Joseph D. Small, Proclaiming the Great Ends of the Church (Louisville: Geneva Press, 2010) I am writing this newsletter on Shrove Tuesday, the eve before the beginning of Lent. Like many of us who are involved in the life of the church, I have been thinking about how to observe Lent – and like many a Presbyterian this means that I have been thinking about what to read for a Lent Devotional. I have a stack of half-read, withmore than one unread (!), Lent devotionals from year

Gathering Dates: March 17-19, 2026 (Check in at 4:00 pm, check out at 10:00 am) Gathering Location: Camp Christian, 10299 Maple Dell Rd, Marysville, OH 43040 While the United States has a long history of hostility towards immigrants, the current administration has created a crisis for immigrants and refugees through aggressive immigration enforcement and racial profiling, diverting resources from the public good to immigration detention and deportation. With the rescinding of

February 1 - Preach at Trinity Flint (MI)—Lake Huron Presbytery (Chip) February 5-6 - Alma College Board Meeting (Chip) February 7 - Ordination Service at the Kirk in the Hills—Detroit Presbytery (Ruth-Aimée) February 8 - Preach at Second Saginaw (MI)—Lake Huron Presbytery (Chip) February 10 - Attend Presbytery of Scioto Valley Meeting—Columbus, OH (Ruth-Aimée) February 14 - Preach at Miami Valley Presbytery Meeting—Zoom (Ruth-Aimée) February 16 - President’s Day (Offi

The Presbyterian Historical Society is in the process of developing a resource and/or training to help churches research and write their own histories through an anti-racist lens. We want to hear directly from churches and mid councils about the resources and guidance that would be most useful to them as they engage in anti-racism work, regardless of where they are in this process. Please consider responding to the survey via the following link and sharing it via your newsl

With Gratitude to First Church in Grand Haven, MI (Lake MI Presbytery) We want to help children and youth in your church go to Christian camp this summer! First Presbyterian Church of Grand Haven (FPGH) has a camp grant program that provides children and youth some funding to attend a Christian camp, and we’d like to help the children of your church go this summer. No, this is not too good to be true! The program is simple: * Children and youth should have some connection

Hosted by College Hill Church (Miami Valley Presbytery) on Tuesday evenings in February. During the month of February, the College Hill Community Church (Dayton, Ohio) Peace and Social Justice Ministry will discuss/review How We Win the Civil War by Steve Phillips (available on Amazon and on Audible.com ) which first reviews the issues which created voter disenfranchisement and what worked during the 1960’s thru 2000’s Civil Rights Era. The final section of the book describes

We have been very busy this new year! As of mid-January, all of our first cycle cohorts (the 2024-2025 class) have had their final retreat and have completed the program. I am delighted to report that we had a near 100% “graduation” rate, with all but one person from the first cycle completing the program. The one who did not complete it dropped out to attend seminary full time; we consider that a success! Many from the first cycle are already serving as pulpit supply preac

“Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a better person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in.” — Martin Luther King, Jr. One of the favorite pastimes of my family and other cultures is to gather and talk, laugh, and tell stories. The telling of stories is powerful. They are filled with wisdom, teaching, warning, warmth, laughter, and love. One element of these storytelling interac

At our February 3 Synod assembly, the commissioners will have a chance to brainstorm new ministries for 2026 in two areas: artificial intelligence (AI) and peacemaking. God has provided the financial means to expand our offerings to equip church leaders and to support congregations in these two areas, and the assembly is the first step toward shaping these opportunities. Here's a little bit of background about these two areas. You may remember from my December column ( F

Jan 4 - Preach at First Findlay (OH)—Maumee Valley Presbytery (Chip) Jan 5 - Meet with Presbytery of the Western Reserve Staff (Chip) Jan 11 - Preach and Lead Adult Ed at Kinsman (OH) Presbyterian Church—Eastminster Presbytery (Chip) Jan 13 - Out of Office (Chip) Jan 18 - Office Closed for Martin Luther King, Jr, Day (All Staff) Jan 18 - Preach at Circleville (OH) Church - Scioto Valley Presbytery (Ruth-Aimée) Jan 19 - Speak at Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Breakfast - C

Dec 2 - Luke Huron Presbytery Meeting—Flushing, MI (Ruth-Aimée) Dec 5 - Vacation Begins (Chip) Dec 12 - Western Reserve Presbytery Christmas Celebration—Cleveland (Ruth-Aimée) Dec 14 - Calvary Presbyterian Church Celebration of Life—Detroit, MI (Ruth-Aimée) Dec 15 - Vacation Begins (Ruth-Aimée) Dec 24-31 - All Synod Staff on Vacation If you would like Executive Chip Hardwick or Associate Executive Ruth-Aimée Belonni-Rosario to come to your church or ministry to preach

Blessed Advent Co-Heirs with Christ! As we begin the new liturgical year (and wind down the calendar year) there are several presbyteries evaluating their CRE programs or taking them in a new direction. This is also a time where seminaries have updated their training programs for CREs, while others are beginning to develop new programs. And of course, with General Assembly around the corner, there could be additional changes and updates to CRE training and support! I have

H appy New Year! As we begin a new liturgical year and enter into the Advent season, we are excited to share with you that the Synod will once again produce a pre-recorded post-Christmas virtual worship service for use on the Sunday following Christmas (Dec 28th). We offer this service because we know that the Sunday after Christmas is one of the more difficult times to find pulpit supply. Our hard-working and diligent pastors, preachers, musicians, liturgists and the many

“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” — Desmond Tutu “Lament is not despair. It is not a cry into a void. Lament is a cry directed to God.” — Walter Brueggemann “We are called to learn the anguished cry of lament.” – Center for Action and Contemplation The season of Advent is upon us. Advent is my favorite liturgical season. The hymns, songs, scripture readings, and sermons are filled with hope, joy, peace, and a sense of wonder. Over th

During this Advent season of waiting, I received unexpected news. Back in October, the Synod applied for a grant from the People-First AI Fund from the @OpenAI Foundation to explore the opportunities and perils that church leaders need to navigate when ministry and Artificial Intelligence (AI) come together. I imagined that we might not hear back for months, but I learned last Tuesday that we received a $94,000 grant! Thanks be to God! You can read more about the grant a

There are two resources I wish to draw your attention to this quarter: First, one of the books that CGPI participants read, and which they have reported great enthusiasm for is Karoline Lewis’s A Lay Preachers’ Guide: How to Craft a Faithful Sermon. This book is part of the Working Preacher Book Series published by Fortress Press and Luther Seminary’s Working Preacher. Many of the other books in this series would be of great benefit for not only or CGPI preachers but other

with the CPGI Director, Dr. Matt Aragon Bruce While recruiting for the CGPI program, one of the comments I often hear from those who have been recommended to the program is that they can’t imagine themselves as a preacher. I don’t know how many times I have heard some version of, “I don’t know enough,” “I’m not a good speaker,” or “I’m not holy enough” – i.e., some form of the excuse that I am not in the same category as a pastor and thus am not qualified to preach. Yet, at t

This quarter, our inaugural group of CGPI participants will complete their program. All four cohorts will have in-person meetings sometime between November and January (two have already meet as I write this) as their final official time together. They will spend time reading and thinking about the preaching life as a type of pilgrimage wherein the preacher listens to the voice of God speaking both in the Scriptures and in the life of the Church and bringing what they hear bac

Nov 2-4 - Gathering of Synod Executives—Dallas, TX (Chip) Nov 8 - Miami Valley Presbytery Meeting—Kettering, OH (Chip) Nov 9-12 - Gathering of MidCouncil Leaders—Louisville, KY (Chip) Nov 10-11 - NEXT Still We Preach Cohort—Grand Rapids, MI (Ruth-Aimée) Nov 11-14 - NEXT Church National Gathering—Grand Rapids (Ruth-Aimée) Nov 12 - Retirement Celebration for Jack Sullivan of the Ohio Council of Churches—Columbus, OH (Chip) Nov 14 - Installation of Shauna Hannan as Presid

Mary Llyod-Seals shares her experiences in CGPI The Synod Assembly was held at the end of October and, as part of the CGPI report to the Synod commissioners, we invited two of our participants – Mary Lloyd-Seals (Moderator of the Presbytery of Detroit and member of Grosse Pointe Memorial in Detroit) and Sean Eaton (member of Westminster Presbyterian in Ann Arbor). Mary and Sean shared their experiences in the CGPI to the delight and encouragement to the Synod commissioners an