Dear Loyal Readers,

We continue to be so grateful to you for your commitment to Presbyterians Today—especially during this season when we’ve embraced a “sacred pause” to discern what the future holds for our publication. We have done a lot of hard work in recent months planning for that future.

I have been writing to you in these emails for a little while now, and I think it’s time to introduce myself, since I am one of the new things happening with Presbyterians Today. My name is Layton Williams Berkes (she/her), and I am the new managing editor for PT. I’m an ordained PC(USA) minister, and I also have a background in writing, journalism, and audience engagement. I am overjoyed to be working on Presbyterians Today. It is a dream to be able to put my various callings and passions together in this way.

One of the biggest things we are committed to doing in this new iteration of Presbyterians Today is having a much more robust online presence—a digital hub for various kinds of storytelling as well as community interaction about those stories. We want to explore and cultivate conversation around the questions and realities that matter for people living out their faith in the world today.

We still plan to have a print publication as well, so don’t worry! But we’re excited about what a new digital platform will enable: multimedia storytelling with video and podcasts, related stories linked together for more expansive exploration of topics, and even interactive virtual events like Q&As and panel discussions. It will take some time to get all the pieces in place so we can deliver our best, but we are so excited for what the future holds. And we’ll continue to share updates with you as we have them. We are also working on plans for new content we can share with you through the blog and elsewhere in the meantime.

For now, please enjoy the latest posts on our Presbyterians Today blog, linked below.

Building the Liturgy of Life

by Katy Stenta

“First Breakfast, then School, then Scooby Doo.” I tick off each item on my finger as I name them to my son, Westley. It had taken me a minute to shrink the schedule into just three items and to end them with the desired one, but after what seemed like an eternity—and was really about sixty seconds—I finally got it to the essentials.

Westley is not convinced by my ingenious daily three. His eyes dart around the room, voices wavering so much, I can’t tell if its his or mine.

“That’s the plan Westley, do you hear me? First Breakfast, then School, then Scooby Doo. That’s the Plan.”

Jesus and a Park Bench

by John Odom

A bench in New York’s Central Park makes a great place to people watch. I got to do that this past Sunday afternoon before I met up with the group of my general presbyter friends from around the country. Our group—hailing from Arkansas, Missouri, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Kentucky—converges annually in New York for a study leave gathering where we present case studies, share best practices and learn from one another.

Watching from my Central Park perch, I saw and heard folks of all sorts as they passed by, a rather more diverse group than I am used to seeing in Louisville’s Cherokee Park. I heard Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, Spanish voices, not to mention all kinds of English accents. I saw tall people, short people, people with differing skin tones and hair textures, families with children, couples, singles walking dogs, roller bladers, tourists, horse-drawn carriages, and squirrel feeders. Passing by were individuals who looked lonely, or lost, or confused, frisbee tossers, picnickers, and one poor gentleman who was missing his pants and had pulled a too-small, trash bag around his waist leaving little to the imagination as he shuffled by al fresco.

The Divine Is Close with Us

by MaryAnn McKibben Dana

"For too long, we have believed that the divine is outside us. This belief has strained our longing disastrously. This makes us lonely, since it is human longing that makes us holy. The most beautiful thing about us is our longing; this longing is spiritual and has great depth and wisdom. If you focus your longing on a faraway divinity, you put an unfair strain on your longing. Thus it often happens that the longing reaches out toward the distant divine, but because it overstrains itself, it bends back to become cynicism, emptiness, or negativity… If we believe that the body is in the soul and the soul is divine ground, then the presence of the divine is completely here, close with us."

– John O’Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

I’ve been carrying this quote in my heart for several days now. I know many of us have grown up with the idea of God as “large and in charge,” and I get it. When I look around at the mess we’ve made of things, I too yearn for rescue from some far distant place, unsullied by [gestures at everything].

But what if the Source of the miracles we yearn for is next to us, around us, inside of us?

How would I live if that were true?

Or how might I give my heart to that idea, whether it’s true or not?

Matthew 25 Summit — Jan. 16–18, 2024, in Atlanta

Join us at the Matthew 25 Summit as we explore this vision together! What does it mean to eradicate poverty; how can we begin dismantling systemic racism; how will we know if we are building a vital congregation? We are offering you an invitation to innovation. A chance to dialogue, learn with and grow with others in exploration at this first-of-its-kind event! Featuring innovative speakers, thriving ministries, transformative workshops and space to imagine what’s next!