Epiphany

Epiphany
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him [...]

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The Nativity of Our Lord

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.
God’s love for His creation could not leave it in corruption. The Holy Trinity works to reconcile [...]

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Advent

A few years ago I wrote a paper on spiritual theology in the form of a commentary on the seasons and days of the liturgical year. I’ll be posting those here over the next several days.
Advent
We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, [...]

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Gospel and Place: the Pastor’s Calling

In a few hours I will be calling the people in this place to come together for the sole purpose of worshipping our Lord.  We will sing and pray to the God who created this beautiful land we have worked and played in all week.  We will listen to the Word of the One who [...]

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Last ‘comprehensible’ taboo

Saw this at the Touchstone blog.
Apparently the Sundance Film Festival has premiered a film about bestiality. A review is here. I noted that the person who wrote the review used the terms ‘elegant’ and ‘beautiful’ to describe this movie on a subject the director describes as “the last taboo, on the boundary [...]

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A Restructuring Idea

The Cumberland Presbyterian Church has a task force to review the structure of our denomination.  I hope they come up with some good ideas, more importantly I hope the denomination will implement any good recommendations rather than file the report away and go on which is apparently what we have done in the past. 
I’ve considered [...]

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Seasons and Rhythm

 
Part of rural life that I truly enjoy is that the rhythm, for me anyway, feels closer to the natural change of seasons.  When most of your surroundings are pavement and buildings each day looks a lot like the other, but if you’re surrounded by grass and trees the view out your window is constantly changing: [...]

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But we wear underpants

I think it’s also an anagram for ‘best in prayer’.

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A vision for the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

I’ve been thinking lately about our denomination.  Much of what I hear from, whether in conversation, overheard comments or articles in the CP magazine, seems to be expressing concern about our direction and vision, purpose and mission, unity and identity.  I’ve thought about these things from my own experiences in the denomination and in light [...]

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Design Worship Service Bulletins Quicker

One of those obvious things to speed up a task that I wish had been more obvious to me years ago:
Since I reuse so many of my liturgical resources (prayer of confessions, confession of faith etc…) I have set up a way to help design our worship bulletins quicker.  I’ve already set up hymns and [...]

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