Category Archives: General Assembly

The PC(USA)’s Disability Concerns Consultants help people overcome barriers to full participation in church

Small, dedicated group draws gratitude for understanding inclusivity issues

by Darla Carter | Presbyterian News Service

Original Article: https://www.presbyterianmission.org/story/the-pcusas-disability-concerns-consultants-help-people-overcome-barriers-to-full-participation-in-church/

Disability Concerns Consultant the Rev. Sue Montgomery speaks during a workshop at Big Tent. (Taylor Gash photo for Presbyterian News Service)

LOUISVILLE — If the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A)’s cadre of Disability Concerns Consultants had a motto, it might be “We are small but mighty.”

That’s how Hunter Steinitz, an elder at Riverview United Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, describes the group, which consists of four consultants who each have a different specialty: people with mobility or accessibility issues, people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, people who are deaf or hard of hearing, and people who are blind or have low vision.

Taking questions mostly by phone or email, the consultants help disabled people throughout the PC(USA) to feel welcome.

“The biggest thing I hear from people who call is that they are so grateful to have someone not only that is listening but someone who understands,” said the Rev. Sue Montgomery, who leads the consultancy team and serves as the mobility/accessibility consultant.

Steinitz interacts with the consultants as moderator of Presbyterians for Disability Concerns, a group that works for disability inclusion in ministries, communities and the PC(USA). She recently described the role of Disability Concerns Consultants this way:

“They are out there for congregations, for individuals, for people with disabilities (who are) looking to find faith communities that are inclusive and accessible,” she said. Consultants also “help anybody really looking to increase their inclusivity and their accessibility so that more people with varying abilities can be active and participate in the life of the church.”

The Rev. Dr. Bethany McKinney Fox (Contributed photo)

The Presbyterian Mission Agency (PMA) contracts with the Disability Concerns Consultants on a two-year cycle and recently hired hearing consultant Kathy McIndoe and the Rev. Dr. Bethany McKinney Fox, who’s the intellectual/developmental disabilities consultant. They join Montgomery and the Rev. Dr. Karen Moritz, the consultant for people who have low-vision or blindness.

“Working very closely with Sue to contract with her three Disability Consultant colleagues, I have become very aware of their importance to the Church’s ability to provide a safe, inclusive space for people living with disabilities,” said Lacey Hunter, a manager of Finance and Administration for PMA. “The lived experience, skill, and sensitivity they offer is crucial.”

Steinitz said she is “over the moon” that the consultancy team is up to full staff.

However, “I’m even more excited that most of our consultants are themselves people affected with the disability that is their subject matter expertise,” she said. “It’s so very important that people affected with the thing in question be the ones to provide the information because they live it every single day in a way that someone who just knows about it can’t quite match.”

The Rev. Dr. Karen Moritz (Contributed photo)

As a woman who’s been blind since birth, Moritz is sensitive to the issues that people with conditions that affect their vision face in church and community settings. “It’s kind of a thing close to my heart because I think the church still struggles to know how to include people with disabilities,” said Moritz, a former mission co-Worker and retired Nebraska pastor. “I know all of us want to be there to help make that process easier and less frightening for people.”

Examples of the questions and comments that come to the consultants include the following:

  • I have a gluten intolerance. How can I participate in Communion?
  • Help! I need curriculum help for children and adults with intellectual disabilities.
  • Can you give me information about accessibility audits/checklists/surveys?
  • My presbytery meets in a church that’s not accessible. Don’t they get it?
  • How can our church begin a ministry with persons who are deaf?
  • What do I say to a child who asks, “Why me?”

Montgomery, an honorably retired pastor who has a birth defect that has limited the use of her legs, said the people they hear from often are “looking for answers to a situation they’re dealing with in their congregation.” They may be a parent with a child who has a disability, or they may be “a teacher in a confirmation class looking for curriculum that’s geared toward people with cognitive or intellectual disabilities.”

Consultants also hear from people who have financial questions such as “How do we receive grants?” she said.

In addition to having conversations with people who have such questions, the consultants and Presbyterians for Disability Concerns can provide people with various resources.

Hunter Steinitz (Photo by Annie O’Neill)

“We have a blog,” Steinitz said. “We also have a number of resources,” including Sunday school materials for multiple age groups, so “check out all of the things that we have to offer and if there is something that you think you need or want that you don’t see, let us know. We’re always developing new and better materials to help folks think about ways to better include people with all abilities.”

The overall effort “is about participating in worship in whatever way people are able and want to and it’s also about enabling individuals with disabilities to serve in leadership capacities,” said Steinitz, who has a rare condition called Harlequin ichthyosis that gives her skin a red appearance. “So, it is about being able to come through the door, but it’s also about preparing for them once they’re here.”

Fox, the founder of a new worshipping community called Beloved Everybody in Los Angeles, expresses the need for inclusivity this way: “Particularly in a tradition like ours, with such deep regard for theological scholarship and meaningful verbal liturgy, there can be folks in the Body of Christ whose leadership, gifts, and participation are left out, simply because they may not express themselves primarily through verbal language or abstract concepts,” she said. “I hope that in this role I can work alongside folks with intellectual and developmental disabilities, whenever possible, to broaden the imagination of some of our practices and create more ideological and practical space for the beautiful diversity of bodies and brains among all of us whom God has created.”

Fox added that she has been “so encouraged by … the faithful commitment that folks from all over the country have shown for making a way for everyone in their community to participate and thrive, even when things become complicated, or a situation arises that doesn’t have an easy answer.”

Montgomery, who lives in Pennsylvania, noted that it’s important for people who want to make their churches better for people with disabilities to take the time to seek input from them.

“Get to know the person,” she said. “Get to know the family. Get to know what” their ministry needs are, because “if you don’t, you can end up paying for an elevator that nobody can use or a ramp that can’t be used because it’s too steep.”

That’s where a consultant can be helpful, Moritz said. “I feel like my job is partly, especially with congregations, to allow them to have that conversation with me, and then hopefully get some tools about how they can have that conversation with people in their congregation.”

Moritz also can be helpful to those who need help beyond the church. As a former vocational rehabilitation counselor, “I have an awareness of some of the other services that are available outside the church,” she said. “… Sometimes, people just don’t know where to go to get the help that would improve their lives.”

For more information about Disability Concerns Consultants, go here. Additional information can be found here.


Taking the ‘plunge’ to improve basic sanitation and hygiene worldwide

Indiana youth group uses lighthearted approach to address serious health issue through the Presbyterian Giving Catalog

by Emily Enders Odom, Mission Communications | Special to Presbyterian News Service

Youth at First Presbyterian Church in Columbus, Indiana, have some good, clean fun playing plungerball. (Contributed photo)

ST. LOUIS — Although ballplayers have been swinging since ancient times — whether with bats, rackets, hands or clubs — recorded history is strangely silent about plungers.

Yes, plungers.

“Plungerball started about 20 years ago when I first started leading the youth group,” said Sunny Currier, youth leader at First Presbyterian Church of Columbus, Indiana, who was attending the 2024 APCE Annual Event, Jan. 24-27, in St. Louis with a group from the congregation. “It’s just like softball, but instead of a bat you use a plunger. It just became a thing in our youth group.”

But the mission-minded youth of the church are not all fun and games.

“They are interested in social justice,” said Stephanie Cunningham, who leads the youth group with Currier at the 400-member church in the Presbytery of Ohio Valley. “Whenever we have conversations about topical issues, I find them to be really engaged.”

And that’s where the Presbyterian Giving Catalog came in.

“We already knew about the Giving Catalog from the congregation,” said Jen Riddle, the church’s director of Children, Youth and Young Adult Ministries. “Our social justice committee was working with it.”

The Presbyterian Giving Catalog is filled with a wide variety of gifts that provide real and positive impact around the world.

The 2023–2024 edition offers a total of 43 items — large, small and in between ­— to fit every congregation’s missional interests and every individual’s budget. For ease of use, it is available both in print and online, in EnglishSpanish and Korean.

When committee members Mary Ann McCray and Vern Jorck approached the two youth leaders and Riddle with a proposal, they were ready and eager to answer not only God’s — but also nature’s — call.

“Mary Ann and Vern thought it would be a great idea for the children of the church to raise money for families of chickens,” recalled Currier. “When they asked us if we could get that going, I thought that our youth group could also do something. So, when I picked up the Giving Catalog and saw the latrine item, considering that our youth group’s favorite activity is plungerball, the decision was obvious.”

Youth ministry leaders at First Presbyterian Church in Columbus, Indiana, pose with Gracie the fish during last week’s APCE Annual Event. (Photo by Margaret Boone)

Currier said that reading the accompanying description in the Giving Catalog helped her to explain to the youth why latrines are important. According to a United Nations website, there are 3.5 billion people living without safe toilets.

The Giving Catalog explains that for women in particular, latrines promote dignity and safety, minimizing the risk of assault when they venture out alone in search of privacy.

“We explained to the youth that we have places to go to the bathroom, but not everybody does,” added Cunningham, who works for a domestic violence organization. “Even though it’s a heavy topic, you can pair it with something fun.”

And the teenagers — and youth leaders alike — had plenty of that.

The youth group kicked off their fundraising campaign in the late fall of 2023 with a table set up during coffee hour for the first two weeks of Advent and also as part of the church’s alternative giving fair.

Their creative displays gave a knowing nod and a wink to the latrine project by giving away Hershey’s Kisses, chocolate emoji-themed cupcakes and lemonade.

Currier had also found a broken chair in the recycling bin, which she outfitted with a toilet seat and mixing bowl to further raise awareness.

Youth at First Presbyterian Church in Columbus, Indiana, encouraged gifts to the Presbyterian Giving Catalog with this creative display. (Photo by Sunny Currier)

For the children’s chicken project, Riddle said she found instructions to make paper plate chickens on the Giving Catalog’s website, which they displayed.

“We also made our ‘time with children’ sermons during the first two weeks of Advent related to the Giving Catalog project, first the chickens and then the latrines,” she said. “It’s great to have something visual for the kids.”

The Giving Catalog offers a wealth of hands-on activities, including the “I Spy Activity,” complete with downloadable coloring sheets of a chicken, cow, piglet and veggies designed to help children better understand how their gifts make a difference for families and entire communities.

At the APCE Annual Event, adults like Cunningham also enjoyed the opportunity to color — for a cause. And for a prize.

APCE attendees who completed and returned their coloring sheets on day 1 of the annual event were awarded a Piggy Tote; on day 2, a Chicken Tote; and on day 3, Veggies.

Completing coloring sheets featuring items from the Presbyterian Giving Catalog gave APCE Annual Event-goers a welcome respite. (Photo by Margaret Boone)

“I appreciated the coloring because self-care is important,” said Cunningham. “I also wanted to win a chicken tote bag badly! It means something to me because our kids worked on that project. Anything with children and youth is close to my heart.”

Although the chicken and latrine projects were the church’s first experience with — and gifts to — the Catalog, the results from the congregation were remarkable.

“Because the church was so incredibly generous, we ended up with enough money for 15 1/4 families of chickens at $25 each, and 3 1/2 latrines at $350 each,” said Currier.

Riddle explained that when the church’s men’s group heard about funding the latrines, they were so moved by a need that they weren’t previously aware of that they made a gift of a whole latrine.

“It’s sad that people don’t have access to latrines for safety and privacy,” said 12-year-old Maddie. “I’m glad we can help them.”

To which Maddie’s best friend, 13-year-old Violet, added, “We take a lot of things for granted.”

Like First Presbyterian Church of Columbus, Indiana, please consider using the Presbyterian Giving Catalog to  spread hope and help create lasting, positive change around the world.

The original article is found here: https://www.presbyterianmission.org/story/taking-the-plunge-to-improve-basic-sanitation-and-hygiene-worldwide/

Creative_Commons-BYNCNDReprinted under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDeratives 4.0 International License.

Parliamentary Procedure for Leaders – Free Webinar

Year of Leader Formation: Investing in Ruling Elders and Deacons
Parliamentary Procedure for Leaders – A Webinar
July 14, 2021; 7-8:30 pm (eastern) – Registration Deadline July 6, 2021
Tricia Dykers-Koenig

PC(USA) ruling elders and deacons have responsibilities as leaders in Christ’s church. Whether you serve as a moderator or as a participant, your call will involve meetings conducted by parliamentary procedure – usually Robert’s Rules of Order. Most Presbyterians have learned about parliamentary procedure through observation during meetings; during this Year of Leader Formation webinar, you can expect to learn more about the theological connections between parliamentary procedure and our Book of Order and gain skills to help you participate more confidently and effectively. You will have an opportunity during the registration process to name questions you would like to see addressed.

This event is provided for free for participants and is funded through your per capita dollars. It does not come without cost, however. Knowing the diversity of language within the PC(USA), this webinar will be provided in several languages with interpretation based on requests made through the registration process. As a result, there is a registration deadline of July 6, 2021, in order to be able to have time to arrange for those services. This event will be recorded and will be available in English following the event.

Read More & Register on the PC(USA) site.

224th General Assembly to be conducted online only

Committee on the Office of the General Assembly votes for shortened assembly

Rick Jones | Office of the General Assembly – April 21, 2020

LOUISVILLE

??? ] [ Español ]

For the first time in the history of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the denomination’s General Assembly will be held online only. The Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA) voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a plan for a reduced assembly gathering that will require everyone involved — commissioners, advisory delegates, corresponding members and staff — to participate in a digital assembly.

Read the full article on the PC(USA) website

April 22, 2020 Coronavirus Briefing from the PC(USA)

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance approves more than $1.1 million in COVID-19 grants
Staff members say they have seen churches ‘rising to the occasion’ in midst of pandemic

PC(USA), A Corporation approved for $8.8 million forgivable loan
‘This gives us a little breathing room,’ says A Corp President Kathy Lueckert

Mission Agency President seeks a church-wide fundraising campaign
Noting ‘the world has changed so much,” Moffett asks PMA Board for a larger, wider fundraiser than the $4 million version recommended for Stony Point Center

Remembering victims, resisting violence and renouncing evil
A prayer for Holocaust Remembrance Day

Old school, new school
Christian educators and other leaders are using every tool to reach children and their families during pandemic

Easter 2020 Special Collecting
Help the Presbyterian Historical Society document worship responses to COVID-19

Office of Theology and Worship develops resources for prayer and comfort during the pandemic
Adapting portions of the 2018 Book of Common Worship for today’s trying circumstances

COVID-19 impacts overseas Filipino workers
Migrants are often treated with little concern for their health, dignity

Presbytery of Seattle remains strong in the midst of COVID-19
Leaders echo others in the church — things will change after virus

Regarding Ruling Elders: A Monthly Series for Serving Faithfully
Ruling Elders in a Pandemic

Churches urged to observe Earth Day
Resources available to help with planning

‘When America gets a cold, the African American community gets pneumonia’
COVID-19’s impact on black Presbyterian churches

Varied, far-flung mission is envisioned over the next two years
Presbyterian Mission Agency Board hears what kind of ministry will occur under proposed budgets for 2021, 2022

COGA to make final decision on the 224th General Assembly (2020) next week
Members hold regular meeting to consider agenda

Share your CARES money (if you can)
Some Presbyterians don’t really need their government stimulus check. Consider donating it

Practicing lifelong discipleship formation during COVID-19
During a Vital Congregations online webinar, some 50 church leaders describe their hopes for life after coronavirus

The coronavirus and its implications for PC(USA) ministry
Nearly 1,100 congregations and mid councils discuss both challenges and surprises

COGA considers critical business for 224th General Assembly (2020)
Unified budget and addressing COVID-19 top discussion on its final day

Presbyterian Mission Agency Board endorses proposed budgets, committee reports
Some proposals receive minor tweaks

The digital church arrives
Is it here to stay?

Presbyterians Today navigates the new way of being church
Inspiring stories, helpful ideas fill May/June issue

Take care of our bodies before we take care of the economy
Stated Clerk speaks out on returning to the workforce

April 8, 2020 Coronavirus Briefing from the PC(USA)

Coronavirus News

Matthew 25 grants will support vulnerable congregations facing COVID-19
Presbyterian Mission Agency president sets aside funds to be administered by Presbyterian Disaster Assistance

Small church with great faith helps the Big Apple
Manokin Presbyterian Church in Maryland’s Eastern Shore goes the distance during pandemic

Hunger Action Advocate helps congregations see ‘the big picture’
Laura VanDale moves Ohio churches to use their collective voices

New hymn speaks to missing out on a traditional Easter celebration
Published a week ago, Carolyn Winfrey Gillette’s ‘This Easter Celebration’ has been translated into five languages, shared 13,000 times

Co-Moderators find new ways to connect with Presbyterians
Hymns and stories draw viewers across the denomination and beyond

Emergency student loan management enacted during COVID-19 crisis
PC(USA)’s Financial Aid for Service: Payments on eligible federal student loans are suspended through Sept. 30

‘We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed’
Vital Congregations webinar on intentional, authentic evangelism focuses on being real even when in-person gatherings aren’t possible

‘People delight in the feeling of making a difference’
1001 New Worshiping Communities webinar explores ways to continue fundraising, even during a pandemic

One Great Hour of Sharing ministries provide support during the pandemic
Three PC(USA) ministries receive OGHS financing, made even more crucial by COVID-19

Young Adult Volunteers rising to lead in a time of crisis
YAVs prove able to shift, adapt and learn on the fly

Presbyterian hunger ministries persevere despite pandemic
‘People are desperate to help’

Board of Pensions offers dues relief and deferments to churches and employers
Church applications, requests by other PC(USA) employers will be decided on a case-by-case basis

Church leaders consider holding a full virtual General Assembly
Committee on the Office of the General Assembly looks at options for 224th gathering

Pastoring in a pandemic: ways to care for your church and yourself
Oregon clergy couple shares with the Presbyterian Foundation some lessons learned

PC(USA) Washington Office calls for domestic, international COVID-19 advocacy
Capitol Hill ministry calling on Congress to protect U.S. workers, lift sanctions in Latin America

New COVID-19 QuickSheets available from youth workers, Christian formation ministries
‘This shouldn’t be a time for young people to become inwardly focused and detached’

Presbyterians reach out, find ways to minister to older adults
The COVID-19 pandemic spurs pastors, church educators into innovative ministry

Hosannas and honks
During drive-in worship, two churches proclaim Palm Sunday is ‘a day to dance’

Congregations self-rate ‘fairly well’ after the first few weeks of the pandemic
Initial results from Research Services survey highlight areas of great support and areas of great need

Stated Clerk sends message to mid council leaders

News

Stated Clerk Nominating Committee recommends J. Herbert Nelson, II, to seek a second term
Committee confident of ‘prophetic vision’ for the PC(USA)

Vital Congregations, 1001 New Worshiping Communities to hold Holy Week Zoom calls
On Wednesday, VC will discuss ‘Spirit-inspired worship’; 1001 to gather for Maundy Thursday prayer and meditation

Learn how your church can thrive with a part-time ministry model
Jeffrey MacDonald’s book offers new opportunities for churches facing financial decline

Nancy J. Taylor named executive director at the Presbyterian Historical Society
The Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS) has a new executive director: Nancy J. Taylor.

Elona Street-Stewart and Gregory Bentley to run as Co-Moderators of the 224th General Assembly (2020)
The two become second group to seek the Co-Moderators’ model