(RNS) — July is Disability Pride Month and marks the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act on July 26, 1990, a watershed moment for civil rights law. However, mosques, synagogues, churches and other religious institutions remain exempt from ADA requirements. The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination based on ability in areas such as public accommodations, employment and transportation and is the farthest-reaching civil rights law for people with disabilities in the U.S. Its impact can’t be overstated, yet it’s no magic antidote for inaccessibility — for example, many ADA standards only apply to new buildings or alterations. In addition, the legislation broadly exempts religious entities. Religious groups cited prohibitive costs and religious freedom concerns to win the exemption in 1990. Because of these exemptions, religious communities are not required by law to have accessible spaces and are also exempt from some of the ADA’s employment … [Read more...]
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Commentary 19 hours ago
Hero worship
Guest commentary by Paul Hooker As I write these words, the news is coursing around the internet that Simone Biles, American gymnast extraordinaire and hope for gold medals to stoke the furnace of national pride, has withdrawn from at least some of the remaining competition in the Tokyo Olympiad. Biles’ decision has me thinking about heroes. In a word, they are a bad idea. In fact, I’ll go further: Holding up a human being as a hero borders on idolatry. Please do not write me off as another crotchety complainer… continue reading... -
Looking into the lectionary 20 hours ago
10th Sunday after Pentecost — August 1, 2021
Ephesians 4:1-16 Pentecost 10B; Proper 13 “I’m baffled,” one of my pastor friends recently wrote on Facebook. “Worship attendance and church engagement are nowhere near pre-COVID-19 levels. Maybe people are not reengaging because they have established new rhythms and patterns while exiled from their sanctuaries?” Teri McDowell Ott’s lectionary reflections are sent to the Outlook’s email list every Monday. This feels true. But I also wonder if people are hesitant to return because they are leery (or weary) of the divisiveness, debates and polarization that have seeped into every community… continue reading... -
Worship Resources 2 days ago
God provides — Family faith formation @ home: August 1
Welcome Invite various persons to bring a designated item and use this liturgy to begin your time of learning together. One: Come, let us gather around and see how the Spirit will nurture our faith today. All: Who is with us? One: Christ, the light of the world. (Place a candle on a table in your gathering place and light it.) All: Who is with us? One: The Love of God, who came to meet us in the world. (Place a cross on a table in… continue reading...
Parties in Stamford case had tried to expedite process in order to get a ruling on the merits of the case January 1, 1995 Uncategorized220 views The General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission -- in sidestepping the question of exactly how deeply a session should be required to probe into the private life of a gay elder who has acknowledged being in a committed, life-long relationship but has declined to say whether he is sexually active -- has put the question off but has not put it to rest.- Ministering with the Earth January 1, 1998 Book Reviews209 views By Mary Elizabeth MooreChalice. 1998. 226 pp. Pb. $19.99. ISBN 0-8272-2323-4 Ministering with the Earth is a quiltwork, both the on-the-ground activity and Moore's book about so ministering. Moore, professor of theology and Christian education at Claremont School of Theology, is fond of the metaphor, suitably pastoral and feminist.
- Remembered Voice: Reclaiming the Legacy of 'Neo-Orthodoxy' January 1, 1998 Book Reviews194 views By Douglas John HallWJKP. 1998. 145 pp. Pb. $18. ISBN 0-664-25772-0 It was in this order. I first read Tillich's Dynamics of Faith. Riveting. Next came The Courage to Be. Gripping. Then I went back and read the first volume of the Systematic Theology. Things began to make sense. Next came Biblical Religion and the Search for Ultimate Reality. Positive.
The post-pandemic church in the Great Virtuality July 13, 2021 Outlook Features1 comment
“What do you think is going to happen with churches after the pandemic?”
To this question, prominent Christian researcher Diana Butler Bass answered: “I don’t know. Nobody knows.”
She’s right, of course (although thankfully she has still written at length on the topic).
She’s right, yet the question crouches at our doors as we haltingly emerge from the pandemic. Nobody knows, yet we long for conversation about our future together. I have no word from the Lord — certainly not about the future of Christianity or even which ministries will become most critical. My hopes in this article ...
A new call, a new journey July 12, 2021 Editorials1 comment I couldn’t have been more excited to wake up at 3:30 a.m. to catch a 6 a.m. flight that would land me, eventually, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It had been over a year since I’d visited my parents. When the pandemic began and travel shut down in March of 2020, I feared I’d lose them both. My parents live separately in a retirement community — my mom in a nearby skilled nursing facility for residents with dementia.
At 82, my father is sharp and active. He’s great at computers and tech, and providentially installed an Echo Show 5 (a small TV-like device with two-way audio and video) in Mom’s room before t...
Coordinating and cooperating: Church leaders discuss budgets and donor-restricted funds May 13, 2021 Outlook Reporting1 comment The Coordinating Table – made up of 15 top Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) leaders – met via Zoom May 13 and reached consensus on a few things:
When the 2022 General Assembly meets, there will be a unified presentation of the various PC(USA) budgets, but not an attempt to create one single unified budget in which all the revenue sources are combined and agreement reached on how t...
During Disability Pride, Religious institutions still behind on accessibility
CDC researcher Susan Hillis on how people of faith can support COVID orphans
(RNS) — Susan Hillis, a member of the COVID-19 International Task Force at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, remembers the phone call she received from a director of a non-governmental organization in Zambia. The NGO director was fearful for the children in Zambia. So many of them had lost their parents to AIDS and were now being cared for by grandparents. But with COVID-19 taking the lives of the elderly in particular, he worried, who would be left to care for the children? That’s what led Hillis and other researchers from the CDC — along with the World Health Organization and a number of academic institutions and NGOs — to launch a study to determine how many children had been orphaned by causes related to COVID-19, according to Hillis. Their report, released last week, estimated more than 1.5 million children around the world lost a parent or grandparent who lived with and cared for them in the first 14 months of the pandemic. “We began to realize … [Read more...]
Hero worship
Guest commentary by Paul Hooker As I write these words, the news is coursing around the internet that Simone Biles, American gymnast extraordinaire and hope for gold medals to stoke the furnace of national pride, has withdrawn from at least some of the remaining competition in the Tokyo Olympiad. Biles’ decision has me thinking about heroes. In a word, they are a bad idea. In fact, I'll go further: Holding up a human being as a hero borders on idolatry. Please do not write me off as another crotchety complainer about the torpor of millennials. I am not in any way criticizing Biles' decision to terminate at least some portion of her competition. Quite the opposite: I applaud it. She has, as many have already noted, acted in a way that tends to her own care in a way no one else could do. She has reached a limit, one that she deems wise not to transgress. And that is precisely the point. We are limited creatures. In every way, our mortality edges us round and reminds us … [Read more...]
10th Sunday after Pentecost — August 1, 2021
Ephesians 4:1-16 Pentecost 10B; Proper 13 “I’m baffled,” one of my pastor friends recently wrote on Facebook. “Worship attendance and church engagement are nowhere near pre-COVID-19 levels. Maybe people are not reengaging because they have established new rhythms and patterns while exiled from their sanctuaries?” This feels true. But I also wonder if people are hesitant to return because they are leery (or weary) of the divisiveness, debates and polarization that have seeped into every community gathering and invaded every dinner table. I’ll be honest. Engaging with others in community, even a worshipping community, feels stressful right now. Reengaging means running into that woman who keeps peppering me with conspiracy theories, or that man who talks at me and never takes the cue from my annoyed expression, or the young adult I respect, but whose views constantly challenge me to rethink my own. I’m an introvert. People are exhausting. Disagreeing and debating is … [Read more...]
God provides — Family faith formation @ home: August 1
Welcome Invite various persons to bring a designated item and use this liturgy to begin your time of learning together. One: Come, let us gather around and see how the Spirit will nurture our faith today. All: Who is with us? One: Christ, the light of the world. (Place a candle on a table in your gathering place and light it.) All: Who is with us? One: The Love of God, who came to meet us in the world. (Place a cross on a table in your gathering place.) All: Who is with us? One: The Wisdom of God, who speaks through the Scriptures. (Place an open Bible on a table in your gathering place.) All: Who is with us? One: The Grace of God, who proclaims we are children of God. (Place a symbol of baptism – a bowl of water, a seashell – on a table in your gathering space.) All: Who is with us? One: Our risen Lord, who meets us at the table. (Place a symbol of communion – a plate and cup, a loaf of bread, grapes – on a … [Read more...]
Hope in Disarray: Piecing Our Lives Together in Faith
Grace Ji-Sun Kim The Pilgrim Press, 160 pages Reviewed by Eunjin Jeon Grace Ji-Sun Kim, an ordained Presbyterian minister and a professor of theology at Earlham School of Religion in Indiana, is a Korean American theologian who examines social and religious experience combined with intersectional theology. In “Hope in Disarray,” Kim asks: “Why do we hope?” and “How can we better understand hope and its preservation in our lives?” She found that we are living in limbo between hope and doom; however, we go on to abound in hope anchored in the very presence of God, living with hope to uphold expectations for goodness and the ultimate revelation of the Son of God. The hope we aspire to is not individual work, but involves collective effort to achieve it through reframing, rebuilding and reacting to social injustice and conflict. This remarkable book has resonated with my personal journey to find abiding hope in a troubling world. As a female Asian pastor and a non-citizen living in … [Read more...]
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