Presbyterians Today - A Time of Rest Before the New Year

Dear friends, I write to you today with an update on our plans for this e-newsletter in the coming months. You may or may not know that, for some time now, a major project has been underway to create a whole new website for the national offices of the PC(USA). We hope to have this new website launched by the end of this year. This is very exciting to us, but it is also a massive undertaking and currently requires much of our web developer team's time, along with many others. In order to give our web team the time and space they need in order to focus on preparing our new website for a strong launch, we will be temporarily pausing several of our regular e-newsletters, including this one. Do not worry, we have every intention of bringing back a monthly PT e-newsletter at the beginning of 2025 along with a renewed and reinvigorated Presbyterians Today presence over all. I can't wait to share all of that with you. In the meantime, please check in on our social media accounts and on the blog, as we still intend to post some new content there in the interim. Also, if you ever want to check on the status of things, you can email me at editor@pcusa.org and I will be happy to share what updates I can. Also, I'm linking below the two digital feature stories we published earlier this year. If you haven't had the chance to read them yet (and even if you have!), I commend them to you! Thank you all for your loyalty and your patience during this season of transition. Big things are on the horizon! Sincerely, Layton Williams Berkes Managing Editor, Presbyterians Today

Isolation in the Lone Star State

by Fred Tangeman Loneliness is an increasing problem nationwide. How are pastors in Mission Presbytery staying connected during their calls? What Texas is to states, Mission is to presbyteries: one of the largest and most diverse in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), with dozens of congregations near San Antonio and Austin, and large swaths of countryside where farm supply stores and oil wells outnumber houses of worship. Mission includes 120 churches in South Central Texas, an area stretching from the Rio Grande Valley north to the Hill Country. The presbytery lists 300 Teaching Elders and more than 19,000 lay members. Of all the challenges facing its pastors, isolation is near the top, said the Rev. Dr. Sallie Watson, General Presbyter of Mission. Isolation and its shadow companion loneliness grew as a problem during the pandemic, but have long been issues in Mission owing to its size and turnover. Nearly 600,000 people moved to Texas in 2020—and that’s just from other states. Pastors factor into a constant internal and international migration.

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Reparations for the Future at Third Presbyterian Church

by Shani McIlwain What does it mean to be a “friend” to colleagues in ministry when harm has been done? How can reparations pave the way to a more just future? A catchy thematic worship song starts out every Sunday at Third Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Missouri. “Come on and get your praise on, you know we got it going on at Third Church, where the word is broken down for you; it’s so easy it will make you

wonder at Third Church.” brings anyone visiting into a worship experience like no other. Rev. Cedric Portis has served as pastor of Third Presbyterian since 2003.  A man with great faith and a clear understanding of what it means to be called, Rev. Portis does not hold back with emotion as he carefully lays out the story of Third as he and the church’s members see it: a repeated failure of an ordination vow that many in the PC(USA) tradition know well, “Will you be a friend among your colleagues in ministry, working with them, subject to the ordering of God’s Word and Spirit?” Perhaps the question that remains is one’s definition of “friend.”

Previous reports of this story have referred to this as a three-way real estate deal with Third Presbyterian and two other churches no longer in existence today. Under Rev. Portis’ leadership, the ministry of Third was bursting and growing rapidly. The building that the church occupied from its beginning was no longer suitable for the growing ministry. When a predominately white congregation voted to close its doors, the Presbytery gave way for Third to move into the new space.  Rev. Portis states that upon hearing of Third’s intent to take over the space, the church members changed course and decided to do a merger rather than a closure. With that came unexpected expenses such as replacing items taken from the church, getting their kitchen up to code and so much more. Retelling the story, Rev. Portis shared with deep conviction the layered amount of harm caused that felt almost like a metaphorical repeated beating when a church is already operating in a deficit.

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