Too many Christians still think that worship is only a Sunday-morning activity done inside the church, while mission involves how the church engages the outside world. But Ruth Meyers argues that a dynamic relationship exists between worship and mission -- that gathering as God's people includes at its heart our being sent out into the world in God's name. Meyers explores this relationship by taking readers through the various parts of the worship service: gathering, proclaiming the Word, praying for the world, celebrating the Eucharist, and going forth to continue participating in God's mission in the world. In each chapter Meyers includes stories of worship practices in different churches and considers how the actions of worship relate integrally to mission. Missional Worship, Worshipful Mission emphasizes that missional worship is not a set of techniques but rather an approach to worship and congregational life in which God's mission permeates every aspect of what the church does.

Que es lo que define a la Iglesia de Inglaterra? Tienen los Treinta y nueve Articulos alguna relevancia hoy en dia? El Anglicanisimo, segun Jim Parker, posee "la mas verdadera, mas sabia y potencialmente la mas rica herencia en toda la Cristiandad con los Treinta y nueve articulos en el centro de su corazon. Estos articulos captan la esencia y el espiritu del cristianismo biblico magnificamente bien, y tambien proporcionan un modelo excelente de como confesar la fe en medio de una cristiandad dividida. En este estudio, Parker tiene como objectivo mostrar como los Articulos del siglo dieciseis deben ser vistos en el siglo veinte y uno, y como pueden enriquecer la fe de Anglicanos en general y en particular de Anglicanos evangelicos. Parker demuestra por que los articulos una vez mas deben tener una voz dentro de la Iglesia, no solo como una curiosidad historica, sino como una declaracion con autoridad doctrinal. Roger Beckwith ofrece diecisiete Articulos Complementarios, en un apendice que stimula releccion y discuten teologicamente asuntos que los ha llevado a un sitio de prominencia desde que los Articulos fueron originalmente compuestos. Este folleto, fue publicado por primera vez hace mas de veinte anos, se mantiene en mucha demanda y tan oportuna como siempre. Ha demostrado ser uno de los estudios mas populares y perdurables publicados por The Latimer House, y es ahora publicado en una segunda edicion, traducida aqui al espanol. Jim Packer esta en la Junta Gobernadores, Categratico de Teologia en Regent College, en Vancouver. Roger Beckwith fue bibliotecario y Director de Latimer House, en Oxford Inglaterra durante mas de treinta anos. What defines the Church of England? Are the Thirty-nine Articles of any relevance today? Anglicanism, according to Jim Packer, possesses "the truest, wisest and potentially richest heritage in all Christen-dom" with the Thirty-nine Articles at its heart. They catch the substance and spirit of biblical Christianity superbly well, and also provide an excellent model of how to confess the faith in a divided Christendom. In this Latimer Study, Packer aims to show how the sixteenth century Articles should be viewed in the twenty-first century, and how they can enrich the faith of Anglicans in general and of Anglican evangelicals in particular. He demonstrates why the Articles must once again be given a voice within the Church, not merely as an historical curiosity but an authoritative doctrinal statement. A thought-provoking appendix by Roger Beckwith offers seventeen Supplementary Articles, addressing theological issues which have come into prominence since the original Articles were composed. This booklet, first published more than twenty years ago, remains much in demand and as timely as ever. It has proved one of the most popular and enduring Latimer Studies, and is now issued in a second edition, translated here into Spanish. Jim Packer is Board of Governors' Professor of Theology at Regent College, Vancouver. Roger Beckwith was librarian and warden of Latimer House, Oxford for more than thirty years.

Written centuries before Christ, the Psalms of the Hebrew Bible have been prayed by Christians since the founding of the Church. The early church fathers expounded the psalms in the light of the mystery of Christ, his death and resurrection, and his saving redemption. In this book, a Benedictine monk examines the Christian praying of the Psalms, taking into account modern and contemporary research on the Psalms. Working from the Hebrew text, Fr. Laurence Kriegshauser offers a verse-by-verse commentary on each of the one hundred and fifty psalms, highlighting poetic features such as imagery, rhythm, structure, and vocabulary, as well as theological and spiritual dimensions and the relation of psalms to each other in the smaller collections that make up the whole. The book attempts to integrate modern scholarship on the Psalms with the act of prayer and help Christians pray the psalms with greater understanding of their Christological meaning.The book contains an introduction, a glossary of terms, an index of topics, a table of English renderings of selected Hebrew words, and an index of biblical citations. "Praying the Psalms in Christ "will be welcomed by students of theology and liturgy, by priests, religious, and laypeople who pray the Liturgy of the Hours, and by all Christians who seek to pray the Psalms with greater profit and fervor.

"It is no easy task to combine devotion with scholarship. From the introduction onwards this book breathes a prayerfulness that lifts the heart to God. With contemporary linguistic, literary, and theological scholarship, it joins the rich tradition of the Church expressed over the centuries in the writings of the Fathers. Each psalm is given a striking image as a sort of 'logo' and then discussed for itself. A special feature of the book is the appreciation that the prayer of the psalms in Christ is interwoven, threads of one bringing richness to another." --Dom Henry Wansbrough, Master Emeritus of St. Benet's Hall, Oxford

"In "Praying the Psalms in Christ," Fr. Kriegshauser has given us a form of reading the psalms that runs very close in intention to that ancient practice of "lectio divina" where the text of the bible is read prayerfully as a form of contemplative prayer. His prayerful study is made all the more rich by the abundant cross references to other places in the bible, both Old and New Testaments, that add richness to the text. The result is an informative and spiritually nourishing companion to reading the psalms." --Lawrence S. Cunningham, University of Notre Dame

"Clear, accessible, and rooted in the tradition, "Praying the Psalms in Christ"""guides us into the ancient prayers of Israel and the Church. The result is a fresh contribution to the great Christian tradition of spiritual commentary." --Russell R. Reno, Creighton University

In Peculiar Crossroads, Farrell O'Gorman explains how the radical religiosity of both Flannery O'Connor's and Walker Percy's vision made them so valuable as southern fiction writers and social critics. Via their spiritual and philosophical concerns, O'Gorman asserts, these two unabashedly Catholic authors bequeathed a postmodern South of shopping malls and interstates imbued with as much meaning as Appomattox or Yoknapatawpha. O'Gorman builds his argument with biographical, historical, literary, and theological evidence, examining the writers' work through intriguing pairings, such as O'Connor's Wise Blood with Percy's The Moviegoer, and O'Connor's A Good Man Is Hard to Find with Percy's Lancelot. An impeccable exercise in literary history and criticism, Peculiar Crossroads renders a genuine understanding of the Catholic sensibility of both O'Connor and Percy and their influence among contemporary southern writers.

Los siete sacramentos estan en el centro de la vida y de la experiencia cristiana, porque por medio de ellos la Santisima Trinidad, alcanza la vida y el corazon de las personas. Actualmente este libro es uno de los pocos que ofrece una sintesis global de los temas principales del misterio sacramental, en el cual el universo humano y divino, material y espiritual, estan intimamente ligados. Paul Haffner ilustra el hecho que los sacramentos tienen un significado central en la Iglesia, pues con ellos el pueblo de Dios se reconcilia con el Padre, mediante Su Hijo, por obra del Espiritu Santo. El libro propone algunas cuestiones clasicas, como las condiciones para la validez y la eficacia de los sacramentos, desarrolla los temas del ministro, el receptor y los efectos de estos misterios sacros, asimismo trata algunas particulares problematicas, como la necesidad del bautismo, el caracter sacrificial de la Eucaristia y la naturaleza del matrimonio. En el analisis de cada sacramento, el autor explora tambien las nuevas cuestiones ecumenicas y su influencia sobre la comprension sacramental cristiana. Este libro, escrito originalmente en ingles, ha sido tambien publicado en idioma italiano y ruso.

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 Constitution of Sacred Liturgy is widely regarded as the most significant among the sixteen documents produced by the Second Vatican Council. The constitution has radically redefined the methods and meanings of Catholic worship, including a shift from rote enactment of rituals, to the laity as a spiritual community. Transforming Catholicism offers the first social scientific analysis of these liturgical changes in worship and their implementations in local situations. Guided by a consistent theory of policy implementation, Michael J. McCallion and David R. Maines examine the growing emphasis placed on biblical interpretations of sacred meanings, interpretative homilies, and the production of mass in local languages. This book incorporates first-hand empirical data in studying the influence of professional liturgists on parish worship practices and the subsequent symbolic interactionist theories. Transforming Catholicism is a sophisticated and engaging read that will captivate seminary professors and those interested in policy analysis.

Listening to children's understandings of a ritual First Communion is generally understood as a rite of passage in which seven- and eight-year-old Catholic children transform from baptized participants in the Church to members of the body of Christ, the universal Catholic Church. This official Church account, however, ignores what the rite actually may mean to its participants. In When I Was a Child, Susan Ridgely Bales demonstrates that the accepted understanding of a religious ritual can shift dramatically when one considers the often neglected perspective of child participants. Bales followed Faith Formation classes and interviewed communicants, parents, and priests in an African American parish and in a parish containing both white and Latino congregations. By letting the children speak for themselves through their words, drawings, and actions, When I Was a Child stresses the importance of rehearsal, the centrality of sensory experiences, and the impact of expectations in the communicants' interpretations of the Eucharist. In the first sustained ethnographic study of how children interpret and help shape their own faith, Bales finds that children's perspectives give new contours to the traditional understanding of a common religious ritual. Ultimately, she argues, scholars of religion should consider age as distinct a factor as race, class, and gender in their analyses.

This best selling prayerbook has now been redesigned for a much wider audience. This treasury of prayers for the third Christian millennium offers practical guidance for an increasingly busy world. Cardinal Basil Hume, in his foreword, writes "the need for us to be people of prayer has never been more urgent. We know that unless we are deeply rooted in a sense of God's presence and able to refer all things to God, then our pilgrimage into the future will be marked more by uncertainty than by peace which is God's gift." This book's extensive range includes favourite Catholic prayers such as the "Rosary" and the "Stations of the Cross," along with others that may be less familiar, organised under many different themes and topics. Helpful introductions and a pattern of daily prayers make this book nothing less than a course in Christian spirituality. This book is for people approaching Christian prayer for the first time as well as for those who want to begin afresh. It will be especially helpful to young people and the parents and teachers who want to help them learn to pray in the living tradition of the Church.

Even for an experienced reader of Latin, the Psalter sometimes follows underlying Greek and ultimately Hebrew idiom too literally and thus poses real difficulties. This new commentary on selected psalms, the first to be published for many years, seeks to resolve these problems by placing the Latin within its historical linguistic context. For the reader without Hebrew and only a little Greek, it clarifies how those languages, by bilingual interference and over-literal translation, have influenced and shaped idioms. Finally, it demonstrates how Early Christian exegetes, especially Augustine, confronted unidiomatic peculiarities in a fundamentalist way; specifically, how the resorted to an exegetical resolution of what they perceived as an underlying theological mystery.The psalms have been selected to illustrate the character of this Hebraising, Hellenising post-classical Latin. The commentary, with a glossary of grammatical terms, is accessible to both the beginner and the more advanced reader.

The Catholic Liturgy is a mystery. It transcends time and space, re-presenting a sacrifice that happened once, but is seen every day. Fr. Jean Corbon gives a thorough exposition of many aspects of the Catholic Liturgy, ranging from the historical to the transcendant. Divided into three parts--

When Innocent III became pope in 1198 he announced that he had been elevated to a position between God and man. This audacious claim has often been quoted to characterize the papal monarchy over which he presided and the secular powers he wielded for the eighteen years of his controversial tenure. The sermons presented in this rich collection cast a clearer light on Innocent's concept of what his duties were as priest and bishop.
Innocent was renowned as a preacher, one who faithfully fulfilled that pastoral duty throughout his career. The group of sermons featured in this book represents only a small sample of his homiletic works. That they are almost exclusively devoted to spiritual concerns provides valuable insight into Innocent's papal priorities.
The six sermons included are: the inaugural sermon of Innocent's consecration, the opening sermon of Lateran Council IV, an anniversary sermon, two Roman Synod sermons, and another on the constitution of the priesthood. The major theme throughout the sermons is the responsibility of clergy to function as intermediaries between divinity and humanity, particularly in preaching and in administering the sacraments. Also included in the book is a translation of Innocent's treatise on preaching. In it Innocent gives practical advice to the preachers, whose office he believes to be the most important function of the priesthood.
The translators have done well in transmitting the clarity of Innocent's prose, which was often brilliant and sometimes poetic. They have provided an historical context for the sermons, as well as rhetorical analyses to enhance the sermons' relevance for the modern reader. As an example of Innocent's role asa pastor, spiritual director, and moral leader, this book is a valuable complement to the many studies of his secular and political achievements.
Corinne J. Vause is a former lecturer in the Department of Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Frank C. Gardiner was Professor Emeritus of English at UCSB.

This book presents three liturgical rights within an Afro-Baptist oral tradition of worship: the Wednesday night prayer meeting, the Deacon's devotion, and the Congregational worship. This examination provides one foundational study necessary to the creation of a liturgical theology of African American Christianity, through the study of sacred ritual within the lived experience of members of a community of traditional orallity and contemporary literacy, which together create a unique collective encounter of the Holy.

Following the familiar and powerful style of the biblical Psalms, Gateley openly reflects on her own life and ministry, and ultimately on the nature of faith itself. With a poetOs eye and a believerOs heart, Gateley reveals the metaphysical in the practical, the mystical in the ordinary, the divine in the human. Her psalms are a call to recognize GodOs presence in each of our lives.

What Roger Ferlo did for the Bible in Opening the Bible, volume 2 of The New Church s Teaching Series, Jeffrey Lee now does for the prayer book in volume 7 of the series. Opening the Prayer Book introduces us to the history and liturgies of The Book of Common Prayer, and helps us understand why the prayer book is such an important aspect of Anglican self-understanding. Lee begins with the fundamental question, What is common prayer? He explores some of the ways in which our worship according to The Book of Common Prayer affects who we are as a church, and the way it shapes our lives of faith. In chapter 2 Lee turns to the development of patterns of liturgy from the time of Jesus to the Reformation, tracing changes in the primary liturgies of baptism, eucharist, and daily prayer. The American prayer book is the focus of chapter 3, from the earliest revisions in the new nation through the liturgical scholarship that led to the substantial theological and liturgical changes in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. Chapter 4 begins a survey of the pages of the prayer book itself. Lee examines in particular the liturgies of Holy Week and Easter, baptism and eucharist, and the daily office, with a view to understanding the way the parts of the services are rooted in the historical prayers of the church and at the same time reflect the living tradition of Christians today. This theme is further developed in chapter 5, which focuses on the prayer book and our common life. Here Lee discusses questions of how a common prayer book can be responsive to a growing variety of pastoral situations and diverse cultures in a fast-changing world. The final chapter addresses the future of the prayer book within the Anglican Communion, in light of demands for further revision and for greater freedom to adapt the prayer book to local needs and beliefs. As with each book in The New Church s Teaching Series, recommended resources for further reading and questions for discussion are included.

In Worship Evangelism, Sally Morgenthaler calls the church to consider the remarkable, untapped potential of worship as an opportunity of those who aren't yet followers of Jesus Christ as well as those who are to encounter the presence of God. Combining the best of traditional and contemporary worship music and practices, Morgenthaler shows how to achieve worship that's both culturally relevant and authentic. She helps pastors, worship leaders, and musicians - Understand worship and its attraction for non-Christians - Tear down walls that keep unbelievers from meeting God in church worship - Make worship evangelism happen--in any culture Morgenthaler draws on sound research and her extensive experience as a worship leader to offer an energetic, hands-on approach. Now with a study guide that encourages group discussion and personal action, this timely book offers fresh vision for worship evangelism and provides the strategies to implement it.

In these meditations on the lesser feasts and fasts of the church calendar Sam Portaro asks the question, "What do these saints and commemorations have to say to Christians today?" His answers are often surprising and always thought-provoking, with fresh insights into the lives and teachings of those who have gone before us in the Christian faith. The cycle of the year begins in Advent with St. Andrew and ends in late November with Kamehaneha and Emma of Hawaii. Each reflection looks at the scripture readings for the day and focuses on a distinctive attribute of the saint or feast in the light of contemporary questions of faith, mission, and community. Saints of the distant past such as Columba and Agnes, Cyprian and Augustine, Thomas Becket and Catherine of Siena are included, as well as those closer to our own day-Charles Wesley and Julia Emery, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Evelyn Underhill and Jonathan Daniels. Following the calendar provided in Lesser Feasts and Fasts, meditations on the holy days of the church seasons are also included, such as All Saints and the Epiphany." Brightest and Best is designed for a variety of Christian education purposes, including adult forums, confirmation classes, seasonal presentations, clergy groups, and groups of students and young adults. It is equally useful for individuals seeking varied and interesting devotional reading. Although based on the church year, each chapter is discrete and readers can focus on any event or person and begin at any season. Since these pieces began as homilies in a college setting, they are useful as a preaching aid and could be the basis of a homily at a midweek service.

In this third and final volume in a series of ceremonial guides to worship in the Episcopal Church according to "The Book of Common Prayer," Leonel L. Mitchell focuses on the pastoral and occasional liturgies. Beginning with the celebration of the Daily Office, he goes on to discuss the seasonal liturgies beyond the Lent-Easter cycle, including Advent Lessons and Carols, Candlemas, and Rogation processions. The pastoral offices include baptism, marriage, the blessing of homes, reconciliation, ministry to the sick, and burial.Finally, Mitchell concludes with the services involving bishops, including celebrations of new ministries, consecrations of churches, and ordination rites.Like its two companion volumes, Howard E. Galley s "The Ceremonies of the Eucharist" and Mitchell s "Lent, Holy Week, Easter," and "the Great Fifty Days," this new guide offers clear descriptions of ways of celebrating the rites as well as the theological and historical reasons behind them. The book is designed to be useful in churches of all sizes, small and large.

A handy, inexpensive resource, More Welcome Speeches can be used by persons frequently or rarely asked to make welcome speeches. Sample speeches and responses are included which can also be used as a prototype for creating a welcome speech.

More Welcome Speeches provides a quality resource for laypersons in the church. This volume will appeal especially to members of African American churches.

In the African American community, welcoming speeches are important part of each program and service.)

More Welcome Speeches:

- Includes poetry, prayers, recitations, tributes, and installation services

- Offers appropriate Scripture verses for special days

- Provide samples speeches and responses that help the user create his or her own personal talks

- Addresses many different occasions

Well-known liturgical scholar and writer Philip Pfatteicher turns his attention in this book to "liturgical spirituality" as distinct from "liturgy and spirituality," which assumes two essentially separate disciplines."Liturgical spirituality" is a holistic concept, bringing together both liturgy and spirituality with reference to the interior life of the spirit that is formed and nurtured by the church's liturgy. Pfatteicher acknowledges that there are other kinds of spirituality that appear to flourish apart from and in addition to the liturgy: for example, the spirituality of the desert ascetics of the early centuries of christianity, the devotion of the Religious Society of Friends, and many forms of meditation and spiritual discipline such as the Spiritual Exercise of Ignatius Loyola. The focus of the present volume, however, is on the spiritual life as formed by the liturgy, the ordered form of Christian worship, East and West, Catholic and Protestant.In addition to the form of worship one might experience on a Sunday morning, Liturgical Spirituality guides the reader through and into the experience of daily prayer, the Easter Vigil, the Church Year, the Eucharist, hymns and music, Baptism, and even church architecture as "hallowing space."In 1955 Louis Bouyer published an admirable study entitled Liturgical Piety, written before Vatican II and its far-reaching reforms that fundamentally changed the entire Western church. Philip Pfatteicher has now taken up the challenge of expanding upon Bouyer with a current and invigorating study not of "liturgical piety" but of "liturgical spirituality."Philip Phatteicher is Professor of English at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania, a frequent writer and lecturer on liturgical issues, and author of A Dictionary of Liturgical Terms and The School of the Church: Worship and Christian Formation, both published by Trinity Press.

Argues from a wide range of evidence that the Gospels were not written each for a specific church or community, but were intended for general circulation throughout all the early churches.

This ecumenical collection of prayers, liturgies and rituals seeks to illustrate the impressive creativity fo liturgy from the ground up - from congregations, groups and individuals struggling to come to terms with change and all the celebration and loss which that involves. A wealth of human experiences is explored and expressed through experimental rituals: expressions of god, namings, affirming relationships, separating, dying, grieving, healing, retirement, abortion, miscarriage, and much more. It is hoped that this anthology will imspire and enable others to construct their own liturgies, rituals, blessings and prayers. Hannah Ward and Jennifer Wild are former members of Anglican religious orders. They are co-founders of Womanpsace, a spritituality programme. Their book Guard the Chaos: Finding Meaning in Change was published in 1995.

The Psalms rank among the most important books of the Old Testament, yet to many the 150 songs, prayers and poems remain obscure and inaccessible. This book offers a nwe general introduction to the Psalms. Professor Seybold guides the reader through the most important aspects of the history and form of the Psalm texts and the major questions of critical scholarship, and discusses leading writers on the subject. A wide range of specific topics is covered: historical background, literary form, classification, and parallels in other soruce of ancient literature. The section on Library Form provides a useful introduction to the speech patterns of Hebrew verse, written in such a way that students without Hebrew may also benefit. The final chapters deal with the way the Psalms have been interpreted and used in worship over the last 2000 years. This is a book to help the student find his or her bearings and to suggest directions for further study. It will be an invaluable textbook for all students of Old Testament and Biblical Studies, as well as literature generally, and of great interest to all those who approach the Psalms for the first time. Klaus Seybold is Professor of Old Testament Studies at the University of Basel. R. Graeme Dunphy is a Minister of the Church of Scotland in Culloden.

Accessible background and insights on each scripture text in the three-year Sunday lectionary cycle. An invaluable resource for preachers, lectors, liturgical musicians, catechists and more.

Eucharist is a detailed history of the Christian Eucharistic formularies. Bouyer gives a thorough analysis of the Jewish meal prayers, the berakoth, to which he traces the origins of the eucharistic rite, and ends with the recent addition of new eucharistic prayers to the Roman rite. He also includes the history of the various forms of the early Christian liturgies, of the Byzantine, Gallican, and Mozarabic Eucharists, of the changes introduced during the Reformation, and of developments in the Anglican, Lutheran, and Reformed traditions.