The three recipients of this year’s Women of Faith Awards were honored Thursday in a virtual ceremony hosted by Racial Equity and Women’s Intercultural Ministries and Presbyterian Women. Watch the 44-minute ceremony here.
Against a spectacular backdrop that has inspired the likes of renowned painter Georgia O’Keeffe as well as generations of Presbyterians, the Association of Stated Clerks (ASC) and the Association of Mid Council Leaders (AMCL) gathered from Oct. 25-28 at the Ghost Ranch Education and Retreat Center for a time of refreshment, rest and renewal.
<한국의> “We live in a twisted world,” the Reverend Jan Edmiston, associate executive presbyter of the Presbytery of Chicago and Co-Moderator of the 222nd General Assembly (2016), told leaders of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) presbyteries and synods gathered in Louisville, Kentucky, for the 2016 Polity Conference.
But God is at work to bring justice to the world, said Edmiston, who preached at a worship service on October 31 that closed the gathering.
<한국의> The panel discussion was titled “Church Departures—After the Dust Settles.” It was one of several dozen workshops offered at the 2016 Polity Conference of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
But the panelists—presbytery executives from six presbyteries—told listeners that they in fact are still waiting for the dust to settle. Some are still in litigation with departing congregations. Most are just beginning to ask, “How do we relate to each other now? How do we move forward?”
<한국의> Leaders of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) presbyteries and synods took a long hard look at white privilege in their denomination during a series of plenary sessions at the 2016 Polity Conference.
And most did not like what they saw.
<한국의> Pain and struggle are part of human life, the Reverend J. Herbert Nelson, II, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, told worshipers at a Sunday morning worship and communion service Oct. 30 that opened the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s annual Polity Conference.
“The question is, how will you respond? And what will God do with it?”
<한국의> Presbytery moderators and vice moderators from across the country spent much of the day Saturday, October 29, learning about the nuts and bolts of moderatorial responsibilities.
Worship planning, meeting management, and parliamentary procedure were among the topics of plenary sessions at the Moderators’ Conference, one of three events running concurrently just before the October 30–31 Polity Conference of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
<한국의> “Jesus came to make things right by making them new,” the Reverend Denise Anderson, Co-Moderator of the 222nd General Assembly (2016), told some 350 leaders of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) presbyteries and synods gathered in Louisville, Kentucky, for the annual Polity Conference and fall meetings.
“When it comes to our denomination, I don’t think Jesus wants to return us to our former glory,” said Anderson, who preached at a worship service that opened the gathering. “We are always being reformed—not just in the time of John Calvin, but in our time. We are being made into what God wants us to be.”
Ruling elder Alysson Janke has been awarded the C. Fred Jenkins Constitutional Services Award, which honors a person or group that has given wise, prudent and vigilant support to the constitution and polity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
“I knew Fred not only as an exemplary stated clerk, but as a pastor and friend," she said. “I am so honored.”