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“Pulse” was performed for the very first time at The Venue by Alexandra Love Sarton, Divinci Glen Valencia Jr.and members of Beautiful Chorus as Chakra Khan at the Lady Elevate // The Chakra Khan CD Release PARTY just hours before Sunday’s massive heart attack began. An anthem for Orlando and love everywhere.

“Galvanizing, beautifully written . . . a powerful expression of faith in the transforming power of Christ’s love.”–Publishers Weekly (starred review)Son of Man is Andrew Harvey’s most basic statement on Christ, and it has already become a treasured work to readers interested in Christian mysticism. For the first time in any of his books, Harvey provides spiritual exercises–centuries-old rites previously available only to a few–that allow the reader direct experience with the mystical Christ. Son of Man also includes an easily accessible section of classic readings and meditations on the nature of Christ, making it the comprehensive experience in the Christ of the new millennium.

… if we begin our reflection with the Jesus/disciple encounter, the line of demarcation between faith and science is that faith sees the cosmos as informed by love, and science does not. That’s basic. But seeing the world as informed by love can be true not only of people of faith, but of people of all convictions, faith and non-faith, round the world. Just recently there was a report about a study that shows how compassion not only benefits the receiver but the giver as well. Seems as though there is something in our genes that rejoices in helping others. As I said earlier, that was the fundamental message of Jesus’ disciples, that the meaning of the resurrection is not a resuscitated body, but the omnipotence of love and compassion. Available to all.

Today, the churches of the Global North are in decline and younger generations no longer seek meaning there. Traditional “church Christianity” is gradually giving way to some new way of faithful living. From a Nazi prison cell, German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer imagined a future “religionless Christianity” consisting of contemplative prayer and righteous action in the secular world.

A Conspiracy of Love presents the contours of such a faith based on the “way” of Jesus. It calls us to become troublemakers, revolutionaries, seekers of change, and agents of transformation engaged in conspiracies of love to establish justice and peace in a postmodern world. It offers many different people–those who remain in the church,those who have left, and those who have never ventured near–with a life of faith that is meaningful, intelligent, and passionate.

Irvine United Congregational Church is celebrating 25 years of welcoming people of all sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions into the full community and life of the church. The church was a pioneer in becoming the first Orange County congregation to adopt an Open and Affirming declaration and later became a leader in the fight for marriage equality. Irvine UCC will celebrate this monumental anniversary with an event featuring former IUCC pastor the Rev. Fred Plumer.

This Trinity Sunday sermon owes much to John Shelby Spong’s book a “New Christianity for a New World” You can listen to the sermon here then watch the tail end of the Wolf Blitzer interview mentioned in the sermon.

There are three parts to this little book. The first takes a new look at who Jesus was and what he did. The second describes four characteristics of human life. The third considers some of the perplexing questions of theology. Taken together, they represent an integrated attempt to understand our common humanity as children of God and are offered as a contribution to the on-going dialogue.

In Memory of Jesus blends imaginative conversation and the author’s own personal journey of coming to know Jesus as friend to produce a realistic human picture of the person at the heart of Christian faith. Morwood maintains that Christianity must return to focusing on the human Jesus and his message if it is to have relevance in the modern world.

I need serious help! You see, I’ve done it again folks. I’ve forced myself to sit through another one of my former pastor’s sermons. But I had to, as I caught wind that for this entire month, the topic du jour is going to be “hell”—as eternal conscious torment of course! God wouldn’t have it any other way (and the Bible clearly states!). So I had to give at least one of the sermons a listen. And I think I will stick to just one, as this one was harder to follow than a Dennis Miller analogy (which, if you don’t know, is a terribly difficult task indeed).

The pastor starts out by recounting a very moving story about how his five year old was abducted and, for a time, lost. As the father of a five year old girl myself, it was very heartbreaking to listen to him, holding back the tears, and detailing the event. That being said, once he moved into the meat of the sermon, my empathy quickly gave way to confusion.

Pentecost is the birthday of the Church. Birthday celebrations lend themselves to the telling of stories. So, we begin with a parable by the radical theologian Peter Rollins. So, sit back and try to imagine that you live not at the beginning of the 21st century but at the middle of the 21st century; say about 2050. The world has changed quite a bit.

To the extent that Progressive Christians seek to reform Christianity, and to the extent that Progressive Christians seek to overturn deeply held faiths, Progressive Christians are pursuing contradictory goals. Getting someone to give up his or her foundational beliefs requires the power of persuasive facts. But there are no facts regarding the existence and nature of Divinity. Therefore, a more realistic goal is to persuade people that it is valuable to them to exchange personal testimonials to faith experiences, without judgment, and to create a reformed church where this is fostered.

From a rich lode of speeches, articles in eBulletins, and numerous publications, Fred Plumer has mined those that define the Progressive Christianity movement as it evolves to meet new challenges in a rapidly changing world.

Accepting that the world has a beginning and an end leads to a dismissive view of poverty, pollution, warfare, and social classes. While everyone certainly has a right to their personal beliefs about life after death, Muslims, Christians, and Jews must focus on the life that we know and to root our faith in what we can see in front of us. The early church was so confident that Jesus was coming back soon that they ignored many important matters of ethics. We cannot afford to make that mistake.

Through her intriguing explanation of the teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, Parkinson sets out compelling reasons why a real commitment to following the vision of Jesus of Nazareth can bring to reality the best possible world. In another age the author of this book would have been convicted of heresy at the very least. Her case for a 21st century new Reformation of the church is a must for all who have doubted or rejected the old Christianity and are looking for the way forward.

Button Poetry is committed to developing a coherent and effective system of production, distribution, promotion and fundraising for spoken word and performance poetry.

Following the way of Jesus asks of us to support and learn from people of other faith traditions. This may sound counter-intuitive at first. At its best, the Christian tradition asks us to listen for where the Divine is speaking, in whatever surprising places we may find it. We need others as a reminder of how much greater the Divine is than any one religious tradition’s ability to fully capture it.

Recorded February 7, 2013: Marcus Borg and Charles Holt discuss Jesus’ resurrection. During this Season of Easter conversations about the meaning of resurrection are crucial to help us move beyond carefully constructed doctrines which we were once instructed to “believe”. At Holy Cross we are exploring the question: “Can the ways in which we tell the stories of resurrection transform us into followers of Jesus who embody a way of being in the world that can nourish, ground, and sustain the kind of peace that the world yearns for?” Marcus Borg and Charles Holt’s conversation contributes so much to this broader conversation.

Richard Holloway, the former Primate of the Scottish Episcopal Church, interprets the story of the resurrection not as an historical tale, but as our own story. Holloway has written of his longing for a humbled and broken church. His own humility and brokenness shines through this video as Holloway embodies his own longing