We walk where reason may not tread
By faith’s audacious guiding,
Beyond the light by knowledge shed
We quest in grace confiding.
Harold Camping says that the rapture described in 1 Thessalonias 4 will occur on May 21, 2011, and that God will destroy the entire Universe on October 21, 2011. Unlike John the Baptist and Jesus, Camping offers no chance for salvation.
read moreWe have begun our Year Two Project! With over 300 groups using A Joyful Path, Year One, with only positive results, we’ve had a lot of inquiries lately as to when the second year of A Joyful Path, is coming out. We are pleased to announce that, thanks to a recent, generous donation, we are now ready to begin A Joyful Path, Year Two! We are committed to continuing the high level of scholarship, creativity, and quality found in A Joyful Path, Year One, so we are not expecting to have Year Two ready until Spring of 2013.
read moreMany parents, who don’t find the religion they learned as children very useful in their adult lives, still find themselves coming back to church with their children, hoping to give them a sense of community, ritual, and …
read moreJesus is seriously dead. None of the rest of it makes any sense otherwise.
read moreEaster Reflections for Christians, and for people who are not Christian as well, by Cara Hochalter. May speak to people who are “spiritual but not religious” who, like all of us, seek the fresh winds of the spirit and new births in love.
read moreIs there a Hell after this life? Does God send non-believers to burn for all eternity in Hell?
read moreSea Raven details how the Gosepl of Jesus relates to the current debate over worker’s rights.
read moreThe secret is, God’s covenantal justice is distributive. No being in the great matrix of the universe is left out. Matthew’s Jesus didn’t get it either.
read moreIn her latest update, Sea Raven reinforces the notion that the Gospels must be read through the lens of the genuine Pauline letters.
read moreRomans 12 and Matthew 10 are put to critical scrutiny to leave aside conventional notions of piety and sacrifice in favor of truly subversive ideas concerning grace and distributive justice.
read moreCreation liturgist Sea Raven juxtaposes the thinking of Matthew and Paul for her first article of the lenten season.
read moreThis service was created by Gretta Vosper from the Canadian Centre for Progressive Christianity
The service can be led by one person but is richer with a diversity of voices. In some places, options for Reader 1 and Reader 2 are marked to suggest a particular flow. Leaders are urged to work out who is responsible for what and use the options provided only as guidelines.
The space is prepared for the service with an easily accessible table, cloaked in dark cloth, with baskets of tea lights set upon smaller tables or stands at each end. The table may be decorated with a sprinkling of silvery or translucent glitter or cut out stars. Silver-covered boxes of various heights might offer different places for people to set tea lights and offer visual interest
This is a masterful and engaging account of how humans through centuries and cultures have engaged and experienced the divine. Webb includes her own experiences, both personal and observed from travel in fifty countries, as well as centuries of theology, literature and travel writing. She meanders along winding trails, talk over the fence and drink wine with a stranger, literally and figuratively. To engage the larger-than-description Sacred, we need all the stories we can find, even if only to remind us the distance still to go and the limitless (sometimes unsuccessful) journey. As a teacher of world religions and art, and an artist, this will not be a string of anecdotes, but a woven together, reader-friendly, vividly painted, theologically reflective whole.
read moreA vast segment of humanity has been telling itself this same story of a baby born in a manger in Bethlehem for many centuries now; peace and goodwill towards all the clan of Homo sapiens. But nothing has changed. Bethlehem itself has become synonymous with violence. Just now, as the Christmas fervor is being driven towards its annual climax, once-Christian nations are waging war against other countries. What is the deeper story that has somehow been twisted wholly out of shape and so layered over with trite or fraudulent wrappings that the real gift is rarely ever envisioned let alone observed and gratefully received? Is there, was there ever some precious thing of matchless beauty, power and grace at the very heart of Christmas- something with flaming potency to transform our lives, our world?
read moreWith scriptural wisdom, theological reflection, and pastoral insight, Chuck invites the reader to encounter Advent as a transformative experience. He utilizes film, literature, and contemporary experience to draw readers into spiritual reflection on the Christian’s sacred story, exploring the redemptive possibilities of the Christmas season.
Chuck writes in the introduction: “It is my hope that amide all the glitter, glamor, gladness, and grief of the Christmas season, you will find some shimmers of light in these spiritual reflections that will enlarge your vision of God’s kingdom, expand your love for all persons, and evoke your creative participation with God’s project to heal and transform our world.”
In the Greek world, “peace” was often employed to describe an inner state of well-being, whereas in the Hebrew tradition, the word was used primarily for interpersonal or social relations, coming very close to meaning “justice.” Both of these perspectives are found in the New Testament, and though a particular context may emphasize one or the other, neither meaning should exclude the other.
read more1. Eternal Love, your grace we praise Which shapes and comforts all our days, Evolves the world we know. Let worship, symbols come of age To help us read beneath the page And test the status quo! …
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