Communications

Over the past several days Fhanor remained on a ventilator, but stable. Today Socorro, his wife, reports his condition has deteriorated. The doctors are running tests trying to find solutions. Socorro and their adult children are concerned and saddened that Fhanor is not progressing as we had all hoped. Please join Ministry Council staff in […]

Leland Keith Wood, 85, of Wimberley, Texas, died January 4, 2021. Although he was an active member of the Chapel in the Hills in Wimberley at the time of his death, Leland was raised in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. As an elder, he was a founding member of the Saint Andrews Cumberland Presbyterian Church in […]

Ben Thomas Surber, 84, of McKenzie, Tennessee, died January 6, 2020. He was an elder at McKenzie First Cumberland Presbyterian Church (West Tennessee Presbytery) where he had been a member for 75 years. Ben ran his family’s considerable farming interests. He served as a commissioner of Carroll County for 44 years. He was born in […]

The Reverend James A. Ryan, Jr., 69, of Mabelvale, Arkansas, died January 6, 2021, of COVID-19. Ryan, known to most as Jack, was pastor of Crossroads Cumberland Presbyterian Church (Arkansas Presbytery). A chaplain, he retired a colonel from the U.S. Army in 2011 after 30 years and two months of service. His father, who survives, […]

The Reverend Dwight Jess “Skip” Shanley, 76, associate pastor of Crossroads Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Little Rock, Arkansas (Arkansas Presbytery), died January 11, 2021, of COVID-19. Dwight was born May 8, 1944 in Rome, New York to Dwight Ralph and Alma Rosland Shanley and was raised in Hillside, New York, in the United Methodist Church. […]

1/14/2021: Janie Stamps, stated clerk of Arkansas Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church reports the Reverend Jack Ryan, pastor, and the Reverend Dwight Shanley, associate pastor, at Crossroads Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, have both recently died because of COVID-19. Several members of the congregation also have the disease. This article is incomplete. […]

Martin Luther King Jr. and the Witness of the Church by the Reverend T.J. Malinoski Beyond a peripheral understanding from television documentaries and a day off from school, I was in my teen years before I was really exposed to the life and ministry of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  My introduction came from […]

Robert Mark Blakeburn, 71, known to all as Mark, died January 10, 2021. Mark was a long-time employee of the Cumberland Presbyterian Bookstore in Memphis, Tennessee, and was a member of Faith Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Bartlett, Tennessee. He is brother to the Reverend Larry Blakeburn (Presbytery of East Tennessee) and son of the late […]

Rev. Shelia O’Mara Moderator, 189th General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church   This first week of 2021 has turned out to be quite the start of what many of us hoped would be the beginning of a new year that would bring the end to a pandemic that has disrupted our lives in ways […]

Happy New Year’s greetings and blessings to you during the season of Epiphany Rev. Shelia O’Mara Moderator, 189th General Assembly As we are closing out the Christmas season and celebrate the visit of the Magi to the Christ Child, are we, like the Magi, looking for an earthly king?  Are we looking for a king to […]