(PNS) The Most Rev. Michael Curry was at a meeting of Anglican bishops from around the world at Canterbury Cathedral in England, and one of the daily themes of the meeting was “the environment.” In a group of 40 bishops, participants were asked to share what the impact of climate change had been in their countries. Most bishops from the Northern Hemisphere, particularly North America, were fairly quiet, Curry recalled. But the Bishop of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania recalled seeing the snowcap on the mountain as a boy. Now the snow is no longer there. A bishop from Central Africa said growing seasons have changed and are not as plentiful as they once were. “I remember, most profoundly, the bishop from the Solomon Islands,” Curry said. “He stood up and he spoke. He said, ‘The waters are rising.’ And he said, ‘Soon our homes, our island homes, will be no more.’ And then he turned and looked at those of us who are Americans. And he said, ‘America, we need your help.’” The … [Read more...]

(PNS)  The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts charged a Maine man in federal court Thursday in connection with setting the Dec. 28, 2020 fire that destroyed the predominantly Black Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Presbyterian Church in Springfield. According to a Department of Justice news release, Dushko Vulchev, 44, of Houlton, Maine, was charged by criminal complaint with four counts of damage to religious property involving fire and one count of use of fire to commit a federal felony. Vulchev is currently in state custody and will make an initial appearance in federal court in Springfield at a later date. According to court documents, an intentionally set fire caused extensive damage to the church in the early morning hours of Dec. 28, 2020. In court documents, the government alleges that Vulchev set the Dec. 28 fire. The government also alleges that Vulchev is also responsible for several other fires set on church property and for a … [Read more...]

(OGA) Each of us has a deep and profound need to be seen. That truth has never been more real to me than when a young white man shot and killed eight people, six of whom were Asian American women, in Atlanta recently. Those deaths brought into clear focus the dramatic rise of anti-Asian hatred across our country. I am a fourth-generation Japanese American. I was born in Honolulu. My parents were both born in California. Their parents, my grandparents, were born either in California or in Hawaii. It was my great-grandparents who emigrated from Japan to the United States. We have been Americans for more than 150 years. Yet we, like many other Asian Americans, are viewed as “perpetual foreigners.” It is one thing to live in a large metropolitan area with many other Asian American faces. It is another thing to live in the Midwest where there are fewer of us around. So it was particularly moving for me when I was walking to church in the week following the shootings in Atlanta, and I … [Read more...]

(PNS) Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) is responding to volcano eruptions on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent that the United Nations says could create a humanitarian crisis. The situation began to unfold Friday with the first eruption of the Soufriére volcano on the northern end of the island that is part of the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles in the eastern Caribbean Sea. According to The Associated Press, 16,000 to 20,000 people were evacuated with 6,000 of those people reportedly among the most vulnerable population. “So we are facing a situation with a great deal of uncertainty, and also a humanitarian crisis that is growing and may continue for weeks and months,” Didier Trebucq, United Nations resident coordinator for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, said to the AP. As the situation continues to evolve, with new eruptions and explosions this week, Presbyterian News Service asked the Rev. Edwin González-Castillo, PDA Associate for Disaster … [Read more...]

(PNS) As climate change continued to fuel natural disasters throughout the United States and around the world in 2020, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance responded with the help of partners and volunteers to bring help and hope to those in affected areas. On the domestic front, wildfires in the West, hurricanes in the Southeast and catastrophic windstorms in the Midwest were among the events that had significant effects on individuals and property. “We always have fire seasons. We always have hurricane seasons. But I think climate change has certainly intensified both the wildfire season and the hurricane season,” said the Rev. Jim Kirk, PDA’s Associate for National Disaster Response. For example, “there were seven tropical storms and hurricanes, so seven named storms, that made landfall in South Louisiana.” Although a travel ban was in effect due to COVID-19 for much of 2020, PDA was able to utilize grants and virtual deployments to assist people in areas such as the … [Read more...]

LOUISVILLE (OGA) Pray for what you need, but don’t be surprised when the answer comes. These are words of advice from the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Nelson recently shared his advice for seminarians preparing for a life in ministry.   by Rick Jones and Randy Hobson, Office of the General Assembly … [Read more...]