Continuing a nearly 40-year tradition, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is once again hosting individuals from around the globe who will serve as International Peacemakers.
In the fall of 2015, mission co-worker Nadia Ayoub was attending a conference with colleagues in Budapest when the city’s Keleti train station became the epicenter of the refugee crisis overwhelming Europe. She could not forget the images of children sleeping on cardboard, families with not enough to eat and the pervasive fear of what would happen next. At that moment she felt a strong call to work with refugees.
Who are you passing by today as you hurry to get to your next destination?
Tired and weary-eyed from four weeks of travel, strange food and nonstop itineraries in a foreign country but bolstered by their faith and a powerful sense of accomplishment, the 2018 Peacemakers gathered together one final time at Laws Lodge on the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary campus. Seven of the 10 peacemakers met for two days of conversation and a debrief session to talk about their experiences with congregations, students and other organizations over the past month before heading back to their respective homes.
Nearly 30,000 refugees live in or near Thessaloniki, a port city in Greece. Manolis Ntamparakis has made it his calling to help them. He is the director of social action for the Naomi Ecumenical Workshop for Refugees, a nonprofit organization founded two years ago.
The situation in Greece is more than an economic crisis that the country faces alone, said government and church leaders in Athens to a delegation of ecumenical leaders from Europe and Africa Nov. 19.
A senior Greek Protestant has warned that minority denominations “face disaster” due to the country’s worsening economic crisis.
Minority Christian denominations in Greece are closing down their charity work and having trouble paying clergy salaries because of the economic crisis, according to church leaders in Athens.
“Like other Protestant churches, we’re financially autonomous here and not supported by anyone but our own members, so our revenue has fallen sharply,” said Dimitrios Boukis, general secretary of the Greek Evangelical Church, which has 29 congregations in two regional synods in Greece, and another in North America.