Thomas of Edessa flourished as a teacher at the School of Nisibis, an important Christian intellectual centre in sixth-century Persia. He accompanied the later patriarch Mar Aba on his travels around the Mediterranean and followed him to Nisibis. Thomas's only surviving writings are two lectures in Syriac ('Explanations') on the feasts of the Nativity and Epiphany. These discourses were later incorporated into a collection of Explanations of the Feasts covering the whole ecclesiastical year. This volume presents an edition of Thomas of Edessa's Syriac text of Nativity and Epiphany, accompanied by a facing-page English translation. These discourses, with the editors' introduction and notes, elucidate Thomas's place in the theological development of the Church of the East. He is the earliest author after Narsai to draw extensively upon the theology of Theodore of Mopsuestia, but earlier Syriac traditions are also reflected in his work, and his Christology is not yet the doctrine characteristic of Babai and later East Syriac authors.

The SCM Studyguide: Liturgy, 2nd Edition is an introduction to liturgy that considers the basic 'buliding blocks' needed to grasp the subject area. It outlines the essential shape and content of Christian worship and explores a range of liturgical dynamics of which both students of liturgy and leaders of liturgy need to be aware. This 2nd edition of the popular Studyguide is fully revised, updated and expanded. The book takes account of new developments in scholarship, engages with new contexts for liturgical celebration (notably, fresh expressions as part of a mixed economy of church), encompasses recent revisions in liturgy and seeks to broaden the engagement beyond the British context to consider the wider global context.

Many people experience feelings of depression or anxiety at different times in life. For some, daily occurrences cause difficulties in carrying out what could be considered normal activities. You are not alone. When grief, loss, pain, worry, or frustration lead to discouragement a feeling of hopelessness, pick up this book. Prayers & Promises for Depression and Anxiety incorporates more than 70 themes to help you receive the assurance, joy, peace, and comfort found in the promises of God's Word. Uplifting prayers and journaling space offer the opportunity for deeper reflection. By staying connected to God, and believing the promises of his Word, you can live a fulfilling, blessed life in close relationship with your heavenly Father.

Based on the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, this second in a series of three volumes provides resources for an entire year of sermons and offers practical help for preachers and others who use the Revised Common Lectionary. Beginning with Advent, this unique and comprehensive resource deals with lectionary texts for Year C. Each of the four texts--the Old Testament, Psalter, Gospel, and Epistle--for each Sunday and important festival day, including Christmas, Ash Wednesday, and Good Friday, is treated. A brief introduction for the day indicates the general thrust of the texts and the relationships among them, emphasizing in interpretation of the texts themselves. Also included are suggestions concerning the implications of the texts for life today.

"The soul of a child is the loveliest flower that grows in the garden of God." A rare and beautiful gift book for parents/guardians of new born children. Fresh and beautiful full color illustrations by Kathy Fincher enhance this must have gift book.

This collection is an inexpensive, words-only edition of favorite hymns and songs from "El Himnario, " together with translations of other hymns that are familiar to Hispanic congregations.

The full-music edition of "El Himnario" was an ecumenical project sponsored by the Episcopal Church and several other mainline denominations. It is available for use by musicians who accompany worship.

Edited by Ligon Duncan. True prayer comes from the heart, so why do we need a method? The great devotional commentator and pastor shows here that Christians benefit from discipline just as much as talking freely with God. You will discover the methods Jesus taught, look at styles of prayer and see helpful examples. Duncan has incorporated some of Henry's other work on prayer.

In recent times discoveries of previously unknown medieval manuscripts of great beauty or historic importance have become rare events, which appear all the more remarkable if the discovery is made in a totally unexpected place. Felix Heinzer's identification of a psalter of the Bohun family in the archives of the active Cistercian convent of Lichtenthal in the German state of Baden is one such find. The Bohun family rose to prominence in England in the course of the thirteenth century. Hereditary Constables of England, by 1361 the Bohuns, as earls of Hereford, Essex and Northampton, were holders of vast estates across the breadth of the land. They became one of the most important patrons of 14th-century manuscript production in England. The present study of this fully-illustrated psalter reproduces every illumination in full-color and original size, with many black and white details and comparative illustrations. A detailed description of each illuminated folio is included. The author also provides a complete historical background of the Bohun family.

The world clamors for efficiency and productivity. But the life of prayer is neither efficient nor productive. Instead, as we learn in the psalms, prayer calls us to wait, to watch, to listen, to taste, and to see. These things are not productive by any modern measure-but they are transformative. As a pastor in Manhattan, John Starke knows the bustle and busyness of our society. But he also knows that prayer is not just for spiritual giants. Prayer, he writes, is for each of us-not because we are full of spiritual wisdom and maturity, but because we are empty. Here is an invitation to discover, via the church's ancient rhythms and with Starke's clear, practical guidance, the possibility of prayer. Here is a book about prayer that is really a book about the whole Christian life.

God calls humans to be creative. The human drive to represent transcendent truths witnesses to the fact that we are destined to be transfigured and to transfigure the world. It is worth asking, then, what truthful representations, whether in art, spirituality, or theology, teach us about the one who is our truth, the one who made us and the one in whose image we are made. All Things Beautiful: An Aesthetic Christology is an experimental and constructive aesthetic Christology sourced by close readings of a wide array of artistic works, canonical and popular-including poems, films, essays, novels, plays, short stories, sculptures, icons, and paintings-as well as art criticism and passages from the Christian Scriptures. From first to last, these readings engage in conversation with the deep, broad wisdom of the Christian theological tradition. The liturgical calendar guides the themes of the book, beginning with Advent and Christmas; carrying through Epiphany, Ash Wednesday, Lent, Good Friday, Easter, and Ascension; and ending with Pentecost and Ordinary Time. Chris Green brings together these readings to create a mosaic-like impression of Jesus as the one through whom God graces and gives nature to all things, his life and death redeeming the whole creation, including human creativity and artistic endeavor, and transfiguring it into the full, free flourishing that God has purposed. This vision of Christ holds promise for artists and theologians, as well as preachers and teachers, revealing how our compulsions to create-and the meanings with which we endow our creations-become a site of the Spirit's presence, opening us to the goodness and wildness of God.

The traditional edition of the English Hymnal, this volume includes the very best hymnody from medieval plain chant to the early twentieth-century classics. The hymns are grouped according to theme and contain material suitable for any festival or occasion in the life of a church.

This interdisciplinary study investigates the divine personas in the so-called magical hymns of the Greek magical papyri which, in a corpus usually seen as a significant expression of religious syncretism with strong Egyptian influence, were long considered to be the 'most authentically Greek' contribution. Fifteen hymns receive a line-by-line commentary focusing on religious concepts, ritual practice, language and style. The overarching aim is to categorise the nature of divinity according to its Greek or Egyptian elements, examining earlier Greek and Egyptian sources and religious-magical traditions in order to find textual or conceptual parallels. Are the gods of the magical hymns Greek or Egyptian in nature? Did the magical hymns originate in a Greek or Egyptian cultural background? The book tries to answer these questions and to shed light on the religious plurality and/or fusion of the two cultures in the treatment of divinity in the Greek magical papyri.

Common Praise is the first major revision of Hymns Ancient and Modern for almost fifty years. With 630 items, this comprehensive collection includes some of the very best of the church's music, from earliest sources to the present day. Where appropriate, inclusive language has been introduced.

The Church of Jerusalem, the 'mother of the churches of God', influenced all of Christendom before it underwent multiple captivities between the eighth and thirteenth centuries: first, political subjugation to Arab Islamic forces, then displacement of Greek-praying Christians by Crusaders, and finally ritual assimilation to fellow Orthodox Byzantines in Constantinople. All three contributed to the phenomenon of the Byzantinization of Jerusalem's liturgy, but only the last explains how it was completely lost and replaced by the liturgy of the imperial capital, Constantinople. The sources for this study are rediscovered manuscripts of Jerusalem's liturgical calendar and lectionary. When examined in context, they reveal that the devastating events of the Arab conquest in 638 and the destruction of the Holy Sepulchre in 1009 did not have as detrimental an effect on liturgy as previously held. Instead, they confirm that the process of Byzantinization was gradual and locally-effected, rather than an imposed element of Byzantine imperial policy or ideology of the Church of Constantinople. Originally, the city's worship consisted of reading scripture and singing hymns at places connected with the life of Christ, so that the link between holy sites and liturgy became a hallmark of Jerusalem's worship, but the changing sacred topography led to changes in the local liturgical tradition. Liturgy and Byzantinization in Jerusalem is the first study dedicated to the question of the Byzantinization of Jerusalem's liturgy, providing English translations of many liturgical texts and hymns here for the first time and offering a glimpse of Jerusalem's lost liturgical and theological tradition.

'In the midst of life we are in death.' The words of the Book of Common Prayer have permeated deep into the English language all over the world. For nearly 500 years, and for countless people, it has provided a background fanfare for a marriage or a funeral march at a burial. Yet this familiarity also hides a violent and controversial history. When it was first produced the Book of Common Prayer provoked riots and rebellion, and it was banned before being translated into a host of global languages and adopted as the basis for worship in the USA and elsewhere to the present day. This edition presents the work in three different states: the first edition of 1549, which brought the Reformation into people's homes; the Elizabethan prayer book of 1559, familiar to Shakespeare and Milton; and the edition of 1662, which embodies the religious temper of the nation down to modern times. 'magnificent edition' Diarmaid MacCulloch,London Review of Books 'superb edition...excellent notes and introduction' Rowan Williams, Times Literary Supplement ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Following the success of Hymn Miniatures 1, Rebecca Groom te Velde presents a second collection of twenty-eight practical arrangements for organ. These short pieces, each based on a well-known hymn tune, are ideal for use as service interludes, hymn introductions, communion meditations, and short preludes, offertories, and postludes. Suitable for use throughout the year, te Velde's accessible arrangements will prove invaluable to the church musician looking for fresh repertoire to enhance services.

The Armenian Church Synaxarion is a collection of saints' lives according to the day of the year on which each saint is celebrated. Part of the great and varied Armenian liturgical tradition from the turn of the first millennium, the first Armenian Church Synaxarion represented the logical culmination of a long and steady development of what is today called the cult of the saints. This book is the second in a twelve-volume series-one for each month of the year-and is ideal for personal devotional use or as a valuable resource for anyone interested in saints.

This concise, easy-to-use resource from a team of fresh new voices provides spiritual nourishment and encouragement to help extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion prepare for their role during liturgy or visits to the sick and homebound. By focusing on the Sunday gospels and the Communion minister's own personal reflection, this indispensable aid helps those involved to reverently and prayerfully prepare and carry out their ministry. Living Liturgy (TM) for Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion begins with the First Sunday of Advent 2019 and includes the following: Sunday-by-Sunday gospels Personal reflections for Communion ministers A brief theology of the ministry A separate insert card with the rite for Administration of Communion to the Sick by an Extraordinary Minister A page for inscription of the minister's name and church

Combines the three bestselling volumes from the time-honored Prayers That Avail Much series.

• Contains powerful prayers from the Word of God that makes it easy to face any situation!
• Is an exquisite gift of classic tradition that is sure to enrich every home

The Word of God is the most valuable gift one can give. Now the amazing three-book treasury of Prayers that Avail Much, Volumes 1, 2, and 3, are available in one book in the classic richness of genuine leather.

Share the power of praying Scriptures with those who are closest to you. Learn how to pray in even the most difficult circumstances and see God do extraordinary things through the promises in His Word! This invaluable resource is a legacy to cherish for years to come and a necessity for every family library. Readers and their loved ones will never be without the power of biblical prayer as they add this elegant keepsake to their family heritage.

This book is in commemoration of my father who died in February this year. It is a hymn-book and I have entitled it Arthurs Favourite Hymns. Easy to play versions of favourite hymns including spirituals, carols, sacred songs and well-known hymns. Arranged for piano and guitar with full words and Thoughts for the Day by Arthur Goddard, edited and arranged by Paul R Goddard with a foreword by Revd Rod Symmons, vicar of Redland Parish Church. 35 hymns and sacred songs