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After the Longest Night (album & songbook)

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Steve Thorngate Reviewed by Luke Hyder After the Longest Night (album & songbook) by Steve Thorngate Advent can be a season of awkward juxtapositions. We begin a new church year just as the calendar year is coming to a close. We celebrate the coming of the Light of the World just as the nights have become their darkest. We worship in longing and hopeful preparation for One who has already come, and yet who is still to come. Finding balance between the conflicting themes of Advent can be a difficult task, especially when planning worship services and choosing songs for our congregations to sing. Steve Thorngate, in his newly released project of songs for Advent, Christmas and Epiphany, “After the Longest Night,” has struck that balance beautifully, giving the church a collection of songs, hymns and canticles that can be sung throughout this season and across many types of churches. The album and accompanying digital songbook provide an attractive and accessible mix of original … [Read more...]

Tagged With: Advent

The loving work of welcome: A biblical response to immigrants and refugees

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I was working with a refugee ministry in Europe when I moved back to the U.S. to attend a Presbyterian seminary. Then the day after I graduated, I boarded a plane to work in northern Albania, and was there during the time of the war in neighboring Kosovo that led to the Kosovar refugee crisis. In many ways, these felt like vastly different worlds. In northern Albania, I had a large knife pulled on me while walking down the street, had to sprint a few blocks home from a restaurant after gunshots rang nearby and was instructed not to wear seatbelts so I could more easily get out of our truck if someone jumped in front of it with a Kalashnikov. These dangers were, well, never part of walking across Princeton Seminary’s campus or studying in the library (though intramural basketball could get a little rough). In many ways, the realities couldn’t be farther apart. Yet I also know these different worlds were absolutely, intimately related. Our theology guides how we engage in the … [Read more...]

Tagged With: immigration • refugees

Advent devotions – Year C (2018)

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Are you looking for theologically sound, inspiring and affordable Advent devotions for the congregation? The Presbyterian Outlook is once again offering accessible and inspiring daily devotions for Advent. This year the focus is on deepening and practicing our faith vocabulary. How do Christians change the narrative from one of division to one of unity? How do disciples of Jesus Christ practice what our Lord preaches? Each week of Advent focuses on a characteristic of God that God’s followers are also called to exhibit: patience, kindness, goodness and faithfulness. As we prepare for our Savior's birth and Second Coming, we are called to do so with eagerness and while exhibiting the traits of the one for whom we wait. Download the PDF, print as many as you need and insert them into your weekly worship bulletin. Written by Outlook editor Jill Duffield, each week includes a reflection, daily Scripture readings, suggestions for living out the Bible and a short prayer for each day. … [Read more...]

Tagged With: Advent

At the table in Pittsburgh: God present in grief

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  Guest Outpost blog by Alina Kanaski I love Pittsburgh. I went to seminary in Pittsburgh. I rode out being call-ready in Pittsburgh. My first call is now in Pittsburgh — I jumped at the chance to stay in a city I had come to love, for its quirky character and wonderful, close-knit people. In fact, the first church I attended in Pittsburgh was in Squirrel Hill. It was a few blocks from Tree of Life, which at the time I only knew because we would walk past it after church on the way to lunch. Squirrel Hill was the neighborhood I would take visitors to because it is vibrant and interesting. You can find a place to fit any interest in Squirrel Hill. So, the first photo to hit the news of Tree of Life Synagogue surrounded by police cars and yellow tape was shocking. It wasn't supposed to look like that. It’s supposed to be calm and steady, whether the source of a stream of worshippers or one synagogue among many. I knew one of the injured — a man who has been in critical … [Read more...]

Hymns for Advent and Christmas – Year C

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The Presbyterian Outlook commissioned Presbyterian hymn writer, Carolyn Winfrey Gillette to compose Advent hymns set to familiar Christmas tunes and other well-loved hymns. Your hymn purchase includes downloads of  a PDF of the lyrics scored with the music for a half-page regular sheet of paper, a second PDF of the lyrics scored with music for a half-page of legal-sized paper (large print) and a document with lyrics only. You have permission to print as many copies as needed for your use. Advent wreath hymn “The Candle of Hope”  is a new hymn that is not geared to the lectionary passages. This new hymn follows the themes of each of the Sundays in Advent: Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. If you light Advent candles as part of your worship during the season, then this hymn is ideal! The words are set to the familiar tune of “O Worship the King, All Glorious Above.” The Candle of Hope (preview of full hymn text) “The candle of hope we light in this hour, proclaims that the Lord is … [Read more...]

Tagged With: Advent • Christmas

J. Herbert Nelson

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“They are asking questions and we are failing to give them answers that correlate with their current realities. We are still talking about the good old days.” – J. Herbert Nelson, PC(USA) stated clerk, at the 2018 Mid Council Leader Gathering on why many children and grandchildren of people in the church have rejected the faith … [Read more...]

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