With drumming to drive them and preaching by a Co-Moderator of the 225th General Assembly to inspire them, mid council moderators from around the country joined both in person in the Chapel at the Presbyterian Center and online for the 2022 Moderators’ Conference, which began Friday with worship pointing to the Co-Moderators’ “Unbounded We Thrive” theme.
Decolonizing worship means recovering practices and traditions of the Black church that have been “changed, altered, sometimes thrown away” for hundreds of years, the Rev. Dr. Lisa Allen-McLaurin said during the November broadcast of “Good Medicine,” hosted by the Rev. Gregory Bentley and Ruling Elder Elona Street-Stewart, Co-Moderators of the 224th General Assembly (2020).
Since their election last June, the Co-Moderators of the 224th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have been speaking on the need for churches to reach out into their communities. The Rev. Gregory Bentley and Ruling Elder Elona Street-Stewart have urged Presbyterians to step out of their comfort zones and reach across social and racial barriers to connect.
The same God who in the Book of Exodus “turned the Red Sea into an interstate” for the Hebrew people and later fed them six mornings each week with something the people named “what is it?” (manna) will also, according to the Rev. Greg Bentley, “give us some ‘what is it?’ to get us through” the current pandemic.
Watching the Reverend Cindy Kohlmann and Ruling Elder Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri interact with each other is like watching family members catch up after a long time apart. When the Co-Moderators of the 223rd General Assembly (2018) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) reflect on their nearly year-and-a-half together, they practically finish each other’s sentences, while exchanging hugs and laughing to themselves.
More than 120 mid council moderators have gathered in Louisville for the annual Moderators’ Conference of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Moderators and moderators-elect from across the country are meeting for worship, workshops and sharing.
"지난 2년 반 동안 126,000 마일 이상을 여행했습니다." 총회 사무국 위원회 회의 2일째에 미국장로교 정서기인 제이 허버트 넬슨 목사Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II는 전체 교회를 방문한 그의 여행에 대한 최신 정보를 제공했다. 넬슨은 길에서 많은 시간을 보냈고, 교회, 중간공의회, 그리고 대회를 통해 신세기의 교회가 어디로 가는지를 측정했다고 말했다.
More than 126,000 miles traveled in the last two-and-a-half years. During the second day of meetings for the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly, the Reverend Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), provided an update on his visits across the greater church. Nelson says he’s spent a great deal of time on the road, meeting with congregations, mid councils, and synods to gauge where the church is in the new century.
Ruling Elder Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri, co-moderator of the 223rd General Assembly, told the 110 or so presbytery and synod moderators attending the Moderators’ Conference Friday that the way she understands her favorite chapter in the Bible – Romans 8 – has understandably changed and deepened since she was a teenager in a new member class at her church in San Juan, Puerto Rico.