Colleagues, The voters assembly of our congregation recently voted–with one “no” vote, I’m told (I wasn’t at the meeting)–to move ahead on a building project of nearly one million dollars to improve our physical plant. The goal is to make our building more user-friendly. That means for us who use it all the time (regular worshippers and our …
Urban Ministry and the Historic Episcopate
Dear Folks, Most of you know me from previous work on Thursday Theology and the Crossings website, though I haven’t been around much this year. I’ve been working on my PhD in Historical Theology at St. Louis University and trying to revitalize urban ministry in the Lutheran church in St. Louis.To that end I attended an urban …
Pastor in a Country Church
Colleagues, Today’s posting is a book review. It’s Richard Lischer’s book about his pastorate in a Lutheran country church not far from us in St. Louis. Such a rural congregation was the church of my childhood, 200 miles farther north on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River. So I connect to the story of New Cana …
The Call to Common Mission [CCM] – One More Time
Colleagues, I’d (almost) taken a vow of silence on ever mentioning CCM again in ThTh after having done so several times in the past 2 years. My own take was, and still is, that unrestricted church-life between US Lutherans and Episcopalians was indeed a good/godly thing, but that the historic episcopate [HE], now woven into the fabric …
The People of God in the Holy Land Today
Colleagues, Tom Getman works in the Jerusalem office of “World Vision.” World Vision is one of the superstars in today’s world-wide Christian mercy ministries. Tom passed this on to some of us yesterday.Even so, Peace & Joy! Ed Schroeder Date: al Naqba Day – May 15, 2001 [Ed’s note: al Naqba, “the catastrophe” in Arabic, is the …
Eucharistic Community: A Canadian Case Study
Colleagues, Two weeks ago Marie and I were in British Columbia, Canada. Main reason was an invitation from ELCA people out in the northwest corner of the USA. They picked Victoria BC–“across the creek” from Seattle/Tacoma–as their conference venue and asked me to speak on the theme “Mission – Inside Out.” Pat Keifert was on the program …
Responses to ThTh 148:”Easter without Eucharist. Feast or Fast?”
Colleagues, The ThTh posting just before Easter (148) reported the battle waged by one of you subscribers just to get the eucharist celebrated in 2 of the 4 Easter services at a big ELCA congregation in the upper midwest. No surprise, it elicited responses. Here are some of them.Peace & Joy! Ed Schroeder RESPONSES An ELCA pastor …
The Theology of West Wing
Today’s Thursday Theology comes from Jim Squire. After hearing that Paul’s breakthrough on faith which became Luther’s (Romans 1:16-17) actually came from one of the Hebrew prophets (Habakkuk) and that there is a minor tradition throughout Judaism that, when faced with the question asked of Jesus (“Which is the greatest sentence of the Law”), a person should …
Easter Message from the Holy Land
From Bishop Munib Younan Easter Message from the Holy Land Salaam and Grace in the name of our Crucified and Risen Lord, Jesus Christ. As I write this message of Easter, I really do not know where to start, lest somebody will ask me: What is the truth? It seems that the truth lies beyond the thoughts of …
Easter without Eucharist. Feast or Fast?
Colleagues, This time a bit of narrative theology. It’s a letter from a ThTh subscriber (also a good friend from days gone by) about his efforts to “save” Easter in a controversy with his own pastor. I thought about captioning it: “The Natives are Getting Restless. Thank God!” But discretion prevailed and I opted for the milder …