Carol Howard Merritt: Virtual Real Presence
Now that online community is possible, and people are looking to their computers, tablets, and phones for those sacred moments, how are churches responding?
Weekly Sermon Illustration: Creation
In our blog post every Monday we select a reading from the Revised Common Lectionary for the upcoming Sunday, and pair it with a Frederick Buechner reading on the same topic. On June 15, 2014 we will celebrate Trinity Sunday.
The Cry of the Disabled Caregiver: "I'm Not A Good Patient!"
Author Benjamin Pratt writes about his difficulties adjusting from caregiver to patient in this week's column.
ON Scripture: Developing a Moral Vision for Climate Change: Overview of the Planet By Ingrid Esther Lilly
Political talk of moral obligation almost always invokes future children; it is not politically controversial to hope that our children and grandchildren will live on a safe planet. But the moral dimensions of climate change are far more complex and granular: food shortages here, extreme weather events there, floods that displace people in coastal regions, melting polar icecaps causing increased extinctions, the vulnerability of the global poor.
Debra Darvick: Speaking at the Catholic Information Center
Last month I had the pleasure of speaking at the Catholic Information Center in Grand Rapids. Nu? What’s a girl like me doing speaking at the CIC?
Greg Carey: She Existed: How Maya Angelou Changed My Life
Some years ago I met Maya Angelou when she came to Baylor University, the fine Texas university where I have taught for the past twenty-five years, to give a campus-wide lecture. During her stay she did two things that I have never forgotten.
Ben Sharpton: What If...?
It all started in Sunday School… I was a member of a really great Sunday School class called 'Open View' in our church in Georgia. Our charter was to focus on real issues faced by adults these days and to try to understand all of the perspectives around those issues. We never shied away from controversy.
Carl McColman: Living with Hospice
May 19 was my stepdaughter Rhiannon’s 29th birthday. It’s always a sweet day, but today is a bit sweeter than most, because just a few months ago we thought she wouldn’t live to see it.
What We Need to Know
The miracle we are really after is the miracle we really get.
Carol Howard Merritt: What are creative ministers thinking about these days?
I returned from UNCO (short for Unconference), an open-space incubator for churches. We wanted a place where creative ministries would be celebrated and supported, and it’s working. We have grown from two new ministries to over twenty. It’s a brain trust for starting progressive communities and sustaining traditional ones. The break-out groups are always interesting, because they give us a taste of what young(ish) ministers struggle with and what they’re excited about.
Frederick Schmidt: Leadership in Anxious Times: Six Lessons for the Church
Nothing sidelines an institution faster than contraction and flailing that is labeled as vision and the dawning of a new era.
Wayne Meisel: Where Faith Still Thrives! Summer Camps and the Future of the Church
What was the most significant institution in my faith development? The obvious answer would be Sunday School and church youth group, or perhaps, my college chaplain's office. You might think it surely had to be the venerable Princeton Theological Seminary. Nope. The answer: Camp Dudley, a YMCA camp located on the banks of Lake Champlain in the Adirondack Mountains.
Darkwood Brew: Vocatio: Discovering the Work of Your Soul in the Soul of Your Work, Part 5
'Vocatio' refers to a calling into our life's work. This seven-week Darkwood Brew series features people from a variety of professions reflecting on how they were called, how they answered and what it means. This week's Featured Guest: Bob Ravenscroft Trio.
David Crumm: The James Martin SJ inteview on ”˜Jesus: A Pilgrimage’ to Jerusalem
That idea of Jerusalem as a life-changing destination runs through the popular Jesuit author James Martin’s latest book, 'Jesus: A Pilgrimage.' Read our interview with Father Martin.
Greg Carey: The Biblical Job and Robert E. Lee
If ever we met a tragic hero, it would be Job. I like Job too. I admire him. But this week I noticed something about Job that complicates my relationship with him. Job holds something in common with Robert E. Lee: They both owned slaves.
Weekly Sermon Illustration: Prophet
In our blog post every Monday we select a reading from the Revised Common Lectionary for the upcoming Sunday, and pair it with a Frederick Buechner reading on the same topic. On June 8, 2014 we will celebrate the Day of Pentecost.
ON Scripture: The First Multi-Media Blowup Moment (Acts 2:1-21) By Dr. Karyn L. Wiseman
Can you imagine sitting in a public space and all of a sudden everyone around you starts to speak in a different language? And yet somehow you still understand them? Can you imagine the cacophony of sounds this event would cause? Can you envision the power it would take to make this astonishing moment happen? Is it a miracle? Possession? Paranormal activity? It likely would freak you out.
Lillian Daniel: It's Not Your Book
When you get your first Bible, you treasure it, and keep it somewhere special. You open it and start reading, telling yourself you'll read a little every day because it's such a special book. And then you stop.
Martin Copenhaver: Cake or Death?
Comedian Eddie Izzard has a classic routine in which he imagines how the Inquisition would have been conducted if the Church of England had been in charge. He imagines the Anglican priests being far too genteel to torture their victims.
Debra Darvick: Hours of Devotion
A poet and book editor, Dinah Berland serendipitously happened upon a book of women’s prayers (tkhines) written by Fanny Neuda (1819- 1894). This book, Hours of Devotion, was the first Jewish prayer book for all occasions written by a woman for women.