Easy-to-make recipes are ideal for families with younger children, church school classes, and pot lucks. Connecting of baking, food, and social justice makesgood Lenten reading for middle and high school youth groups. Substantial reflections for prayer groups and Lenten study groups. Ecumenical in focus

Ideal for altar guilds and women who bake communion bread who want to make prayer and reflection part of their ministry. Bread speaks to us of our daily reliance upon a Maker, writes Christopher Levan. Perhaps more than any other food it brings us close to our roots as fellow creatures of God's creation. Bread is an apt metaphor for the spiritual journey.

Give Us This Day offers meditations for every day in Lent, inviting us to connect faith, "our daily bread," and the world in which we live, along with recipes that range from Shrove Tuesday "No-Fret Pancakes" to Easter Challah bread. Each of the 40 meditations begins with a scripture verse and a prayer."

2015 marks the 30th anniversary of Lee Mitchell's great standard work on the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. As his student, protegee, and colleague, Ruth Meyers takes this classic work and updates it for the Church in its current era and for the future.

What does it mean to be human in this season of waiting? And what does it mean to believe that God became human? In language drenched in poetry, this collection of meditations for Advent and Christmas explores what it means to gaze into the mystery that is Incarnation.

The "difficult psalms" which amount to more than a third of the Psalter, shock us with their cries of pain, anger, and alienation. They call on God for revenge on their enemies and mercy for themselves. Lyn Fraser, following the lead of Old Testament theologian Walter Brueggemann, shows how to integrate these "psalms of disorientation" in Sunday morning worship, pastoral care, and any situation of extreme need.

What does it really mean to "proclaim the good news of God in Christ" and to "continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers?" These promises from the baptismal rite of the Book of Common Prayer have become very familiar to most Episcopalians, but they have yet to be fully lived out in most congregations. In this lively and accessible guide, Clayton Morris argues that everyone present on Sunday mornings has a ministry of hospitality, coming together in a proclamation of welcome to all.

Meditations for each day of Advent We don't like to wait, but the season of Advent is all about waiting--a time of expectation, when Christians have traditionally devoted themselves to practices of prayer and study. This book offers a short meditation for each of the thirty days of the season, from the First Sun-day of Advent through Christmas Day. In the spirit of expectancy, each meditation focuses on seeking and seeing God in the everyday of our ordinary lives, based on a psalm that corresponds to the daily office for the season of Advent. Expectant: Advent Meditations is the perfect seasonal practice companion for spiritual seekers as well as devoted Christians, and ideal for church groups and congregations wishing to hand out a fresh and contemporary Advent resource to members.

This book is practical guide for Christians seeking to learn balanced principles of healing prayer. Avery Brooke presents a wealth of material in a down-to-earth manner filed with rich faith and wisdom.

The third edition is updated to the Revised Common Lectionary

Many of us have difficulty hearing the Bible as it is read to us in church Sunday after Sunday through the year. Even with the best intentions we come to the Word of God cold because we have not been given the skills and the preparation to hear and understand the content of Scripture.

These brief and insightful introductions to all the readings of the church s three-year lectionary cycle are designed to sharpen our listening and increase comprehension of Scripture by summarizing each passage, setting it in a liturgical and historical context, connecting it to the season, and drawing out its relevance to our lives and faith, week by week.

This is an ideal tool for Christian formation as well as homiletical preparation. The style is clear, straightforward, well grounded in biblical scholarship, and Anglican in its theological approach. Extra features include an essay on the Bible and Christian formation, five brief use guides, an index to the biblical readings, and a summary of the seven most common Bible translations used in church services. "

A concise book to help those who are licensed to be responsible for worship in a congregation that does not have the services of ordained clergy on a regular basis, as well as for all laity--licensed or otherwise--who have responsibility for some aspect of worship. Examines lay participation in the Ministry of the Word, in the Eucharist, and in the Daily Offices.

There remains a constant need for new perspectives on the liturgical church seasons in order to keep them spiritually fresh and to bring them to life in new ways. This book enables Christian readers to experience a new depth in their faith journey as they celebrate the season of Advent. This is a short book of spiritual meditations for the Advent season on the four "Middle Eastern" songs sung around the birth of Jesus: canticles that play an important role in the liturgical worship of the church over the centuries. These canticles include: the Song of Mary (Magnificat), Song of Zechariah (Benedictus), Song of the Angels (Gloria), and Song of Simeon (Nunc Dimittis). The devotions emphasize the Middle Eastern cultural elements of these songs.

The Act of Consecration of Man is the communion service of The Christian Community. In this fascinating book, experienced priest Tom Ravetz weaves together contemplations inspired by Rudolf Steiner with insightful commentary on the meaning and purpose of the ritual itself. The book will be valuable for both new worshipers and people who have been taking part in the communion service for many years.

Describes the responsibilities and duties of the server at the Holy Eucharist and other services, as governed by the rubrics of "The Book of Common Prayer" and by tradition. Includes a glossary.

Many philosophical approaches today seek to overcome the division between mind and body. If such projects succeed, then thinking is not restricted to the disembodied mind, but is in some sense done through the body. From a post-Cartesian perspective, then, ritual activities that discipline the body are not just thoughtless motions, but crucial parts of the way people think. Thinking Through Rituals explores religious ritual acts and their connection to meaning and truth, belief, memory, inquiry, worldview and ethics. Drawing on philosophers such as Foucault, Merleau-Ponty and Wittgenstein, and sources from cognitive science, pragmatism and feminist theory, it provides philosophical resources for understanding religious ritual practices like the Christian Eucharistic ceremony, Hatha Yoga, sacred meditation or liturgical speech. Its essays consider a wide variety of rituals in Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism - including political protest rituals and gay commitment ceremonies, traditional Vedic and Yogic rites, Christian and Buddhist meditation and the Jewish Shabbat. They challenge the traditional disjunction between thought and action, showing how philosophy can help to illuminate the relationship between doing and meaning which ritual practices imply.

What would it look like if women built a lectionary focusing on women's stories? What does it look like to tell the good news through the stories of women who are often on the margins of scripture and often set up to represent bad news? How would a lectionary centering women's stories, chosen with womanist and feminist commitments in mind, frame the presentation of the scriptures for proclamation and teaching? The scriptures are androcentric, male-focused, as is the lectionary that is dependent upon them. As a result, many congregants know only the biblical men's stories told in the Sunday lectionary read in their churches. A more expansive, more inclusive lectionary will remedy that by introducing readers and hearers of scripture to "women's stories" in the scriptures. A Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church, when completed, will be a three-year lectionary accompanied by a stand-alone single year lectionary, Year W, that covers all four gospels. Year A features the Gospel of Matthew with John interwoven as is the case in the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) and Episcopal Lectionary.

Death Liturgy and Ritual is a two-volume study of Christian funerary theology and practice, presenting an invaluable account of funeral rites and the central issues involved for compilers and users. Paul Sheppy writes from direct experience of conducting funerals and of drafting liturgical resources for others. In Volume II: A Commentary on Liturgical Texts, reviews a wide range of current Christian funeral rites and examines how they reflect both the Church's concern for the death and resurrection of Christ and the contemporary secular demand for funerals which celebrate the life of the deceased. The companion volume, Volume I: A Pastoral and Liturgical Theology, proposes that the Church ought to construct its theological agenda in dialogue with other fields of study. Sheppy argues for a Christian statement about death that finds its basis in the Paschal Mystery, since human death must be explained by reference to Jesus' death, descent to the dead, and resurrection. Using the three phases of van Gennep's theory of rites of passage, the author shows how the Easter triduum may be seen as normative for Christian liturgies of death.

Through hymns, poems, and the lens of personal experience, a leading spiritual director and author takes a thoughtful, in-depth look at the Cross as a focal point for theology, spirituality, Christian symbolism, and discipleship, providing a probing and disturbing resource for group study during Lent.

Discerning Reader's Best Book of 2003 We are not created to worship. Nor are we created for worship. We are created worshiping. Too often Christians have only thought of worship in terms of particular musical styles or liturgical formats. But a proper view of worship is far larger than what takes place in churches on Sunday mornings. Worship is not limited to specific times, places or activities. God is by his very nature continuously outpouring himself. Because we are created in his image, we too are continually pouring ourselves in various directions, whether toward God or toward false gods. All of us, Christian or not, are always worshiping, whether or not that worship is directed toward God. We are unceasing worshipers. The fruition of a lifetime of study, reflection and experience, this volume sets forth Harold M. Best's understanding of worship and the arts. Widely respected as one of the foremost thinkers and practitioners in his field, Best explores the full scope of worship as continuous outpouring in all settings and contexts. With careful exposition and eloquent analysis, Best casts a holistic vision for worship that transcends narrow discussions of musical style or congregational preference. On this broader canvas, Best addresses popular misunderstandings about the use of music and offers correctives toward a more biblically consistent practice of artistic action. Incisive, biblical, profound and comprehensive, Best's landmark volume is one by which all other statements on worship and the arts will be measured.

This course offers the best education available to altar guild members and is also extremely informative for all laity. This comprehensive training course presents "modules" of easy-to-digest information, which include everything any member would need to know about what are humorously termed the "props", the "stage", the "holy hardware", the "costumes", and other aspects of the Passion Play we all attend on Sunday.

During the Nineteenth-Century a major revival in religious pilgrimage took place across Europe. This phenomenon was largely started by the rediscovery of several holy burial places such as Assisi, Milano, Venice, Rome and Santiago de Compostela, and subsequently developed into the formation of new holy sites that could be visited and interacted with in a wholly Modern way. This uniquely wide-ranging collection sets out the historic context of the formation of contemporary European pilgrimage in order to better understand its role in religious expression today. Looking at both Western Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Europe, an international panel of contributors analyse the revival of some major Christian shrines, cults and pilgrimages that happened after the rediscovery of ancient holy burial sites or the constitution of new shrines in locations claiming apparitions of the Virgin Mary. They also shed new light on the origin and development of new sanctuaries and pilgrimages in France and the Holy Land during the Nineteenth Century, which led to fresh ways of understanding the pilgrimage experience and had a profound effect on religion across Europe. This collection offers a renewed overview of the development of Modern European pilgrimage that used intensively the new techniques of organisation and travel implemented in the Nineteenth-Century. As such, it will appeal to scholars of Religious Studies, Pilgrimage and Religious History as well as Anthropology, Art, Cultural Studies, and Sociology.

In this fresh approach to Christian spirituality, John Driver shows that the spirituality of the disciples and the early Christian church included every dimension of life. Grounded in the example of Jesus himself, this holistic approach to spirituality finds expression in the visible witness of the Christian community, and in the daily lives of faithful Christians who seek to embody Christ's presence in the world in service to others. This approach to Christian spirituality was recovered in a remarkable way by the radical reformers of the sixteenth century - the Anabaptists - and it continues to find expression among a wide variety of Christian groups around the world today. Life Together in the Spirit will inspire, challenge, and encourage you to experience the presence of the Spirit in all of its dimensions. This edition, revised and expanded with responses and reflections from church leaders and scholars around the world, is the seventh publication in the "Global Anabaptist-Mennonite Shelf of Literature," an initiative of Mennonite World Conference. Contributors include Mvwala C. Katshinga (Democratic Republic of Congo), Christina Asheervadam (India), Rafael Zaracho (Paraguay), Hermann Woelke (Uruguay), Paulus Pan (Taiwan), Patricia Uruena (Colombia), and Nellie Mlotshwa (Zimbabwe).

Stirring morning and evening reflections for every day of the Lenten season. Handed down for generations, these stirring readings for every day of the Lenten season spring from a pastor's heart. Expanding on the Gospel accounts, they draw the reader into deep contemplation of Christ's suffering, accompanying him in vivid detail on his last journey from Bethany to Golgotha. At every step, from his triumphal entry into Jerusalem and his last supper with his disciples to his betrayal and crucifixion, they reveal the depth of Christ's love for those he came to save - and the hope this holds for each of us and for the world.

Nicholas Wolterstorff's distinguished career in philosophical theology continues to bear fruit, and here he shares his insight on the concepts of justice, art and liturgy. Although often discussed in isolation, as Wolterstorff masterfully demonstrates, they are bound together by divine love, and follow a common logical framework. Whether oriented towards the dignity of the other, the desire for creative engagement, or the infinite goodness of the creator, in every case unitive love is at their core. Wolterstorff explores all of this with consummate elegance, ultimately showing how each of the three topics find their fulfilment in the worship of God and in the affirmation of the image of God in each of us.

'Doing December Differently' explores how people of faith and goodwill might mark the midwinter season and the Christmas festival with integrity and simplicity. Drawing on both ancient roots and contemporary influences, it defines meaningful rites, rituals and ceremonies which are life-giving and joyful.

One of the great achievements of twentieth-century theology, Joseph Jungmann's work is a comprehensive study of the origins, evolution, and theology of the Mass from its earliest forms to the dawn of Vatican II. With a revised chapter previously unavailable in the two-volume edition.