This resource for worship or study is freely available for use and adaptation. Please remember to give us a shoutout! A Printing-friendly pdf
Keep ReadingIntroduction The Presbyterian Church (USA) has been engaged in a decade-long struggle to divest from companies that are profiting from the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip. After an extensive corporate engagement process, the Committee
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There can be no doubt that Presbyterians in the United States have often supported the nation’s resort to arms in time of war. Indeed, Albert Curry Winn, one-time moderator of the “Southern” Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS), once referred to that denomination as the “most hawkish” in the
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This resource for worship or study is freely available for use and adaptation. Please remember to give us a shoutout! A Printing-friendly pdf of these reflections is available HERE (7 two-sided pages). Note from the Editors Though Advent is a season chock-full of worship and devotional resources, few Advent devotionals are
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A PC(USA) International Peacemaker Preaches Hope for Israel/Palestine. In September, the Presbytery of Genesee Valley welcomed a PC(USA) International Peacemaker, Amal Nassar, as she led workshops describing her family’s experience living at the Tent of Nations (an organic farm near Bethlehem in the West Bank). Events were held at eight
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For the past 40 years, the United States and Iran have had a hostile relationship interrupted by brief periods of cooperation. The 2015 nuclear deal was the high point of relations and the product of intense, acknowledged bilateral as well as multilateral diplomacy. That agreement is now in jeopardy because
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The affirmation of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was a “grievous mistake,” to quote the Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). His statement reflected long church policy. Jerusalem is “not a thing to be grasped,” because it can never be simply an earthly capital. Jerusalem still has a mystical value,
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“I didn’t know church could be like this,” said Sam, a teenager who had come to an event in Fellowship Hall. That Sunday after worship, we had Anna Baltzer speaking about why, as a Jewish-American, she had come to be an outspoken critic of Israeli policies, part of her national
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Discerning Peace in the 21st Century – Part II When the Peacemaking and International Relations Committee of the 222nd General Assembly was considering the Peace Discernment resolution (12-06) from the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP), they heard from many speakers. Understandably so, as this resolution is the final report
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Discerning Peace in the 21st Century – Part I We sat in a circle, our chairs so close that our knees touched and the conversation felt intimate. Following the order of lectio divina, we were sharing first scripture readings followed by silence and prayer, then a word or phrase, and
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The Adoption of Belhar and the Public Naming of Abuse The moment was simply stunning. With no verbal form of disagreement or dissent, the 222nd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted to adopt the Belhar Confession. With this landslide vote, the Belhar Confession will be added to the
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The 222nd General Assembly is considering 5 Risking Peace affirmations to guide the church as we live out Matthew 5:9: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Peacemaking is an essential aspect of “the ministry of reconciliation” (II Corinthians 5:18). The Peace Discernment process which
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