World Mission Celebration '09
Hundreds gather in Cincinnati to celebrate mission
More than 700 Presbyterians passionate about mission attended World Mission Challenge ’09 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Oct. 22-24.
“I am convinced that more Presbyterians are deeply engaged in world mission than ever before in the history of our church,” said Hunter Farrell, director of Presbyterian World Mission attendees.
Gathering under the theme, “Branches of the Same Vine,” the Celebration reflected the diversity and breadth of Presbyterian mission work.
PC(USA) supports tenacious Christian community in Middle East
The Rev. Jay Rock. Photo credit: Danny Bolin. CINCINNATI — The complex history and current strife of the Middle East continue to make it a difficult place for Christians, despite 2,000 uninterrupted years of Christian witness in the region, participants in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s World Mission Celebration ’09 were told here Oct. 23.
“We’re caught between Iraq and a hard place,” Jordan-based longtime PC(USA) mission worker Douglas Dicks told some 700 mission-minded Presbyterians during a plenary session on the church’s witness in the Middle East. “It’s a tough neighborhood to live and navigate.” Keep reading.
YAVs say PC(USA) volunteer stints lead to sense of call
by Bethany Furkin
Presbyterian News Service
CINCINNATI — Few attendees of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s World Mission Celebration here would be considered young adults, but there were a few offerings for that age group at the conference.
Two former Young Adult Volunteers shared their experiences in an Oct. 23 workshop titled “Engaging Young Adults Through Mission.” Keep reading.
Plenary session focuses on mission in the Americas
by Bethany Furkin
Presbyterian News Service
CINCINNATI — At the Oct. 23 morning plenary session, attendees of the World Mission Celebration here learned about theology and evangelism work being done by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and its partners in the Americas.
Presenters spoke of the importance of building relationships in mission work, especially when differences can sometimes seem more important than similarities. Keep reading.
FC College, other Pakistan Presbyterian schools are making a comeback
CINCINNATI — A prominent Sunni Muslim parent in Lahore, Pakistan, came to Veeda Javaid seeking to enroll his daughter in a Presbyterian school in the city. At home a short while later, the girl — now a student at the school — heard a shouting match going on between Sunnis and Shiites in her family’s living room.
Veeda Javaid. Photo by Danny Bolin. “She marched into the room,” Javaid recalled in an Oct. 24 presentation at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s World Mission Celebration ’09 here, “and said, ‘My teacher has taught me that we are all children of God and should be living in peace.’ The shouting stopped.”
Two of that girl’s sisters are now also students at the Presbyterian school, said Javaid, executive director of the Presbyterian Education Board (PEB), an agency of the Presbyterian Church of Pakistan (PCP) which oversees a network of more than a dozen Presbyterian schools in the overwhelmingly Muslim country. Keep reading.
Farrell to Mission Celebration participants: ‘transform global activity into global discipleship’
The Rev. Hunter Farrell, director of Presbyterian World Mission, addressed the opening plenary of World Mission Celebration '09. Photo credit: Danny Bolin CINCINNATI — More than 700 mission-minded Presbyterians gathered here Oct. 22 to celebrate Presbyterian world mission in all its variety.
The three-day event, Mission Celebration ’09, culminates a month-long effort, Mission Challenge ’09, to connect Presbyterians around the denomination with PC(USA) mission workers around the world.
Since Oct. 1, more than 50 PC(USA) mission workers and international peacemakers — leaders from partner churches in trouble spots around the world — have been itinerating in more than 150 of the denomination’s 173 presbyteries seeking prayer, spiritual and moral support for the church’s global mission work. Keep reading.
Money’s no object
Genuine partnership is about relationships, not wealth, workshop told
Ellen Smith, PC(USA) mission worker in Russia, explains the Russia Twinning Partnership at a Mission Celebration workshop on congregational partnerships.
Photo by Jerry Van Marter. CINCINNATI — When it comes to congregation-to-congregation relationships between the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and international partners, money is no object.
Meaning: money is not the object, leaders of a number of denominational congregational partnership efforts told workshop participants on the subject today (Oct. 23) at World Mission Celebration ’09, which caps World Mission Challenge ’09 — a month-long effort to connect Presbyterians around the country with their mission workers around the world. Keep reading.
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