Presbyterians Today - PC(USA) congregation heals through a Womanist ethic

Dear Readers,   Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and holiday season and that you're entering 2024 with hope and joy. I am certainly filled with hope and joy for Presbyterians Today and the stories waiting to be told. Even though we're still building our new website and working on our relaunch of the print publication, we have a few stories lined up to publish this year along with some ways we're hoping to engage our readers in conversation around those stories. Look for the first one online in February (and I'll make sure to highlight it in next month's e-news as well).   Below, you'll find the third in our three-part video series about Liberty Community Church in Minneapolis. I hope you'll take a few minutes to watch and learn about this incredible community. Be sure to check out the first two videos too! I'll re-link those below as well.   As we dive into this new year, what hopes and dreams are you bringing with you? What are you choosing to focus your energy on? What goals do you have? I choose a focus word every year, and this year my word is "release." I'm hoping to work on learning to let go of all that isn't mine to carry and trust God to be the one in charge of it all. I'd love to hear what you're thinking about!   Sincerely,

Layton Williams Berkes Managing Editor, Presbyterians Today

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Rest and Resist — PC(USA) congregation heals through a Womanist ethic

Video and script by Rich Copley and Beth Waltemath   As Womanist theologians, the pastors of Liberty Community Church in Minneapolis, MN seek the healing of their Northside neighborhood through co-creating spaces of rest and resistance with individuals victimized by the sex trafficking trade and within a community suffering from the effects of systemic poverty and structural racism.   This is the third and final part of our Liberty video series. If you haven't, you can check out the first two videos below!

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Liberty Community Church: A Beacon of Hope

Video and script by Rich Copley and Beth Waltemath Liberty Community Church is the only African American PC(USA) church in the state of Minnesota. Located in North Minneapolis inside one of the city’s poorest zip codes and situated between major interstates which make it a prime spot for sex trafficking and illegal drug trading, this Matthew 25 congregation revitalized the spaces of two Presbyterian churches that closed in the last thirty years and transformed them into healing spaces for the neighborhood. Liberty Community Church is a beacon of hope, not just through the direct services it provides, but through its strategic partnerships within the Presbytery and around the city to invite others into anti-racism work and to educate people about the historical and legal obstacles that must be overcome to dismantle structural racism and close the opportunity gap. Across the country, congregations, mid councils, and the Presbyterian Mission Agency are working together to eradicate systemic poverty, dismantle structural racism, and build congregational vitality.

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PC(USA) church’s after-school academy gives hope to Minneapolis community

Video and script by Rich Copley and Beth Waltemath As a new church development nearly 25 years ago, Liberty Community Church listened to the voices of young people in their community to develop programs that would improve their sense of safety and hope for the future. A survey conducted by two teenagers and community forums with families and neighbors set in motion an evolving and expanding set of services: youth drop-in services, a Freedom school in the summer, afterschool and youth programs focused on academics, arts enrichment, financial literacy, and college enrollment. View the testimonies of the leaders of Liberty and their 21st Century Academy as they tell the story of their work to “close the school to prison pipeline,” and pave a path to advanced education and financial opportunity.

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Spreading the Vision of Matthew 25 across the Church

The PC(USA) believes that we are called to serve Jesus by contributing to the well-being of the most vulnerable in all societies – rural and urban, small and large, young and not-so-young. From affordable housing to community gardens to equitable educational and employment opportunities to healing from addiction and mental illness to enacting policy change – there is not just one way to be a part of the Matthew 25 movement.

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