ADVOCATE
Interactive Prayer Stations for Lent
Prayer stations offer a practical idea for the Lenten season, with a focus on raising awareness of a number of social justice issues and hospitality. These themes and messages accompany us on a Lenten journey. The original “Interactive Prayer Stations on Lent &...
What Will We Tell the Children?
by Tori Smit It was a Good Friday service I will never forget. I was perhaps eight or nine years old and since children in my church rarely joined the adults in the sanctuary for any part of worship going to worship on Good Friday was a very big deal for me. I wanted...
Poetry of a Lenten Journey
by Rev. Dr. Patricia Dutcher-Walls Isaiah 43:14-21 Using words that resound with hope in the face of suffering and uncertainty, Isaiah 43 is one of this year's lectionary texts for Lent. Reading this poetry with an eye to its themes and poetic beauty can help...
An Extraordinary and Exceptional Journey – A Walk Through 50+ Years of Annual Event History
Martha Bettis Gee, APCE Historian Lately it occurs to me, what a long, strange trip it’s been. . . For many of us of a certain age, these words have a nostalgic resonance. We recognize them as the concluding words of the refrain of the Grateful Dead song, “Truckin.” ...
Joy Comes in the Morning
By James Monroe Potts I knew it would happen. It happens every year. I can see and feel it coming like a storm rushing toward me. And every year, it’s as if I am transported back to that time when it all began. During my second year of seminary, I was doing my field...
Welcoming Hope while Living in Lament
By Rev. British L. Hyrams Please read Lamentations 3 (slowly and deliberately). If you are familiar with this text already, please read it in another translation in order to see it with fresh eyes. This chapter is not for the faint of heart and may invoke feelings of...
This Period of Waiting
by Natarsha Sanders Advent is not the most wonderful time of the year. At least not for everyone.There are songs to sing, plays to rehearse, goodies to bake, halls to deck, lessons to plan, candles to light, gifts to wrap, emotions to manage, weight to watch. Travel....
For You I Wait: Lament in Advent
by David Gambrell The voice of lament resounds throughout the witness of Scripture. The five books of Moses, or Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy), center on the cry of God’s people for deliverance from captivity: “The Israelites groaned under their slavery and cried out....
An Advocate Anthology: 2022 Annual Event
Are you getting excited? In less than three short months our APCE Annual Event will take place in Chicago. And it won't be just any annual event, it will be a spectacular anniversary celebration as we come together for APCE's 50th - plus one. So, mark the dates on...
Clouds of Witnesses Blown by the Spirit
by Joyce MacKichan Walker, Princeton NJ Almost a year ago, in an Advocate article titled, “The Role of Advocacy for Educators in the PC(USA),” I wrote: Advocacy is something you do until what matters – what is flawed or broken or unjust or simply “not right” – is...