Oct 4 Preach at Bloomfield Church in New Concord, OH (Muskingum Valley Presbytery)—Ruth-Aimée Oct 4 Preach at Ottawa Church in Ottawa, OH (Maumee Valley Presbytery)—Chip Oct 7-9 Attend Alma College Board Meeting (Lake Huron Presbytery)—Chip Oct 8 Lead Book Club Bible Study, First Ashland, OH (Muskingum Valley Presbytery)—Ruth-Aimée Oct 10 Keynote Speaker, Presbyterian Women of Miami Valley Gathering (Dayton, OH)—Ruth-Aimée Oct 11 Preach at College Hill Church in Dayton,

Greetings Co-Workers in Christ We are excited about planning the Pastoral Leadership Conference for July 2027 and wanted to introduce you all to the team! Today, we meet Dr. Robert McManus, our co-host for the conference planned for Muskingum University July 21-23, 2027. Some of you may remember Robert from our 2025 workshop series on Leadership (you can find the two workshops here and here). And you can find his bio at the end of the article. Robert’s scholarship focuses o

We are beginning to focus on recruiting participants for the next class that will begin the program in June 2027 (the Alma Kick-off conference is June 10-14). To that end, we are hosting a CGPI Pop-up event or Mini-Conference this October (16-17) in Marquette, MI. Our aim is to give attendees a taste of the full CGPI program by offering some of our conference workshops, a mock cohort meeting, a worship service, and more. If anyone reading this is interested in attending, p

“…por sus frutos los conoceréis” (Mateo/Matthew 7:20) “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Martin Luther King, Jr. “We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.” Martin Luther King, Jr. “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on

Artificial Intelligence has been in the news a lot over the last month, after a tweet by an industry insider a couple of weeks ago said, “The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.” If you’ve been considering the impact of AI on culture and ministry, please plan to come to an all-day in-person workshop at our Synod Assembly on October 30 in Adrian, OH. You may remember that we received a $94,000 grant from the OpenAI Foundati

Sept 6 Preach at Westminster Presbyterian in Portage, MI (Lake MI Presbytery)—Chip Sept 7 Labor Day—Synod Office Closed Sept 12 Lake Michigan Presbytery Meeting--Chip or Ruth-Aimée Sept 13 Preach at Pine Street Presbyterian Church in Paw Paw, MI (Lake MI Presbytery)--Chip Sept 15 Lake Huron Presbytery Meeting--Chip Sept 15 Maumee Valley Presbytery Meeting--Chip Sept 19 Mackinac Presbytery--Ruth-Aimée or Chip) Sept 19 Muskingum Valley Presbytery Meeting--Ruth-Aimée or Chip) Se

We have been given significant time focusing on new recruitment strategies for the 2027-2028 round of CGPI participants. One thing that we have discovered over the last few months is that there are still many congregations and individuals in the Synod who are unaware that the CGPI program even exists, in particular smaller rural and urban congregations. In order to get the word out we are planning a handful of CGPI “pop-up” events around the Synod. These “pop-up” events are d

Colleagues and Siblings in Christ, I am always so pleased when a congregation invites me to take part in an anniversary celebration. Having the opportunity to represent our 625 churches across eleven presbyteries is such a joy! Whether I’m preaching, praying, celebrating communion, or bringing greetings, I wish that I could attend all those to which you invite me. In this column, I’m eager to tell you about the 150th Anniversary of First Presbyterian Church of Petoskey, MI

August 2 Preaching, United Presbyterian Church, Cuyahoga Falls, OH August 4-5 &7 Toward Liberation Workshop: Christian Leaders Edition, ZOOM August 8-9 Preaching, 180 th Anniversary of Ottaway Presbyterian Church, Ottawa, OH August 9 Tim Pollock Ordination Service, Bloomfield Presbyterian Church, New Concord, OH August 11 Eastminster Presbytery Meeting, Canfield Presbyterian Church, Canfield, OH August15 Cincinnati Presbytery Meeting, Korean Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati,

Greetings Co-Workers in Christ It is with great excitement to announce the Pastoral Leadership Conference will be July 21-23, 2027, on the campus of Muskingum University in New Concord, OH! The theme of the conference will be “The Leadership Moment” and will focus on four aspects of leadership: Understanding the Leader, Followers and the Leader-Follower Relationship, Developing a Shared Vision and Meaningful Goals, and Leading Within Context. Each focus will include an openin

“Mami! My friends!” —Anouk-Aimée Belonni-Rosario Govens “There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.” —Thomas Aquinas “A friend is one of the best things you can be and the greatest things you can have.” —Sarah Valdez “…I have called you friends...” —John 15:15 “What are you teaching your child about what friendship requires?” —Kimberly Seals Allers Friendship is a widely digested and consumed concept. Simultaneously, it often needs resurfacing. Tra

Colleagues and Siblings in Christ, You may remember that I had a total knee replacement on July 13. July 30 was my first post-operation check-up with the surgeon’s team. The good news is that the Physician’s Assistant said that the x-rays were “textbook” and that my flexibility was about a month ahead of schedule. The bad news is that the intensity of my pain is unlikely to subside soon and that it will most likely be 2 to 4 more weeks before she would recommend beginning t

July 1-2 - General Assembly--Milwaukee, WI (Ruth-Aimée and Chip) July 4 & 5 - Preach at First Pontiac (MI) (Chip) July 5 - Preaching, United Presbyterian Church, Cuyahoga Falls, OH (Ruth-Aimée) July 9 - Attend Pastoral Leadership Conference Planning (Muskingum University, OH) (Ruth-Aimée and Chip) July 9-13 - Covenant Gathering, Lourdes University, Sylvania, OH (Ruth-Aimée) July 10-12 - Attend 30th Anniversary Celebration between Miami Valley Presbytery and the Presbytery of

Date: Friday, September 11 – Saturday, September 12 Start Time: 1:00 p.m. End Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: St. Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat Center, Detroit, MI Registration: $50.00 Our Synod wants to invite our Black leaders in the state of Michigan to a time away to renew, refresh, and fellowship. Over the years, the leaders of our African American churches have served with imagination, creativity, and determination. The Synod recognizes the need to come together, recha

Many who are reading this have likely had a retreat or a camp experience that they would describe as a spiritual “mountain top” event. An event wherein your faith is enlivened and deepened, or even – to use a word we Presbyterians are sometimes a bit afraid of – you have a mystical encounter with God that leaves your faith, your relationship with God, forever changed and enriched. Words often fail us here. Not because they cannot describe the experience, but because they can

We are happy to share that we launched the Racial Justice Speaking Series with Rev. Dr. Lis Valle-Ruiz facilitating a conversation on the Intersection of Art, Gender, and Racial Justice during the month of April. Our second speaker was the Rev. Dr. Alexandra Zareth, with the topic of Effects of historic generational trauma because of systemic racism during the month of June. Our upcoming conversation will be led by Rev. Dr. Alonzo Johnson, Director of the Office of Self Devel

Background/Rationale Racism is not a problem to be solved. It is an insidious virus part of society’s collective DNA. It is a malicious condition that affects us all. It is in the air we breathe, in the conversations we have, in the thoughts that invade our brains, and in the tilting of our internalized ideas that have been fed to us about ourselves and others. The Synod of the Covenant is not immune to this shared human struggle and experience. The Synod’s past, recent, and

1. The right to be loved, without having to earn it. 2. The right to be protected, without having to deserve it. 3. The right to feel valuable, even if you came into the world with nothing. 4. The right to be listened to without having to be interesting. 5. The right to be read a bedtime story without having to compete with the evening news or EastEnders. 6. The right to an education without having to dodge bullets at schools. 7. The right to be thought of as adorable (even i

A tropical wind blowing beneath the palm trees. 100 worshipers in two languages. 30-year-friendships and brand new pals gathered around the table. Hands swinging overhead in joy. Even a conga line to the African praise song, “Siyahamba.” All of this, and more, characterized the joint worship service last month celebrating the work of the Spirit in the 30-year-partnership between Miami Valley Presbytery and the Presbytery of the North Coast in Colombia. The service was one of

We are impatiently waiting for the 3rd Annual Alma Preaching conference to begin! From June 4th to June 8th, we will welcome 14 new emerging preachers into the CGPI family, along with 24 returning participants, and 6 alumni. In addition, we are welcoming four new mentors to the program and several new speakers. This year, our keynote speaker is Catherine Williams, who serves as the Associate Professor of Preaching and Worship, and the Director of Chapel Worship at the Lancast