A study of liturgy in Byzantium, Armenia, Syria and Palestine. The author shows how the central Christian liturgy, the Eucharist, poses all-too human problems of structure, text, history, context and meaning. For humankind's unfailing, incessant ritual repetition of the Lord's Supper down through the ages and across multiple Christian cultures in the liturgies of east and west, in obedience to Jesus' Last Supper mandate, Do this in remembrance of me, has, inevitably, given rise within the same recognizably common framework to innumerable diversities of shape, text, cultural context and theological interpretation. It has also given rise to debates, sometimes heated, among modern experts about the most suitable methods for resolving the problems arising from these differences. The work explores the theories of Anton Baumstark, Dom Gregory Dix and Josef Andreas Jungmann, and what we can derive from their insights. Their way of working, applied to the problems of cultural history, structural, historical and textual reconstruction, theological interpretation, and method involved in the modern scholarly debate on these issues, are the object of the author's studies in this volume.

The damage done by hatred and prejudice -- based on race, sexual orientation, religion, or gender -- runs very deep. The damage is often invisible, but it simmers beneath the surface anyway. In Race and Prayer, Malcolm Boyd and Chester Talton have collected poems, prayers, and prose that bring the anger and frustration to light, and ultimately, they hope, to a place of reconciliation and healing.

Race and Prayer is divided into five sections: Suffering and Anger; Prejudice and Hatred; Diversity; Reconciliation and Healing; and Growth in Understanding and Sharing. Contributors to this collection range in age from teenagers to the elderly, and include men and women from a wide variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds, all of whom speak honestly of their own experiences, heartbreaks, and hopes. Twelve cartoons from three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Conrad, editorial cartoonist at the Los Angeles Times, add to the power of this collection.

What do you say when you are asked to bless a couple getting engaged, a new car or computer, a pet, or a business meeting, a headstone, school leavers or a prisoner newly arrived in prison? Where do you turn for help when you are asked to pray at the death bed of someone with no religious belief or for someone with a mental illness or for an adopted child? This comprehensive collection offers ready-made short pastoral liturgies for hundreds of occasions, as well as consecrations for items set apart for holy use. It includes blessings for a wide range of personal, family, church and civic occasions; house blessings; blessings of everyday objects and activities, and for occasions throughout the church and the school year. First published in 2004, this enlarged edition includes many additional blessings for occasions suggested by clergy from their own experiences of being asked to offer blessing.

The Christian mystery, celebrated in the Roman Catholic liturgy, is a sensible mystery, and calls out for artistic expression. Living Beauty explores the Christian mystery and points to the need for a liturgical aesthetic as a means to encounter the divine mystery. A liturgical aesthetic gives an account of Christian worship in terms of a new set of categories that includes divine beauty, a theology of sensibility, and the new notion of a unitive revelatory experience. These categories help to reveal the aesthetic dimensions of the Church's watershed document on the liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium. The Church today stands in need of a new conversation on the aesthetic dimension of the liturgy and the role of the arts. Contrary to common opinion, the arts provide more than an environment or mere extrinsic ornamentation for the liturgy; they are intrinsic to the very nature of liturgy. They provide the means of being sanctified in the encounter with divine beauty that is the mystery of Christian worship. Artistic expression enables the worshiping community to receive the divine mystery in beauty.

The "All Night Vigil" held in parish churches on a Saturday evening, is one of the best-known features of the Russian Orthodox Church. This English translation is intended both to help the worshipper to follow the service at the Vigil for Sunday held on Saturday night and to assist the choir in chanting the service. It contains the unvarying texts and rubrics regarding the insertion of the variable parts. The parts of the priest, deacon, reader and choir are clearly indicated.

Encouragement and inspiration to TRANSFORM YOUR HEALTH FOR GOOD! If you're looking for the right combination of inspiration and encouragement to achieve the healthy lifestyle you've longed for-you found it. A companion to the #1 New York Times bestseller, The Daniel Plan, this 365-day devotional provides the heartfelt insight you need to take your health to the next level. Feast on something bigger than a fad. Motivational tips, Scripture passages, Food for Thought, and a special note from Rick Warren lead the way to transformation for the long haul. The Daniel Plan Daily Devotional builds on the top essential-Faith-that has made The Daniel Plan doable and successful for thousands of people worldwide. A dream team of spiritual, fitness, and health professionals, including Rick Warren, Dr. Daniel Amen, Dr. Mark Hyman, and the Daniel Plan Wellness Faculty will help you continue your journey toward whole health and wellness. Ultimately, The Daniel Plan Daily Devotional will change your life in the areas of faith, food, fitness, focus, and friends-the five essentials to transform your body, mind, and spirit from the inside out!

The history of the Eastern liturgical rituals reveals the variety and splendour of the world of the Christian Orient, and the profundity of its theological thought. The ritual bears witness to the deep impact these liturgies made on the Mediterranean cultures and societies of Late Antiquity. Gabriele Winkler, a specialist in Oriental liturgies and Armenian studies, here explores the beginnings and early development of these rituals in their historical, philological, and doctrinal context. Her work elucidates the interdependence of the Syriac, Greek, and Armenian cultures; it also demonstrates the interest of this material for the religious and political history of the era.

A rich collection of prayers for corporate worship and personal devotion including blessings, thanksgivings, intercessions, litanies, and various occasions appropriate for all Christian denominations. (310 pp)

The book should be seen in the context of Paul Bradshaw's earlier works: The Search for the Origins of Christian Worship and Eucharistic Origins. In this book he updates his thinking in this area.

Liturgical ritual was a major element of the Christian cultures of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. This was especially true of Byzantium, where court and church ritual, often intertwined, achieved a splendour unparalleled by any other aspect of civic or religious life. In this volume Robert Taft has brought together a series of studies on the formation and development of these rites and on the meaning they had for contemporaries. Particular articles look at the role of Jerusalem, Constantinople, then Mt Athos, in this process, and at the liturgy of St John Chrysostom. Also included are two important studies focusing on the role of the bema in the Syriac Church.

This is a handbook to the Eucharist looking in detail at the principles of liturgical celebration as well as ritual instructions. This approach to the rite will show ministers how to enable the community to gather, encounter Christ in word and sacrament and be sent out in response to that encounter. This will help ministers to hold the liturgy together, with a sense of momentum which moves the community from the gathering to the dismissal, and which allows various members of the community to exercise individual ministries within the gathered setting.

Inclusive language is a concern that resonates deeply with the sense of conversion and welcome to a community that is inclusive. This treatment is sensitive, respectful and is sure to raise consciousness.

The two themes brought together in this volume - the canon law and the liturgy of the early medieval Latin Church - have close links, as these articles reveal. At the basis of this lies that fact that the collections and manuscripts with which Professor Reynolds is concerned provide the source material for both fields of study. In the book particular emphasis is given to the Irish Collection canonum hibernensis and its many derivatives, to works from Carolingian Salzburg and eleventh-century Southern Italy, and to liturgical collections. The whole illustrates the need for liturgiologists to be aware of the riches in medieval legal sources, and for legal historians to take account of the wealth of liturgical material that is a principal ingredient of the law of the Church; and demonstrates how much one field can contribute to understanding the development and to the dating of the other. Les deux themes reunis dans ce volume - le droit canon et la liturgie de l'Eglise Latine du haut moyan-Acge - ont, comme le revele ce groupe d'articles, des liens tres etroits. Ceci reposant sur le fait que les collections et manuscrits, auxquels le professeur Reynolds s'interesse, apportent la substance se trouvant A la source de ces deux terrains d'etudes. Dans le livre, une importance particuliere est donnee au Collectio canonum hibernensis irlandais et A ses multiples derivations, ainsi qu'aux travaux issus de Salzburg A l'epoque carolingienne A ceux provenant d'Italie meridionale au 11e s. et aux collections liturgiques. L'ensemble illustre la nesessite pour les specialistes en liturgie d'Atre conscients de l'abondance de sources legales medievales et pour les historiens du droit de tenir compte de la richesse en matiere liturgique et que forme l'un des ingredients principaux du droit de l'Eglise; il demontre aussi combien un domaine peut contribuer e la comprehension du developpement et A l'assignation de date

This book, rather ironically, uses the written word to draw together threads from science, psychotherapy, scripture, and homiletics that can help us recognize and reclaim the power of oral-aural storying as a way of knowing. Story as a Way of Knowing will open your mind and imagination to new ways of thinking and knowing about yourself, others, your world, and your God.

Imaginative and passionate, these prayers bring the full range of women's experiences before God. Blessings, laments, celebrations, and creeds, they use a variety of forms and can be used by individuals and/or in a liturgical setting.

Pope Benedict XVI memorably remarked that the Christian faith is a lot like a Gothic cathedral with its stained-glass windows. From the outside, the Church can appear dark, dreary, and worn with age-the crumbling relic of an institution that no longer speaks to men and women living in our modern world. Indeed, for many people today, Christian morality with all of its commandments appears to be a source not of life and joy but instead of suffering and oppression. Even within the Church, many wonder: why should I submit to ancient doctrines and outdated practices that restrict my freedom and impede my happiness? In this timely and original book, his third exploring the riches of Benedict XVI's vast corpus, theologian Matthew Ramage sets out to meet this challenge with an in-depth study of the emeritus pontiff's wisdom on how to live Christian discipleship in today's increasingly secularized world. Taking as his starting point Benedict's conviction that the truth of Christianity-like the beauty of a cathedral's glorious windows-can be grasped only from the inside, Ramage draws on Benedict's insights to show how all Christians can make the "experiment of faith" by living the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity in daily life. Along the way, he shares his personal reflections on how Benedict's wisdom has helped him to navigate difficulties in embracing the faith and provides a way forward to those struggling to live as disciples in a way that is intellectually serious without remaining merely intellectual. In so doing, he also presents a highly nuanced yet accessible approach to defending the truth of the gospel in a world where life in Jesus Christ tends to be seen as unfulfilling, irrelevant, or just one lifestyle choice among others.

Rev. James A. Solomon is the President of Jesus People's Revival Ministries Inc., as well as the General Overseer and Senior Pastor of Jesus Family Chapel, with 28 branches in Nigeria, the United Kingdom and several other countries. The international headquarters for both ministries is based in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States of America. Rev. Solomon is a man who is truly gifted with an extraordinary anointing on the subject of Spiritual Warfare, Healing and Deliverance. In his efforts to serve the body of Christ beyond his own ministries, he also serves as director for the West African Regional Directorate of the International Accelerated Missions (I.A.M.), a network of missionary churches based in New York. Rev. Solomon started from very humble beginnings in his native country of Nigeria, West Africa, way back in the 1980s. With his team of ministers and due to popular demand, he has taken the revelation of Spiritual Warfare and Deliverance to massive venues such as the stadium domes in the major cities of Nigeria. He has also conducted a series of conferences, and organizes quarterly Deliverance Night Services in the United Kingdom, Europe, Canada, Japan and all over the United States. Many have received freedom from satanic bondage and oppression at these quarterly deliverance services. He is in high demand as a guest minister in many crusades and conferences. He currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia with his family. He is married to Rev. Mrs. Florence A. James and they are blessed with 4 children

"Praise and Worship with Flags" uncovers the significance of worship flags under the power of the Holy Spirit. The book points the reader to the flags' biblical truths, which have been understated, and takes the reader on a journey to discover these truths with Scripture, knowledge, and testimonies of healing and victory.

"Praise and Worship with Flags" teaches the reader why and how to use the flags with power. It promotes the use of and encourages the reader to use worship flags in his or her home. It shows how the Holy Spirit, color, prayer, and love work together in worship and gives a practical exercise for the beginner to follow. By using the teaching in this book, the reader may experience great, sweet peace and intimacy with God in worship through the Holy Spirit.

The book gives biblically sound reasons why church leaders may want to include worship flags in church services. It encourages church leaders to support the place and role that flags have in the church. It brings a message to veteran flag-bearers, which may give added understanding to their ministries. It teaches the reader how to handle the flags as tools that may be used by the Holy Spirit to bring people healing or victory.

"Praise and Worship with Flags" tells the curious and intellectual mind the purpose, meaning, significance, and result of using worship flags.

The use of flags is God's will.

"We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners: the Lord fulfill all thy petitions."
(Psalm 20:5 KJV, Holy Bible)

Christianity Today's Book of the Year Award of Merit What happens when a diverse church glorifies the global God? We live in a time of unprecedented intercultural exchange, where our communities welcome people from around the world. Music and media from every culture are easily accessible, and our worship is infused with a rich variety of musical and liturgical influences. But leading worship in multicultural contexts can be a crosscultural experience for everybody. How do we help our congregations navigate the journey? Innovative worship leader Sandra Maria Van Opstal is known for crafting worship that embodies the global, multiethnic body of Christ. Likening diverse worship to a sumptuous banquet, she shows how worship leaders can set the table and welcome worshipers from every tribe and tongue. Van Opstal provides biblical foundations for multiethnic worship, with practical tools and resources for planning services that reflect God's invitation for all peoples to praise him. When multiethnic worship is done well, the church models reconciliation and prophetic justice, heralding God's good news for the world. Enter into the praise of our king, and let the nations rejoice!

What is the right way to worship? Right worship does not require a return to the identical forms found in the early church or later in Rome or after that in Westminster. What it calls for is a faithful response today to the God of our salvation in light of those biblically ordered and historically informed patterns. In this study Robbie Castleman uncovers the fundamental shape of worship. What she finds--outlined in Scripture, enacted in Israel, refocused in the New Testament community, guarded by the apostolic fathers, and recovered in the Reformation--is a grand narrative of redemption offering order and meaning to all worshiping communities down to the present day.