Christ Church Cathedral, Nashville, TN, hopes to draw attention to the plight of millions of Iraqis who have fled their homes since 2003 and says that the Gospel compels us to welcome the refugee.
At Simple House, as at other Christian intentional communities, the answer demands devotion and sacrifice. None of the missionaries at Simple House has an outside job. Laura earns just $200 a month to minister to about two dozen families in Southeast, doing everything from delivering food to helping a couple deal with their daughter’s suicide attempt. She and her housemates have taken vows of poverty, obedience and chastity. They pray every morning and evening and attend Mass daily.
Craig A. Satterlee says that there is no distinction between worship and mission. He says that worship ismission.
There’s a pretty significant cold spell settling down across the east and mid sections of the US right now. The overnight cold is so bad
In other words, people who respond to church marketing approach Jesus as another consumer option. This is first and foremost a problem because it is blasphemy: We are talking about the incarnate Logos, not a logo. Additionally (in case blasphemy isn’t bad enough), this should concern us because of the problems it creates for discipleship. Consumerism isn’t just a social phenomenon—it’s a spirituality. And it comes with spiritual habits and disciplines that conflict with the particular practices of the Christian life.
What started as a simple service trip for a handful of women who had bonded as they all went through the Guatemalan adoption process at the same time has snowballed into Helping Mayan Families, an effort that raised more than $30,000 worth of supplies to help provide free medical and veterinary clinics, Christmas baskets of food, and toys, clothes, and shoes to 1,000 poor indigenous families.
Seaman’s Church Institute, a New York City-based ecumenical mariners’ agency affiliated with the Episcopal Church, has worked on issues of piracy for over two decades — recording cases, providing assistance to victims of these cases, and advocating to international organizations for tough standards to reduce instances of hijacking.
While the vast majority of clergy — 90 percent — said political leaders should talk about how the country can address international poverty and health matters, the typical Christian leader may only preach about poverty issues once a year.
Krista Trippet speaks with Binyavanga Wainaina to explore the complex ethics of global aid. Wainaina is a young writer from Kenya and “is among a rising generation of African voices who bring a cautionary perspective” to the morality and efficacy behind many Western initiatives to abolish poverty and speed development in Africa.”
Many congregations in the Episcopal Church, in regions that have been hard hit due to changing economic conditions and conflict in the denomination, have been struggling to survive. One congregation in Tennessee has come back from the brink by opening its arms and its doors to some of America’s newest arrivals.