Hundreds of people gathered outside of the Mohammed Ali Center in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, on a warm, sunny Wednesday afternoon to remember those killed and wounded in Monday’s mass shooting. This time of the year usually finds the city preparing for a massive influx of attention for the Kentucky Derby with visitors and media from around the world, but not on this occasion.
Celebrating 50 years of marriage by bringing hope to others
February 17, 2021
Retired clergy couple invites family and friends to join in honoring their golden anniversary with gifts to the Presbyterian Giving Catalog
by Emily Enders Odom | Presbyterian News Service
The Revs. Virginia and Fred Bunning enjoy riding their tandem recumbent tricycle near their home in Loveland, Colorado. (Contributed photo)
LOUISVILLE â In retirement, the Rev. Fred Bunning delights in reading mysteries and solving puzzles.
Fortunately, his wife, the Rev. Virginia Bunning, is not one of them.
Even so, after 50 years of marriage, a hint of mystery yet remains as the retired clergy couple continue to discover in each other their hidden gifts and untapped potential â and even, occasionally, in themselves.
by Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service
LOUISVILLE â The Presbyterian Writers Guild has selected three winners from among 20 entries in its first-ever Ash Wednesday writing contest.
Ruth Linnea Whitney won the grand prize, $100, for her poem, âAsh Season.â Whitney is a member of First Presbyterian Church in Port Townsend, Washington. Jane Kurtz, winner of the 2020 David Steele Distinguished Writer Award; and Caroline Kurtz, winner of the Best First Book Award for the best first book by a Presbyterian author written during 2018-2019, judged both the poetry and liturgy entries.
Ruth Linnea Whitney
âIn her poem âAsh Season,â Ruth Linnea Whitney takes the reader on a Lenten journey from naïve hope, through death and grief, to a seasoned faith,â the sisters said of the grand prize winner. âShe anchors the spiritual in rich earthy details â the stone walk, a jaw, slender wrists, sawgrass. And after the grief, the poet quiets herse
by Emily Enders Odom, Mission Engagement & Support | Special to Presbyterian News Service
CERDET, the Center for Regional Studies in Tarija, Bolivia, supports Indigenous communities by, among other things, developing irrigation systems. (Contributed photo)
LOUISVILLE â When Manuel Nazario casts his net into the water these days, his catch is far less plentiful.
In the remote area of Bolivia near the Paraguayan-Argentina border, where Nazario and the members of his community mostly fish for a living, their traditional livelihood is now in severe jeopardy.
Home to an indigenous people known in Bolivia as the Weenhayek, also called the Wichà in Argentina, the Capirendita community is currently grappling with the devastating impact of climate change, irregular rainfall patterns, prolonged droughts, disease and mining pollution that creeps in from the Andean zone. As a result, Nazario and the families of Capirendita are finding their age-old ways of life and their means of eco
by Emily Enders Odom | Presbyterian News Service
LOUISVILLE â As yet another Christmas has come and gone â and, along with it, the Magi from the East bearing their unique gifts â the spirit of giving that so characterizes this holy season lives on in these ever-lengthening days through the continued generosity of faithful Presbyterians.
Looking back on a year in which charitable giving was expected to drop precipitously, the improbable increase experienced by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on #GivingTuesday 2020 was nothing short of a Christmas miracle, surpassing all expectations and previous records.
As reported by the Presbyterian News Service on Dec. 10, 2020, the PC(USA)âs #GivingTuesday campaign yielded gifts totaling just over $150,000 as of that date, with a final number promised in the New Year as gifts were continuing to come in.