LOUISVILLE – Nearly all (90%) of Presbyterians pray at least several times a week and nearly half (42%) read the Bible on their own at least several times a week. Middle-aged and older Presbyterians engage in these spiritual disciplines more frequently than younger Presbyterians do. This information comes from responses from some of the first participants in the new Person in the Pew survey format, a project of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Research Services. Person in the Pew Surveys are open to all Presbyterians. Opportunities for participation will be listed in future news articles and will be posted on research-services.pcusa.org. Sixty-one percent of Person in the Pew participants report praying or meditating at least once a day, and 29% do so several times a week. Seventeen percent report reading the Bible on their own at least once a day, while 25% do so several times a week. A breakdown by age group shows that more participants in their late 50s or early 60s … [Read more...]

LOUISVILLE — Two outstanding leaders in theological education will be honored at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 224th General Assembly in Baltimore in June 2020. The Committee on Theological Education and the Theological Education Fund will honor Rev. Dr. Darrell Guder and Rev. Dr. Elizabeth (Lib) Caldwell with the Award for Excellence in Theological Education during a breakfast event at General Assembly. A date for the Theological Education breakfast has not been set yet. The 224th General Assembly is set for June 20-27, 2020. In addition to both COTE and the Theological Education Fund jointly honoring Guder and Caldwell, they will ask the 224thGeneral Assembly to do so. “I am so thrilled over the selection of Professors Darrell Guder and Lib Caldwell as the latest recipients of the Award of Excellence in Theological Education,” said Rev. Dr. Ted Wardlaw, President of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. “They both represent high-water marks with regard to lifetime … [Read more...]

LOUISVILLE (PNS) — Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries last week announced the 2019 recipients of the Rev Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon Scholarship. The Presbyterian Mission Agency established the scholarship to honor Cannon’s name and legacy shortly after her death in August of 2018. The scholarship supports Presbyterian clergywomen and college women of color as well as other women of color with opportunities for leadership and spiritual development, helping women to develop leadership gifts and be equipped for even greater service in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A). Cannon was a pioneer and a legendary figure in the PC(USA). In 1974, she became the first African American woman ordained as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the former United Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Nine years later she became the first African American to earn a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York. She served as the Annie Scales Rogers Professor of … [Read more...]

(PNS) Mere moments after the final credits of “Flint: The Poisoning of an American City” rolled, Harold Woodson was on stage of the Capitol Theatre Thursday giving the documentary an endorsement that affirmed it had accomplished some of its major goals.  “I would recommend to anyone here that you get a copy of this, for your own personal records, for your own family, so 10 years from now, 15 years from now, you can show them some of the things that we’re going through currently,” said Woodson, who is still helping distribute water every week for the Bethel United Methodist Church Help Center in Flint. “We don’t want to minimize. We want to keep this message. That’s what this is tonight, sharing this message with as many people as possible.”  The film, the latest production of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance’s Story Ministry, is the tale of the Michigan city’s five-year-old water crisis that, as the film illustrates, was nearly a century in the making and came to fruition by … [Read more...]

(OGA) Anyone who runs meetings at the scale of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) understands the challenges that come with the job. The Reverend Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the PC(USA), recently discussed those challenges at the 42nd Biennial Convention of the National Association of Parliamentarians (NAP). Nelson was the Sunday morning speaker at the convention in Las Vegas. “It’s good to be among people who at least understand what I say today,” joked Nelson. “It can be a tense job and one we labor over in so many ways. I want to challenge us on how we might re-think how we do this work and live in the reality of our own faith as we walk through the legal procedures.” Nelson read from the book of James, chapter one, focusing on Scripture about being quick to listen, slow to anger. “When I read the Scripture and when I think about faith and religion, it’s all about trying to make us better, to live into … [Read more...]