The Sunday Assembly

Addresses the general principles that have guided the shaping of Evangelical Lutheran Worship, considering that central liturgy of Christian worship, Holy Communion. This text examines how worship interacts with environment, music, and the preached word, and features useful and practical suggestions for all those who lead the assembly in worship around word and table.

This book draws on a study of the Sunday Assembly- a "godless congregation"- to reflect on how the Church might better deal with suffering, lament and theodicy. Against a backdrop of a shifting attitudes towards religion, humans are now better connected than ever before. It is no exaggeration to suggest that we carry the suffering of the world in our pockets. In the midst of these intersecting issues, the Sunday Assembly provides insight into how meaning-making in times of trauma and crisis is changing. Drawing on practical theology and using ethnographic tools of investigation, this book includes findings from interviews and observation with the Sunday Assembly in London and Edinburgh. It explores the Sunday Assembly’s philosophy of "celebrating life," and what this means in practice. At times, this emphasis on celebration can result in situations where suffering is "passed over," or only briefly acknowledged. In response, this book considers a similar tendency within white Protestant churches to avoid explicit discussion of difficult issues. This book challenges churches to consider how they might resist the avoidance of suffering through the practice of lament.The insights provided by this book will be of particular interest to scholars of Religious Studies, Practical Theology, Secularism and Atheism/Non-religion.

What should preachers aim for in Sunday preaching? In 1982, the USCCB document Fulfilled in Your Hearing: The Homily in the Sunday Assembly answered this question. Here, in a pastoral commentary on Fulfilled in Your Hearing, several Catholic scholars in homiletics, liturgy, and biblical studies both appreciate the abiding insights of Fulfilled in Your Hearing and also propose areas for continuing reflection. Following the four sections of the Bishops' document??The Assembly, The Preacher, The Homily, and Homiletic Method??this commentary emphasizes the document??s continuing importance for the initial and ongoing formation of Catholic liturgical preachers, while also inviting conversation about present-day cross-cultural, liturgical, and communication concerns for Catholic preaching. Priests, deacons, seminarians, bishops, and al others engaged in the preaching task are invited to deepen their appreciation of the homily's unique role in the liturgical life of the church and to stir their enthusiasm for preaching and preaching preparation. James A. Wallace, CSsR, is professor of homiletics at Washington Theological Union, Washington DC. He is author of Preaching to the Hungers of the Heart: The Homily on the Feasts and within the Rites and The Ministry of Lectors (Liturgical Press), and coauthor of Lift Up Your Hearts, Homilies for the A, B, and C Cycles (Paulist Press).

Ideal for priests, deacons, and those in formation for these ministries, this book offers a practical examination of the principal ingredients for effective homilies.

Who are the "Nones"? What does humanism say about race, religion and popular culture? How do race, religion and popular culture inform and affect humanism? The demographics of the United States are changing, marked most profoundly by the religiously unaffiliated, or what we have to come to call the "Nones". Spread across generations in the United States, this group encompasses a wide range of philosophical and ideological perspectives, from some in line with various forms of theism to those who are atheistic, and all sorts of combinations in between. Similar changes to demographics are taking place in Europe and elsewhere. Humanism: Essays on Race, Religion and Popular Culture provides a much-needed humanities-based analysis and description of humanism in relation to these cultural markers. Whereas most existing analysis attempts to explain humanism through the natural and social sciences (the "what" of life), Anthony B. Pinn explores humanism in relation to "how" life is arranged, socialized, ritualized, and framed. This ground-breaking publication brings together old and new essays on a wide range of topics and themes, from the African-American experience, to the development of humanist churches, and the lyrics of Jay Z.

How to Beat the Cost of Implementing CBW IIIHow your parish can get CBW III without straining its budget: 1) Two-year interest-free financing option allows you to pay in instalments-No payment for 90 days! Order 50 copies or more of CBW III (any combination of Choir and Pew editions). Upon receipt of the invoice, you have three months to pay only one third (1/3) of the amount billed. Pay the second third on the anniversary date of your invoice (a year later), and the last third the following year. No interest will be charged during this period. (Please note that our offer for a two-year interest-free payment plan does not apply to discounted orders.) or...2) Place your order through your diocese and save up to 20%. When placing bulk orders for their parishes, dioceses get a discount. In the case of CBW III, the discount is 20%. We normally bill and ship the order to the diocese, which is then responsible for redistribution. However, for CBW III we have agreed to bill the diocese and ship to individual parishes, when requested.

The landscape of American religion is changing dramatically, Millennials are dropping out of church, and new experimental types of Christianity such as the Emerging Church are coming to the fore. But what is the future of religion in America, and what role will Millennials play in that? The results of three years of scholarly inquiry, this collection of essays looks at the Emerging Church and Millennial religious responses and seeks to define and explore both phenomena, always on the lookout for their intersection. Bringing together a diverse collection of scholars in theology, sociology, history and comparative religion, this book highlights the importance of both the Emerging Church and the Millennial generation’s future for religion.

Recent decades have witnessed the dramatic growth of an organized secularist movement that serves the needs of and advocates for the nonreligious. This volume brings together the latest research on organized secularism in the US, including its history, institution building, activist and political strategies, and its social functions in the lives of secularist individuals and families