Cameron Trimble writes a blog for Convergence, a group she co-founded and serves now as their CEO. Recently, she wrote about a project they have come up with called “Letters to 2021.” Here’s how she described it: “We are inviting people of faith and congregations to write a letter to 2021, which will both remind us of the lessons we learned during this challenging season and how it felt to live through it, and cast our personal vision for the world we want to see coming into being by December 2021.” Here’s my attempt at such a letter, looking back at the pandemic from the vantage point of the end of the year:

Reminder to clerks: The Statistical Report must be completed by Feb. 18.

This year for the season of Lent, you are invited to reflect upon the gift of shalom, the Hebrew word for peace. In the Bible, shalom can be translated not only as peace, but also as tranquility, security, well-being, health, welfare, completeness and safety. How can we receive this gift of shalom and, in turn, bestow it upon the world?

Click here for information on the Presbyterian Scholars Program, open to students who are active in a PCUSA congregation, and the Covenant Scholarship for children of ordained PCUSA clergy.

Click here for the Morrison-Novakovic Center for Faith and Public Policy scholarship. Renewable worth up to $40,000, it is open to Christians of all denominations. (Additional qualifications required.)

What started off as an initiative of the adult Sunday school class at First Presbyterian Church in Morgantown, West Virginia, has grown to a wider community-based effort now called Dismantling Racism Together. During a recent session, a group of about 30 people, including several from the church, heard from someone who dismantles racism as part of his work — J. Spenser Darden, director of Diversity Initiatives and Community Engagement at West Virginia University.

The Covid-19 pandemic has been hard for everyone: individuals, families, congregations. It has been especially difficult for hospitalized patients separated from their loved ones. Cell phones and Facetime do provide a link, but patients want to see loved ones in person, to be touched and hugged. Families also have to cope with this separation, fearful they will never see their loved ones again. This is nowhere more true than on Critical Care units, where nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists, and other support staff care for families from a distance while caring for critically ill patients.