Presbyterian Mission Agency Worshiping Communities Archives

When church is dangerous, digital ministry provides sanctuary

Posted June 12th, 2024

“Finally!” was all my United Methodist friend had to text me when I asked how their General Conference was going. While I echo their relief, I know the recovery period for my LGBTQIA+ siblings is far from being final. Presbyterians stand as proof that the vote is sometimes the easiest part of change

Podcast guest gazes up at her broad and sturdy family tree

Posted May 30th, 2024

The latest installment in the “New Way” podcast of the 1001 New Worshiping Communities movement includes a conversation about the formative years experienced by Minister Antonia Coleman, who works in the PC(USA)’s Office of Innovation and its Center for the Repair of Historic Harms. Listen to Coleman’s discussion with “New Way” host the Rev. Sara Hayden here.

App encourages small acts of discipleship

Posted May 24th, 2024

“We don’t rise to the level of our goals; we fall to the level of our processes,” says the Rev. Dr. Jason Whitehead, a pastor and social worker who has co-created the Daily Ripple app as a model for spiritual formation and the meeting space of a new worshiping community.

Without passages on justice for the poor, the Bible is a very slim volume

Posted May 16th, 2024

“I was raised to see that faith and justice were completely linked, and so I just think it’s about living out one’s faith,” says the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, who talks with the Rev. Sara Hayden on the New Way podcast about being raised by an activist mother and where she is finding hope and challenge in her own activism and motherhood today.

PC(USA) campus ministry in New Orleans benefits from ecumenical partnerships

Posted May 10th, 2024

The Labyrinth Café and Gathering Place is a campus ministry for Tulane University and the University of New Orleans in uptown New Orleans. “It’s a community center where people can gather and ask deep questions about life and faith,” said the Rev. Zoë Garry, campus minister and director of the Labyrinth.

Striking a balance between ‘Spirit-led’ and ‘decent and in order’

Posted May 3rd, 2024

When it comes to “Spirit-inspired worship,” the Rev. Veronica Cannon sets a very high standard and advises that churches and the people who attend them not compromise.

Creation sings hallelujah in a cemetery

Posted April 1st, 2024

Very early on Easter Sunday, two women went to the historic cemetery in Decatur, Georgia, accompanied by a musician. They carried a Christ candle and copies of a printed liturgy. Others joined them, but it was hard to say how many, for they were just shapes in the darkness — spirit or flesh? It was hard to tell until the morning light reached its fingers through the trees and gravestones to pull away the shroud of the long night.

Presbyterians celebrate their inner child on Mister Rogers Day

Posted March 20th, 2024

Wednesday’s Chapel Service celebrating Mister Rogers Day drew out the inner child among the national staff of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) as they celebrated the many gifts given by Fred Rogers, the innovative children’s television pioneer and Presbyterian pastor. Rogers was born on March 20, 1928, and Presbyterians celebrate Mister Rogers Day each year on his birthday.

New Way podcast explores how to be in a relationship worth repairing

Posted March 19th, 2024

“So much of our lives is spent in the company of others. These encounters shape us, whether we’re passing time silently next to a stranger in the crowded row of an airplane or in the innumerable moments of life shared between our own roommates, co-workers, siblings or spouses,” the Rev. Sara Hayden, host of the New Way podcast, explains in her introduction to a two-episode interview with the Rev. Troy Bronsink, founder of The Hive, a center for contemplation, art and action.

Presbytery of San Fernando celebrates 55 new worshiping communities in 55 years

Posted February 16th, 2024

“God is not yet finished with the Presbyterians!” said Nick Warnes, director of Cyclical LA, a ministry of the Presbytery of San Fernando in California, and executive director of Cyclical INC. Warnes was describing what it meant for him to meet the milestone of 55 new worshiping communities in the 55-year history of the Presbytery of San Fernando.