Holy Communion; a Feast of Grace

During this period of Covid-19, many Christians are fasting from Holy Communion. Others are finding ways to share in the table through virtual means and discussing the theological ramifications of this new medium.  Whether or not you have been able to celebrate in the Lord's Table or not, it is important that we keep in mind the meaning behind the Sacraments.  In this short video, the meaning of Holy Communion is shared and expressed.  Prayerfully, consider what we are missing and find ways to grow in our appreciation for this celebration.  May we long for the presence of Christ in our midst again.

General Assembly of PC(USA) Elects New Co-Moderators

Pair garners 304 votes in first-ballot election Saturday

by Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service

Elona Street-Stewart and the Rev. Gregory Bentley were elected Saturday to be co-moderators of the 224th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

LOUISVILLE —Elona Street-Stewart, executive of the Synod of Lakes and Prairies, and the Rev. Gregory Bentley, pastor of Fellowship Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama, were overwhelmingly elected to be co-moderators of the 224th General Assembly Saturday.

The two garnered 304 votes, easily winning on the first ballot. The Rev. Marie Mainard O’Connell and Arthur Fullerton received 90 votes. The Rev. Sandra Hedrick and Moon Lee got 65 votes.

Immediately after their election, the two were installed as co-moderators by the co-moderators of the 223rd General Assembly, the Rev. Cindy Kohlmann and Ruling Elder Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri, as well as the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

“I am hippopotamus happy and dinosaur delighted,” Bentley said.

“This is just wonderful,” Street-Stewart said. “We look forward to meeting the fabulous expectations our current co-moderators have established for us.”

“The world needs a church that has no fear over its diversity,” said Street-Stewart, a descendant of the Delaware Nanticoke tribe and the first Native American to serve as a moderator as well as a synod executive in the PC(USA).

“We believe the denomination is headed in the right direction,” especially with the Matthew 25 invitation, Bentley said. “We want to heed Christ’s call to not be afraid … We want to run this race with perseverance, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.”

Street-Stewart noted the synod she leads was the first to say yes to the Matthew 25 invitation in the spring of 2019. “Diane,” she said during a post-election news conference, referring to Presbyterian Mission Agency President and Executive Director the Rev. Dr. Diane Moffett, “has a very powerful message.”

“We believe in those goals” of building congregational vitality, dismantling structural racism and eradicating systemic poverty, Bentley said. “We just need to get more workers in the vineyard.”

His said the congregation he serves has five core practices. The one that sticks out for him is radical hospitality. “It’s not just being nice and polite,” he explained. “We need to create space to say, ‘You are welcome here’ — not just with words, but a space to genuinely share our lives.”

Asked about protests over police killings and the intractable problem of white supremacy, Street-Stewart said the PC(USA) “already has incredible statements and social witness policies.” The denomination needs to be at the center of economic and social change, she said. “It’s going to take a greater understanding of what we have said we are about,” she said. “White supremacy is a hard issue because there’s a lot of fear involved.”

Studying and talking together can be helpful tools for the nearly 90 percent of Presbyterians who are white, she said, as are going to conferences and serving in organizations led by people of color.

“Let’s come with the attitude that says, ‘You are the ones to be the teachers. Tell us what you are doing,’” she said.

Both said they plan to travel to Louisville in the next few days to prepare for the scheduled two days of online plenary sessions set for Friday and Saturday, June 26 and 27.

“They gave us the option that you can do this from home,” Bentley said. “But if something hinky goes on, you’re right there. We felt that was best.”

“We need to be at the place where the best of the best are working with us to guide us,” Street-Stewart said.

She said that when travel restrictions are no longer in effect, the new co-moderators will visit places “where we are unimagined. We aren’t going to fit the profile. We aren’t going to fit the measurements that people want in all places.” In fact, “we might fit the description of something that people fear or couldn’t imagine.” She said sometimes when she meets people, “I am not what they imagine a synod executive would be.”

Most Americans “don’t understand the long relationship” that Indigenous people have had with Black people, she said. “Every moment is a teaching opportunity.”

Asked about the possibility of stretching the virtual assembly by a few days, Bentley said, “Let’s put the pedal to the metal. If that’s the desire of the assembly, I’m on board with that.”

However, “I’d much rather be two miles deep and two inches wide,” rather than the other way around, he said. “Let’s drill down on a few things and really get a handle on it.”

Asked how Presbyterians can be in prayer for their new leaders, Bentley identified three prayer requests: for stamina, perseverance and patience.

“We are going to pack a lot into the next two years,” he said. “We are excited about it, but we know it will be taxing.”

Original article and attribution:

PCUSA News Agency

Presbyterian Center Celebrates Juneteenth

by Gail Strange | Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE — COVID-19 has us all sheltering in place and employees of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) are still working from home. But on Friday there was a great sense of oneness as the staff came together to celebrate Juneteenth.

With the sound of African drums and vivid images of Juneteenth celebrations from all over, the virtual service was one of true exuberance.  Rev. Carlton Johnson, Associate for Vital Congregations, opened the service by recognizing the importance of an enslaved people’s African heritage and culture.

Johnson then shared with the group the significance of the Ritual of Libations and enacted the Pouring of Libations. Libation in Africa is a ritual of heritage.  The ritual involves offering a drink to honor and please the Creator, the lesser divinities, sacred ancestors, humans present and not present, as well as the environment.  The origin of libations are found in legends, myths, and the language of Kemet.

Libation is both sacred and communal. Pouring libations can help overcome fears, anxieties and frustrations. It promotes respect for elders and the ancestors, hope, healing, unity and harmony all through the reinforcement of common bonds.

Johnson then invited individuals to call the names of those ancestors who fought for freedom, justice and liberation.

Celebrated on the 19th of June, Juneteenth commemorates the emancipation of enslaved people in the U.S. President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves, in January of 1863. However, it wasn’t until two years later, on June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers landed in Galveston, Texas, with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. After this, more than 250,000 slaves across Texas learned that they were free.

The Emancipation Proclamation announced on September 22, 1862 by Lincoln was issued under powers granted to the president “as a fit and necessary war measure.”

“That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward and forever free…” However, due to the small number of Union troops in Texas at the time, the proclamation was not enforced.

Two and a half years later, in June of 1865, Major General Gordon Granger, Commanding Officer of the District of Texas, along with more than 2,000 Federal soldiers of the 13th Army Corps arrived in Galveston. Soldiers marched through Galveston reading General Order No. 3 at numerous locations, including their headquarters at the Osterman Building courthouse, and then the Negro Church on Broadway, as Reedy Chapel-AME Church — “The Mother Church of Texas” — was referred to then. The order informed all Texans that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves were free.

Friday marks 155 years since the reading of General Order No. 3, which stated, “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them, becomes that between employer and hired labor. The Freedmen are advised to remain at their present homes, and work for wages. They are in formed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts; and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.”

One of the many powerful moments of Friday’s celebration was the reading of a litany which was an adaption from the Black National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” by James Weldon and J. Rosamond Johnson. As the employees read verse, the music director of  the new worshiping community JUDAH Fellowship, Anita Levels, responded with melodious notes of purity and soulfulness as she sang with a voice that transcended the internet.

To transport viewers to an outdoor Juneteenth celebration, organizers of the service shared a virtual performance by the Rara Tou Limen Dance Company of a traditional Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance.

The 2020 Juneteenth is being celebrated in a nation that quite possibly may be as divided now as it was in the years leading up to the Civil War. As Carter Anderson sang Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” the poignant but powerfully political song of the 1970s with lyrics inspired by violence and police brutality in America reminded worshipers that there are still unresolved issues and freedoms in our country that are yet to be realized by Black America.

All of the hopes, dreams and freedoms of enslaved black Americans and their ancestors did not become a reality at the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, However, black Americans continue with a resiliency  and determination strengthened by the lyrics of the celebration’s closing gospel song, sung by Tamron Keith, Associate Director for World Mission, “Victory is mine, Joy is mine, Happiness is mine, Victory today is mine.” And while the fight for equality continues, on Juneteenth 2020, blacks celebrates the victories won.

The Juneteenth celebration organizers included: Denise Anderson, Lynne Foreman, Anisha Hackney, Valerie Izumi, Alonzo Johnson, Carlton Johnson, Tamron Keith, Shanea Leonard and Kathryn Threadgill.

Link to original story PCUSA News Service

A Benediction for Social Justice

St Francis blesses birds
Art in the Christian Tradition

May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships
So that you may live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.
May God bless you with tears
To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and war,
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and
To turn their pain into joy.
And may God bless you with enough foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in the world,
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done
To bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.
Amen.

Franciscan Benediction

For Such A Time as This: A Stand Against Racism

Confession of Belhar’s powerful language is stressed in new Mid-Kentucky Presbytery video

by Mid-Kentucky Presbytery | Special to Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE — Staff and members of Mid-Kentucky Presbytery have used the PC(USA)’s most recently-adopted confession, the Confession of Belhar, in a new video designed to remember the victims of violence against persons of color, including Kentuckians Breonna Taylor and David McAtee, George Floyd of Minnesota and Ahmaud Arbery of Georgia.

“As a Matthew 25 presbytery — committed to dismantling structural racism — Mid-Kentucky Presbytery members proclaim faith and call for unity, reconciliation and justice in a video using the powerful words of the Confession of Belhar as found in the Book of Confessions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.),” the presbytery said in a news release.

Watch the video here.
“The video proclaims our presbytery’s and church’s shared Christian view in opposition to racism, separation, and suffering, which are antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” the presbytery said, adding it commends the video for use in worship, in church electronic newsletters, on congregational websites, and as posts to social media outlets.
“We also commend our newest confession for further study, as Belhar’s powerful words call us ‘to reject any ideology which would legitimate forms of injustice and any doctrine which is unwilling to resist such an ideology in the name of the Gospel,’” the presbytery said.

Original Article at link below:  reprinted by permission.  Presbyterian News Service. 

Mid Kentucky Presbytery Video Opposes Racism and Calls for Justice

Stated Clerk Remembers Victims of Racial Violence

Link to Belhar Confession

Hispanic Caucus Stands in Solidarity with African Americans

Says violence against black people ‘remains the most egregious example of white privilege and supremacy’

by Hispanic/Latinx National Presbyterian Caucus | Special to Presbyterian News Service

Members of The National Presbyterian Hispanic/Latino-a Caucus, as the caucus was known then, serve dinner to the guests of the Union Gospel Mission in Portland, Oregon while attending the 222nd General Assembly in 2016. (Photo by Rod Cartesegna)

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

— The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

“It is possible to become discouraged about the injustice we see everywhere. But God did not promise us that the world would be humane and just. [God] gives us the gift of life and allows us to choose the way we will use our limited time on Earth. It is an awesome opportunity.”

— César Chávez

LOUISVILLE — The Hispanic/Latinx National Caucus of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) stands in strong solidarity with our African American siblings in the United States.

While people of color of all persuasions have suffered and continue to suffer violence, ignominy and systemic discrimination, the history of violence against black people in this country remains the most egregious example of white privilege and supremacy, perpetuating the mortal national sins of slavery and Jim Crow laws.

The murders of unarmed black people by the police in recent years reflect those dynamics. Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Dontre Hamilton, Philando Castile, Tamir Rice, and more recently, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, among many others, remain in our ”consciences of color” as martyrs of a society that still values more wealth and power over the welfare of the entire community.

Hispanic/Latinx Presbyterians condemn without any reservation these anti-gospel and anti-humanity beliefs and practices. We long for the day when justice will finally prevail in this nation. As Dr. King put it so beautifully, ”… little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

We also echo this cry of hope: ”All lives will not matter until black lives matter.”

— The Rev. Dr. Antonio (Tony) Aja, on behalf of the Coordinating Council of the HLNPC

click on link to access original article

PCUSA Mission Agency News

Article reprinted by permission, photographs by Rod Cartesegna. Presbyterian Mission Agency, Rev Dr Antonio Aja, 2020

Loving Your Neighbor by Wearing a Mask

This video from Beaumont Presbyterian Church and the Presbytery of Transylvania says it all.  As we continue in this season of Covid-19, listen to this message of "love your neighbor" and the acts of wearing a mask.  The current medical thinking, if a person has a respiratory infection, breathing, coughing, and sneezing can spew droplets from 6 to 14 feet away.  Wearing a mask reducing the amount of space that these particles travel and is advised.