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Friday, January 5, 2024
The Presbyterian Outlook 2024 daily Lenten devotional
Thursday, January 4, 2024
Today in the Mission Yearbook - Daughter-father duo, both with roots in a PC(USA) congregation, earn recognition for advocating for gender inclusivity within the Boy Scouts of America
Sydney Ireland, among the first females to become an Eagle Scout, is honored alongside her father, attorney and educator Gary Ireland
January 4, 2024
Sydney Ireland, second from left, and her father, Gary Ireland,
at right, were recently honored for their advocacy work by the
James Jay Dudley Luce Foundation. Also pictured are former
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, at left, and Carolyn Maloney,
a former U.S. House member and the current president of the
New York chapter of the National Organization for Women.
(Contributed photo)
The James Jay Dudley Luce Foundation, renowned for its dedication to empowering and acknowledging young global leaders, is delighted to announce a historic milestone in the Foundation’s history. The “24 Under 24 Award” and the “Global Leader Award” will be bestowed upon an exceptional daughter-father duo, Sydney Ireland and her father, Gary Ireland, both with deep roots in a PC(USA) congregation in New York City. This recognition is in honor of their tireless and transformative efforts in advocating for gender inclusivity within the Boy Scouts of America.
For more than a decade, Sydney Ireland passionately championed her cause, echoing the simple request “Let me in,” to earn the prestigious Eagle Scout Award. Her steadfast determination led to a pivotal moment where the Boy Scouts of America not only granted entry to girls and young women but also rebranded their flagship program as “Scouts BSA” to reflect a more inclusive stance on gender.
Both Irelands, staunch advocates for gender equality and inclusivity, spearheaded the movement that allowed girls to join the Boy Scouts. Their unwavering passion, dedication and their challenge to traditional gender norms in the previously male-dominated organization have been nothing short of remarkable. The Boy Scouts of America, a renowned training ground for youth leadership, which counts former President Gerald Ford, filmmaker Steven Spielberg, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and now Sydney Ireland among its alumni, was forever transformed by the Ireland family’s pioneering efforts. Their impact resonated, inspiring more than 400,000 young girls in the United States to follow their passions and join a movement that was once exclusively for boys, while also generating an estimated $40 million for the scouting organization, just this year.
In recognizing Sydney Ireland with the 24 Under 24 Award, the J. Luce Foundation acknowledges her exceptional leadership, vision and her commitment to making a meaningful difference in the world. The acknowledgment of her father with the Global Leader Award celebrates his significant contributions to fostering a better, more inclusive world.
Avenue Church NYC, the former Jan Hus Presbyterian Church in the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, and the Presbytery of New York City are “where the plan for equality was launched,” Gary Ireland wrote in an email.
Together, the profound influence of this father-daughter team, as they challenged conventions and championed inclusion, has left an indelible mark on the world of scouting and beyond, emphasizing the importance of diversity and equality for all young people.
Today, Sydney Ireland’s legacy is visible in the more than 400,000 girls and young women participating in Scouts BSA. Her relentless pursuit of gender equality in the premier youth leadership program is in development as a motion picture by acclaimed filmmaker John A. Corso.
Gary Ireland is an accomplished attorney, advocate, and educator who supports executives in transition as well as start-ups and emerging businesses. He brings a wealth of experience to this role, having worked with a variety of clients across different industries. Ireland has been recognized for his legal advocacy by organizations such as the National Organization for Women, the Bella Abzug Leadership Institute, and the NAACP. He is currently on the board of directors of the Bella Abzug Leadership Institute and teaches advocacy at the summer intensive program.
Ireland is known for partnering with local and national organizations to effectuate positive change, advocating for women’s and LGBTQIA+ rights, environmental activism and all human rights.
The James Jay Dudley Luce Foundation is dedicated to supporting young leaders and their efforts to make a positive impact on society. The Foundation’s programs, awards, and initiatives celebrate and empower the next generation of global leaders who are committed to creating a better world.
The James Jay Dudley Luce Foundation, Special to Presbyterian News Service
Today’s Focus: Daughter-father duo earn recognition for advocating for gender inclusivity within the Boy Scouts of America
Let us join in prayer for:
PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Teresa Waggener, Manager, Immigration, Legal Resources, Office of the General Assembly
David Walker, Executive Vice President & Chief Investment Officer, Board of Pensions
Let us pray
God of grace, we know that we are stronger and more effective in mission when we work together. Guide us, by your Holy Spirit, into a life of ever-increasing connection to each other. In Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.
Wednesday, January 3, 2024
Today in the Mission Yearbook - The Rev. Dr. Tim Hart-Andersen offers up his final sermon at Westminster Presbyterian Church
The Minneapolis congregation celebrates his 24 years of innovative ministry at one of the PC(USA)’s largest churches
January 3, 2024
The Rev. Dr. Timothy Hart-Andersen retires Oct. 31
as senior pastor and head of staff at Westminster
Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis.
For the final time, the Rev. Dr. Tim Hart-Andersen recently took to the pulpit at Westminster Presbyterian Church in downtown Minneapolis, a church he has served as senior pastor and head of staff since 1999.
“When I began thinking about the date for my final sermon at Westminster, which is today, it didn’t take me long to settle on Reformation Sunday,” Hart-Andersen told people in the packed sanctuary. “That may be an obscure date for most of you, but for me, I’ve always appreciated this annual chance to look back at where we’ve been, help us understand where we are, and think about where we might be headed. We are the church, and the church has been around a long time.”
Watch the service here.
In April, Hart-Andersen announced to the congregation he’d be retiring. As senior pastor and head of staff of one of the nation’s largest PC(USA) churches, Hart-Andersen has preached regularly, led the work of the staff and provided strategic leadership as the congregation thought creatively about the future. He’s also served as moderator of the Westminster Town Hall Forum, an organization launched by the church in 1980 to invite guest speakers to engage the public in reflection and dialogue on the key issues of the day from an ethical perspective.
Under Hart-Andersen’s leadership, in 2012 Westminster purchased the property next to the church and expanded the 19th-century building with a new wing that opens onto Nicollet in downtown Minneapolis. The facility is a model of environmental sustainability.
The congregation is currently in the middle of a $30 million Enduring Hope campaign in which Westminster is investing $11 million in affordable housing in Minneapolis and in programs shared with partners to further racial and social justice and leadership development in the local community and beyond.
Hart-Andersen is a founding board member of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians and one of the initiators of the NEXT Church movement. He chairs the board at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico, and is a board member at his alma mater, McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago.
During his final sermon, Hart-Andersen recalled a trip to Cuba he and others at Westminster took more than 20 years ago. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba’s economy had been in a freefall for about a decade. Walking through the ramshackle camp where the group was staying, Hart-Andersen spotted a hand-lettered sign tacked to a tree, reminding him of the way Martin Luther had nailed his 95 theses at Wittenberg nearly five centuries earlier: “There will be better times,” the sign stated, “but this is our time.”
“It was only one sentence,” Hart-Andersen said. “But like Luther’s theses, those words signaled a recognition of hard times and a willingness to face them squarely, trusting in God to bring needed change eventually.”
There was “nothing sudden about the Reformation,” he said. Reformers including Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe and Jan Hus all planted seeds “that would bloom at the time of the Reformation. Their heresies are now at the heart of Catholic theology,” including caring for the poor and making the Bible available in languages spoken by the masses.
“Those on the leading edge of change have often been animated by returning to the Bible,” Hart-Andersen said. “That was the genius of the Protestant reformers. They wanted to arrive at a more focused, simple core of what it means to be the people of God. … They wanted to rebuild the faith from the ground up.”
The world today “is similarly roiled and roiling,” Hart-Andersen said, this time by “vast inequality, international conflicts, powerful new technologies, competing political values, global economic systems, massive migration, climate change, cultural hostilities and religious struggles. Like other times in history, this is the kind of context — right now — in which the church will have to adapt in order to sustain its life and continue its witness.”
“’There will be better times, but this is our time,’” Hart-Andersen said, recalling that hand-lettered sign. “Westminster, this is your time. You are the church. Love and serve the Lord, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit. Thanks be to God! Amen.”
Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service
Today’s Focus: Rev. Dr. Tim Hart-Andersen retiring from Westminster Presbyterian Church
Let us join in prayer for:
PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Deborah Viveros, 1001 NWC Apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Michael Wade, Production Supervisor, Hubbard Press
Let us pray
Lord, pour your empowering blessing upon the faithful, who have set the whole church an example “in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12). Amen.
Tuesday, January 2, 2024
Today in the Mission Yearbook - PC(USA)’s ‘New Way’ podcast features online faith leaders in a new series on technology
Host the Rev. Sara Hayden calls Harbor Online ‘deeply participatory’ and ‘fully online’
January 2, 2024
The Rev. Jon Mathieu
“It’s no secret that communities built from scratch have the upper hand when it comes to innovation,” the Rev. Sara Hayden announced to open a new series of the New Way podcast discussing innovation and technology in new worshiping communities.
In the first two episodes of the series, Hayden interviews the Rev. Jon Mathieu, founder of Harbor Online Community. The community is centered on a participatory weekly worship on Zoom that meets Thursday evenings, but members also gather in a private social network space called Circle and, for the first time recently, in person at Stony Point Center in New York.
“We meet for an hour and a half and that’s a bit long. When I was going to church in person, I wanted a tight 55-minute service,” Mathieu said in the first episode, as he shared the evolution of Harbor’s gatherings since he began hosting in 2019, prior to the Covid pandemic. “We do have a ton of flexibility for people coming on the call late, leaving early. It’s really kind of come and go as you can. But it’s an hour and a half.”
Greetings are a priority in the meeting space. Mathieu and his two pastoral colleagues, Dottie Oleson and Dawn Léger, make sure to greet everyone who joins whenever they do. “I think this is important because if you jump onto a Zoom call with a bunch of faces and then you just get right into the thing that you’re all doing, if it’s your first or second or third time there, you don’t really know anyone, and I don’t think you feel known by others on the call.”
Over the years, Mathieu has found this ritual to be particularly important to people over their first few visits who aren’t sure if they are seen or known by others. “This is just one small way of saying, like, ‘we’re people, we’re here to see each other, we’re here to know each other and be known by each other.’ Kind of trying to set that tone.”
The Rev. Sara Hayden hosts the “New Way” podcast,
now in its eighth season.
In lieu of a sermon, the community engages in small-group reflection on Scripture. Creating a welcoming but also safe space is therefore important. To better understand the community, first-time visitors are invited into a “listening space.” Mathieu and Harbor Online Community’s leadership team learned to make this and other invitations early on when they encountered first-time visitors who may have had church trauma to process before they got to know the group. On the Harbor Online website, easy-to-click buttons invite visitors to join the community for worship on Thursday or to meet in advance with the pastoral team as a way of welcoming new people who are curious about the community or in need of a space to process how traditional church may no longer serve them and what opportunities the Harbor Online Community might offer.
Hayden addressed the cynicism around online church and its ability to preside over sacraments and rituals, but also described the worship that she experienced at Harbor Online as “deeply participatory in nature.” Yet, in the second episode featuring Mathieu, he admits how lonely founding an online community can be behind the scenes. Building a pastoral team has been invigorating for him and led to further technological innovation like the move from a private Facebook group to the more secure and adaptable Circle platform that the Harbor Online now uses for connecting as a community more informally.
“If you can get a team, make a team,” said Mathieu, who also works at the Christian Century as the community engagement editor. “Harbor is so energizing to me that it kind of covered over some of the loneliness and some of the weariness of, like, doing a big undertaking alone. And I wasn’t alone. I had amazing volunteers but, you know, alone as the pastor or the paid staff. And it’s been great. It’s been salvific having Dottie and Dawn on the team.”
View video here: https://vimeo.com/876472722
Beth Waltemath, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Today’s Focus: ‘New Way’ podcast
Let us join in prayer for:
PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Stephanie Vasquez, Language Services Manager, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
Flor Velez-Diaz, Manager, Judicial Process & Social Witness, Office of the General Assembly
Let us pray
Almighty God, thank you for raising up Christian leaders. Guide and protect them as they seek to make a difference for you in their areas of influence. In the powerful name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Monday, January 1, 2024
Today in the Mission Yearbook - Nurturing Matthew 25 hope in the Heart of Africa
An African proverb: The smaller the lizard, the greater its hope of becoming a crocodile
January 1, 2024
The Rev. Jean-Didier Mboyo addresses incarcerated
men in Kolwezi prison in the Democratic Republic of
Congo. (Contributed photo)
Can you name the 11th largest country in the world? Would it help if I said it is the second-biggest country in Africa?
If you’re still unsure, pull up a map of Africa and place a finger right in the center of this huge continent. Chances are you have found the Democratic Republic of Congo, or DR Congo for short. Probably, like the rest of us, you know very little about this country named after its lifegiving Congo River. Most of us are not aware DR Congo is a country of contradictions. It holds large resources of raw materials like gold, silver and diamonds, , while at the same time being among the poorest countries in the world.
Another contradiction relates to the issue of imprisonment. While DR Congo has a population of 112 million people versus the United States’ 331 million, it holds “only” 20,000 people in 80 prisons, compared to the U.S., which incarcerates more than 1 million people in 1,566 prisons. If you do the math, there are, on a per-capita basis, 17 times more people incarcerated in the U.S. than in DC Congo.
This is a contradiction clearly in Congo’s favor, seeming to suggest that poverty reduces crime, or maybe that moral standards and faith perspectives play a bigger role in poor countries than in rich ones.
Whatever the conclusion, we are happy to report the biblical imperative of Matthew 25 to reach out to people in prison is alive and well in DR Congo, and it is the new generation that is taking the lead. The Rev. Jean-Didier Mboyo serves as head of the Protestant chaplains in the Katanga region, which covers a large part of southern Congo.
The Rev. Jean-Didier Mboyo, at left, visits Bedford Hills
Correctional Facility in Bedford Hills, New York. Also
pictured are Chris Burdick, New York State Representative,
Sharon Griest Ballen, Chair of the Prison Relations Advisory
Committee, with the author in the background. (Contributed
photo)
However, Mboyo is also a man of the world in his capacity as vice president of the International Prison Chaplains Association (IPCA) and in charge of IPCA representatives to the United Nations in New York, with offices in Geneva and Vienna.
Mboyo is a frequent world traveler, and recently visited the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for women in New York. Here he learned more about the Adopt-A-Prison (AAP) program, which has proven to be successful in engaging local communities with a prison in their midst.
The AAP concept is already piloted in several countries around the world, including Congo, where the program is running in several male and female prisons in the Katanga region. Local community and church members demonstrate the Adopt-A-Prison principles — and Jesus’ command of loving your neighbor — through visiting prisons regularly and donating food, clothing, medication and medical supplies, as well as offering education programs and general moral support and prayers for those in need.
As Mboyo says, “When the prison runs out of food, which happens frequently, then they call us and we try to find a way to help, or if a prisoner is released from a prison far away from his or her home, we arrange for transportation.”
He adds, “This is our way of loving our neighbor.”
Incarcerated women in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Tshikapa
prison are pictured along with donated clothing, food and hygiene
items. (Contributed photo)
The African culture is famous for its treasure trove of proverbs that offer strength to handle the struggles of life. Mboyo is well acquainted with that culture and when reflecting on prison engagement he says: “Congo is a poor country, but through prison outreach we have learned that sharing the little we have becomes enrichment for us.”
A few minutes later he scribbled down the inherent wisdom of this lament by coining a new African proverb: “While it takes a community to save a prison, it takes a prison to save a community.”
Our prison system was established as a way for society to deal with fellow human beings who do not follow the rules. Unfortunately, we often forget our obligation to follow up with redemption and rehabilitation efforts for those we commit to incarceration. That is the reason today’s prisons increasingly are renamed “correctional facilities,” reflecting the universally accepted goal of incarceration: incapacitation, deterrence, and correction. Under the Adopt-A-Prison program, this goal of “correction” is highlighted as the key for its rehabilitative efforts and at the same time a vital common goal with the management of the prison systems or correctional facilities of the world.
The Rev. Dr. Hans Hallundbaek, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is a co-founder of both Rehabilitation through the Arts and the Interfaith Prison Partnership, an outreach of Hudson River Presbytery. He is an adjunct instructor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Marist College. He lives in Katonah, New York.
Revised Common Lectionary Readings for Monday, January 1, 2024, New Year’s Day (Year B)
Today’s Focus: Nurturing Matthew 25 hope in the Heart of Africa
Let us join in prayer for:
PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Kris Valerius, Manager, Denominational Rolls and Statistics, Office of the General Assembly
Miguel Vargas, Building Manager, Presbyterian Historical Society
Let us pray
God of the ages, thank you for giving us encouragement through Christ to overcome weakness and find new energies to strengthen your church. Continue to use us for your glory. Amen.
Today in the Mission Yearbook - The Rev. Anthony Jermaine Ross-Allam, director of the PC(USA)’s Center for the Repair of Historic Harms, discusses how to wake up to what God gave us
‘The Holy Spirit reminds us that something needs our attention’ Ross-Allam says during the most recent ‘Leading Theologically’ broadcast
December 31, 2023
The Rev. Jermaine Ross-Allam (photo by Rich Copley)
In a recent conversation with the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty, senior director for Theological Education Funds Development with the Presbyterian Foundation, the Rev. Anthony Jermaine Ross-Allam shared his wisdom and thoughtfulness over the work he is doing on behalf of the Presbyterian Mission Agency as the director for the Center for the Repair of Historic Harms. The title of their half-hour “Leading Theologically” talk was “Waking up to What God Gave You.” It can be viewed here.
Ross-Allam told Hinson-Hasty he believes that the work of justice is about entering into the right relationships to provide more opportunities for people to discover what is beautiful about themselves. He believes that despite centuries and layers of denial, the things that we pretend can’t be solved can be if we lean into the truth. Ross-Allam credits the leadership and mentorship of the co-pastors of Liberty Community Church in North Minneapolis, the Revs. Drs. Alika and Ralph Galloway. The church they serve was formerly known as Kwanzaa Community Church.
One of the many lessons Ross-Allam shared is that “when God taps you on the shoulder and puts something on your heart, don’t be content to explain it away or to spiritualize it as just one more piece of data that you know about the past, that you need to represent some kind of guilt or shame over or that you have to acknowledge.”
That insight came amid research he was doing on Queen Mother Audley Moore, the African American civil and human rights leader. Moore complained to the woman interviewing her, Dr. Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, that African American men “with decent educations weren’t using their intelligence to help the community get reparations,” Ross-Allam said. “I wasn’t trying to have an intimate moment with the ancestors or the Creator, but it was in that moment I could hear simultaneously that she might as well have been speaking to me. There was an opportunity in that moment for me to do some of the work that was not finished when Queen Audley Moore passed away [in 1997].”
The Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty
As for possible next steps people can take, Ross-Allam said, “If there’s guilt and there’s shame, then deal with it. And if there’s acknowledgments to be made, then make the acknowledgments. But don’t make the presumption that God is not trying to inspire you to make something a part of the work that you do with other people within the context of the assumption that it can get done.”
“My favorite thing,” he told Hinson-Hasty, “is to get an email or a phone call from a congregation eager to engage in this work.”
Ross-Allam’s posture sending prayer proved to be yet another invitation of hopefulness: “Gracious God, we thank you so much for creating us with the capacity to receive from you all of the love and the grace and the creativity that is flowing out from you, and in your infinite goodness and in your infinite love, and in your infinite wisdom. We pray that we will have the creativity and the courage and the compassion and the energy to make this world a place that shows the evidence of your reality everywhere that we go, in our lifetimes and beyond. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.”
The Rev. Anthony Jermaine Ross-Allam will be leading a workshop on reparations at the Matthew 25 Summit in Atlanta Jan. 16–18, 2024. Learn more and register here.
Watch upcoming and past editions of “Leading Theologically” here.
Shani E. McIlwain, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Today’s Focus: Rev. Anthony Jermaine Ross-Allam is a guest on ‘Leading Theologically’ podcast
Let us join in prayer for:
PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Mienda Uriarte, Mission Director, World Mission, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Tina Valdes, Customer Service Representative, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
Let us pray
God, you go with us and sustain us. Thank you for those with a strong faith who seek your will in their lives. Bless them and the stories they have to tell. Encourage, comfort and make your presence known to all. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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