Preview: JERUSALEM AND ATHENS - CHRIST AND CULTUREIn 198 C.E. the theologian Tertullian wrote a treatise called Prescriptions against Heretics...
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Standing on the Shoulders
Preview: Recently I had the wonderful experience of driving down U.S. 59 to Edna, Texas where a Presbyterian church building that was constructed in 1908 had been restored...
Church History in Music
Preview: Following a recent worship service one woman commented, “The person sitting next to meet said that she wishes we would sing more traditional hymns.” Within five minutes another woman observed, “The words to today’s hymns were wonderful!” And the debate over church music, in general, and choice of hymns, in particular, goes on...
A Presbyterian Quiz
Preview: A PRESBYTERIAN QUIZIn recent weeks I have been receiving in my email box unsolicited “trivia quizzes”...
What's Your Church's DNA?
Preview: WHAT’S YOUR CHURCH’S DNA?In 1953 two British molecular biologists, James Watson and Francis Crick, developed a model that described the genetic structure of the hereditary material in each of us...
"A Matter of Perspective"
Preview: Winston Churchill is reputed to have said, “History is written by the victors.” If that is true, it may be because the losers are not around to write it, or it may simply be that they were outvoted...
"Lest We Forget"
Preview: On the occasion of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897, Rudyard Kipling wrote the poem “Recessional”...
"Learning from Another World"
Preview: A few weeks ago a friend and I went out to lunch. He had accepted a call to a church in another presbytery...
Being Part of History
Preview: We were at the tail end of our trip. We had been to Stirling where William Wallace had fought the English in 1297, to Iona where Columba had come in 563 to evangelize Scotland, to Glencoe where in 1692 the forces of King William II massacred members of the Clan MacDonald, to Inverness, the capital of the Highlands, to St...
"God Colors"
Preview: In Eugene Peterson’s rendering of Matthew 5:14 (“You are the light of the world” in the NRSV) we find these words: “You are here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world.”Have you known someone who brings color to life in what is often a black-and-white world, someone who not only lives the Christian faith, but who finds joy in it? One such person, I believe, was Andy Edington...
A Love for the Church
Preview: Yesterday afternoon (December 3) I attended the memorial service for the Rev. Dr. John (Jack) William Lancaster at First Presbyterian Church in Houston...
A Gentle, Yet Strong Spirit
Preview: In the tapestry that makes up the “great cloud of witnesses” there are personalities and perspectives of every imaginable stripe...
Presbyterians and Revivalism
Preview: The theme for for this year in New Covenant Presbytery is revivalism. For many persons, Presbyterian revivalism appears to be an oxymoron...
THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, ....
Preview: Recently I came across the following statement in a prominent journal: "An articlein the January number of the .....
History Is Not Dry
Preview: There are some people who say that history is dry and boring. Have you ever heard someone say that? Maybe you yourself have thought that...
...AND A TIME TO LAUGH
Preview: These are difficult days. Whether it’s the economy or widespread shootings orecclesiastical battles that leave many demoralized, these are difficult days...
MAKING HISTORY IN TUMULTUOUS TIMES
Preview: In many ways the 1950s and the 1960s were difficult times in this country. In addition to the international tensions of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States (does anyone remember the air raid drills in schools at the time?), there were racial tensions as African Americans struggled and fought for equal justice under the law.In the 1960s the Vietnam war began heating up and, with that, there was also a growing awareness of and an attempt to address the issue of poverty in this country...