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 08_16_20 … [Read more...]
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Worship Resources 9 hours ago
Grow where you’re planted — Christian education at home
A new school year is around the corner! This year this statement is met with more worry, trepidation and anxiety than in the past. In previous years, we have met the new school year with excitement — and maybe a few butterflies in our stomachs. But this fall, it’s there are so many added concerns and unknowns. Even though heading to school looks and feels totally different this year, there is still the potential for our young ones to grow. Drawing on the parable of the growing seed, your children… continue reading... -
Outpost Blog 17 hours ago
A word for weary parents: God is with us in the pandemic
This summer we have instituted the Friday Funday breakfast picnic. Typical summers, my daughter and I are both off on Friday and we have Friday Funday — because, let’s be honest, Sunday Funday doesn’t work when mom is the pastor. This year, like most of you, we are finding new ways to have fun. She is a nature lover, so we have been exploring different places while we eat breakfast and I hear all about what happens in her mind. We have baked muffins. We have traveled dirt roads I… continue reading... -
Outpost Blog 2 days ago
Alanis and you
No one suffers the same way during any particular point in human history, including a global pandemic. People of color continue to experience hardships due to systemic injustices. Economic inequity has been exacerbated by rampant unemployment. Healthcare employees make huge sacrifices, along with other essential workers from grocery store clerks to factory workers. And, of course, so many people have lost loved ones to COVID-19. In the congregation I pastor, I have noticed a stark difference in the suffering of parents and retirees. On a Zoom call, one person will… 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 Uncategorized118 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 Reviews123 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 Reviews130 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.
Presbyterian special committee discusses race and reparations with Mark Lomax August 5, 2020 Outlook Reporting1 comment What about reparations?
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Special Committee on Racism, Truth and Reconciliation – which the General Assembly created in 2018, and will report to the next assembly in 2022 – dug into that concept and talked about what’s needed for a mostly-white denomination to have honest discussions about race during an online conversation Aug. 5 with Ma...
Order of worship — August 9, 2020 August 3, 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 08_09_20
Prayers of the people for August 2, 2020 July 30, 2020 Worship Resources1 comment Jill Duffield reads the prayers of the people she crafted for this Sunday. You are welcome to share this with your congregation or use it as part of your worship service.
Find the full printed order of service here.
Order of worship — August 16, 2020
Stated Clerk views second term as a call to action in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
LOUISVILLE (OGA) As he begins his second term, the Reverend Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is hoping to put words into action over the next four years. The COVID-19 pandemic and social justice challenges currently facing the U.S. have impacted all Christian denominations. The clerk says the current state is forcing churches to do more than merely talk about the problems. “We need to be challenging those who are oppositional to the Holy book we believe and set up a system where we can be nimble and where we can get to the place of greatest resistance to the gospel, as opposed to having 20 meetings before we get there,” he said. “It is the challenge of this age.” … [Read more...]
Pew survey: Most worshipers support COVID-19 precautions churches are taking
(PNS) Nearly eight in 10 Americans say houses of worship should be required to follow the same rules about social distancing and large gatherings as other organizations and businesses in their local area, a Pew Research Center survey released Friday states. While left-leaning respondents say they are more likely than those who lean to the right politically to say houses of worship should be required to follow the same social distancing rules as other organizations, a two-thirds majority of Republicans also expressed this view. More than 8 in 10 people who attend religious services said their congregation should either be closed altogether or open only on a modified basis. Among the most commonly mentioned modifications were staying 6 feet apart during worship (51%), requiring masks (44%), limiting the number of worshipers (41%) and limiting singing (29%). Seventy-nine percent of worship attendees surveyed said their house of worship is streaming or recording its … [Read more...]
PC(USA)’s Washington office calls for more support for countries to fight COVID-19
The Washington Office of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. is calling for Congress to swiftly authorize the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to release Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to help struggling countries combat the coronavirus. The SDR is an international monetary reserve asset that was created by the IMF in 1969 to supplement its member countries’ official reserves. With COVID-19 now topping 19 million cases worldwide, SDRs would be especially helpful to low- and middle-income countries that need to obtain food and COVID-19-related necessities, such as personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical supplies, according to an Action Alert from the Presbyterian Office of Public Witness (OPW). The coronavirus has ravaged the health and economies of many countries and is expected to lead to an increase in world hunger as sickness, lockdowns, job losses, reduced hours, poverty, racism, conflict and other factors contribute to suffering. During this global crisis, “we must … [Read more...]
The inherent problem of whiteness in our polity
I left the 224th General Assembly questioning if our polity works in our fast-paced world. I wondered if assuming commissioners’ knowledge about the terms of a stated clerk’s service or the role of the various Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s agencies and their work was fair even for the most dedicated and diligent among them. I know the young adults in my household would not sign up for hours and hours of meetings consumed with strategic parliamentary procedures, amendments and substitute motions that feel like an affront to the urgency and immediacy of their friends’ suffering. They and their peers are marching in the streets, updated in real time as to who is gathering and to what end. I struggled with fatigue at caring about reports faithful people have invested much time and effort in creating while knowing too many of them end up unimplemented even if well intended, packed with nuance and detail. A few days and a little sleep later I concluded that the problem undergirding … [Read more...]
Virus as a Summons to Faith
Walter Brueggemann Cascade Books, 94 pages Few contemporary scholars have paid more attention to biblical texts than Walter Brueggemann through the course of a remarkable life of service to the church and academy. Though many try, few navigate those worlds as well as Brueggemann. Most fall in one space or another. As teacher, scholar and preacher, he testifies in this brief collection of essays that “any serious crisis is a summons for us to reread the Bible afresh.” In typical Brueggemann close-reading fashion, this book is a serious probe of Scriptures that not only gives vision to a people in crisis but also authentic hope for a renewed covenantal relationship with God who is always doing a new thing among us. When Brueggemann speaks of biblical hope, he is emphatically not referring to liberal optimism or conservative sentiment. Writing in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, he draws attention to the “hidden things” of God that are disclosed in the Torah and prophets. Those who … [Read more...]
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