This collection of short essays, sermons, lectures, reviews, analyses, and poems is offered as a means to provoke thought, inspire imagination, and encourage conversation about the future of the church. Church renewal awaits a renewed synergy of theology, homily, and energy. Together, thought, word, and deed offer us much as we face an unforeseen future. There is much for which to be thankful, and much to be excited about as the church moves forward into the twenty-first century. A healthy future of stimulated learning, excellent leadership, and lay ministry_thought, word, and deed _may be coming toward us.

This little collection of occasional pieces is offered as a set of discussion openers ('ice-breakers') for those who are preparing for ministry in the Northeast. The intended audience for this selection of provocations would begin with first and second year seminarians. Candidates for ministry and those considering ministry later in life might find some comfort here, too. In addition, one might hope that those who have weathered a few winters in the pulpit could find some catalytic inspiration here.

This important resource offers theoretical and practical approaches to understanding and working with cultural realities in training and supervision, particularly in family therapy. Clinical wisdom, empirical findings, real-world examples, and hands-on suggestions demonstrate the vital role of building and sustaining cultural awareness, both in supervisory work with trainees and in therapists providing fair, effective, and relevant services to clients. In the book's multiple perspectives on the complexities of cultural identity, the attainment of cultural safety is shown as an ongoing process, part of professional development as well as self-knowledge across the lifespan. Critical distinctions are also drawn between cultural safety and relatively static concepts within cross-cultural competencies. Included in the coverage: A framework for integrating an understanding of oppression dynamics in clinical work and supervision. Expanding conversations about cultural responsiveness in supervision. When dominant culture values meet diverse clinical settings: perspectives from an African American supervisor. Safety and social justice in the supervisory relationship. Towards safe and equitable relationships: sociocultural attunement in supervision. Comprehensive multicultural curriculum: self-awareness as process. Developing cultural awareness and sensitivity through simulation. Creating Cultural Safety in Couple and Family Therapy will enhance the work of social workers, mental health professionals, and practitioners working family therapy cases seeking perspectives on addressing diverse multicultural realities as they intersect with clinical supervision and training.

Nominated as an outstanding thesis by the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of New Mexico, this thesis seeks to identify the gamma-ray burst (GRB) progenitor. GRBs are extragalactic explosions that briefly outshine entire galaxies, but the mechanism that can release that much energy over a < 100 second burst is still a mystery. The leading candidate for the GRB progenitor is currently a massive star which collapses to form a black hole-accretion disk system that powers the GRB. GRB afterglows, however, do not always show the expected behavior of a relativistic blast wave interacting with the stellar wind that such a progenitor should have produced before its collapse. In this book, the author uses the Zeus-MP astrophysical hydrodynamics code to model the environment around a stellar progenitor prior to the burst. He then develops a new semi-analytic MHD and emission model to produce light curves for GRBs encountering these realistic density profiles. The work ultimately shows that the circumburst medium surrounding a GRB at the time of the explosion is much more complex than a pure wind, and that observed afterglows are entirely consistent with a large subset of proposed stellar progenitors.

Nominated as an outstanding thesis by the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of New Mexico, this thesis seeks to identify the gamma-ray burst (GRB) progenitor. GRBs are extragalactic explosions that briefly outshine entire galaxies, but the mechanism that can release that much energy over a < 100 second burst is still a mystery. The leading candidate for the GRB progenitor is currently a massive star which collapses to form a black hole-accretion disk system that powers the GRB. GRB afterglows, however, do not always show the expected behavior of a relativistic blast wave interacting with the stellar wind that such a progenitor should have produced before its collapse. In this book, the author uses the Zeus-MP astrophysical hydrodynamics code to model the environment around a stellar progenitor prior to the burst. He then develops a new semi-analytic MHD and emission model to produce light curves for GRBs encountering these realistic density profiles. The work ultimately shows that the circumburst medium surrounding a GRB at the time of the explosion is much more complex than a pure wind, and that observed afterglows are entirely consistent with a large subset of proposed stellar progenitors.