Bible,” Toney said during her keynote address at Decatur Presbyterian Church in Decatur, Georgia. Systemic racism “puts communities of color at a disadvantage.”

A river is different. “In Mississippi, you don’t play by the river. You respect the river,” she said. “It’s the life source of agriculture. It enriches the soil so the farmland can be rejuvenated. The river is powerful and beautiful. When we see it in the Bible, we have to equate some of these differences based on our cultural experiences. We do that when we get to know communities and spaces.”

Watch her address here.

Not only is understanding the need for environmental justice crucial, “it’s at the core” of her Christian faith, Toney said. “What encumbers one of us encumbers us all.”

As Matthew’s gospel points out, God sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. “The trees don’t decide who to protect [from the sun and the rain] and who not to protect,” Toney said. “We must all collectively look at God’s ability to care for us as part of our requirement to take care of God’s Creation. It’s your job. It’s the thing you’re supposed to do.”

“We’re going to screw it up sometimes,” she said. But “God must have had some faith in humanity to give us care and oversight over Creation.”

As human beings, “it’s easy for us to look at another place,” point out its shortcomings, “and say what they should do. It’s harder to do that closer to home,” Toney said. The East Palestine, Ohio community has received plenty of media attention and sympathy following last month’s toxic train derailment, which affected a mostly white community. But scant attention has been paid to train derailments affecting majority Black communities, Toney noted.

“Just like in East Palestine, the trusted sources for communities is not always the government,” she said. “People ask their pastor. They call their aunt’s cousin and say, ‘Girl, what’s going on at your house? Are they telling you to leave?’ We are the trusted sources for people,” she told conference-goers. “It’s necessary to wade into these tough environmental spaces.”

“It’s hard to deal with controversial issues, the things that don’t sit in the spaces we sit in every day,” Toney said, mentioning specifically the water crises in Flint, Michigan, and Jackson, Mississippi. “Is it a river or a flood? What might be a river for you is a flood for somebody else. Our responsibility is to care for God’s Creation. It means we have to spend time with one another in different places, messing up sometimes and be OK with messing up.”

If we don’t know the very thing we’re supposed to care for, “it’s because we haven’t spent time with it,” she said. “How am I supposed to care for something I didn’t see? We have to get into the community. It’s our responsibility to do that and do that in a way of love and hope, which changes the narrative so our work with climate becomes synonymous with faith and Creation.”

“Who’s better suited for that than people of faith?” she asked. “It’s going to take a little bit of science, a lot of money and a whole lot of faith.”

Mike Ferguson, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Analise Brown, Administrative Assistant, Theology, Formation & Evangelism, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Lorraine Brown, Associate for Finance & Building Operations, Presbyterian Historical Society

Let us pray

God of love and life, hear us as we pray for the witness of your peace to permeate all of the places where we serve. We know that your Spirit is more powerful than all that challenges us, and so we turn to you and rely on your strength and your courage to see us through. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - PC(USA) pastor and leader the Rev. Dr. Aimee Moiso talks about the constructive side of conflict

The associate director of the Louisville Institute is a guest on ‘Leading Theologically’

May 2, 2023

The Rev. Dr. Aimee Moiso

The Rev. Dr. Aimee Moiso, associate director of the Louisville Institute, clearly derives great joy just by showing up for work each morning.

“Our main mission is giving grants and fellowships to people doing research in religion, especially North American Christianity,” Moiso explained to the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty, senior director for Theological Education Funds Development with the Presbyterian Foundation during a recent “Leading Theologically” broadcast, which can be heard here or here. Applications come to the Louisville Institute from scholars and pastors, “people very passionate about the church and its future and how it can be more just and equitable,” Moiso said. “I get to read all those proposals and hear all their passion.”

“We don’t always hear that. We often hear sad stories about churches closing,” Moiso told Hinson-Hasty. “I get to see where the life is.”

Based on the campus of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, the Louisville Institute in 2022 awarded 93 grants and fellowships totaling $2.45 million. Funded by the Religion Division of Lilly Endowment Inc., the Louisville Institute’s mission “is to bridge church and academy through awarding grants and fellowships to those who lead and study North American religious institutions, practices and movements, and thereby promoting scholarship that strengthens Church, academy and society, and ultimately contributes to the flourishing of the Church,” according to its website.

But that’s not why Moiso appeared with Hinson-Hasty. She was there to discuss the topic “Our Faith in Conflict,” going back from work Moiso did for her dissertation by drawing on the Mennonite tradition. When Moiso speaks to churches or groups, she usually hears conflict described as bad or even sinful.

Moiso thinks of conflict as “the tension we feel when we encounter something different,” such as “you use a fork and I use chopsticks. You’re a little different from me. It doesn’t mean anything except we’re different, and we affirm that in the church. God created us different.”

Conflict can be destructive, but it can also be constructive. It can get parties “to places of deeper engagement,” Moiso said, citing specifically the anti-slavery and civil rights movements, both of which “led to change for the better.” That kind of conflict “is constructive, and it can lead to changes more in line with what God wants.”

Moiso shared this quote from Dr. Carolyn Schrock-Shenk, a professor of conflict studies: “Imagine how different our conflicts would be if we could move from an ‘Oh, dear, how terrible,’ to ‘What is God trying to say to us?’”

“To be clear, not all difference is equally good. If someone is a white supremacist, it’s fine to say, ‘We’re not going to have that conversation,’” Moiso said. “We don’t engage in healthy differences if someone is doing harm.”

Another tenet of conflict is that its resolution isn’t as high a priority as the relationships between parties. “It’s a person in front of us, not an issue,” Moiso said. “Polarization comes when you stop seeing the other person as a human. We have a lot of that in our political life right now.”

“We minister types like to smooth things out if we can,” Hinson-Hasty said, “but that’s the way relationships are.”

Moiso focused her dissertation on what relational preaching looks like, describing it this way: “How do we talk in our sermons in a way we want people to talk to each other? How do we bring the voices of the congregation into the sermon? Voices of the congregation matter.”

Turning back to conflict, Moiso said it’s helpful to remember that “we can choose how we want to respond. We can take a pause” or choose curiosity, humility, vulnerability or imagination. We can say, “I see we have two options in front of us. Can we think of a third?”

The best dialogues can come when everyone is willing to be changed by the conversation, but “we aren’t good at that in our religious traditions,” Moiso said. “In a time of deep polarization, this is the hardest part. We aren’t willing to enter those conversations with mutuality. This is really hard stuff. It’s deep theological and spiritual work, but it’s the only way forward. There’s one planet and we’re all on it.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
McKenna Britton, Communications Associate, Presbyterian Historical Society
Kendra Bright, Operations & Accounting Associate, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation

Let us pray

God of love and surprises, as you bring a tree with shelter enough for all from the tiny mustard seed, you also bring great ministry from humble beginnings. Help us to follow you in our daily lives, trusting you not only to redeem us but also to guide our steps by your loving purpose. Amen.

Minute for Mission: Mental Health Awareness Month May 2023

May 1, 2023

May is Mental Health Mental Awareness Month. This week provides a time for mental health advocates across the country to come together as one unified voice to decrease the stigma surrounding mental health and illness, to increase visibility of treatment options and to support those who deal with mental health concerns.

There are many things congregations and Presbyterian organizations can do in support of this important issue that is faced by so many of God’s people. You can visit the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) website to learn more and to find ways to get involved, not just in May but also year-round, at nami.org/Get-Involved/Awareness-Events/Mental-Health-Awareness-Month. You can also visit the PC(USA) Mental health Ministry page to find additional resources at presbyterianmission.org/ministries/compassion-peace-justice/mental-health-ministry.

Congregations, presbyteries and synods can display brochures about NAMI and local mental health resources in a visible location in their church buildings or at gatherings, and can put this information on their websites. Mental health advocates and professionals can be invited to offer minutes for missions in worship, and when possible, pastors can preach on mental health and illness to raise awareness and open up conversations.

NAMI also has a specialized resource for people of faith called FaithNet: nami.org/Get-Involved/NAMI-FaithNet. This is an interfaith resource network of NAMI members, friends, clergy and congregations of all faith traditions who wish to encourage faith communities who are welcoming and supportive of persons and families living with mental illness.

Kathy Riley, Associate for Emotional and Spiritual Care, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Luci Duckson-Bramble, Director of Development & Services, Presbyterian Historical Society
Tara Brannigan, Financial Administrative Assistant, Stony Point Center, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

God of grace and mercy, be with all who know the struggle of mental health concerns that they would find acceptance, support and treatment. Be with us as we minister among them. May we offer the love and compassion of Christ in this and all that we do. Amen.