Friday, November 15, 2024

Friday's Catch: 'Christingle - An Intergenerational Christmas Eve Celebration from the Moravian Tradition' And More

Moravian Christmas Star

Christingle: An Intergenerational Christmas Eve Celebration from the Moravian Tradition 
This Christingle liturgy was developed and used at All Saints Episcopal Church, Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. All Saints is a small church with a congregation drawn from many different social and cultural backgrounds. The liturgy here has been adapted as we have learned by experience what works for us.
Also See: Christingle: The Christmas tradition that only got going in the 1960s and Christingle Craft
Sean Rowe wants to realign the Episcopal Church
The presiding bishop was elected on a mandate to reorganize the denomination’s aging structure and adapt to modern times. It’s something he knows a bit about.

PCUSA cuts 12 national staff, restructures ministries amid membership decline
Presbyterian Church (USA) has cut 12 national staff members as part of an effort to reconfigure offices and ministries due to a consiMany of liberalism’s foundational tenets … were inherited from the nation’s rapidly fading Mainline Protestant denominations.derable decline in membership and donations over the years. Last week, the United States' largest Presbyterian denomination announced that it would restructure and streamline various offices and ministries due to considerable decline, resulting in the elimination of over a dozen positions.

Rising secularism isn’t good for democracy, scholar explains
Many of liberalism’s foundational tenets … were inherited from the nation’s rapidly fading Mainline Protestant denominations.

Common Perils and Common Opportunities
Election Day 2024 has come and gone, the votes are in, and a new president-elect has been determined. No matter how you voted, our country will now face common perils and common opportunities. Your response as a faith-based leader to both the perils and the opportunities will set the stage for how your people respond as well.

5 MORE Worship Challenges We Face All the Time
Last week Paul Detterman provided five prominent worship challenges facing the church. Turns out he had five more — perhaps more important than the previous worship challenges.
Also See: 5 Worship Challenges We Face All the Time
He Is Risen: A Manifesto for Leavened Communion Bread
Eucharistic bread was leavened in both the West and the East for most of the Church’s first millennium. The “wafer” is a development of the High Middle Ages. For most of our Church’s post-Reformation history, Anglicans utilized regular leavened bread and only switched to the Roman wafer around the turn of the last century (1900).
It must be noted that only those churches influenced by the Catholic Revival switched to wafers. Evangelical Anglican churches continued to use ordinary table bread, often precut into cubes.
Don't Shortchange Intercession: Why You Need to Prioritize Corporate Prayer
This article is the third in a series on congregational prayer practices. We hope that these articles inspire congregations to correct this imbalance of liturgical priorities, especially as it regards intercessory prayer.
Even Anglican and Episcopal churches could do a better job of particularizing the Prayers of the People.
How to Unleash Small Group Worship
Although everyone would agree worship is an essential part of our spiritual life, many leaders wrestle with how to incorporate it into their group time without it feeling forced or awkward. One of the ways you can “break the ice” is to help your small group members expand their understanding of what small group worship can look like beyond the church service.

Have Salt in Yourselves
...salt has two uses in the Christian life: 1. To aid the believer in acting as an example to the world. 2. To encourage us to persevere in the faith.

The Spiritual Gift Inventory I Believe In
Where you spot a need, consider meeting it. Where you spot a weakness, consider strengthening it. Where you spot an opportunity, consider taking it.

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