The Archive
Day: February 22, 2010
Executive Council’s message to the church
… this [Executive Council] meeting ranged from humanitarian concerns about Haiti and the ice storm in the Dakotas to economic justice concerns centering on a labor dispute at the Church Center to more pragmatic structural issues such as bylaws and Council norms…
Simplicity itself
Many members of your congregation yearn for simpler lives. They see themselves as just a little strange, moving against the mainstream of American consumerism, odd ducks in a world of too much, too fast, too many. In bringing simple lifestyles to the center of your faith-filled conversations, think of Jesus’s own lifestyle, the things he said and did.
D.C. Catholic archdiocese gets out of the adoption business
So the Archdiocese of Washington has gotten out of the foster care/adoption business, for which they’ve been receiving $2 million annually from the public purse. D.C.’s new same-sex marriage law requires all married couples to be treated equally, and because the Catholic church regards same-sex marriage as a crime against nature, it won’t be involved in placing and supervising children in homes where the two adults have been joined in such.
Church rater: a Consumer Reports approach to church shopping
Every Sunday close to 350,000 churches open their doors to the public. How do you know what you’re walking into? What will the pastor be talking about? What kind of people attend? ChurchRater lets you read what others say about the church and rate your own experience. ChurchRater lets you talk back after sitting through a sermon.
Decline, and what to do about it
The Episcopal Church’s Executive Council heard here Feb. 21 that church membership and Sunday attendance continued to decline in 2008, but also heard a call for the church to promote knowledge of the characteristics of growing congregations.
Offering hope
Liddell arrived in Saiochang at a time of drought, locust plague, famine, and war. Traveling by bicycle or on foot, he served as an itinerant preacher, communicating with the help of an interpreter, Wang Feng Chou, until his childhood Mandarin fluency returned.