Don't Call Us Brave: Pastoral Care for People Who Are Transgender
One of the most popular workshops at Covenant Conference 2015 was led by Meghan Foote and Susan Barnes. They have graciously shared their PowerPoint presentation.
"Generous Peacemaking"
A Sermon on Isaiah 11:1-9 and Romans 15:5-7 by Kimberly L. Clayton for Covenant Conference 2015, Friday, November 6: "'The church is called blessed because it is a peacemaker.' I am intrigued by this slight difference in wording. This second image does not say what we are called to be, but instead declares what we are. A peacemaker. This clause in the Confession does not call us peacemakers—a bunch of individual peacemakers, each one of us doing our part, making peace in our own little sphere, as helpful as that would be in our individual families, my neighborhood, your school, her workplace, his circle of friends.No, listen to it again: The church is called blessed because it is a peacemaker. A big ol’ unified peacemaker. We are in this together, united, one, with one another. These days, I’m afraid, the church is called a blessed many things—but I’m fairly certain that a peacemaker is not our best known characteristic."
"Better Than a Hallelujah"
A Sermon on Isaiah 65:17-25 and 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, 6:1-2 by Marci Auld Glass for Covenant Conference 2015, Saturday, November 7: "The Belhar Confession reminds us that we are called to proclaim this new heaven and new earth that God is about to create. But we can’t do that in a way that tells people to be okay with the pain they are experiencing NOW, or with the injustice that is breaking their backs and their souls NOW. We aren’t called to be Pollyanna and deny the truth of people’s lived experience. As Paul Roberts said the other night, we are not called to just be nice. We are called to disrupt."
The Covenant Network: The Work Ahead
Executive Director Brian Ellison addressed the 2015 Covenant Conference on Saturday, November 7, lifting up our vision for the organization’s mission and ministry now and in the future, in a talk entitled “The Work Ahead.”
Progress, Pushback, Possibilities: A preliminary look at the 222nd GA
On Saturday morning at the 2015 Covenant Conference, national organizer Tricia Dykers Koenig offered an early look at the Covenant Network's priorities at the 222nd General Assembly (2016), which will meet next June in Portland, Oregon.
2015 Covenant Conference Video - All sessions NOW ONLINE
The plenary sessions of the 2015 Covenant Conference, Unity Matters: Living into God's Future ... Together, will be available online! Access the livestream at https://www.comf5.com/live/live-connections.
Announcing the Workshops at the 2015 Covenant Conference
The leaders: Mark Achtemeier, Susan Barnes, Michelle Bartel, Bill Calhoun, Meghan Foote, Beth Hessel, Cliff Kirkpatrick, Ken Kovacs, Kimberly Bracken Long, David Maxwell, Carol McDonald, J. Herbert Nelson, Gradye Parsons, Ann Philbrick, Paul Roberts, Libby Shannon, Patti Snyder, Lucy Strong, Landon Whitsitt, Layton Williams.Participants at the Covenant Conference, November 5-7 at Central Presbyterian Church in Denver, will be able to choose two workshops from among a superb line-up. Check it out!
Living History at the Covenant Conference
At the 2015 Covenant Conference -- November 5-7 at Central Presbyterian Church in Denver, Colorado -- you will be able to have your own story added to the chronicles of the PC(USA). The Presbyterian Historical Society will be present, interviewing conference participants for the Society’s Living History Films series.Register for the Conference before October 1 for the regular rate.
Join us November 5-7, 2015, in Denver!
Your chance to save on registration for the Covenant Conference, to be held in Denver November 5-7, lasts through Labor Day.Read the article for more information about ways to connect, participate, and support the conference.
Pre-Conference Workshops in Denver
Plan to come early to Denver so that you can join us from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 5, for one of two theological conversations. Professors from two of our PCUSA seminaries are planning in-depth conversations. Choose "Radical Reconciler: Reading the Bible as the Word of God," led by Cynthia L. Rigby, or "Inclusive Wedding Services," led by Kimberly Bracken Long.
The Addition of Belhar, the 50th Anniversary of C-67: Confessions the Church Needs for “Such a Time as This"
Stated Clerk Emeritus and CovNet Board member Cliff Kirkpatrick will lead us in exploring the significance of our confessions - particularly Belhar and the Confession of 1967 - at the 2015 Covenant Conference, November 5-7 at Central Presbyterian Church in Denver. Have you registered?
2015 Conference Registration Now Open
Join the Covenant Network November 5-7 at Central Presbyterian Church in Denver to explore UNITY MATTERS, with keynote speakers Cynthia Rigby, Clifton Kirkpatrick, and J. Herbert Nelson; and preachers Kim Clayton, Paul Roberts, and Marci Auld Glass.
Justice and Unity
Keynote Address by the Rev. Dr. Mark Hostetter at the Covenant Network Regional Conference ~ Philadelphia, PA, February 7, 2015:" One of the things I love most about Covenant Network, the uniqueness of CovNet, is that you are changing hearts and minds with a vision of living the lives Jesus calls us to – of welcome and inclusion and truth and joy; and yes, too, lives led with purity and proclamation and biblically-based witness and testimony and making Jesus the center of our lives and vision.Reaching across the aisle, not demonizing those who disagree, that’s the power of Covenant Network. Engaging in respectful dialog, talking about issues, taking arguments one-by-one and one-on-one, not shying away from the hard discussions, giving reason, giving faith, giving testimony, giving hope. The power of Covenant Network lies in personal connection."
Going to the Chapel
A Sermon on 1 John 4:7–21 by the Rev. Tricia Dykers Koenig at the Philadelphia Regional Conference, Chestnut Hill Presbyterian Church, February 7, 2015: "Friends, we don’t welcome other religions because we believe they are true – we welcome them because we believe our own Lord and Savior. We are not kind to others because they particularly deserve it – we are kind because it is our call in Christ. Welcoming all, especially the marginalized, is not about who they are. It's about who we are. Or perhaps more precisely, because we know who we are – children of God because God loves us unconditionally – then we know we can never deny that identity to another."
Being Humble When You Know You’re Right
A Sermon on Acts 11:1-18 by the Rev. D. Mark Davis at the Covenant Network Regional Conference, St. Mark Presbyterian Church, November 22, 2014: "What it means to be part of a church that is empowered by God’s Spirit, is to spend our lives playing “catch up” to a Spirit who disrespects our prejudices and will not be hampered by our anxieties. None of us follows this Spirit easily, without some wrestling with God, without some difficult transitions from naïve certainty to perplexity to a chastened and transformed certainty. When we follow this Spirit, we are humbled, even when we’re right. We can listen to even our severest critics, because we know that the same Spirit whose work is confounding them is the same Spirit whose work once confounded us. What we can only do is to tell our stories with confidence and tell them with grace."
Risk and Reality
A Sermon on Matthew 25:14-30 by the Rev. Brian D. Ellison at the Covenant Network of Presbyterians Regional Conference, College Hill Presbyterian Church, Tulsa, Oklahoma, November 15, 2014: "The reality is that we all have been entrusted with much. It is as if we have been given a talent, and knowing our master as we do, knowing the way the master reaps where he hasn’t sown, and harvests where he hasn’t scattered, having done so much already, we bury it. We cling to that hard-earned achievement, preserve that wealth of good will and justice abounding around us, ensure a comfortable if not extravagant future. Or we find a way of differentiation, of sheltering in place, of keeping the faith when surrounded by adversity through isolation and fear."
Lucy Strong - A sermon on Psalm 78
Covenant Network Regional Conference, November 8th, 2014, Idlewild Presbyterian Church / Memphis, TN: "We keep hearing the stories that connect our present with our past. The stories continue but what is our place in the stories? What are the stories we tell? What are the stories that shape us today and give us life? "
What Not to Wear
A Sermon on Marriage Equality and the Church, by Layton E. WilliamsMatthew 22:1-14 ~ Springfield Regional Conference, October 11, 2014"...Marriage matters, but we haven’t fought this long and hard because it is the only thing that matters, we have fought because it is part of something so much bigger that matters so much more—and that is the covenant of God to which we are all invited and all called. And it matters how we show up, it matters what we clothe ourselves in, what we wear, because every act of covenant with God—between two people and between all people—is not just a celebration. It’s also an act of holy protest against brokenness..."