Worship and Plenary
The Gathering will include four plenary sessions with inspiring speakers and beautiful music from singer Allanda Small and pianist Phillip Morgan.
Lyric Soprano Allanda Small is an award-winning singer and a graduate of William Carey University and The University of Southern Mississippi with degrees in vocal performance and pedagogy. In addition to many operatic roles, Allanda also performs as a solo artist, presenting recitals, concerts and master classes throughout the year. She currently serves as the worship arts minister at Christ United Methodist Church and on the music faculty at The University of West Florida.
Phillip Morgan is director of music at Central Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, and serves as associate for music in the PC(USA) Office of Theology and Worship.
The plenary speakers will celebrate PW’s vibrant witness in the world, invite Gathering attendees to consider ways their faith invites them to engage in the world and rejoice in our identity as beloved children of God.
Laura Mariko Cheifetz is a teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), a double-PK (pastor’s kid) from the Pacific Northwest whose ministry spans social justice advocacy and theological education. She is a queer biracial Asian American and proud participant in Presbyterian Women.
Rev. Dr. Rhashell Hunter is author of the 2025–2026 PW/Horizons Bible study and also wrote the “Celebrate the Gifts of Women” liturgy for multiple years. She teaches polity at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. She served as director of Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for 14 years.
Rev. Cindy Kohlmann has served in two congregations, three presbyteries, and as co-moderator of the 223rd General Assembly. She currently serves as connectional presbyter/stated clerk at New Castle presbytery.
Rev. Yung Me Suh Morris is a first-generation Korean American who was born in Seoul, South Korea. She earned her BA and MA in education ministries from Wheaton College and earned her M.Div. from San Francisco Theological Seminary. Rev. Morris’ ministry includes pastoring parishes, chaplaincy in hospitals and hospice and street chaplaincy with the unhoused.
Dr. Veda Pendleton, a native of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, is an ordained ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) who will write the 2026–2027 PW/Horizons Bible study. She is a retired educator who has lived and worked in four different states. Her most recent book is a memoir titled, Prepped: Coming of Age in Black and White America.
Rvda. Evelyn L. Torres Ramírez is a bivocational pastor from Puerto Rico. She serves as a part-time pastor in the municipality of Lares, and also works part time as a clinical laboratory director for five small laboratories. She serves in the mountainous region at Iglesia Presbiteriana en Lares, a congregation that worships God and serves their neighbors.
Rev. Dr. Patricia K. Tull is A.B. Rhodes Professor Emerita of Hebrew Bible at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and author of the 2001–2002 PW/Horizons Bible study Esther’s Feast and of Inhabiting Eden: Christians, the Bible, and the Ecological Crisis. She is committed to environmental justice—healing ecological damage that harms neighbors. Patricia is author of the 2024–2025 PW/Horizons Bible study, which will focus on the scriptural, theological and ethical dimensions of environmental justice.
And, of course, Presbyterian Women’s 2024 Churchwide Gathering will include worship and communion! On Sunday, August 11, Rev. Cecelia D. Armstrong will lead worship, sending Gathering attendees into the world with a bold affirmation of love and urging to all “Do everything in love.”
Rev. Cecelia D. Armstrong is a cradle Presbyterian who was educated at Spelman College, the University of Southern Mississippi and the Interdenominational Theological Center, where she attended Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary. She was ordained as a deacon and then an elder before she accepted the call on her life into ministry. Rev. Armstrong served as solo pastor of Grace in Lantana, Florida, and now is the very proud associate pastor of St. James on James Island in Charleston, South Carolina.