Building on the interest generated by Sullivan s previous art and spirituality title, Windows into the Soul, this book focuses on the journey from darkness to light inherent in Lent. By using an easily accessible liturgical format, the book provides a pathway for those who walk from Ash Wednesday to the empty tomb of Easter. Organized around holy days and Sundays in Lent, chapters begin with a prayer or poetic excerpt, followed by scripture for the day or week. A narrative then expands on the themes introduced by the prayer and scripture. Exercises following the narratives are simple mostly collage exercises using differing techniques and are accessible to a wide audience. Soul Questions, popular with readers, guide the spiritual exercise following the narrative, and Thoughts for the Journey, also popular with Windows readers, complete each chapter with suggestions for further reflection.

Hallelujah! Finally the book you've been waiting for! Sound, Lighting & Video: A Resource for Worship is the only book that tackles the integration and use of light, sound and video for houses or worship. Connect with more people in ways you never thought possible. Written by the managing editor of "Worship Arts & Technology Magazine" you'll learn how to: * Integrate sound, lighting and video together from the ground up for easy application * Connect with more people in ways you've never imagined * Re-examine and re-incorporate your current media systems * Be up and running like the pros with this beginner-friendly guide * Solve your greatest technical problems efficiently, without the information overload * Better communicate your message using media solutions

This is a survey of the development of the Paschal rites and customs of the ancient Church, from apostolic times to the end of the age of persecution, as a background and context for understanding the outline and basic theme of Revelation. Christian interpreters in all ages have sought a clue to the "New Testament Book of Revelation". In this study, Massey H. Shepherd offers a new approach to the basic structure of the Book. He surveys the development of Paschal rites and customs of the ancient Church, from apostolic times to the end of the age of persecution, as a background and context for understanding the outline and basic theme of Revelation. Fresh perspectives are opened to students of New Testament and early Christian literature, the liturgy and piety of the primitive Church, and the origins of the Christian Year.

Pam Rhodes is a passionate advocate for our heritage of splendid hymns. Hymns, she explains, help us respond to God: they are "prayers in our pockets". With her warm personal touch she describes how these hymns came to be written, and considers the perceptions they contain. This book is a treasury of fascinating detail, but it is also a source of devotion: as you consider each hymn and the story behind it you will be drawn into worship. Each reflection concludes with a short prayer.

Reproducible Sheets for Home and School Few Easter activity books focus on more than bunnies and candy. Even fewer focus on the season through a specifically Catholic viewpoint. This imaginative new book takes kids on a journey from Ash Wednesday through Pentecost, engaging them at every point through fun activities while introducing and reinforcing the richness of their heritage. This lively new work- * uses such proven favorites as word finds, word scrambles, dot-to-dot pictures, matching, crosswords, code breakers, and more. * challenges and satisfies kids from second through fifth grade. * includes over two dozen activities plus an answer key. * offers the best-loved prayers and devotions of the season. * provides busy parents, teachers, and home-schoolers with a moment of quiet time while their children are fully involved, learning. * can be reproduced for a variety of home, school, and church uses.

This is a collection of texts on prayer, taken from Greek and Russian sources. The spiritual teaching of the Orthodox Church appears here in its classic and traditional form, but expressed in unusually direct and vivid language. The Art of Prayer is concerned in particular with the most frequently used and best loved of all Orthodox prayers - the Jesus Prayer. It deals also with the general question 'What is Prayer?', with the different degrees of prayer from ordinary oral prayer to unceasing prayer of the heart, with the dangers of illusion and discouragement, and the need for seclusion and inner peace.

A reprint of Evelyn Underhill's timeless study on the the nature and principles of worship and the main forms in which they find expression in Christianity. In the belief that religious experience is the starting point of theological reconstruction, the author analyses here the nature, characteristics and principles of how man relates to God. The way and degree in which ritual, symbol, sacrament and sacrifice become part of worship is also examined and, subsequently, its principles are illustrated, as embodied in the main types of cults.

In popular thought, Christianity is often figured as being opposed to dance. Conventional scholarship traces this controversy back to the Middle Ages. Throughout the medieval era, the Latin Church denounced and prohibited dancing in religious and secular realms, often aligning it with demonic intervention, lust, pride, and sacrilege. Historical sources, however, suggest that medieval dance was a complex and ambivalent phenomenon. During the High and Late Middle Ages, Western theologians, liturgists, and mystics not only tolerated dance; they transformed it into a dynamic component of religious thought and practice. This book investigates how dance became a legitimate form of devotion in Christian culture. Sacred dance functioned to gloss scripture, frame spiritual experience, and imagine the afterlife. Invoking numerous manuscript and visual sources (biblical commentaries, sermons, saints' lives, ecclesiastical statutes, mystical treatises, vernacular literature, and iconography), this book highlights how medieval dance helped shape religious identity and social stratification. Moreover, this book shows the political dimension of dance, which worked in the service of Christendom, conversion, and social cohesion. In Ringleaders of Redemption, Kathryn Dickason reveals a long tradition of sacred dance in Christianity, one that the professionalization and secularization of Renaissance dance obscured, and one that the Reformation silenced and suppressed.

Guidance for Leaders Seeking a Richer Way to Employ Worship Music Worship expert Constance Cherry offers comprehensive guidance to Christian leaders seeking a deeper, richer way to employ worship music in engaging ways for twenty-first-century worshipers. Following Cherry's successful book The Worship Architect, this work helps Christian leaders think theologically and act pastorally about worship music in their churches. It addresses larger issues beyond the surface struggles of musical styles and provides tools to critically evaluate worship songs. The book is applicable to all Christian traditions and worship styles and is well suited to both the classroom and the local church. Each chapter concludes with suggested practical exercises, recommended reading, and basic vocabulary terms.

Prayer That Gets ResultsPrayer is the Christian's lifeline to God, and with it lives are changed for eternity! E. M. Bounds knew the secrets of prayer and that God has established divine principles and promises for our every need. He reveals these principles and illustrates how God has answered the prayers of men and women since the beginning of Bible times. He also uncovers how you can...* Have direct communication with God* Maintain a prayer life that produces results* Overcome Satan and his hold on prayer* Obtain all that God has for you* Discover all the possibilities of prayerSince the time of the apostles, no man besides E. M. Bounds has left such a rich inheritance of biblical research into the life of prayer. Here are teachings that form the only effective barrier against the powers of evil that prevail throughout the present world. Through his writings, you will discover how you can have a totally effective prayer life and how you can know the fullness of divine power."Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full."--John 16:24

This thought-provoking book explores medieval perceptions of pilgrimage, gender and space. It examines real life evidence for the widespread presence of women pilgrims, as well as secular and literary texts concerning pilgrimage and women pilgrims represented in the visual arts. Women pilgrims were inextricably linked with sexuality and their presence on the pilgrimage trails was viewed as tainting sacred space.

Written as the First World War was finally drawing to a close, A. Clutton-Brock's reflections on the Kingdom of Heaven examine this challenging theological concept in light of the great religious, political and moral uncertainties thrown up by the conflict. In particular, Clutton-Brock contends that historically Christian orthodoxy has not sufficiently emphasised the role of the Kingdom in salvation, given its importance in the ministry and teaching of Christ. To preserve a religious vision capable of interacting with the modern, industrial world, Christian orthodoxy must carefully consider the scope and importance of political practice, the role of the individual in the realisation of the Kingdom, and the profound implications of reconciling the facts of the universe with the most sincerely held beliefs.

Peter Kreeft brings his unique insights to this most important area of our spiritual lives. He claims he himself is still a beginner in prayer, and this book is for all those, like him, who feel that they are not good at praying but desire to become much better at it. Thus, Kreeft offers simple, but profound advice and practical steps for developing a prayer life based on the time-tested wisdom of the saints and great spiritual writers, especially the principles found in Brother Lawrence's classic, The Practice of the Presence of God.

In short, straight-forward and unsentimental chapters, Kreeft covers all the key areas for understanding and developing that intimate form of communication with our Creator that we call prayer. He covers such areas as the necessity of prayer, various motives and methods, steps, patience, suffering, sin, faith, and grace.

Reflections, meditations, prayers and liturgies for Holy Week following the journey of Jesus from Palm Sunday to Easter Day. A book which affirms that, even in the darkness of betrayal and denial and death, we can rise up and live different lives: where the justice, peace and love poured out in Christ's life can be resurrected in our own. You stepped gently on the earth, O Christ of all; and you treat gently all those who come your way - Call us down into the world you love and put us to work. Call us down into the streets you walk and have our footsteps keep to yours. Call us down into the places where you are needed and make us your body.

The message of the kingdom of God: an ecology of equality and peace, and an economy of justice. Hope from beyond, sent to the present, is what Advent asks us to reckon with. Hope consists of God’s jump leads sent from the future through time and space, wired right into our present pains, panics, and predicaments. How can the light of Christ illuminate this present darkness? This book engages with two great Christmas hymns: the Magnificat and Benedictus. It is also rooted in poets, prophets and the theology and devotional writing of the black theologian and mentor to Martin Luther King Jr., Howard Thurman. Using the lectio divina approach to passages drawn from Isaiah and Luke, An Advent Manifesto is an invitation to pray and practise that most ancient Advent prayer, ‘Come, Lord Jesus, come.’

This book explores the way in which liturgy can be used effectively in all-age communication. It is also a comprehensive practical resource - containing 12 complete all-age worship outlines for use throughout the year.

Paul Bradshaw, one of the world's foremost scholars on the history of Christian liturgy, has shared this expertise in several works that have become standard texts for students of liturgy. In Rites of Ordination, Bradshaw turns his attention to the ways that Christians through the ages have understood what it means to ordain someone as a minister and how that has been expressed in liturgical practice. Bradshaw considers the typological background to ordained ministry some have drawn from the Old Testament and what ministry meant to the earliest Christian communities. He explores the ordination rites and theology of the early church, the Christian East, the medieval West, the churches of the Reformation, and the post-Tridentine Roman Catholic Church.

A desire and demand to know more about the Jewish legacy of Christian identity is growing among laity. A similar desire to foster interfaith understanding and dialogue is growing among leaders of local churches. Why Is There a Menorah on the Altar? seeks to meet these demands by providing information and insight about Judaism s legacy as it is revealed in Christian rites, rituals, and traditions. Drawing upon scripture and historical sources, this book explains how Judaism has influenced the structure of liturgical worship; the design and decor of church sanctuaries; and how Baptism, Eucharist, and Confirmation find their roots in Judaism. This book invites readers to develop a deeper understanding of Judaism, one that will enrich their Christianity and appreciation for their enduring Jewish heritage. Includes: questions for reflection; activities for individuals or groups; and easy-to-follow timelines."

The Anastenaria are Orthodox Christians in Northern Greece who observe a unique annual ritual cycle focused on two festivals, dedicated to Saint Constantine and Saint Helen. The festivals involve processions, music, dancing, animal sacrifices, and culminate in an electrifying fire-walking ritual. Carrying the sacred icons of the saints, participants dance over hot coals as the saint moves them. 'The Burning Saints' presents an analysis of these rituals and the psychology behind them. Based on long-term fieldwork, 'The Burning Saints' traces the historical development and sociocultural context of the Greek fire-walking rituals. As a cognitive ethnography, the book aims to identify the social, psychological and neurobiological factors which may be involved and to explore the role of emotional and physiological arousal in the performance of such ritual. A study of participation, experience and meaning, 'The Burning Saints' presents a highly original analysis of how mental processes can shape social and religious behaviour.

Advent is a time of preparation, of patience, of remembering what grounds and sustains us. Advent reminds us who God is and who we are meant to be. This book offers a new look at Advent by seeing the four weeks through the lens of morning, mid-day, late afternoon and evening, and night. Photographs, stories, and perspectives enrich our travel and invite us to other dimensions of experiencing Advent, as a season and as a resource in our daily living. The book can serve as a devotional for individuals and small-group study for the Advent season, with a particular focus on the Year C Gospel readings from Luke. * Advent devotion for individuals or small groups, with an Advent poster-calendar sold separately * Photographs and stories from daily life, for daily Christian living * Study guide included

In Exclusion and Judgment in Fellowship Meals, Lanuwabang Jamir seeks to demonstrate that the tradition of fellowship meals in the ancient world form the background against which the Lord's Supper must be understood. Similarly, the basis of Paul's response to the situation in Corinth and his theology of the Lord's Supper is to be found in these traditions. The role of the fellowship meal in Greco-Roman and Jewish culture indicate that it was an important institution that played a pivotal role in the functioning of society. Judgment was an integral part of the fellowship meal traditions and it made such meal practices all the more significant in ancient cultures. For example, Jamir reveals that social-economic factors were only part of the problem in Corinth, where differences in ideology were the underlying cause of divisions in the church. Paul's response to the problem shows that he upheld the fellowship meal traditions, linking sickness and death with the abuse of the Lord's Supper. The concept of judgment in the Lord's Supper, while based on the fellowship meal traditions, has been redefined in the light of the Gospel tradition.

The philosophical and theological study of aesthetics has a long and rich history, stretching back to Platos identification of ultimate goodness and beauty, together representing the eternal form. Recent trends in aesthetic theory, however, characterised by a focus on the beautiful at the expense of the good, have made it an object of suspicion in the Orthodox Church. In its place, Greek theologians have sought to emphasise philokalia as a truer theological discipline. Seeking to reverse this trend, Chrysostomos Stamoulis brings into conversation a plethora of voices, from Church fathers to contemporary poets, and from a Marxist political theorist to a literary critic. Out of this dialogue, Stamoulis builds a model for the re-appropriation of Orthodoxys patristic and Byzantine past that is no longer defined in antithesis to the Western present. The openness he proposes allows us to perceive afresh the world shot through with divinity, if only we can lift our gaze to see it. Dismantling the false dichotomy, philokalia or aesthetics, is the first step.

In this delightful sleigh ride through Christmas history, Paul Kerensa answers the festive questions you never thought to ask... Did Cromwell help shape the mince pie? Was St Nicholas the first to use an automatic door? Which classic Christmas crooners were inspired by a Hollywood heatwave? And did King Herod really have a wife called Doris? Whether you mull on wine or enjoy the biggest turkey, the biggest tree or the biggest credit card bill, unwrap your story through our twelve dates of Christmas past. From Roman revelry to singing Bing, via Santa, Scrooge and a snoozing saviour, this timeless tale is perfect trivia fodder for the Christmas dinner table.