Blog in review: April-June 2004

Lots of blogging about prayer from this period, in large part because I had a parallel blog, now retired, called Collect Call. Those posts are now integrated into this blog.

A seat of one’s own?

Wednesday, April 7th, 2004

The church I served in Georgia was robbed once. A life-long church member identified the theft on a Sunday morning: one of the church’s thirty-eight pews was missing.

“The Passion” meets “The Lord of the Rings” this Saturday

Monday, April 5th, 2004

Holy Saturday is one of my favorite moments in the church calendar, ranking with the Ascension and Epiphany, as an acquired taste as Stilton or deviled kidneys.

Presbyterian Lay Pastor pages expanded

Monday, April 12th, 2004

Back in October, I wrote about Presbyterian Church (USA) lay pastor training programs, and have since thought out loud how this might be a good model for meeting the needs of small Unitarian Universalist congregations without pastoral leadership (and are unlikely to get it the old-fashioned way.)

Mrs. Unitarian

Thursday, April 8th, 2004

Philocrites touches on a matter bothers me very much: the false appropriation of Universalism as a moniker for “Unitarianism lite.” Not that the Universalists didn’t originally collude in this arrangement; even in the nineteenth century liberal forces among the Universalists were cozying up along side the Unitarians. But they knew who they were.

“This is what democracy looks like”

Sunday, April 25th, 2004

I was wrong about the numbers. This event we had in Washington was far bigger than this wide-eyed boy met in 1993 for the March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian Something Something and Liberation. I’d believe the claims of a million people. Now, to business

.

Welcome to my church . . . .

Friday, April 23rd, 2004

Note, this church does not (yet) exist, and it isn’t the first one I’d plan because some of the structures in this mock-up assume a functioning regional partnership (the “parish”).

A small defense of edited psalms

Thursday, April 29th, 2004

Except for the King’s Chapel (Boston) prayerbook, I can’t think of a prayer book or hymnal, Universalist or Unitarian, that has the full psalter. What you get are partial set of psalms, and very often, you get tightly edited and amalgamated psalms “arranged for worship.”

When to sing in worship

Wednesday, April 28th, 2004

So, why and when should we sing in worship? I suppose there’s no theological reason why the whole worship service couldn’t be sung. Sermons in plainsong, anyone?

Free worship more “priestly”?

Tuesday, April 27th, 2004

A regular liturgy, with its predictable rhythms and common standards, give the laity and clergy a common set of rules and expectations to work from. Sure, like the wonk who can torture Robert’s Rules of Order to his or her whims, liturgy can be distorted. But a “free” form of worship is surely prone to more severe spiritual violence.

Correcting the Murray-Potter story

Wednesday, May 5th, 2004

In your post about Wikipedia’s entry about Universalism, you mention Murray and Potter. I have only a passing familiarity with the story but find the apparently false version touching. What is the real story?

Bishop Whalon tells the truth

Wednesday, May 12th, 2004

I can’t believe I’ve not pointed to a set of my favorite essays on evangelism and church growth (and the two are not to be confused). Little wonder Pierre Whalen was made a bishop, and he has charge over the American Episcopalian churches in Europe.

Owning the Litany

Wednesday, May 12th, 2004

I use the 1894 Book of Prayer for my morning and evening prayers. In time, I will tweek it for my own use, and update parts of it very gently. I’m amazed how, once you get into it, how durable the rite is.

Liturgical options when same sex marriage arrives

Tuesday, May 11th, 2004

I’ve heard that a colleague in Massachusetts has wondered what kind of ceremony is proper (or indeed, necessary) for a couple married in that church, but outside the benefit of law, once marriage licenses are issued same-sex couples

What a Puritan can teach

Wednesday, May 19th, 2004

I’m watching the PBS “reality show” Colonial House with deep interest as its 1628 reproduction setting has something to say about social footing of American Protestantism, including Universalism, but particularly Unitarianism.

A word from Quillen Shinn

Thursday, May 27th, 2004

I see not why one ever things of being a Universalist minister, unless they are willing to go wherever called or enter every field where souls are hungry for our message. I may not have enough of this spirit, but this this I know, I hardly ever pass a schoolhouse […]

“New Patterns for Worship”

Monday, June 14th, 2004

The Church of England related book New Patterns for Worship is normally the kind of thing I would recommend you flip through at a library, if you had the chance.

Beginning a daily practice with the red hymnal

Thursday, June 17th, 2004

Perhaps you want to start a daily prayer, or at least regular prayer discipline and you don’t know where to start. (This also applies to small groups, say UUCF chapters.) The available Anglican and Catholic books are written with a certain amount of in-knowledge that is difficult to acquire.

Bisbee’s Why I Am a Universalist, part seven and last

Monday, June 28th, 2004

Universalism believes in the final harmony of all souls with God. This is the conclusion of the whole matters as I have already indicated in my opening remarks. There remains to say but this: We are all facing eternity.

(See all seven installments.)

By Scott Wells

Scott Wells, 46, is a Universalist Christian minister doing Universalist theology and church administration hacks in Washington, D.C.

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