Guest commentary by Suzanne DeWitt Hall Icons are images that are meant to act as windows through which we look to see God. Often pictures of Jesus, they are included in the faith practices of various Christian denominations. During the Protestant Reformation, images like these were destroyed in an effort to stamp out a worship of things other than God. This action of tearing down and rejecting perceived heresy is called iconoclasm, and in an era when the church universal is so desperately in need of reformation, it seems like it’s time for a new form of the practice. Here’s what I think needs to be destroyed: the view of pastors as mini-gods. We can’t seem to help it; we want our ministers to be pure, spotless and holy — or at least holier than us. We also want them to align with our individual views of what holiness means, and our views vary greatly, which makes an already impossible task even more ridiculously unachievable. If our pastors don’t live up to our image of … [Read more...]
What can church music teach us about grace?
Guest commentary by Amy Cerniglia This summer at the Presbyterian Association of Musician’s Music and Worship Conference at Montreat, I enjoyed participating in the intergenerational drum classes, which required no auditions or prior experience. As a music director, it was one of many great ideas from the conference to bring home for my church. But for one boy with Down syndrome, this was his first chance to participate in leading music during worship. As he shared his story, an elderly woman agreed, tears in her eyes. It saddened me to hear he and others seem to lack opportunities in their home churches. Surely we can create accessible spaces for people of all ages and abilities. Many adults at my church can still recall hearing for the first time, as children, that they were not allowed to join in a school choir or other opportunity because they “could not sing” or “had no rhythm.” In reality, only a very small percentage of the population lacks the ability match pitch, … [Read more...]
A lot like a bowtie
Guest commentary by William McConnell About two years ago, I went to the dark side. I succumbed to the temptation to be one of the “cool” Presbyterians. (Is that an oxymoron? I think not). It was predestined to be. I started wearing – wait for it – bowties!The denomination’s stated clerk wears them regularly. There is even a day at General Assembly where everyone on the platform wears a bow tie in honor of the late Bill Forbes, who for 35 years was platform manager for the assembly. So, with great fear and trepidation, trusting in the providence of God and counting on the perseverance of the saints and my own patience (or lack thereof), as I struggled to decipher the tying instructions on YouTube I took my first plunge into bowtie-dom. Bowties have a long and storied history. They are first recorded in 17th-century Croatia. They pre-date Langsdorf (long) neckties by some 300 years. They aren’t easy to tie. They don’t give your belly any protection from … [Read more...]
A God who loves us
God is love (1 John 4:16). The Bible says "God is love,” meaning love is God’s essence. God does not only “possess” love or "will” love, but rather God loves. Period. Even if we violate God's will or disappoint, God still loves us. This is the God Jesus revealed to us. It is the loving and tolerant father of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32. The Prodigal Son tells the story of a young son who asked his father to disburse the family inheritance. Upon receiving his share, he took off to a faraway land. In the following years, he squandered the money and lived an indulged life until penniless and abandoned. When the destitute young man succumbed to eating pig feed, he realized that even the servants in his father’s household fared better. So, he decided to return home and offered himself as a servant. Based on the cultural norms of the time, the younger son committed several offenses. First, he asked for his inheritance when his parents were still alive. Such a request was … [Read more...]
When church transitions collide with social media
Guest commentary by Kim Douglass Marin When my grandfather accepted a new call 75 years ago, the goodbyes and welcomes were private. Probably both churches had cake and punch in their respective fellowship halls. If anyone was upset by his departure, those feelings were expressed in quiet narthex corners or in late night phone calls. If anyone was thrilled that he was joining their congregation, those joys largely would’ve been shared privately as well. Not much had changed by the time my college bestie accepted a call 20 years ago: As she put it, “You left a church, and someone in that congregation might visit the other town and stop in at your new church and report back.” But the congregations largely were separate: The grieving, gossiping and giddiness stayed local. That’s not the case anymore. Social media has changed how churches share and process news of transitions. And like everything related to the internet, this has presented great opportunities as well as troubling … [Read more...]
Faith
I called faith a gold-trimmed Gospel, a half-note suspension resolved in hymnic harmony, rehearsed prayers punctuated with perfect gasps and laughter, old tome imprisoned in an heirloom pulpit and marked with slight scratches from years’ wear and tear only visible to guests who squint. But it spills Communion wine into dresses and stains. It stings eyes, nostrils, singes an amateur’s hair. It flies into mouths as you sputter, sits in the chest till you’re coughing wildly and everyone in your pew turns to stare. It ties your legs up and trips you, it swallows footprints whole. There’s the second after you stir and realize what you dreamt. Awake, you grasp gifts from familiar symbols, inventing vocabularies for stumbling litanies, baptismal vows, wild stories evading substantiation. It is faith in everything you cannot see & despite all you do. Amy Cerniglia is the director of music and arts at Peace Presbyterian Church in Bradenton, Florida. A … [Read more...]
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