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.
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.
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.
With his kind cunning he sliced shackles of
a friend’s grave-swaddling, then cut a broad swath
in holy courts, paring harsh pretenders.
I hold an advantage — like the young, I still knew
that in matters of love everything’s possible
and good assured.
Now attentive to Isaiah 61:1-4 & 8-11
To give … a garland. … they shall repair the ruined cities
At watch, when …
‘a day’ can mean a thousand years
often leads to nine-hundred-and-some years
of false starts, promising beginnings
that prove only a beginning, no more.
LOUISVILLE — A fair trade organization with roots in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is introducing a “symbolic gift” line to bolster the businesses and livelihoods of Peruvian artisans — just in time for Christmas.
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,
The Presbyterian Writers Guild and author Cecil Murphey are sponsoring a Presbyterian Writers Conference April 23-24, 2009, at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga.
The conference is aimed at helping writers produce marketable articles or books, develop a freelance career, and “impact the world with their words.” The faculty will include a publisher, a literary agent, freelance writers, a novelist, book authors, and a journalist.
DUBUQUE, Iowa – The John Knox Presbytery voted here Tuesday to enroll as a candidate for ministry an inquirer who declared a scruple to the denomination’s ordination standards.
(ABP) -- The Georgia Baptist Convention has decided to refuse gifts from a historic member church that last year called a woman as pastor.
Messengers to the Nov. 9-11 annual meeting approved a policy change authorizing convention leaders to decline funds from churches "not in cooperation and harmony with the approved work and purpose" of the convention.
LOUISVILLE — Maybe we should skip Thanksgiving this year.
After all, it has been a rough fall. Our investment crops have been devastated. Our long election campaign has left us an angry divide. We still have sons and daughters in harm’s way. The number of people who are homeless, sick, and hungry grows daily.
GENEVA — (ENI) A global Protestant grouping representing 75 million Christians says a new global economic order that puts people first is urgently needed to help the poor, following a meeting of the G20 nations about the worldwide financial turmoil.
(ENI) — Sixty years after the creation of the State of Israel and of the resulting expulsion of Palestinians from their homes, the (Lutheran) Church of Norway says that "the Church should see its responsibility in light of this, and care for Jews as well as Palestinians.”
GENEVA — (ENI) The 16th-century Reformation figure John Calvin is often portrayed as a stern Protestant but an exhibition in Geneva of selected passages from his writings shows a dimension of the reformer that many people do not know.
LOUISVILLE — Jane Parker Huber, 82, renowned Presbyterian hymn writer and tireless advocate for women in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), died Nov. 16 in Hanover, Ind.
Harare, 17 November (ENI)--Zimbabwean Christians have vowed to press on with
weekly prayer vigils "until something happens" after efforts at forming a
unity government to resolve the country's economic and political crisis
faltered.
The Psalmist says, wait for the Lord. I have a hard time waiting for my toast to pop up. Seriously. Watching it doesn’t help either. “Hurry up”, I said to the egg, frying in the pan; taking my mind off the bread in the toaster. “Can’t you cook a bit faster?” The Psalmist says, wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord. I would like to do that but waiting for the doctor is tough enough. The other day I mentioned to my wife that the tree in our front yard just wasn’t growing. She reminded me that trees take years, ten or more, to mature fully. Just wait and watch. It will grow. Trees take time. Still, I want a tree now.
Beware the dangers lurking in the pages of the magazine you are holding. This “Just the Stats” issue can mess with your head.
What does it mean for Christians to accompany those who are in need?
Editor’s note: This is the second installment of a three-part article. The first article, “Why do we Presbyterians continue to fight?” appeared in the Outlook issue of Nov. 10 (page 13). The third installment will appear in a later issue of the Outlook with the title, “How a focus on experience can further discussion.”
In a previous Outlook article, “Winded Thoroughbreds” (published Sept. 11, 2006), I wrote of a disturbing trend that emerged from our annual congregational statistics following the turn of the millennium. Many previously thriving churches began a serious downturn in membership and worship attendance, almost as if on cue. This article seeks to better understand the nature of this trend.
The recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life reveals that most Christians do not conform to church doctrine as once assumed. It noted that 70% of American Christians, including 56% of evangelicals and 83% of mainline Christians, agreed with the idea that many paths lead to eternal life. The secular media have more than welcomed this report and lifted it up as the latest insight into Christianity furthering an unwelcomed and unhelpful stereotype, among evangelicals most especially.
After reading an article detailing how difficult it was for young people to find summer jobs I was reminded of just how instrumental my summer job of waiting tables was in preparing me for the pastorate. I gained humility from having to wear a hideous brown and green plaid shirt (this will happen when you look like a member of the Brady Bunch in the middle of the 90s).
When Graham Baird was approached about starting a new church development in Paso Robles, Calif., his response hardly required a second thought. “That’s the last thing I wanted to do,” recalls Baird. At the time he was an interim pastor in Red Bluff, Calif., after leaving a new church development in Texas that, in his words, was a complete failure. But, the request was a persistent one.
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