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Minute for Mission: Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico
One of the most distinguishable acts of justice in the Scripture is the gracious welcoming of the stranger in our midst. As an affiliated seminary of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico endeavors to partner with the church by preparing men and woman to serve the spiritual needs of an increasing Latino/Hispanic population in the United States. For about ninety years, the seminary has graduated students who have emigrated to cities in Texas, New York, California, Illinois, and Florida, among others, to either serve in established congregations or to build new faith communities. In the process, the seminary has learned to respond to the particularities of immigrant communities that thrive and keep faith alive by “singing the songs of Zion in a strange land.”
Holding on to that experience and the commitment to justice toward the “stranger in our midst,” the seminary has partnered with the office of Immigrant Groups Ministries at the Presbyterian Center to offer a theological formation program for leaders of emerging immigrant communities in the United States. To that end, the seminary has developed a curriculum combining traditional and contextual disciplines, and it began a pilot project in 2006. Three times per year, a group of men and woman who recently emigrated from Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa gather at Stony Point Conference Center in New York to learn from each other’s experiences and from the resources the seminary provides to enhance and strengthen their skills for theological reflection and ministry.
—Dr. José Irizarry, academic dean, Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico
God, loving and embracing presence among us, make us open our arms to receive the gifts of the stranger among us with a welcoming and hospitable spirit. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Num. 21:4–9
When Israel Was in Egypt’s Land
PH 334
Ps. 107:1–3, 17–22
Let Us with a Gladsome Mind
PH 244, HB 28, WB 453
Eph. 2:1–10
There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy
PH 298, HB 110, WB 601
John 3:14–21
What Wondrous Love Is This
PH 85
Daily Lectionary
Ps. 84, 150 Ps. 42, 32
Jer. 14:1–9 (10–16) 17–22
Gal. 4:21–5:1; Mark 8:11–21 |
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