Member Church News: Easter, Texts, Conversations, Images

A Deeside, Scotland, minister has urged his flock to keep their phones on during Sunday service so they can text him questions during his sermons.

Martin Vegt, a member of Vernon (British Colombia, Canada) Christian Reformed Church, traveled to Israel with a Christian Peacemakers Team to observe for himself the situation there. As a professional photographer, he especially wanted to bring back photographs to share with fellow church members.

A chance conversation between a New York City marketing executive and a homeless woman in 1981 has morphed into the United State’s leading nonprofit focused on helping homeless families with children find their way to financial independence. It’s not surprising that Family Promise, now marking 30 years as an interfaith organization, found its first partner in the United Church of Christ.

Representatives from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) spent Holy Week in parts of Europe, following the path of Syrian refugees who fled war and violence at home and are seeking safety in other parts of the world.

More than 8,000 people from 60 churches joined together for an Easter celebration in Korea.

Stuart McMillan, the president of the Uniting Church in Australia, has appealed for a serious national conversation on Indigenous Sovereignty in his 2016 Easter message. Listen to the reasons why.

United Church in Canada Moderator Jordan Cantwell sends her Easter message to the church this year from El Salvador, where she was part of a United Church delegation attending a conference on reconciliation and peace inspired by Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Collin Cowan, general secretary of the Council for World Mission, has said in his Easter message, “Easter, for the believers is a resounding statement of defiance against the odds and a story of deliverance from the life-denying forces that attempt to frustrate the will and sabotage progress.”

From Red Crearte comes this Easter proclamation:

Cada vez que nos amamos y nos ofrecemos sin reservas a los demás,
• Jesús está en medio nuestro, está en la vida, ha resucitado.
Cada vez que luchamos por la vida de las personas más débiles y sufridas,
• Jesús está en medio nuestro, está en la vida, ha resucitado.
Cada vez que buscamos derechos y procuramos dignidad para todos,
• Jesús está en medio nuestro, está en la vida, ha resucitado.
Cada vez que ponemos primero a la infancia y las personas más vulnerables,
• Jesús está en medio nuestro, está en la vida, ha resucitado.
Cada vez que confrontamos la falta de equidad y la exclusión,
• Jesús está en medio nuestro, está en la vida, ha resucitado.
Cada vez que construimos otro mundo posible, con lugar para tod@s y con justicia,
• Jesús está en medio nuestro, está en la vida, ha resucitado.
Cada vez que anunciamos buenas nuevas a las personas pobres y libertad a quienes viven en el cautiverio,
• Jesús está en medio nuestro, está en la vida, ha resucitado.
Cada vez que vivimos en el espíritu de Jesús los ropajes de los templos se rasgan, la tierra se mueve y Dios nos vuelve a mostrar que hay esperanza, que hay que afrontar la vida y compartir la grata noticia:
• Jesús está en medio nuestro, está en la vida ha resucitado.

—Jorge Daniel Zijlstra, Puerto Rico