All You Need is Love!

Faith, hope, love abide; but the greatest of these is love.  

-I Corinthians 13:13

Those of a particular generation will remember when the Beatles first sang, "All You Need is Love," on Our World. The year was 1967. With the Vietnam War raging and the Civil Right Movement challenging, the Beatles were asked to come up with a song that everyone could understand.

It was a tumultuous time, akin to the season in which we find ourselves now.  As their manager Brian Epstein reflects,

Part of what I love about the song is that it communicates on multiple levels. The song starts with the introduction to the French national anthem (a country who shares with us a commitment to liberty, equality and fraternity). Add to that elements of Glen Miller's, "In the Mood" and Wayne Shanklin's "Chanson d'Amour," and what more could you ask for?

The lyrics are fun, light and playful, belying the simple but challenging message: all you need is love. Viewed through the lens of 2015, we clearly haven't taken the message to heart... yet. While the locations of war have changed (somewhat) and the cities under siege are different (in part), the choice remains: will we choose love or fear to drive us?

As the Beatles remind us: "There is nothing we can do that can't be done / Nothing we can make that can't be made / No one we can save that can't be saved / There's nowhere we can be that isn't where we're meant to be / All we need is love!"

The question, of course, is how do we embody love as we move from individualism to intimate community, from words to witness, from charity to changing structures. Faith and hope play a role to be sure, but as the Apostle Paul reminds us: "The greatest of these is love." The learning from the 1960s is that our wounds cannot and will not be healed in one generation. Just as the sins of our forebears are carried down to the third and fourth generation, so also learning how to love is a multi-generational task.

All we need is love!

Debbie Rundlett

General Presbyter 

Holy Habit: All You Need is Love

Take some time this next week to pray through the lyrics. Better yet, listen and pray through the lyrics: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9_vhYpR9xo 

Then ask God how you might be more intentional in your practice of love-of God, of yourself, of friend and stranger.

(Love, love, love)

(Love, love, love)

(Love, love, love)

There's nothing you can do that can't be done

Nothing you can sing that can't be sung

Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game

It's easy

There's nothing you can make that can't be made

No one you can save that can't be saved

Nothing you can do but you can learn to be you in time

It's easy

All you need is love

All you need is love

All you need is love, love

Love is all you need

(Love, love, love)

(Love, love, love)

(Love, love, love)

All you need is love

All you need is love

All you need is love, love

Love is all you need

There's nothing you can know that isn't known

Nothing you can see that isn't shown

There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be

It's easy

All you need is love

All you need is love

All you need is love, love

Love is all you need

All you need is love, all together now

All you need is love, everybody

All you need is love, love

Love is all you need

Love is all you need

Love is all you need

Love is all you need

Songwriters: LENNON, JOHN / MCCARTNEY, PAUL

Greetings from the Presbyterian Historical Society!

We hope your congregation is planning to celebrate Heritage Sunday on Sunday, May 24. To assist, the Presbyterian Historical Society has created bulletin inserts that you can download for use in your congregation. This year, we are commemorating "Faith in God," Abraham Lincoln's funeral sermon preached by Presbyterian pastor Reverend Phineas Gurley.  

As always, PHS is here to serve your congregation. From preserving your history, to accessing historical records, to learning more about the heritage of American Presbyterianism, there is a lot to explore at www.history.pcusa.org!

Blessings on your ministry,

Deana Stuart

Deana Stuart

Development Assistant

Presbyterian Historical Society

425 Lombard Street

Philadelphia, PA 19147-1516

telephone: 215.928.3865

email: dstuart@history.pcusa.org

www.history.pcusa.org

  

An Open Invitation to Shared Worship Service at Wooster Westminster 

From Pastor Dries Coetzee, Wooster Westminster 

Press Release - The Wooster Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and Westminster Presbyterian Church highlight issue of family detention with Wooster native and immigration attorney Brian Hoffman as Guest Speaker.

The Wooster Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and Westminster Presbyterian Church will be holding a joint worship service on Sunday, May 17 at 10:45 am in Westminster's Mackey Hall, 353 East Pine Street, Wooster, Ohio focusing on the US/Mexico border crisis, family detention, and how people of faith can respond.  The guest speaker will be Wooster native and immigration attorney Brian Hoffman. Hoffman, who graduated from Wooster High School in 2001, practices immigration law in Columbus with the firm of Muchnicki & Bittner, LLP. He has represented immigrants from a variety of countries in asylum proceedings here in the U.S. and has traveled to family detention centers in New Mexico and Texas to help detained immigrant families fight their asylum cases. Hoffman is taking a leave of absence from his firm to spend six months in Texas coordinating a project that provides free legal services to women and children at a family detention center in Dilley, Texas. The families, many of whom are fleeing horrific violence in Central America and parts of Mexico, are applying for asylum in the United States, but often cannot afford legal representation to help them present their cases. Teams of volunteer attorneys have traveled from all over the United States to take cases at the detention center, which can house up to 2,500 people. Hoffman, who earned his law degree from The Ohio State University in 2009, will serve as the full-time coordinator for future teams of volunteers.

The service will begin at 10:45 and will include a shared meal. Donations will be used to help support the pro-bono project at the Dilley Family Detention Center and information will be provided on how to volunteer. While the service takes its inspiration from the Quaker and Presbyterian traditions, this event is open to all as we work together for a more just world.

Andries J. Coetzee, Pastor

Westminster Presbyterian Church

353 East Pine Street

Wooster, OH 44691

www.wpcwooster.org

https://www.facebook.com/wpcwooster 

PC(USA) Announces Registration for Big Tent 2015

July 30 - August 1, 2015, University of Tennessee Conference Center, Knoxville, TN

Big Tent 2015 registration is up and running and everyone is excited about what it will bring!

Please consider including the Big Tent video (https://youtu.be/xShTbAESJj8 ) and the Big Tent web site link (http://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/big-tent/ ) on your presbytery web site or in other promotional opportunities.   The video is just 1 minute long and gives a quick overview of what makes this Big Tent unique and would be a great minute for mission at a presbytery meeting!

Thanks so much!

Tom

Thomas D Hay

Director of Assembly Operations

Associate Stated Clerk

Office of the General Assembly

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)