The Presbyterian Outlook

News and Articles from the The Presbyterian Outlook

Register Login Donate Subscribe

Top Search/Contact Area

  • Be A Fan

  • Follow Us

  • Photos

  • Pin It!

    • Home
      • About us
      • Advertise with the Outlook
      • Submissions
    • Presbyterian Hub
      • Editorials
      • Outlook Features
      • Digital Issues
      • Editor’s viewpoints
      • What’s right?
      • Let’s connect
    • News +
      Current Affairs
      • Outlook Reporting
      • Presbyterian News Service
      • Religion News Service
      • News from other sources
    • Ministry + Theology
      • InSights Opinions
      • Benedictory
      • Guest commentary
    • Faith + Culture
      • Book Reviews
      • He/She Said
      • Movie Reviews
    • Ministry Resources
      • Outlook Standard Lessons
      • Outlook Horizons Studies
      • Worship Resources
      • Looking into the lectionary
      • Bulletin Inserts
      • Webinars
      • Hymns
      • Faith Formation Resources
    • Outpost Blog
    • Classifieds
      • Classified advertising

    Order of worship — February 28, 2021

    February 22, 2021 by Roger Gench Leave a Comment

    You are welcome to use this liturgy in your online worship services and distribute it to your congregation. It is free for worship use.  Please credit Roger Gench of the Presbyterian Outlook. Download the PDF of the full order worship: Liturgy 02-28-21 … [Read more...]

    Worship Resources Tags: Featured Home Page

    Spiritual friendship

    February 22, 2021 by Roger Gench Leave a Comment

    Spiritual direction saved my ministry! In the early 1990s, I “hit the wall” and entered a program in spiritual direction through Oasis Ministries in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, because I was burning out and needed to learn how to pray again. In the years since, I have benefited greatly from spiritual direction; I also have found a yearning for it in congregations I have served, with people on a journey of discernment or in search of healing or liberation. I became a devotee of the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius and have shared this dynamic process of spiritual discernment with as many individuals and groups as I can — with anyone who expresses even the slightest interest. I describe spiritual direction (or spiritual friendship, as I like to call it) as walking along with someone as they discern the movement of God in their life and as they describe their spiritual forest, oasis, desert or wilderness — the vulnerable spaces where God seeks to bring resurrection out of the … [Read more...]

    Tagged With: spiritual direction

    Editorials Tags: More News - Homepage/ spiritual direction

    1st Sunday in Lent — February 21, 2021

    February 19, 2021 by Roger Gench Leave a Comment

    Genesis 9:8-17; Mark 1:9-15 Lent 1B Increasingly, Christians have sought ways to include animals in the liturgical life of the church. Our Catholic and Anglican friends customarily observe a “blessing of the animals” in their worship life every October on the Feast Day of St. Francis. Many Presbyterian congregations have begun to include animal blessings among their annual rituals in order to honor relationships with beloved pets whose lives are closely linked with our own. This past October, even in the midst of pandemic lockdown, some of my friends found a way to bless their dear pets online. For those who missed this in October, the first Sunday of Lent provides another occasion for reflection on human relationships with other creatures, for two of the texts featured in the lectionary explicitly mention them. The first lesson for this Sunday (Genesis 9:8-17) narrates God’s eternal covenant promise to all living things. The Genesis narrative began with divine blessing … [Read more...]

    Looking into the lectionary

    Order of worship — February 21, 2021

    February 15, 2021 by Roger Gench Leave a Comment

    You are welcome to use this liturgy in your online worship services and distribute it to your congregation. It is free for worship use.  Please credit Roger Gench of the Presbyterian Outlook. Download the PDF of the full order worship: Liturgy 02-21-21 … [Read more...]

    Worship Resources

    Transfiguration of the Lord — February 14, 2021

    February 12, 2021 by Roger Gench Leave a Comment

    Mark 9:2-9 In the Presbyterian liturgical year, Transfiguration Sunday marks the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday. However, it is well worth noting that our Roman Catholic friends celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration on August 6, which results in a haunting juxtaposition for August 6 also happens to be Hiroshima Remembrance Day — a day commemorating a very different kind of “transfiguration.” Seventy-five years ago, on that fateful day, the Enola Gay, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, took off from a military base on Tinian Island and dropped the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. I was stunned to learn of this connection, and so the last time I found myself preaching on Transfiguration Sunday, I placed Mark’s story of Jesus’ transfiguration side by side with remembrance of Hiroshima, inviting reflection on the nonviolence of Jesus and the bombing of Hiroshima. Reactions to the sermon surprised me. It seems that decades after our nation’s fateful … [Read more...]

    Looking into the lectionary

    Knowing Christ Crucified: The Witness of African American Religious Experience

    February 11, 2021 by Roger Gench Leave a Comment

    M. Shawn Copeland Orbis Books, 160 pages This book by a prominent womanist theologian could not be more timely for our present moment of racial and political reckoning. For Shawn Copeland, the connection between the cross of Jesus and the suffering of our world is deep and broad. She argues that theology must help us “work out the relation between the murderous crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth and the murderous crucifixion of countless poor, excluded, and despised children, women, and men whom we have impoverished, marginalized, and excluded through our power privilege, and position.” Indeed, the cross of Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of neutrality or innocence with respect to the suffering of countless people on account of racism, economic exploitation and homophobia in our communities and world. The social disorders that create oppression are not someone else’s disorder or oppression, they are ours. As she puts it, it is “our consciousness, not someone else’s, that is permeated … [Read more...]

    Book Reviews Tags: More News - Homepage

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • …
    • 8
    • Next Page »

    Current Issue

    • Feb 22
    • Feb 8
    • January 18
    • Dec 28
    • Subscribe
    • Give a Gift
    • Read Online
    • Most Commented
    • Most Popular
    • GA meeting site in Baltimore to be converted into field hospital A decision may be getting closer about whether to hold the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) – set...
    • Moving Forward Implementation Commission takes administrative action The Moving Forward Implementation Commission voted June 18 to take administrative action in five areas — with some of the...
    • Debate over relationship between San Francisco Theological Seminary and the PC(USA) may rise at General Assembly  When is a historically Presbyterian seminary no longer a "Presbyterian seminary”? That question is on the docket for the 224th General...
    • Churches go back to the future with drive-in services in the time of the coronavirus (RNS) — When it came time to pass the peace Sunday at Pathway Baptist Church, Senior Pastor Mike Donald didn’t...
    • Advent devotions — 2020 (Year B) Advent time: Devotions for the congregation Are you looking for theologically sound, inspiring and affordable Advent devotions for the congregation? The Presbyterian...
    • PC(USA) General Assembly affirms that Black lives matter; pledges to work against systemic racism The 2020 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted overwhelmingly June 26 to approve a resolution declaring that Black...

    Keep the Faith

    Sign Up for Updates and Breaking News in your inbox

    Facebook

    Tweets by presoutlook
    Follow Us

    View Stories From

    • Presbyterian Hub
      • Editorials
      • Outlook Features
      • Digital Issues
      • Calendar Check
      • About People
        • Anniversaries
        • Ordinations
        • Retired
        • Deaths
        • Transitions
      • Archives
    • Faith + Culture
      • Book Reviews
      • Movie Reviews
      • He/She Said
    • Ministry + Theology
      • InSights Opinions
        • For Church Leaders
        • Faith Matters
        • Multichannel Church Report
        • #amen
        • Commentary
        • Benedictory
      • Liturgical Year
        • Advent
        • Lent

    The Latest:

    United Methodists reschedule meeting — and decision on splitting — again

    February 25, 2021

    February 28 — Abraham and Sarah: Family faith formation @ home

    February 25, 2021

    Becoming Brave: Finding the Courage to Pursue Racial Justice Now

    February 25, 2021

  • Tweet With Us
  • Be A Facebook Fan
  • Our World in Photos
  • Pin With Us
  • CONTACT US:

    1 N. 5th St., Suite 500

    Richmond, VA 23219

    T: 800-446-6008F: 804-353-6369

    [email protected]

    Or ▶ Fill Out Our Contact Form

    © Copyright 2021 The Presbyterian Outlook. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Statement. Website Design by Poka Yoke Design

    • About us
    • Presbyterian Hub
    • Ministry Resources
    • Classifieds
    • Advertise with the Outlook
    • Submissions
    7ads6x98y