This booklet discusses the communal aspects of liturgy, the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the idea of Eucharist as sacrifice, and the role of the Eucharistic minister. These inspirational thoughts and reflections will be a help to Eucharistic ministers and all believers as they come to a fuller understanding that liturgy is truly the work of the people.

The influence of religion on culture is as strong as ever, but the shape of that influence is unique in today's pluralistic society. In Christianity in the Modern World, Ambrose Mong examines critically themes of religious commitment and tolerance, attitudes towards other religions, and the sociological aspects of religion and inter-religious dialogue. He provides an overview of factors that challenge traditional religion, from the relationship between monotheistic and polytheistic beliefs to the history of tolerance and intolerance in the church and the future of secularism. Following the global ethics formulated by the late Hans Kung, Mong also engages with the dialogue between Jurgen Habermas and Joseph Ratzinger to provide an extensive defence of the importance of inter-religious dialogue, with particular relevance to multiple religious belonging in the Asian context. Scholars of world religions will find Mong's analysis compelling, while students will find his introduction to the historical dialectics underlying many of today's tensions illuminating.

A page of music is included for this hymn praising the saints who have gone before us and those we meet in our daily lives. Also includes brief biographies of six saints.

In his last interview, the late Italian Cardinal and former Archbishop of Milan, Carlo Maria Martini, said the need for deep reform in the Catholic Church was urgent and long overdue because 'the Church is 200 years behind the times'. The reference to 200 years clearly points to the watershed in European life that the French Revolution and the Enlightenment became. Vatican II was one attempt to meet the challenge of relevance to our times. But its best efforts have been on ice since the late 1970s. Now a new opportunity arrives in the pontificate of Jorge Mario Bergoglio. And the movement he has initiated is evangelical in source and comprehensive in reach. But, as many observers have pointed out, it will not be lasting if it does not lead to sustainable structural change-to reform that accompanies renewal. In Tomorrow's Church Today, five highly qualified commentators focus on what lies ahead for the Church to be reformed if it is to meet the challenges of the 21st Century:* A theologian and historian (Massimo Faggioli) who targets how ministry and leadership can be reshaped authentically for our times* A reporter and analyst with 30 years experience of moves and machinations in the Etenrnal City (Robert Mickens)* A bishop with a lifetime of experience of ministering to the divorced and remarried and the benefit of legal and biblical scholarship to support his edited by Michael Kelly SJ approach (Geoffrey Robinson)* A biblical scholar who examines much of what's taken for granted in the governance of the Church and exposes where it is left wanting (Antony Campbell)* and A bishop whose forced 'resignation' exposes the deficiencies of a system of governance devoid of basics-due process and respect for natural rights. But the Catholic Church is not its clerics, scholars and commentators. It is the baptised. Geraldine Doogue is a celebrated Australian broadcaster and commentator whose Introduction speaks for and from the experience of the mass of Catholics.

Why do so many conservative politicians flock to the campuses of Liberty University, Wheaton College, and Bob Jones University? In Fundamentalist U: Keeping the Faith in American Higher Education, Adam Laats shows that these colleges have always been more than just schools; they have been vital intellectual citadels in America's culture wars. They have been unique institutions that have defined what it has meant to be an evangelical and reshaped the landscape of American higher education. In the twentieth century, when higher education sometimes seemed to focus on sports, science, and social excess, conservative evangelical schools offered a compelling alternative. On their campuses, evangelicals debated what it meant to be a creationist, a Christian, a proper American, all within the bounds of Biblical revelation. Instead of encouraging greater personal freedom and deeper pluralist values, conservative evangelical schools have thrived by imposing stricter rules on their students and faculty. If we hope to understand either American higher education or American evangelicalism, we need to understand this influential network of dissenting institutions. Plus, only by making sense of these schools can we make sense of America's continuing culture wars. After all, our culture wars aren't between one group of educated people and another group that has not been educated. Rather, the fight is usually fiercest between two groups that have been educated in very different ways.

According to the Psalms, God is enthroned on the praises of His people--and it is from that throne that He governs the heavens and the earth. If this picture of God's rule, found throughout the Scriptures, is accurate, shouldn't the Body of Christ seek to praise the King of heaven and earth in ways that release His kingdom government into specific circumstances? John A. Dickson and Chuck D. Pierce, coauthors of Worship As It Is in Heaven, offer the church a fresh look at heaven's pattern of worship, instituted in David's tabernacle and renewed through Jesus' apostles in the earliest days of the church. This "apostolic worship" is God's chosen way of establishing His will on earth; through worship, the forces of darkness are pushed back and righteousness prevails. In Worship As It Is in Heaven, readers are invited to enter in to a fullness of worship that the world has too rarely seen: worship that is the conduit of God's government of peace, justice, and holiness on the earth.

An interfaith guide to planned giving. Planned gifts are typically the largest gifts received by a charity and can transform religious organizations and congregations to become more sustainable, impactful, and vibrant entities for decades to come. Encouraging planned gifts to congregations and religious organizations is essential at this time of tremendous generational wealth transfer; these gifts also provide an opportunity to enhance relationships between supporters and organizations. Many congregations and religious entities fear that they cannot raise these transformational gifts due to a lack of expertise among staff or volunteers, the limited financial resources of their constituents, or the simple discomfort of addressing ultimate issues with donors. Faithful Giving can help change those dynamics. The book is intentionally inclusive of Christian and other faith traditions by offering several case studies from a variety of Christian denominations and other religions, including Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and others.

In this short book, Sam Emadi explains that church organization isn't just transactional; it's meant to be transformative. He describes how churches should reflect biblical authority, particularly members' responsibilities to one another, their elders, and deacons.

Less is more. And more is better. This is the new equation for church development, a new equation with eternal results.Rejecting the "bigger is better" model of the complex, corporate megachurch, church innovator Dave Browning embraced deliberate simplicity. The result was Christ the King Community Church, International (CTK), an expanding multisite community church that Outreach magazine named among America's Fastest Growing Churches and America's Most Innovative Churches. Members of the CTK network in a number of cities, countries, and continents are empowered for maximum impact by Browning's "less is more" approach. In Deliberate Simplicity, Browning discusses the six elements of this streamlined model:* Minimality: Keep it simple* Intentionality: Keep it missional* Reality: Keep it real* Multility: Keep it cellular* Velocity: Keep it moving* Scalability: Keep it expandingAs part of the Leadership Network Innovation Series, Deliberate Simplicity is a guide for church leaders seeking new strategies for more effective ministry.

How are cathedrals and churches understood? Are they shop windows, through which to gaze at the riches on offer within the Christian life? Are they flagships of the Spirit? Are they both sacred spaces and community utilities? 'Shop-window, flagship, common ground' views the rich ministry and innovative mission of cathedrals through the novel lens of metaphor; and it offers comparative insights on cathedrals and cathedral-like churches. Located in the emerging international field of cathedral studies, the book explores the usage and inferences of a range of metaphors, including 'shop-windows of the Church of England', 'flagships of the Spirit', 'beacons of the Christian faith', 'magnets', and 'sacred space, common ground'. This volume also shows how such metaphors can stimulate different types of research about the function of cathedral and church buildings. With a Foreword by Professor Grace Davie, the book suggests that cathedrals and cathedral-like churches may play a role within 'vicarious religion' theory. It will provide a thought-provoking critique for practitioners and a valuable contribution for scholars of cathedral studies, congregational studies and ecclesiology.

"I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me." These words, written by the apostle Paul to a first-century Christian named Philemon, are tantalizingly brief. Indeed, Paul's epistle to Philemon is one of the shortest books in the entire Bible. While it's direct enough in its way, it certainly leaves plenty to the imagination. A Week in the Life of a Slave is a vivid imagining of that story. From the pen of an accomplished New Testament scholar, the narrative follows the slave Onesimus from his arrival in Ephesus, where the apostle Paul is imprisoned, and fleshes out the lived context of that time and place, supplemented by numerous sidebars and historical images. John Byron's historical fiction is at once a social and theological critique of slavery in the Roman Empire and a gripping adventure story, set against the exotic backdrop of first-century Ephesus.

Now a major motion picture *** The Jesus Movement transformed the church--and it can transform you God has always been passionate about turning unlikely people into His most fervent followers. Prostitutes and pagans, tax collectors and tricksters, the pompous and the pious--the more unlikely, the more it seemed to please God to demonstrate His power, might, and mercy through them. America in the 1960s and 1970s was full of many such characters--young men and women who had rejected the conformist religion of their parents' generation, didn't follow conventional rules, and didn't fit in. Their longing for something more set the stage for the greatest spiritual awakening of the twentieth century. Discover the remarkable true story of the Jesus Movement, an extraordinary time of mass revival, renewal, and reconciliation. Setting intriguing personal stories within the context of one of the most tumultuous times in modern history, Greg Laurie and Ellen Vaughn draw important parallels with our own time of spiritual apathy and overt hostility, offering a new vision for the next generation of unlikely believers--and hope for the next great American revival. Because God can always bring a new Jesus Revolution.

Unity is the categorical imperative of the Church. It is not just the Church's bene esse, but its esse. In addition to being a theological concept, unity has become a raison d'etre of various structures that the Church has established and developed. All of these structures are supposed to serve the end of unity. However, from time to time some of them deviate from their initial purpose and contribute to disunity. This happens because the structures of the Church are not a part of its nature and can therefore turn against it. They are like scaffolding, which facilitates the construction and maintenance of a building without actually being part of it. Likewise, ecclesial structures help the Church function in accordance with its nature but should not be identified with the Church proper. Scaffolds of the Church considers the evolution of some of these structures and evaluates their correspondence to their initial rationale. It focusses on particular structures that have developed in the eastern part of the Christian oecumene, such as patriarchates, canonical territory, and autocephaly, all of which are explored in the more general frame of hierarchy and primacy. They were selected because they are most neuralgic in the life of the Orthodox Churches today and bear in them the greatest potential to divide.

There are plenty of reasons to criticize, judge, and even walk away from the church. Many of us have been hurt and rejected. We may see church as insular and irrelevant. Despite this, Kevin Makins believes that the church still matters--perhaps more than ever. When Kevin was 23 and didn't know any better, he started a congregation with some friends who were on the edge of faith. Together they hoped to discover if the church was worth fighting for. In this brutally honest account, he shares their story of becoming a community of misfits, outcasts, and oddballs who would learn that, even with all its faults, the church is worth being a part of . . . and must be reclaimed for good. If you've been burned or burned out by the church, if you've been silenced or misunderstood, if you've left or never even joined in the first place, this candid, hopeful book is your invitation to consider what you miss out on when you give up on church--and what the church misses out on when it gives up on you.

An instant New York Times bestseller, from the author of Crusaders, that finally tells the real story of the Knights Templar-"Seldom does one find serious scholarship so easy to read." (The Times, Book of the Year) A faltering war in the middle east. A band of elite warriors determined to fight to the death to protect Christianity's holiest sites. A global financial network unaccountable to any government. A sinister plot founded on a web of lies... In 1119, a small band of knights seeking a purpose in the violent aftermath of the First Crusade set up a new religious order in Jerusalem, which was now in Christian hands. These were the first Knights Templar, elite warriors who swore vows of poverty and chastity and promised to protect Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. Over the next 200 years, the Templars would become the most powerful network of the medieval world, speerheading the crusades, pionerring new forms of finance and warfare and deciding the fate of kings. Then, on October 13, 1307, hundreds of brothers were arrested, imprisoned and tortured and the order was disbanded among lurid accusations of sexual misconduct and heresy. But were they heretics or victims of a ruthlessly repressive state? Dan Jones goes back to the sources to bring their dramatic tale, so relevant to our own times, to life in a book that is at once authoritative and compulsively readable.

In 1974 nearly 3,000 evangelicals from 150 nations met at the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization. Amidst this cosmopolitan setting -and in front of the most important white evangelical leaders of the United States -members of the Latin American Theological Fraternity spoke out against the American Church. Fiery speeches by Ecuadorian Rene Padilla and Peruvian Samuel Escobar revealed a global weariness with what they described as an American style of coldly efficient mission wedded to a myopic, right-leaning politics. Their bold critiques electrified Christians from around the world. The dramatic growth of Christianity around the world in the last century has shifted the balance of power within the faith away from traditional strongholds in Europe and the United States. To be sure, evangelical populists who voted for Donald Trump have resisted certain global pressures, and Western missionaries have carried Christian Americanism abroad. But the line of influence has also run the other way. David R. Swartz demonstrates that evangelicals in the Global South spoke back to American evangelicals on matters of race, imperialism, theology, sexuality, and social justice. From the left, they pushed for racial egalitarianism, ecumenism, and more substantial development efforts. From the right, they advocated for a conservative sexual ethic grounded in postcolonial logic. As Christian immigration to the United States burgeoned in the wake of the Immigration Act of 1965, global evangelicals forced many American Christians to think more critically about their own assumptions. The United States is just one node of a sprawling global network that includes Korea, India, Switzerland, the Philippines, Guatemala, Uganda, and Thailand. Telling stories of resistance, accommodation, and cooperation, Swartz shows that evangelical networks not only go out to, but also come from, the ends of the earth.

This workbook is designed to accompany the fifth edition of Bruce Shelley's Church History in Plain Language. Following the textbook's structure, this workbook offers discussion questions for group and personal reflection, assessments, activities, and resources for further study, all of which reinforce the textbook's teaching and support the students' learning experience. The newest edition of Bruce Shelley's Church History in Plain Language brings the story of global Christianity into the twenty-first century. In this fifth edition, Marshall Shelley assembled a team of historians, historical theologians, and editors to revise and update his father's classic text. As a result, it now includes important stories of the development of Christianity in Asia, India, and Africa, both in the early church as well as in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It also highlights the stories of women and non-Europeans who significantly influenced the development of Christianity but whose contributions are often overlooked in overviews of church history. Covering recent events, this book also: Details the rapid growth of Christianity in the southern hemisphere Examines the influence of technology on the spread of the gospel Discusses how Christianity intersects with other religions in countries all over the world Together with this workbook companion, the new edition of Church History in Plain Language provides an easy-to-read guide to global Christianity and promises to set a new standard for readable church history.

The field of ecclesiology is rapidly expanding as new material, theories, methods, and approaches are being explored. This raises important and challenging questions concerning ecclesiology as an academic discipline. This book takes the reader into the trenches of ecclesiological research where the actual work of reading, writing, interpreting, and analysing is being done. Ecclesiology is dealt with as a systematic, empirical, historical, and liturgical discipline. Essays explore theology in South Africa as shaped by apartheid, liturgical theology, the diaconate in an ecumenical context, Free Church preachership, suburban ecclesial identity, medieval church practices, liturgical texts, church floor plans, and ecclesiology as a gendered discipline. Ecclesiology in the Trenches is a book for anyone who is interested and involved in ecclesiological research.

Before Queen Anne's reign had even begun, rival factions in both Church and State were jostling for position in her court. Attempting to follow a moderate course, the new monarch and her advisors had to be constantly wary of the attempts of extremists on both sides to gain the upper hand. The result was a see-saw period of alternating influence that has fascinated historians and political commentators. In this engaging new study, Barry Levis shows that although both parties claimed to be in support of the Church, their real aim was advancing their respective political positions. Uniting close analysis of Queen Anne's changing policies towards dissenters, occasional conformity and church appointments with studies of the careers of several prominent churchmen and politicians, Levis paints a gripping picture of competing religious values and political ambitions. Most significantly, he shows that, far from being restricted to the church and political elites, these conflicts were to have a cascading influence on the division of the country long after the Queen's reign ended.

The Christian Community is a unique church organisation in the modern world. It values the rhythm and ritual of the sacraments (such as baptism and holy communion), and has re-established them in a form which tries to meet the deepest needs of searching souls. At the same time, it proclaims the right of individuals to form their own beliefs, rather than what the church tells them. It therefore offers something quite particular and vital for the future of Christianity. This book looks back to the founding of The Christian Community in 1922, following inspiration from Rudolf Steiner, and especially its beginnings in English-speaking countries. It includes accounts of the key personalities who brought the organisation into existence, such as Friedrich Rittelmeyer and Emil Bock, as well as the priests and leaders who pioneered it in Britain, North America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, including Alfred Heidenreich, Oliver Matthews, Verner Hegg, Heinz Maurer, Julian Sleigh, Eileen Hersey, Michael Tapp and many more.