“Doubt” opens with the parish priest, Father Flynn (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) delivering a brief, eloquent homily about doubt. This is the 1950s, and the well-dressed, clean-scrubbed congregation sits in rapt attention, in part because Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) is the self-appointed behavior modifier.
“Doubt” opens with the parish priest, Father Flynn (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) delivering a brief, eloquent homily about doubt. This is the 1950s, and the well-dressed, clean-scrubbed congregation sits in rapt attention, in part because Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) is the self-appointed behavior modifier.
Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly star in “The Day The Earth Stood Still,” a remake of the 1951 classic. Connelly plays Dr. Helen Benson, a scientist who is kidnapped by government agents in order to deal with an urgent emergency: a certain fast-moving object from space is going to collide with earth in an hour, and it appears to be on an irregular flight pattern — that is, guided. All attempts to intercept fail.
Richard Cizik resigned Dec. 10 as vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals, following remarks he made in a radio interview that he is changing his views on same-sex unions.
The coming of Christmas always presents us with a choice. Will we say “yes” and believe, or will we turn our backs and say “no.”
May had this choice, you know. When the angel appeared to this teenage girl and told her God’s plan was for her to be the Mother of God’s Son, she was distressed, because she wasn’t married and she was a virgin. She was also concerned about the possible reaction of her fiancé, Joseph.
(ekklesia) — Bishop Levee Kadenge says the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe has crippled the nation. The bishop says his country is “under siege and full of distress.”
Kadenge is the national convener of the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance, which is supported by Christian Aid.
As I have gotten older, I have shifted one hundred eighty degrees in my attitude toward the penitential seasons of Advent and..
An article, “Bethlehem --- The Christmas City”, tells the story of the Moravian beginnings of Bethlehem, Pa. “Our Christmas Prayer” poem (below)..
Christmas is almost here — theologically a season of anticipation and then joy — many Americans are scared and worried. They’re afraid of losing their jobs, their homes, their life savings.
And through this Advent season, many congregations have been trying to find ways to respond to the stunning and swift economic downturn, as it reverberates through the lives of parishioners and their communities.
Whenever Mother Teresa would hear someone describe the order she founded as a community of “activists,” she would immediately correct them. She and the other members of the Missionaries of Charity were, she insisted, “contemplatives.” She would point out that whenever new persons joined her community they were required to spend weeks reading the Gospels and contemplating the Host, so that they might be able to recognize Jesus when they go out onto the streets to look for him “in His dreadful disguise among the poorest of the poor.”
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James Ackley[/caption]LOUISVILLE — James (Randy) Ackley, whose 14 years with the American Red Cross (ARC) included heading up that agency’s response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, has been named coordinator for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance [www.pcusa.org/pda] (PDA) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). He begins his new work here Dec. 15.
“Cadillac Records” is the story of a Chicago recording studio during the seminal days of the 1950s, when Leonard Chess (Adrien Brody), a struggling nightclub owner, first recorded Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright). And the rest, as they say, is musical history.
When my family moved from Atlanta to Columbia three years ago, we could identify only one thing lost in the move. Baby Jesus.
He was the centerpiece, obviously, of a hand-carved, olive wood crèche. Given to us by a friend after a trip to Israel and Palestine, the pieces came carefully wrapped in an Arabic newspaper. Although my husband and I each brought our own manger scenes into our marriage, this exquisitely beautiful one from the Holy Land quickly assumed the prominent place on the living room mantel.
(ENI)--Patriarch Alexei II of the Russian Orthodox Church, who died December 5 at the age of 79, will go down in history..
My son’s menacing mercy split followers —
cleaving them as a plow tears earth to hold seed —
foes too—as a hammer bursts rock to shard.
… always be rich enough to be generous ( II Cor. 9:11)
The New English Bible translates thusly Paul’s words about giving and wealth. In chapter nine, he writes about the provision of aid for some of his people, noting it is superfluous for me to write to you — the need being so obvious. Well, superfluous as we might wish it, we, like Paul, find it is necessary to write or call to get donations.
On November 3, 2006, the Rev. Brent Dugan, beloved pastor of the Community Church of Ben Avon (Pa.) and devoted colleague of mine in Pittsburgh Presbytery, killed himself. A local TV station was poised to out him on the evening news as a gay man who was possibly violating the rules of his church. In this crisis, Brent was more willing to face God with Jesus at his side in death than to face us in Pittsburgh Presbytery.
Home: by Marilynne Robinson. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2008. Hb., 336 pp., $25.
What happens when the celebration is over? When the fire has gone out and the food consumed; when the singing is over and silence descends upon the room, what happens in the morning? And not just the next morning but all the other mornings that come with ordinary regularity.
The congregation’s membership ministry starts with recruitment and retention, but it must push on to transformation.
'Tis the season for looking back
It must be at least whispered: in post-modern America, in an age of “spiritual but not religious,” the name of John Calvin isn’t often rolling off of people’s tongues. Tina Fey, yes. John Calvin, not so much.
Churches large and small are good and ready for Advent this year.
I hold an advantage — like the young, I still knew
that in matters of love everything’s possible
and good assured.
(ENI) — Episcopalians in North America unhappy with what they say is the "liberal turn" of the U.S. branch of Anglicanism have announced they are forming an alternative denomination, or province.
(ENI) — The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has called for immediate intervention by the Nigerian government after the deaths of hundreds of people in religious and ethnic violence in the West African nation.
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