Weekly Newsletter
PNews – 10/22/20
News from Pittsburgh Presbytery Loyal to the Emperor or to God? In Matthew 22:15-22, Jesus’ opponents try to corner him by asking if taxes should be paid to the Emperor. This question is something we still struggle with. Do our …
PNews – 10/15/20
News from Pittsburgh Presbytery The United or the Divided States? The essential mark of love is that we do not abandon. When we love each other, we commit to staying the course together. Anything and anyone that seeks to divide …
PNews – 10/8/20
News from Pittsburgh Presbytery What Now? In this week’s meditation, Seven Months In – The Church’s Response Today to the COVID-19 Pandemic, Rev. Dr. Sheldon W. Sorge collaborates with Rev. Carol Divens Roth and Elder Mark Roth to reflect on …
PNews – 10/1/20
News from Pittsburgh Presbytery What’s the Difference? What difference does it make to follow Jesus? Our world is currently more politically polarized than at any time in recent history. This enmity is manifest in many nations, but it is especially virulent …
PNews – 09/24/20
News from Pittsburgh Presbytery Do we Have COVID Claustrophobia? Our space for working, playing, and praying has been greatly constricted by the COVID-19 pandemic over the past six months. We are restricted in where and how we gather. That’s how …
PNews – 09/17/20
News from Pittsburgh Presbytery Are We Leading by Example? When church officers promise to be friends in ministry to their colleagues, and to further the peace, unity, and purity of the church, they promise to embody in their relationships the …
PNews – 9/10/20
News from Pittsburgh Presbytery Do We Gather for Worship, or to Worship? The conversation about returning to the sanctuary has revealed a persisting pattern among us, a tendency to call the gathering “worship.” This way of putting it suggests that …
PNews – 9/3/2020
News From Pittsburgh Presbytery Shaken to the Core. Over recent months we have been shaken to the core – by the pandemic, by police shootings, and by resultant protests and counter-protests. There’s a whole lot of shaking going on in …
PNews – 8/27/20
News From Pittsburgh Presbytery What’s Your Story? Last year our presbytery voted to enroll as a “Matthew 25 Presbytery,” joining in our denomination’s national Matthew 25 Initiative, encouraging and equipping congregations to: 1. Strengthen congregational vitality, 2. Dismantle structural racism, and …
PNews – 8/20/20
News from Pittsburgh Presbytery When Should We Embrace Fear, and When Should We Resist It? Stoking fear and resentment is a powerful way to gain a mass following. But not all fear is bad. We do our children a great …
There Will Be A Day
A Letter to Pittsburgh Presbytery from Elder Ralph Lowe Director of Justice Ministries August 13, 2020 A few months ago, I wrote a letter to my white siblings in Christ expressing my exhaustion, outrage, worry, desperation, and hurt as a …
PNews – 08/13/20
News from Pittsburgh Presbytery How Do We Truly Become Unified? Mark 3:25 says “If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.“ Divided we are easily manipulated to resentment, anger, superiority, and distrust. Where and how do we …
PNews – 08/06/2020
News from Pittsburgh Presbytery Are We Going to Atrophy or Adapt? A titan of our age was laid to rest last week. John Lewis kept going moving forward undeterred throughout his life, no matter how much resistance he faced. Likewise, the …
PNews – 7/30/20
News from Pittsburgh Presbytery Which Denials Underlie Our Affirmations? If we are to be Christ’s faithful followers and authentic ambassadors, we must be a people marked first and foremost by saying “Yes!” Yet beneath every “Yes” we utter lies a …
PNews – 7/23/20
News from Pittsburgh Presbytery Is the Familiar Gone for Good? We are all waiting for “life to go back to normal”. But what was normal doesn’t exist anymore. And we have no idea what the “normal” we’re headed for is going …