Community

The month of February takes us far away from home, and brings us back to our selves. Join us at 9:30 a.m. in the Miller Gathering Hall for friendship and learning. Coffee and tea are available.

Sunday, February 5th
The Rev. Dr. Marta Bennett will speak about her work in Kenya. Marta, who with her two children, Sarah and Justin, is living in New Haven for the year, will share stories of her work at the Nairobi International School of Theology, and the people she serves. Marta chairs the Department of Leadership Studies at the Nairobi International School of Theology/International Leadership University (NIST/ILU-Kenya). Marta trains Christian leaders for service in churches, para-church organizations, business, and government, integrating leadership with discipleship and mentoring.

Students come to NIST/ILU from all over Africa to study at the certificate, diploma, undergraduate, Master’s, and soon the doctoral levels. “While evangelism continues to be crucial,” she says, “even more strategic is discipleship and professional skill development so that the gospel can take root, transforming lives and society as a whole.” Marta will also preside at the Communion Table during worship that morning.

Sunday, February 12th
The Rev. Gerson Annunciacao, chaplain to the Presbyterian Immigrant Ministry, a newly formed ministry of the Presbytery of Southern New England, will tell us about his work with undocumented detainees. Gerson’s work takes him to Massachussetts and Connecticut, working with inmates and their families, to bring about just decisions and hope. The Mission Committee has contributed $1,000 to this new ministry. Read More…

Sunday, February 19th
The Rev. Allie Perry, teacher, chaplain, and pastor at the Shalom UCC community in New Haven, will share stories of her recent trip to Palestine and Israel, and about the struggles for justice she encountered.

Sunday, February 26th
Kristy Powell, who has just completed her year of “The One Dress Protest,” will talk with us about what it was like to wear just one dress for a year. Come and hear Kristy tell us of her journey into simplicity.

The Rev. Gerson Annunciacao, Chaplain to the Presbyterian Immigrant Ministry, will be our guest at the Adult Education Class on Sunday, February 12th. Gerson will also offer the Minute for Mission that Sunday.

The Presbyterian Immigrant Ministry has three main foci. The first and most important is ministry through Bible study groups to incarcerated immigrants in correctional facilities. This group approach, which enables members to minister to and evangelize each other, is a distinctive feature of this ministry. The second focus is upon ministry to their families who need information and spiritual help from supportive outsiders to cope with the uncertainties surrounding incarceration. Thirdly, there is a ministry to congregations to tell the story of incarcerated immigrants so that together we may discern ways in which we can be genuinely supportive of them. To date the first focus has
been our main priority.

As reported to The Presbytery in November, seventy out of the 547 incarcerated immigrants (13%) in two correctional facilities are in these Bible study groups and negotiations are well under way to begin similar groups in a third facility. Of the incarcerated immigrants currently involved twelve are from Connecticut: six from Hartford, two from New Haven, two from Danbury, and one each from Norwalk and Stamford.

For more information on the Presbyterian Immigrant Ministry see http://presbim.wordpress.com/

Connecticut is one of the few states in the United States that has legalized same sex marriage. That said, pastors in the Presbyterian Church are still forbidden to officiate at same sex weddings.

This month we will explore what the bible says about marriage, what the Presbyterian Church says about marriage, and hear from Jean Southerd, a pastor from Boston, who was challenged in a judicial procedure for her participation in a same sex wedding. This is sure to be an interesting conversation.

The Adult Education class begins at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday mornings in the Miller Gathering Hall.

David Beckmann President Bread for the World

Come and hear David Beckmann, President of Bread for the World, on Sunday evening, January 15th at 7 p.m.

World Food Prize laureate David Beckmann is one of the foremost U.S. advocates for hungry and poor people. He has been president
of Bread for the World since 1991, leading large-scale and successful campaigns to strengthen U.S. political commitment to overcome hunger and poverty in the country and globally.

Beckmann is also president of Bread for the World Institute, which provides policy analysis on hunger and strategies to end it. He founded and serves as president of the Alliance to End Hunger, which engages diverse U.S. institutions—Muslim and Jewish groups, corporations, unions, and universities—in building the political will to end hunger.

Currently Beckmann is co-chair of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network. He has served as a board member of InterAction, the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa, the ONE Campaign, the National Anti-Hunger Organizations, and the U.N. Millennium Hunger Task Force.

Prior to joining Bread, Beckmann worked at the World Bank for 15 years, overseeing large development projects and driving innovations to make the bank more effective in reducing poverty.

Under his leadership, Bread for the World has garnered an impressive record of achievements. Due in part to the persistent, bipartisan advocacy of Bread members, the U.S. government has tripled funding for effective programs to help developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Bread has also helped double funding for U.S. nutrition programs, assisting millions of families in the United States who struggle to feed their children. Recently, Bread for the World initiated a campaign to press Congress to reform U.S. foreign aid to make it more effective in reducing hunger and poverty, and another to protect and strengthen tax credits for low-income working families.

Since 2000, Beckmann has been asked to testify in Congress 18 times, appearing before such committees as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives. Beckmann has appeared on Bill Moyer’s Journal, PBS’s Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, CNN Español, and C-Span, and in radio interviews with NPR’s Morning Edition, and The Diane Rehm Show. He has written many books and articles, including Transforming the Politics of Hunger and Grace at the Table: Ending Hunger in God’s World. His latest book, Exodus from Hunger: We Are Called to Change the Politics of Hunger, will be published by Westminster John Knox Press in October 2010.

Beckmann earned degrees from Yale University, Christ Seminary, and the London School of Economics. Six universities have awarded him honorary doctorates. In 2010, he was named a laureate of the World Food Prize. He is a Lutheran pastor as well as an economist. Beckmann has lived in Bangladesh and Ghana, overseen projects in Bolivia and Ecuador, and visited more than 70 countries. He speaks Spanish.

Bread for the World is a collective Christian voice urging our nation’s decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad. Bread for the World members meet with and write personal letters and emails to their members of Congress. It is one of the largest organizations in the world dedicated to building the political will to end hunger.

Landscapes of Faith will be the theme for the Adult Education class through Advent.

Each week the class will have the opportunity to explore scripture passages which take us to the places Jesus traveled – the wilderness, the plains, the seas, and the mountains.

We will talk about what Jesus finds and experiences in each of those places and how such places might be found in our own lives of faith.

The class meets in the Miller Gathering Hall at 9:30 a.m. Coffee and tea will be provided.