Salt Lake City, Utah during PC(USA) 226th General Assembly (June 15-July 4, 2024)

 by Fred Milligan

First Presbyterian Church, downtown Salt Lake City

Gun to Gardens cutting up firearms (First Pres. After worship anti-violence program)

street-side sculptures

Salt Palace Convention Center – location of General Assembly plenary sessions

A nearby mountain seen from SLC street

Photos of Utah landscapes displayed on wall of Hyatt Regency hotel lounge

Scottish bagpipes participated in the opening of the 226^th meeting of the PCUSA General Assembly

PEC Advocacy Co-Chair Fred Milligan, Mission Delegate to GA Mark Hare, and Young Adult Advisory Delegate to GA Andrew Hill

Fred Milligan is a PC(USA) minister member of Highlands Presbytery in North Central New Jersey in the territory of the Turtle tribe of the Ramapo people and the Ramapo mountains but resides in New York City in the historic land of the Linape people along the Hudson River. Fred has been sensitive to ecological issues since his youth when the mayor of Strawberry, Arkansas recruited him to become his town’s first “garbage man” and only later was confronted with the dilemma of where to put it. He has been involved with PEC since 2005 when he served on the General Assembly staff as Associate for Stewardship Education and supported the start-up of the Eco-Stewards program. He then served on our steering committee until 2014, when he moved to Chile as pastor of a congregation there for six years. In 2021 and 2022, Fred represented PEC at COP26 in Glasgow and the follow-up meetings in Bonn, Germany and supervised the writing and editing of our overture to the last General Assembly entitled “The time is now . . . “ Fred is currently serving as co-facilitator, with Jenny Holmes, of the PEC Advocacy Team.