Tuesday, March 3, 2026

Top PC(USA) News of the Week

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Week of February 23 - 27

Presbytery leaders from Southern California will stand for Co-Moderators of the 227th General Assembly

The Rev. Dr. Sean Chow of San Diego Presbytery and the Rev. Dr. Frances Lin of Riverside Presbytery are the second pair to formally announce their candidacy

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Georgia Presbyterians are challenged to build a bigger table

The Rev. Jihyun Oh says true inclusion means congregations must change — not just newcomers

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Legal Defense Fund visits Springfield, Ohio

Haitian immigrants and others live in fear, but faith communities stand with them

Welcome to Springfield by Cindy Corell

The history of Brotherhood Week

The annual celebration started in the 1930s and was chaired by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt

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Churches can supplement how history is taught ‘in a way that is honest and true and doesn’t skip over the uncomfortable parts

Commentator Eugene Robinson speaks as part of New York Avenue Presbyterian Church’s McClendon Scholar program

Robinson from NY Avenue Presbyterian Church

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Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, KY 40202

RNS Morning Report - 👽 Inside New Age spirituality's new age

RNS Morning Report Desktop
Aliens Among Us
"I grew up watching Star Trek with my dad, but only recently did I seriously consider the existence of aliens or interview someone who claimed to be one," said RNS national reporter Kathryn Post, who documented her experience attending the Conscious Life Expo in Los Angeles in today's article exploring New Age's new galactic turn.
"Starseeds — people who see themselves as extraterrestrial beings in human form — seemed to be everywhere at the Expo, where cosmic stories about aliens and evil elites offered a spiritual alternative to institutional religion," Post wrote about the New Age spirituality conference that draws 5,000+ people a year.
"As a religion reporter I’m no stranger to the supernatural. In this story, I aimed to take seriously the conspiracies ramping up in this space while respecting the nontraditional, less extreme beliefs of attendees who asked: if you believe in angels, are aliens really such a leap?"
Read Kathryn Post's full coverage of the starseeds, government plots, and alien auras of New Age's new age.   
 

Top Stories

👽 Starseeds, government plots and an alien mantis

Starseeds, government plots and an alien mantis: Inside New Age spirituality’s new age

(RNS) — Thousands converged in Los Angeles for the Conscious Life Expo, where influencers and cultural shifts are fueling cosmic belief systems often featuring extraterrestrials.
👽 Starseeds, government plots and an alien mantis

How the Book of Esther echoes through 17th-century Netherlands to this day

RALEIGH, N.C. (RNS) — Since its inclusion in the Hebrew Bible, the Book of Esther has been embraced in different ways and in different times by Jews and Christians around the world.
👽 Starseeds, government plots and an alien mantis

Iranian evangelicals are staying put, tentative but hopeful, says pastor

ISTANBUL (RNS) — 'With this death of the supreme leader, everybody is firstly happy and hopeful but are still asking 'What's next?'' said Hormoz Shariat, who runs a streaming ministry for Iranian Christians.

Opinion

👽 Starseeds, government plots and an alien mantis

Impulsive kings and random chance: Purim’s parallels to our political moment

(RNS) — While Trump wages his war of choice on the thinnest of pretexts, the Jewish calendar is focusing on the vanity of human power and the amorality with which it is exercised.
👽 Starseeds, government plots and an alien mantis

America’s moral power is the first casualty in Iran

(RNS) — America's power in the world comes not from its military might alone, but from its moral authority.

ICYMI

👽 Starseeds, government plots and an alien mantis

Iran’s reprisals shutter Israel’s houses of worship during Ramadan and Purim

(RNS) — For Israeli Muslims and Jews who would normally be celebrating in their houses of worship, there is a palpable sense of loss.
👽 Starseeds, government plots and an alien mantis

Michelangelo’s ‘Last Judgment’ gets cleanup as tide of visitors to Sistine Chapel grows

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — A thin, white film caused by decades of rising visitor numbers has dulled the dramatic contrasts of Michelangelo’s 'Last Judgment' in the Sistine Chapel.

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WCC news: “Midpoint on the Pilgrimage” event brings shared reflections and insights

An event organized by the Council of Christian Churches in Switzerland and the Protestant Church in Switzerland, entitled “WCC 2022–2030: Midpoint on the Pilgrimage – Impulses for Ecumenical Work in Switzerland,” was held online 2 March.

31 August 2022, Karlsruhe, Germany: Participants carry the Bible into the opening prayer service of the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, held in Karlsruhe, Germany.  Photo: Paul Jeffrey/WCC

3 March 2026

The event marked the midpoint between the World Council of Churches (WCC) 11th Assembly in 2022 and the next assembly in 2030. It brought together people engaged in ecumenical work in Switzerland for shared reflection on developments since the WCC 11th Assembly, and on impulses for the coming years. 

The programme included a keynote from the moderator of the WCC central committee, Bishop Prof. Dr Heinrich Bedford‑Strohm, who spoke on the theme of the WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe, “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity.” 

Bedford-Strohm acknowledged that it’s clear that this phrase is not a visible empirical truth. 

“But the people from the churches of the world who gathered in Karlsruhe and adopted this motto were united by the deep conviction of their Christian faith that it is not yet an empirical truth,” he said. “They trusted that God's ways with this world do not lead into darkness, but into a new heaven and a new earth.”

Bedford-Strohm also emphasized the ongoing Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action (2025-2035), and how climate-related concerns expressed during the WCC 11th Assembly led to the launch of the decade three years later, in 2025. “There was a clear awareness that the next ten years would determine whether the destructive consequences of climate change could be kept at a tolerable level,” he said. “The assembly had also taken into account the events of the past year, which had sadly confirmed that many voices from the past who had warned us of invisible impending natural disasters had been right.”

Bedford-Strohm concluded by reflecting on the global church. “There is probably no institution in which being rooted in local communities while at the same time having a universal horizon is as much part of its DNA as it is in the case of the church,” he said. “It is the concrete experience of living life to the fullest in local relationships, combined with a sense of universal brotherhood and sisterhood, that leads me to believe that the church plays a crucial role in healing the world.”

Rev. Sarah Bach, member of the WCC Commission on Climate Justice and Sustainability, presented the Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action. Dr Emma van Dorp, member of the WCC Young People in the Ecumenical Movement Commission and WCC Commission of the Churches on Faith and Order, presented an update on the 6th World Conference and the role of young theologians. Rev Christoph Schuler presented the work of the WCC central committee during its meeting in Johannesburg in June 2025. Marianne Ejdersten, WCC director of communication, moderated a session entitled “Digitalization & AI in the Ecumenical Movement – Opportunities, Risks and Guidelines.”

WCC 11th Assembly

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The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa.

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