2015 marks the 30th anniversary of Lee Mitchell’s great standard work on the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. As his student, protégée, and colleague, Ruth Meyers takes this classic work and updates it for the Church in its current era and for the future.
An invitation to find beauty and meaning in the ordinary and imperfect aspects of your life; not as a call to settle for less, but rather as a way to mysteriously participate in God's power and purpose. Glenn Packiam wants to empower readers to find great joy, purpose, and passion in their daily living. While bread may be one of the most common items on our dinner tables, Jesus chose to take it at the Last Supper and invest deep, wonderful, and transcendent meaning in it. Like the bread that was blessed, broken, and given; readers will see how God uses ordinary experiences to cultivate their mission and their brokenness to bring healing to the world. The ordinary is not the enemy; it is the means by which God accomplishes the miraculous. Through clear biblical teaching and practical steps, Packiam leads the reader into a more purposeful, directed, hopeful future.
When Nouwen was asked by a secular Jewish friend to explain his faith in simple language, he responded with "Life of the Beloved, " which shows that all people, believers and nonbelievers, are beloved by God unconditionally.
A passionate call for a new liberation movement, this time within the church in North America.... The genius of 'The Liberation of the Laity' is not so much that it provides new information or even an entirely original thesis, but that it lays piece after piece together until the pattern emerges for us, and we have the eyes to see the repetition and extension of that pattern in our own experiences of church life. Books and Religion The author, in this deeply felt and powerfully argued book, tackles the issues of the nature of ministry, priesthood, ordination, lay theology, a spirituality of life in the world. The argument is clearly expressed, draws upon a wide range of scholarship, the example of the early church as well as the experience of the author.... I cannot be dispassionate in recommending this book. It provides a model of what a theology of the people should be like in the way it argues the case for such a theology. Zadok Perspectives - a quarterly journal of the Zadok Institute for Christianity and Society (Australia). If I could have one wish fulfilled - I'd wish that Anne Rowthorn's 'The Liberation of the Laity' would be required reading for Christians everywhere! She is a voice for the church's voiceless. Irene V. Jackson-Brown 'The Liberation of the Laity' will irritate, inform, and inspire. And it should be read by all - lay and ordained - who are willing to have their eyes, and most especially their hearts, opened a little wider. Virginia Seminary Journal 'The Liberation of the Laity' is a provocative book that challenges the clericalist culture of the church, and provides practical advice and sound counsel toward a more inclusive future. Further, the book affirms the history and theology of the ministry of all baptized persons in a deep and thought-provoking way. 'The Liberation of the Laity' will spark conversation and reflection among those most concerned about the future of ministry, and the need for the church to support the vocations of all the baptized. Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook Director of Congregational Studies Associate Professor Episcopal Divinity School
Can eucharistic ministers clean the vessels after communion? What does the deacon do at Mass? How do we use the entrance and communion antiphons? Where do the servers sit? Is the gospel book carried out at the end of Mass? How do we choose the eucharistic prayer? The and more questions--45 in all--that priests, liturgists, music directors, liturgy committees, ministry coordinators and diocesan liturgy offices frequently ask about the Mass are answered here with legal expertise and pastoral sensitivity. Questions are grouped into subject topics including introductory rites, liturgy of the word, liturgy of the eucharist, concluding rites, ministers, weekdays and miscellaneous issues.
- Revised and updated popular resource for adults - Not just a book of information, but a book for transformation The everything-you-need to know adult guide to the Episcopal Church that is easy to read but with substance for newcomers, adult formation groups, and lifelong Episcopalians who desire to know more about their church. The language of worship, theology, church structure, sacraments, and discipleship offers a framework to explore the meaning and practice of being an Episcopalian and follower of Jesus. This updated and revised version of the popular original 2009 book incorporates new initiatives and changes in the Episcopal Church, including marriage, inclusion of LBGTQ+ persons, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry's call to join the Jesus Movement, and taking our faith out into the world, following our baptismal promises. A Leader Guide is included in this revised edition in addition to the "transformation questions" that follow each chapter.
Course 6: The Eucharist: How do Christians know and worship God? The six sessions of Course 6 reveal reasons why the Eucharist is celebrated as a memorial of Christ’s saving passion and stands at the very heart of Christian worship. Session 1 looks at worship as communion with God. Session 2 explores the Eucharist as the pattern of all Christian worship. Session 3 looks at the intimacy we have with God in Holy Communion and how we are transformed by the encounter. Sessions 4 – 6 look at worship as a sign and foretaste of heaven, shaping our whole life, and how the whole of life is sacramental.
The Resurrection is the central mystery of believing Christians. Through scriptural exegesis, cutting-edge scholarship, storytelling, and insightful interpretation, And Morning Came reveals that the Resurrection is not a single event but an ongoing experience of God's grace and power in our daily lives. In this masterful exploration through the Scriptures of the Resurrection, Megan McKenna helps us know each of the Gospel writers, understand the world they lived in, grasp the unique aspects of their Resurrection accounts, and see the connections these accounts have to our lives. Like Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—who wrote their accounts after the life, death and resurrection of Jesus has been experienced and the gift of the Spirit has come to guide the followers of Jesus—we are called to be inspired by this same Spirit and to both see and make real the incarnate God at work in the world from the moment of creation. In a world suffering from war, terror, fear, and economic hardship, this book is welcomed because it is, as McKenna states, "about living, about dying, about rising, about beginnings and endings and how to live resurrection now . . ." A profound book about hope from one of the most popular Christian writers of our time, And Morning Came is an adventure that appeals to the intellect, the heart, and the soul. Ecumenical in scope, it is a call to discover who we really are in light of God's eternal love and to live our lives to the fullest.
Can a barren city lot become a church? This is the story of an audacious journey. It’s the story of what happens when people garden, worship, and eat together—and invite anyone and everyone to join them. In This Is God’s Table, writer and pastor Anna Woofenden describes the way that the wealthy and the poor, the aged and the young, the housed and unhoused become a community in this once-empty lot. Together they plant and sustain a thriving urban farm, worship God, and share a weekly meal. Together they craft a shared life and a place of authenticity where all are welcome. Readers of Nadia Bolz-Weber, Sara Miles, and Diana Butler Bass will find here a kindred vision for a church without walls. As churches across the Western world wither, what would it take to find a raw, honest, gritty way of doing church—one rooted in place, nurtured by grace, and grounded in God’s expansive love? What would it take to carry the liturgy outside the gates? What if we were to discover that in feeding others, we are fed? This is God’s table. Come and eat.