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Theology in the house

Television has certainly supplied our society with a lot of rubbish over the years but it has also managed to do a great deal of good. It has relayed news that would otherwise have been hidden.  It has allowed us to share historic moments as eyewitnesses. It has provided entertainment and insight to so many.  One might even wonder why it couldn’t be used to convey themes of religion outside of dedicated and designated channels and formats. 

Is energy conservation on church agendas?

With all the talk of an energy crisis in America, has there been a serious conversation about conserving energy in our churches?

Thy will, not mine, be done

I fell in love with God the first time I entered a church. Actually, I was in love with God, even before then, I just didn’t know it until I entered the mystery of that first sanctuary. I was instantly smitten, at home, and in awe of everything. I think I knew I had a vocation as early as nine years of age. I just had no way of knowing it would be forty-five years in the making.

A Common Word Between Us and You: A Personal Reflection

First of all, what is this document? A Common Word Between Us and You (ACW, https://www.acommonword.com/) is an open letter written in October 2007 by 138 Muslim scholars, clerics, and intellectuals who unanimously came together for the first time since the days of the Prophet to declare the common ground between Christianity and Islam.

Catholic-Muslim forum: Believers have right to practice religion

(ENI) — The first meeting at the Vatican of a Roman Catholic-Muslim Forum has affirmed the right of individuals and communities to practice their religion in private and in public, while also rejecting terrorism in the name of religion.

Evan Silverstein, PNS reporter, dead at 42

LOUISVILLE — Evan Silverstein, a veteran reporter who served the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for 10 years as senior reporter for the Presbyterian News Service, died Nov. 9 in his Louisville home, apparently of natural causes. He was 42.

Covenant Network: Conversation, not combat to reach ordination goals

MINNEAPOLIS – It can be hard sometimes to know what progress looks like.

At the Covenant Network of Presbyterians meeting in Minneapolis Nov. 6-8, which drew just over 400 people for worship, conversation, and organizing, certain realities nudged at the edges of the presentations.

Re-reading the research

The recent three-part series of Outlook articles by Erwin Barron has generated a number of letters to the editor and lit up..

Stewardship for tough times

Recently a colleague responded to a comment I made about the current economic situation by asking, “So, you’re saying that this economic..

Stewardship for tough times, NEW BLOG by Michael Jinkins

Recently a colleague responded to a comment I made about the current economic situation by asking, “So, you’re saying that this economic..

About reform, not change

Sing aloud to God our strength;

shout for joy to the God of Jacob.

Raise a song, sound the tambourine,

the sweet lyre with the harp.

Blow the trumpet at the new moon,

at the full moon, on our festal day.

Humility, grace, and greatness: Stephen Curry

With apologies due to William Carlos Williams for co-opting his famously brief, beautiful, and enigmatic poem, “The Red Wheelbarrow,” here is my sincere attempt at capturing just a wee bit of the essence of someone who has been abundantly blessed with God-given gifts — talents and traits that can only be described as sublime:

At a Stop

In many waits —

I haven’t known what I wait for

or even that I’m waiting.

Standing at the bus stop, she’d say,

At watch

attentive to 2 Peter 3:8b — never forget …

with the Lord “a day” can mean a thousand years

Living well is well with my soul

My soul was twice saved in a single week this past August. In a short span of seven days, I twice found myself in danger. On both occasions the youth of the church I serve rescued me.

McKibben urges Creation Conference to love neighbors, take action

“I’m going to come close to preaching here,” confessed author and environmental activist Bill McKibben in his keynote address to the 11th annual Caring for Creation Conference on October 25 in Newport Beach, Calif. The conference was sponsored by Orange County Interfaith Coalition for the Environment.

Ten minutes with new GA Moderator Bruce Reyes-Chow

Editor’s Note: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) moderator of the 218th General Assembly, Bruce Reyes-Chow, recently sat down with writer Erin Dunigan to reflect on the first four months of his two-year term. Reyes-Chow, 39, is also pastor of Mission Bay Community Church, an innovative new church of San Francisco Presbytery that was recently named winner of a 2007 Sam and Helen Walton Award for outstanding new church development. He offers thoughts on his first months as moderator.

The priority of experience in moral debate

Editor’s note: This is the third installment of a three-part article. The first article, “Why do we Presbyterians continue to fight?” appeared in the Outlook issue of November 10. The second installment appeared in the November 17 issue.

For the love of sport

Editor’s Note: Ben Comen, a young man with cerebral palsy, is easily the slowest competitor in any race he enters. But crowds gather to cheer him on. Sports Illustrated ran an article on Ben in its Oct. 23, 2003 issue; at that time he was a 16-year-old  “slowest high school cross-country runner in America,” according to the article. Here is Ben’s perspective on his “love of the sport.”

Georgia Baptists reject church with woman pastor

JONESBORO, Ga. (ABP) -- The Georgia Baptist Convention has decided to refuse gifts from a historic member church that last year called..

Advent, Christmas and New Year books for reading, giving

Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany: Liturgies and Prayers for Public Worship, by Brian Wren. WJKP, 2008. Pb., 230 pp. $29.95.
Wren offers a great gift for worship planners and leaders in this collection of litanies and prayers, sung refrains, and orders for special services. Elements of worship are tied to the texts of the Revised Common Lectionary. Includes a CD-ROM of the book’s contents.  
 

Nativity scenes and beyond: The art of John Mack Walker

They began, like the Gospel story itself, with a nativity scene. John Mack Walker carved wood along the way the Gospel story went, through scenes and stories in the life of Christ, until finally there were sixty carvings

     Twenty-four of his beautiful woodcarvings are now the centerpiece of displays at the Presbyterian Heritage Center at Montreat, N.C.