Grace

In this difficult season in the Presbyterian Church (USA), may we be reminded of the grace we have received through Jesus Christ our Lord. This definition of "grace" comes from Frederick Buechner's Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC:

After centuries of handling and mishandling, most religious words have become so shopworn nobody's much interested anymore.  Not so with grace, for some reason.  Mysteriously, even derivatives like gracious and graceful still have some of the bloom left.

Grace is something you can never get but only be given.  There's no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about any more than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream or earn good looks or bring about your own birth.

A good sleep is grace and so are good dreams.  The smell of rain is grace.  Somebody loving you is grace.  Loving somebody is grace.  Have you ever tried to love somebody?

A crucial eccentricity of the Christian faith is the assertion that people are saved by grace.  There's nothing

you have to do.  There's nothing you

have to do.  There's nothing you have to do.

The grace of God means something like: Here is your life.  You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you.  Here is the world.  Beautiful and terrible things will happen.  Don't be afraid.  I am with you.  Nothing can ever separate us.  It's for you I created the universe.  I love you.

There's only one catch.  Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you'll reach out and take it.

Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too.

Pray for Christians in Egypt

The note is forwarded from Hunter Farrell, the Director of Presbyterian World Mission  and copied from his Facebook post:

Message from the General Secretary of the Synod of the Nile, founded by Presbyterian missionaries a century ago and now the largest Protestant church in the Middle East:

The Church in Egypt has passed through very difficult circumstances this week, when the terrorist group ISIS slaughtered 21 Christian Egyptians in Libya. They were young people, who went to Libya to look for work. They were slaughtered while they were saying, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom: All the Egyptian churches were involved together in setting up special prayers for the victims' families.

The Church in Egypt appreciates the role played by the state in these circumstances. The President of the Republic went to the Orthodox Church in order to bring consolation. Also, all government and Islamic authorities participated in the condolences, and denounced the terrorist act.
The Church felt grateful to the President, who went to the Orthodox Church for consolation. The Church supports the rapid reaction of the government, which is represented in the air strikes against the terrorist group.

We thank all our brothers and sisters all over the world, who participated with the Egyptian Church in these circumstances, in writing condolences or in prayer. We pray that the Lord blesses and preserves Egypt, and makes the Church in Egypt, a witness to the Lord in this region.

General Secretary
Rev. Refat Fathy

New Book: The Presbyterian Mission Enterprise

New Book:

I am pleased to announce the publication of my new book: The Presbyterian Mission Enterprise: From Heathen to Partner. My book is now available for purchase at wipfandstock.com. 

American Presbyterians have a remarkable heritage of foreign mission work. While today the mission and ministry of the Presbyterian Church and all of mainline Protestantism is in a time of reformation and deep change, it is vital to remember this heritage of world mission. The Presbyterian Mission Enterprise tells this story by highlighting significant mission leaders through the ages. Our story includes Francis Makemie, a colonial-era missionary pastor and church planter who gathered with colleagues to form the first Presbytery in 1706. Tough, old-school Presbyterians like Ashbel Green insisted on a distinctive Presbyterian mission effort, and Presbyterians were among those who heard the call exemplified by William Carey to take the gospel to the whole world. This vision beckoned Walter Lowrie into leadership, and Presbyterians joined the great missionary movement. Robert Speer was a driving force behind this growing movement, negotiating a moderate path through bitter conflicts. After the traumas of World War II, John Coventry Smith worked to reconfigure and redirect the mission enterprise. Now, in an era marked by fragmentation and realignment, leaders like Clifton Kirkpatrick and Hunter Farrell work to continue the Presbyterian mission enterprise as a vital piece of the way forward. Our heritage guides our future.

A letter from Veeda Javaid

Copied here is a letter from Veeda Javaid. Please pray for Pakistan and the Presbyterian Education Boark:

December 20, 2014

Dear Friends,

For many years, Pakistan has been a divided society, politically, socially, religiously. Over the years, terrorism has increased. People are no longer surprised at news of bomb blasts and shootings. Pakistan has lost thousands in terrorist attacks, but December 16, 2014 will be remembered as the bloodiest day in the history of Pakistan, the day terrorists attacked a school and massacred innocent school children, the day that united Pakistan.

Following the attack on a school in Peshawar, political parties have turned aside from their own agendas and the nation now stands with one voice, “No room for terrorism.” On December 16, 2014, one hundred and thirty-two children died, shot in cold blood by members of the Pakistan Taliban. These children should have been part of Pakistan’s future. Instead, for many families in Peshawar, there is no hope for the future. As one grieving father said, “My son was my dream. Today I buried my dream.” For the first time the country is empty of dreams. We do not have the words to describe the grief of a parent who lays his child in the earth before his time. It is a sorrow too large to bear. As someone has said, “The smallest coffins are the heaviest.”

But, with sorrow, there is anger in Pakistan today. There is anger at those who turned their eyes away from terror and let the cost be paid in human lives. There is anger at those who supported the killers and there is shame - shame that as a country we could not protect our children. There is shame amongst people who remained silent at the time of crises. Dear friends, we as a nation have a bad habit of forgetting everything within days and weeks, no matter how big a tragedy is, but this time history will not forgive us if we forget the blood of our children. People have finally started to realize and accept that extremism is a national issue; it is a war we are all involved in. We cannot turn a blind eye to what is happening in our country. As a nation, we have to stand united against this brutality.

All Presbyterian Education Board schools observed black day. Children wore black arm bands and candles were lit for the children of Peshawar. Many churches and Christian organizations have cancelled Christmas celebrations and have instead held special prayers. One student came to me and said, “I want to be an army officer because I want to punish the Taliban.” One mother shared that she was worried and concerned for her 3 daughters and didn’t want to send them to school, but the girls were adamant that they wanted to come. “We are not scared of terrorists,” they said.

The government received information that more terrorists are planning attacks on schools and in order to protect students, asked all schools and colleges to close for winter break from December 19, 2014 until January 5, 2015. Before Presbyterian Education Board schools closed, we were able to deliver Christmas gifts to all boarding house students.

Please pray for Pakistan.

Veeda Javaid
Executive Director, Presbyterian Education Board in Lahore, Pakistan

Thank you from Presbyterian World Mission

A beautiful, new thank you message is posted on the Presbyterian World Mission website. Thank you to all our congregation that participate with and support Presbyterian World Mission.

http://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/world-mission/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXnhraoXUok

What I believe . . .

I seek to encourage, teach and proclaim a Christian witness that actively embodies in the life of our church a full range of theological perspectives and interpretations of our Holy Scripture. For me, this is our opportunity to make a faithful, strong witness to our culture. Our culture is increasingly fragmented, and often bitterly divided, between republicans and democrats, between rich and poor, between urban and rural, between Anglo-Saxon whites and other races, between sportsmen and gun-control advocates, between hawks and doves, between evangelicals and mainline Christians, between young and old, etc. and etc. Likewise it would be easier, following the example of our culture, for our church to retreat into our own, like-minded, theological caucuses and name our own caucus “the truth” or “our tradition” or “the biblical way.” I believe we now have a higher calling. Our calling fights against all the pressure from our culture to fragment, divide, and retreat into like-mindedness. We have an opportunity to proclaim that we do not need to be like-minded to be united; we do not need to think the same to serve the same Lord, we do not need to compel others to believe as I believe to be together in the same Church; we do not need to hold our convictions so tight that we must name others as wrong. This is the church I am striving to build.

"Thank You" to our Twelve leading Shared Giving congregations.

Thank you!

These twelve congregations are leading the way in our presbytery. These congregations have pledged a total of $280,620 in Shared Mission Giving in 2014. Our total Shared Mission Giving budget for the Presbytery in 2014 is $330,000. Thus these twelve congregations are contributing 85% of our Presbytery’s total Shared Mission Giving budget in 2014. Thank you!

Thank you for your continuing and generous support.

Derry, Hershey
St. Andrews, Lebanon
Market Square, Harrisburg
Middle Spring, Shippensburg
Second Carlisle
First United, Newville
Pine Street, Harrisburg
Paxton, Harrisburg
Mechanicsburg
Greencastle
Lower Marsh Creek, Gettysburg
East Waterford