The emerging church movement includes a number of alternatives to traditional church. The Rt. Rev. Michael Perham, Bishop of Gloucester is co-author (with our own Bishop Mary) of The Hospitality of God.
Part 2 of 2. It seems that quite often people use the notion of "normal" to establish a standard for health and well being. That is, people look at typical behavior to develop some metric for evaluating whether their own behavior is at the very least, acceptable and appropriate.
It seems that quite often people use the notion of "normal" to establish a standard for health and well being. That is, people look at typical behavior to develop some metric for evaluating whether their own behavior is at the very least, acceptable and appropriate.
Where are You? Each of us has a Christian duty to plan for the end of our lives. A typical sequence of concerns might be to provide for spouse and children if something should happen to us while we’re young. Later in life, we look to disposing of our property after we’re gone. Finally, most of us will plan for our healthcare in our final years on the earth. Where are you in this sequence of planning? Jim Reyner from the Planned Giving Committee helps you identify where you are and how to take that next step.
This is the final Parish Forum before the Parish Profile Committee sets to work writing our Parish Profile, and will presents results from the St. Jude's Clicks survey. The survey asked about activities and level of involvement at St. Jude's, and gave us all a chance to address desired characteristics of our next rector including focus on ministry and style.
As medical knowledge and technology increase, so do options for healthcare. When decisions arise concerning the treatment of dying patients, these options present complex ethical dilemmas. Many are faced with decisions about the best treatment to ease a patient’s final suffering. Perhaps a decision will need to be made about whether to allow a patient’s life to end by terminating treatment altogether. These decisions—regarding their own care or the care of a dying loved one—confront people from all walks of life.
Matthew tells us that we must be like children to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The award-winning Godly Play program is based upon the recognition that children have an innate sense of the presence of God. All they lack is the appropriate language to help them identify and express it so it can be explored and strengthened. The Godly Play approach teaches classical Christian language in a way that enhances the child’s authentic experience of God so it can contribute to the creative life of the child and the world.
Churches everywhere are scrambling to get linked with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. But are they ready for the Digital Reformation: the dramatic global shift in the nature of faith, social consciousness and relationship that these digital social media have ushered in?
The foundation of a successful call to our next Rector will be the Parish Profile. Profile development is work that will take several months and is too important to the whole search process to be done in a hurry. Parish-wide involvement kicks off with a presentation during the Adult Forum on June 26.
