The Perfect Stranger's Guide to Funerals and Grieving Practices


Book Description

Based on the How to Be a Perfect Stranger: A Guide to Etiquette in Other People's Religious Ceremonies. The handbook for how to respond in an appropriate way when someone dies—no matter what their faith or denomination. Few of us are ever prepared for the loss of a relative, friend or colleague. This stressful situation can be made worse if we are unfamiliar with the practices and rituals of the deceased person’s religious tradition. This complete guide provides all the answers you need to express your condolences and show your respect in the appropriate way regardless of the religious tradition involved, addressing many common concerns, including: Will there be a ceremony—what will it be like, and how long will it last? What should I wear? What should I avoid doing, wearing, saying? Are flowers appropriate? What is the appropriate behavior if viewing the body? These are just a few of the basic, very practical questions answered in this unique etiquette guide covering all the major (and many minor) denominations and religions found in North America—from Hindu to Presbyterian, from Mennonite to Sikh—helping you to do the right thing in a difficult situation. Covers all the major (and many minor) denominations and religions found in North America: African American Methodist Churches Assemblies of God Baha’i Baptist Buddhist Christian and Missionary Alliance Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Christian Congregation Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) Church of the Brethren Church of the Nazarene Churches of Christ Episcopalian and Anglican Evangelical Free Church Greek Orthodox Hindu International Church of theFoursquare Gospel International Pentecostal Holiness Church Islam Jehovah’s Witnesses Jewish Lutheran Mennonite/Amish Methodist Mormon (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Native American/First Nations Orthodox Churches Pentecostal Church of God Presbyterian Quaker (Religious Society ofFriends) Reformed Church in America/Canada Roman Catholic Seventh-day Adventist Sikh Unitarian Universalist United Church of Canada United Church of Christ Wesleyan




Healing the Jewish-Christian Rift


Book Description

How did a Jewish teacher, healer, sage and mystic become the vehicle for so much hatred and harm directed against his own people? Dialogue is demanding and difficult. It is often painful. It entails deep listening, letting others define themselves and being willing to confront and transform deep-rooted prejudices in ourselves. It requires the courage to re-envision absolutely everything we tend to cherish and protect, and to relinquish our entrenched vainglorious ego attachments, our inflated sense of I, me and mine. This challenge to grow beyond tribalism, to approach others in a fair and reasonable way, is an essential step in our human evolution. from the Invitation to the Reader Judaism and Christianity have had a volatile relationship in their two-thousand-year history. Anger, rivalry, insensitivity, bloodshed and murder have marred the special connection these two Abrahamic faiths share. In the last several decades, scholars, activists, laypeople and clergy have attempted to expose and eliminate the struggles between Jews and Christians. This collaborative effort brings together the voices of Christian scholar Ron Miller and Jewish scholar Laura Bernstein to further explore the roots of anti-Semitism in Christian faith and scripture. In a probing interfaith dialogue, Miller and Bernstein trace the Jewish-Christian schism to its very source in the first book of the New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew. Illuminating the often misunderstood context of Matthew s gospel a persecuted Christian minority writing some sixty years after Jesus s death this examination of a foundational Christian text discerns the ways in which the Jewishness of Jesus was forgotten and Jews and Judaism became Christianity s foil. More important, it takes a renewed look at Matthew with contemporary retellings that present a new and better future of conciliation and compassion between the two faith traditions.




Learning to Lead


Book Description

The first comprehensive resource for teaching spiritual leadership development in the twenty-first century—for all faith traditions. America is changing. Technology, social networking, global economics, immigration, migration and multiculturalism urge communities of faith to expand their vision of spiritual leadership and reflect on how leaders can better serve congregations and communities in the twenty-first century. In this multifaith, cross-cultural and comprehensive resource for both clergy and lay persons, contributors who are experts in the field explore how to engage spiritual leaders and teach them how to bring healing, faith, justice and support to communities and congregations. They offer tools, advice, practical methodologies and case studies on how stakeholders—congregational leaders, ordained religious leaders, educators, students and community leaders—learn how to do theology in context and grow into faith leadership roles.




Summer


Book Description

In this lush collection of reflections by several great writers, readers can explore the rich vibrancy of summer and reflect on how nature teaches people to value time. Contributors include Anne Lamott, Luci Shaw, Ray Bradbury, Mary Oliver, and Jamaica Kincaid.




Do Funerals Matter?


Book Description

Do Funerals Matter? is a creative interweaving of historical, sociocultural, and research-based perspectives on death rituals, drawing from myriad sources to create a picture of what death rituals have been; and where, especially in the Western world, they are going. Death educators, researchers, counselors, clergy, funeral-service professionals, and others will appreciate the book’s theory- and research-based approach to the ways in which different cultural groups memorialize their dead. They will also find clear clinical and practical applications in the author’s exploration of the five ritual anchors of death-related ceremonial practice and help for professionals counseling the bereaved surrounding funerals. Based on nearly three decades of research and teaching on funeral rites, this volume promises to fill an important gap in the cross-cultural literature on bereavement, while answering an important question for our generation: Do funerals matter?




InterActive Faith


Book Description

This practical guide to the key methods and resources of the interfaith movement will help you effectively engage people of other faith traditions in order to increase understanding and acceptance in your community and beyond.




Finding Grace at the Center (3rd Edition)


Book Description

A new edition of the classic that helped launch the Centering Prayer movement. Centering Prayer is a precious part of the ancient spiritual traditions of the West. When Finding Grace at the Center was first published in 1978, people all over the world welcomed this practical guide to a simple and beautiful form of meditative prayer. Reflections and advice on Centering Prayer's possibilities--and its pitfalls--are presented with clarity and simplicity, with a vision of the deeper life of the soul that contemplative prayer can bring about. Now, with a new foreword by Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault, PhD, another generation will discover the amazing difference Centering Prayer can make in their lives.




God the What?


Book Description

Challenge our common images of God by blowing the lid off conventional God-descriptors. “We do not have to let go of one sense of God to take up another. Neither do we need to go about challenging old metaphors. What is crucial is to find a metaphor—or two, or six—that creatively point toward what we believe.” —from Chapter 1 Let Carolyn Jane Bohler inspire you to consider a wide range of images of God in order to refine how you imagine God to have and use power, and how God wills and makes divine will happen—or not. By tapping into your God-given ability to re-imagine God, you will have a better understanding of your own beliefs and how you, God, and the world relate to each other. Wonderfully fresh and down to earth, Bohler uses playful images, moving stories, and solid scholarship to empower you to break free of old habits and assumptions, whatever your faith tradition. She encourages you to explore new names for God that are not only more consistent with what you believe, but will also deepen and expand your experience of God. Think about... God the Choreographer of Chaos God the Nursing Mother God the Jazz Band Leader God the Divine Blacksmith God the Divine Physical Therapist God the Team Transformer ... and more




Bread, Body, Spirit


Book Description

Food plays a remarkable role in the daily routine of our lives. Whether we make time to eat with our families, or hit the drive-through on the way to doing something else, food and how we approach it has the extraordinary power to unite us with others and nurture our connection to the Divine.




The Secret Book of John


Book Description

This ancient Gnostic text can be a companion for your own spiritual quest The Secret Book of John is the most significant and influential text of the ancient Gnostic religion. Part of the library of books found in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945, this central myth of Gnosticism tells the story of how God fell from perfect Oneness to imprisonment in the material world, and how by knowing our divine nature and our divine origins—that we are one with God—we reverse God’s descent and find our salvation. The Secret Book of John: The Gnostic Gospel—Annotated & Explained decodes the principal themes, historical foundation, and spiritual contexts of this challenging yet fundamental Gnostic teaching. Drawing connections to Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, kabbalistic Judaism, and Sufism, Davies focuses on the mythology and psychology of the Gnostic religious quest. He illuminates the Gnostics’ ardent call for self-awareness and introspection, and the empowering message that divine wholeness will be restored not by worshiping false gods in an illusory material world but by our recognition of the inherent divinity within ourselves. Now you can experience and understand this foundational teaching even if you have no previous knowledge of Gnosticism. This SkyLight Illuminations edition presents the most important and valued book in Gnostic religion with insightful yet unobtrusive commentary. It provides deeper insight into the understanding that in Gnosticism the distinction between savior and saved ceases to exist—you must save yourself and in doing so save God.