Celeste Kennel-Shank
Ferguson pastor, scholar address ongoing struggle against racism
Pastor F. Willis Johnson captured national attention last August after Mike Brown, an unarmed teenager, was shot and killed in Ferguson, Missouri....
The Layman, critical Presbyterian voice, ceases print publication
The newspaper published by the Presbyterian Lay Committee, The Layman, ceased printing at the end of 2014, but the PLC will continue to provide information and resources online and plans...
All people die with dignity
What troubles me greatly about Oregon’s law—and the movement for more like it—is its name.
Amid drought, churches draw together
In what is supposed to be the harvest season, many parts of California are feeling the effects of the drought that has raged for most of the year.
...Babies at risk
Singing “Nothing Is Lost on the Breath of God” in church recently, my mind called up the face and tiny body of the most ...
Seminary faculty, dean at impasse
Nearly the entire full-time faculty at the Episcopal Church’s oldest seminary is battling with the school’s leadership, although the sides do not agree on whether the professors quit, were fired, o...
UCC investment fund will be free of fossil fuels
The United Church of Christ’s investment arm is launching a fund this fall that is free of fossil fuel extraction and production companies—possibly the first such fund based in a Christian denomina...
10 books worth the return visit
The books I've read repeatedly are the ones that have probed my heart and expanded my vision.
4 true confessions of a truly bivocational minister
A few months ago I wrote about the difference between having two jobs and two vocations. A commenter wondered, "What if you really do have two callings?” I’ve been doing bivocational ministry in one way or another for the past seven years. Overall I have found having two vocations—I serve as a hospital chaplain in addition to being a Century editor—to be fruitful and fulfilling. But I have to confess that it isn’t easy.
Do I have to take Isaiah 58:7 literally?
A particular verse of scripture has been haunting me lately. I hear it as an indictment of an aspect of my personal life.
First, it was a lectionary text in Epiphany. Then I found it in the unifying passage of a devotional book I read.
“Bring the homeless poor into your house,” we read in Isaiah 58:7, part of a passage on genuine fasting.
Let the afterlife mystery be
In the days after my grandmother died, my aunts introduced me to Iris DeMent's song “Let the Mystery Be." As is true for many people, from the early years of Christian faith, the loss of one dear to me sparked wonderings about what happens after death. I have fuzzy, 15-year-old memories of one of my aunts thinking aloud about the possibility of reincarnation, and older family members assuring us all that my grandmother was sitting at the feet of Jesus.
Vincent Harding, a true hero
Vincent Harding combined his sensibilities as a historian and as a pastor. He called us, as individuals and as a nation, to face our weaknesses and learn from them.
Mixed and matched: Challenges of interfaith weddings
Interfaith couples can connect to their traditions and find commonality through symbols, such as a strand of rope that signifies unity and strength.
Prayers that question
Alden Solovy’s prayers touch on the times of life we most fear. He finds words for the moments in which most of us have only tears and groans.
...Does having two jobs make you bivocational?
A few years ago I was interviewing a couple of church planters, and the conversation turned to finances. The husband-and-wife team, Juan and Cirila Lugo, had paid out-of-pocket for many expenses when the congregation began meeting. They were pleased that it had become self-sufficient enough to hire Juan full time. Cirila told me, without a hint of complaint, about writing sermons on her lunch break while she drove a delivery truck six days a week.
But she didn't call herself bivocational, and rightly so.
Visitor anxiety
I’m always a little on edge when I spot visitors at church, especially
truly new people who are checking out our congregation for the first or
second time.
A rare, uncomfortable ritual
Tonight is the one service of the year in which many churches practice footwashing....