For two thousand years, the church has done a relatively good job of comforting bereaved people. Through ritual leadership, pastoral care, laments and psalms, sacred music, support groups, congregational support, memorials and assurances of life eternal, the local church has been a helpful resource for people dealing with significant losses and death. Indeed, whether formalized or not, most congregations provide grief support services. In recent decades, however, we have become more aware of the incidence and effects of trauma in people’s lives. We now see that many of life’s most significant losses come upon us embedded in trauma. A loss or death is traumatic when it is unusually violent, gruesome, unexpected or overwhelming. It is the murdered child, mass shooting, fiery automobile crash, suicide, battlefield explosion or natural disaster. Trauma comes in many forms and intensities, and not all trauma events involve death or even a loss. But in this article, I want to focus on … [Read more...]
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Outlook Features 1 day ago
Grief support ministries in an age of trauma
For two thousand years, the church has done a relatively good job of comforting bereaved people. Through ritual leadership, pastoral care, laments and psalms, sacred music, support groups, congregational support, memorials and assurances of life eternal, the local church has been a helpful resource for people dealing with significant losses and death. Indeed, whether formalized or not, most congregations provide grief support services. In recent decades, however, we have become more aware of the incidence and effects of trauma in people’s lives. We now see that many of life’s most… continue reading... -
Commentary 1 day ago
Seminary mobilizes care team during COVID-19 graduation
Guest commentary by Rachel Potts-Wells Imagine you wake up one morning to an email saying that everything you’ve been working for over three long years will not be celebrated in the way you had hoped. All the late nights, all the tireless days spent in the library, all the hours spent in class, all the sermons preached, all the exams taken, all the client sessions, all the papers written, all the long hours worked on top of a full course schedule — all of it was going to be cancelled.… continue reading... -
Worship Resources 2 days ago
Order of worship — Trinity Sunday
You are welcome to use this liturgy in your online worship services and distribute it to your congregation. It is free for worship use. Please credit Jill Duffield of the Presbyterian Outlook. Download the PDF of the full order worship: Liturgy 06_07_20 continue reading...
Parties in Stamford case had tried to expedite process in order to get a ruling on the merits of the case January 1, 1995 Uncategorized110 views The General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission -- in sidestepping the question of exactly how deeply a session should be required to probe into the private life of a gay elder who has acknowledged being in a committed, life-long relationship but has declined to say whether he is sexually active -- has put the question off but has not put it to rest.- Ministering with the Earth January 1, 1998 Book Reviews113 views By Mary Elizabeth MooreChalice. 1998. 226 pp. Pb. $19.99. ISBN 0-8272-2323-4 Ministering with the Earth is a quiltwork, both the on-the-ground activity and Moore's book about so ministering. Moore, professor of theology and Christian education at Claremont School of Theology, is fond of the metaphor, suitably pastoral and feminist.
- Remembered Voice: Reclaiming the Legacy of 'Neo-Orthodoxy' January 1, 1998 Book Reviews114 views By Douglas John HallWJKP. 1998. 145 pp. Pb. $18. ISBN 0-664-25772-0 It was in this order. I first read Tillich's Dynamics of Faith. Riveting. Next came The Courage to Be. Gripping. Then I went back and read the first volume of the Systematic Theology. Things began to make sense. Next came Biblical Religion and the Search for Ultimate Reality. Positive.
A lonely, lonely virus May 26, 2020 Editorials2 comments Drew Faust in the epilogue of her book, “This Republic of Suffering: Death and The American Civil War,” wrote: “Individuals found themselves in a new and different moral universe, one in which unimaginable destruction had become a daily experience. Where did God belong in such a world? How could a benevolent deity countenance such cruelty and such suffering?” Faust notes, “Civil War Americans lived the rest of their lives with grief and loss.” The scale of suffering was such that no one was left untouched nor unchanged. I wonde...
Pastoral pipeline: Will there be enough ministers to serve the Presbyterian Church? September 26, 2017 Outlook Features1 comment
The premise is this: With a surge of retirements approaching, and fewer people going to seminary, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is facing an impending, potentially severe shortage of pastors.
Lee Hinson-Hasty, senior director of Theological Education Funds Development at the Presbyterian Foundation, has been making that case in recent months — at the 2017 NEXT Church national conference, at Big Tent and elsewhere. Easily three-quarters of the Presbyterian pastors currently se...- Order of worship — Pentecost Sunday May 25, 2020 Worship Resources1 comment You are welcome to use this liturgy in your online worship services and distribute it to your congregation.
It is free for worship use. Please credit Jill Duffield of the Presbyterian Outlook.
Download the PDF of the full order worship: Liturgy 05_31_20
Grief support ministries in an age of trauma
Tagged With: grief
Seminary mobilizes care team during COVID-19 graduation
Guest commentary by Rachel Potts-Wells Imagine you wake up one morning to an email saying that everything you’ve been working for over three long years will not be celebrated in the way you had hoped. All the late nights, all the tireless days spent in the library, all the hours spent in class, all the sermons preached, all the exams taken, all the client sessions, all the papers written, all the long hours worked on top of a full course schedule — all of it was going to be cancelled. Many of you do know this reality if you have a family member in high school or college. In some way, we have all experienced life being canceled during the COVID-19 pandemic, but I would argue that our class of 2020 graduates felt this canceling in a unique and painful way. I am a dual degree student, which means I will be here at Louisville Seminary for around five years completing two three-year degree programs. I entered seminary with this very graduating class of 2020. I know you may not know a … [Read more...]
Faith leaders in dual roles guiding congregations and police
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — As an African American pastor who serves as a chaplain in the Minneapolis police precinct where the white officer charged with murdering George Floyd worked, the Rev. Charles Graham believes he is exactly where God intended. "God is putting us where he wants us to be," said Graham, pastor emeritus at Macedonia Baptist Church in Minneapolis and chaplain at the 3rd Precinct for six years. "I know it's my job to show the hope. We might as well learn how to live together." Graham and other Twin Cities faith leaders who minister to communities historically ravaged by racial injustice know their neighborhoods are also the most vulnerable to poverty and crime. Most of the worst looting and vandalism this week struck long-established Native American and African American areas that more recently became home to large groups of Hmong, Somali and Latino migrants. Firm in their denunciation of brutality and racism, the religious leaders believe that using faith to … [Read more...]
Order of worship — Trinity Sunday
You are welcome to use this liturgy in your online worship services and distribute it to your congregation. It is free for worship use. Please credit Jill Duffield of the Presbyterian Outlook. Download the PDF of the full order worship: Liturgy 06_07_20 … [Read more...]
George Floyd is my brother
George Floyd is my brother. Like you, like me, George Floyd was created in God’s image and declared good. We are members of the one human family, all of us beloved children of God. Further, I am a Christian and so was George Floyd. That makes him my brother no less than the one with whom I grew up in the same household. George Floyd and I did, in fact, grow up in the same household: the household of God. George Floyd and I are united in Christ, made one in our baptism and through the Spirit, inseparable members of the Body of Christ. If his murder is not personal to me, then I am not the Christian I claim to be. If his murder, and that of countless other innocent black and brown people, does not make me scream in lament and groan in mourning, then I am not a follower of the Head of the Body. If white Christians do not see the murder of black and brown people as the killing of God’s family and our own, then we need to stop calling ourselves Christian. If we do not take actions … [Read more...]
Virtual camp portal enables the camp experience even during the pandemic
(PNS) Five weeks ago, Joel Winchip, executive director of Presbyterian Church Camp & Conference Association (PCCCA), wasn’t sure what camps would be able to do about offering summer programming. “Summer camp face to face was already in question at that point,” he said. Winchip contacted web developer Worship Times, asking about the possibility of developing a virtual camp portal website that could be used by PCCCA members and other denominations. Then he reached out to Stephanie Fritz, the associate coordinator for Christian Formation (CF) in the Presbyterian Mission Agency. PCCCA is one of five partners in the Christian Formation Collective, which CF supports by partnering on projects that support age and stage formation in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) With mission priorities changing in the midst of COVID-19, Fritz was able to shift dollars from a PCCCA project that involved travel to support the creation of the virtual camp portal website. Fritz said CF had … [Read more...]
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