Does the Church of England need a corporate slogan?
Rev Richard Coles, the witty Church of England clergyman who is a former member of the Communards pop group and a BBC broadcaster, has shared on Facebook that he’s been asked to think up a corporate slogan for the Church.
The Old Testament makes up the majority of the Christian Bible and provides much of the language of Christian faith. However, many churches tend to neglect this crucial part of Scripture, leading to the loss of the Old Testament as a resource for faith and life.
This timely book shows how the Old Testament is like a language–a language is used and learned or it falls into disuse and eventually dies. Brent Strawn details a number of ways the Old Testament is showing signs of decay, demise, and imminent death in the church and criticizes common misunderstandings of the Old Testament that contribute to its neglect. He also shows that it is possible for a language to be recovered. Drawing fresh insight from recent studies of how languages die and are revived, Strawn offers strategies for renewing the use of the Old Testament in Christian faith and practice. This clearly written book will appeal to professors and students of the Old Testament as well as pastors and church leaders.
Of all the silly claims sometimes made by atheists these days, surely one of the silliest is that Christianity was in no way determinative of the politics of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Just take Christopher Hitchens’s claim that, on account of King’s commitment to nonviolence, in “no real as opposed to nominal sense … was he a Christian.” Wherever King got his understanding of nonviolence from, argues Hitchens, it simply could not have been from Christianity because Christianity is inherently violent.
The best response that I can give to such claims is turn to that wonderfully candid account of the diverse influences that shaped King’s understanding of nonviolence in his Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story, and then demonstrate how his Christianity gave these influences in peculiarly Christ-like form.
King reports as a college student he was moved when he read Thoreau’s Essay on Civil Disobedience. Thoreau convinced him that anyone who passively accepts evil, even oppressed people who cooperate with an evil system, are as implicated with evil as those who perpetrate it. Accordingly, if we are to be true to our conscience and true to God, a righteous man has no alternative but to refuse to cooperate with an evil system.
Almighty God, who by the hand of Moses thy servant didst lead thy people out of slavery, and didst make them free at last: Grant that thy Church, following the example of thy prophet Martin Luther King, may resist oppression in the name of thy love, and may strive to secure for all thy children the blessed liberty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
“I have decided to stick to love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
– Dr. Martin Luther King
Happy #MLKDAY â¤â¤â¤ pic.twitter.com/ym79GRByYg
— Lele Pons (@lelepons) January 16, 2017
O God, who by the example of thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ hast taught us the greatness of true humility, and dost call us to watch with him in his passion: Give us grace to serve one another in all lowliness, and to enter into the fellowship of his sufferings; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end.
I lift up my eyes to the hills. From whence does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved, he who keeps you will not slumber.
–Psalm 121:1-3
It was also met with anger by the Archbishop of York, who said the decision to remove the word Easter from the egg hunt logo was tantamount to “spitting on the grave” of John Cadbury, the chocolate firm’s original founder.
He told the Daily Telegraph: “The Cadburys were Great Quaker industrialists. If people visited Birmingham today in the Cadbury World they will discover how Cadbury’s Christian faith influenced his industrial output.
“He built houses for all his workers, he built a Church, he made provision for schools. It is obvious that for him Jesus and justice were two sides of the one coin. To drop Easter from Cadbury’s Easter Egg Hunt in my book is tantamount to spitting on the grave of Cadbury.”
Read it all from the Telegraph.
In the years since his departure from St. Andrew’s, Terrell has held a number of leadership positions on local, national and international levels. Terrell was elected as a missionary bishop in 2008 and played a significant role in the development of Anglican Church in North America. In addition to serving as Rector of St. Andrew’s he has also served as Rector of All Saints, Pawleys Island, Planting Pastor/Rector at Church of the Apostles in Raleigh, NC, and Planting Pastor/Rector at Church of the Apostles in Houston, TX, where he currently serves. As bishop Terrell oversaw a mission network of 54 churches and worked to raise up and mentor next generation leadership. Additionally, he continues to exercise leadership in the College of Bishops where he serves as Dean of College Affairs. Teresa has also been a partner in ministry with particular gifts for teaching and mentoring women. This past fall saw the release of Teresa’s new book, Becoming a Peaceful Mom: Through Every Season of Raising Your Child.
Having known Terrell for almost two decades I have seen firsthand the fruit of his life and ministry. I believe that God has gifted Terrell to be a preacher/teacher/shepherd in His Church.
A place of worship for 123 years, the Anglican Church of St. John the Evangelist will close its historic doors at the end of April, another casualty of a dwindling congregation.
The exterior of the unremarkable building, now sandwiched between a transmission repair shop and a busy plaza at 150 Colborne Street West, is often overlooked, said Rev. Douglas Pizzey, who has headed the church for more than two years.
But the glorious nave and sanctuary with its memorial stained glass windows, oak pews and extensive woodwork, often take visitors aback.