St. Lydia’s Dinner Church, in Brooklyn New York, is a different type of church. They gather on Sundays and Mondays to “cook and share a sacred meal, just as the followers of Jesus did.” From their website: We eat, explore scripture, offer prayers, and sing together. Tied to the Lutheran and Episcopal traditions, our worship…
The Alley News is a very local newspaper, based in the Phillips Neighborhood in Minneapolis. In 2014, they published an account and explanation of St. Paul Lutheran Church’s “Notes of Growth and Change.” This looks a lot like the basic facts people would want to have about their particular churches for a congregational timeline. The…
An article from the York, Pennsylvania Dispatch outlined how two churches used ceremony and ritual to merge. Trinity and Fourth United Methodist churches were set to merge, but instead of a more traditional merging ceremony, the planners opted to bring in a particular ritual common to weddings. From the article, At 10:30 a.m. Sunday, the…
The Billings Gazette featured an article discussing interim pastors and the particular roles they play. The article begins: Billings pastors Tom Hall, Joel Westby and Aline Russell enjoy getting together once a month to chat. None of the three recent acquaintances will be in town for more than a year or two, and they come from…
The blog post below was written by Congregational Studies’ Team Engaged Scholar Ria Van Ryn for her college newspaper. ——————————— In a 2014 article in the Observer Rachel Renz defends her decisions to attend a Catholic Christmas Eve service and to write about her experiences in a medium representing a Modern Orthodox institution. Renz notes with disappointment that these decisions…