Faithful to Jesus' prophetic vision, the Presbyterian Association for Community Transformation (PACT) is a network of community-based ministries of compassion, justice, worship and witness. PACT provides spiritual and practical resources for engaging in the prophetic ministry of transformation of communities and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Join PHEWA and take part in this ministry.
Kentucky Presbyterian group urges scrutiny of big health insurers, with eye to possible divestment
By Johanna W.H.van Wijk-Bos
On Saturday, Sept. 17, 2011, the Mid-Kentucky Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted at its regular stated meeting, held in Glasgow, Ky., to send an overture to its 220th General Assembly. The overture requests of the General Assembly to instruct the committee on Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) to report on the corporate practices of Cigna, Aetna, Humana, WellPoint, and UnitedHealthcare insurance companies to the General Assembly Mission Council.
It is the hope of those who have advocated for this cause in our Presbytery that other Presbyteries of the Church will join Mid-Kentucky and pass the Overture, so the endorsement may come to the General Assembly from as large a number of Presbyteries as possible.
Health Care Versus Wealth Care: Investors with a Conscience Should Divest from Health Insurance Companies
By Rob Stone
Tikkun Magazine, September 16, 2011
I was the doctor on duty one night in August when the ambulance rushed a man into our Midwestern hospital ER. As I walked into the room, the scene was right out of TV. A nurse was trying to start an IV. Someone was running an EKG. A student had just put oxygen in the patient’s nose. The room seemed crowded. The paramedics were sweating and slightly out of breath.
But my attention was on a pale, thin, fifty-five-year-old man sitting bolt upright on a gurney, clutching his chest and straining to breathe. Cold sweat dripped off his nose. I asked a couple of quick questions as I leaned him forward to listen to his lungs. Someone handed me his EKG showing an acute heart attack.
Creating Pathways of New Life in Urban Congregations
Creating Pathways for New Life in Urban Congregations: Change and Opportunity is a five year follow-up to the Vital Signs of Urban Congregations resource. This resource focuses on how the twelve congregations handled change and opportunity as they moved along in their ministry journeys. A mixture of stories, testimonies, conversations and observations of the dynamics of the urban congregations demonstrates their lives and their witness the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their neighborhoods.
Free (plus shipping) PDS #2331610001. Order from the Church Store.
In Memoriam: A. David Bos
The Rev. A. David Bos
With deep sadness we report that the Rev. A. David Bos, member of PHEWA’s Presbyterian Association for Community Transformation (PACT) network leadership team and a leader of Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care and of the national single payer movement, died on February 12, 2011, following a brief illness. We have lost a dear friend and colleague whose vision and courage have expanded our movement far beyond what we would have been able to do without him.
With his friends Hal Sanders and Bebb Stone of Pittsburgh, David led the effort to successfully overture the 218th General Assembly (2008) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to support and advocate for single payer health care. Their successful passage of a "single payer overture" brought resources for single payer education programs to communities across the country and inspired other faith groups to pick up the challenge.
PACT History and Principles
PACT is the successor organization of two previous PHEWA networks — COMANO (Community Ministries and Neighborhood Organizations) and UNCL (Urban Network of Congregational Leadership), the latter of which had been known originally as UPPA (Urban Presbyterian Pastors Association). Read PACT's history.
We believe that community transformation is an integral part of the whole ministry of the Church. Read PACT's principles.
A Progress Report on the PC(USA) Funded Seminars
Educating about & Advocating for Single-Payer Universal Healthcare Reform
In the fall of 2007, the Leadership Team of the Presbyterian Association for Community Transformation (PACT), a network of the Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare Association (PHEWA), decided to take the issue of healthcare reform to its network meeting at the PHEWA Biennial Social Justice Ministries Conference in New Orleans in January. At the conference, the network drafted a resolution recommending support for House Resolution 676, the single payer bill pending before Congress, and the membership of PHEWA enacted the endorsement of the legislation.