by John Collins on May 31, 2008
by John Collins on May 31, 2008
Because of a hefty “early adapter tax,” we’ve made some changes to the t-shirts. We’ve moved the logo from “the pocket” to the center on the front of the t-shirt. The back has been left the same. Both front and back t-shirts and front only t-shirts may be purchased. You can find the cafepress store through our website or go straight to www.cafepress.com/firstumc.
by John Collins on May 30, 2008
Yoga has been moved from 10:00 am to 11:00 am tomorrow.
by John Collins on May 30, 2008
Via Sojourners:
We cannot help conforming ourselves to what we love.
–Francis de Sales
All the more reason to let the love of God reign in our hearts.
by John Collins on May 29, 2008
The Aldersgate Experience class and the youth group have both watched the movie 2003 movie Luther, staring Joseph Fiennes as Martin Luther. I highly recommend it and the church library has a copy available to borrow.
by John Collins on May 29, 2008
We need someone with a green thumb and a love of landscaping to put the beds in front of the main entrance to the church back in order. If you’re interested/willing please let us know at johnandjenny@revcollins.com.
by John Collins on May 29, 2008
Biked into work this afternoon. It’s a first, but something I hope to do all summer. At 2.4 miles (according to Google Maps), I should be able to get my legs into shape in no time.
by John Collins on May 28, 2008
Via Sojourners:
“Nothing is so important as human life, as the human person. Above all, the person of the poor and the oppressed… Jesus says that whatever is done to them he takes as done to him. That bloodshed, those deaths are beyond all politics: They touch the very heart of God.”
–Oscar Romero, March 16, 1980
Archbishop Romero was a great advocate for the poor in El Salvador according to
Wikipedia:
“Romero was killed by a shot to the heart on March 24, 1980 while celebrating Mass at a small chapel near his cathedral following a sermon where he called on Salvadoran soldiers, as Christians, to obey God’s higher order and to stop carrying out the government’s repression and violations of basic human rights. According to an audio-recording of the Mass, he was shot moments after the homily, which he had concluded with an improvised pre-Eucharistic prayer thanking God (the homily in the Roman Catholic Rite more or less signifies the end of the Liturgy of the Word and the beginning of the Liturgy of the Eucharist or Mass of the Faithful). When he was shot, his blood spilled over the altar.”
“It is believed that the assassins were members of Salvadoran death squads. This view was supported in 1993 by an official U.N. report …”
by John Collins on May 27, 2008
Time magazine has an interview with New Testament Scholar, and Anglican Bishop N. T. Wright on the subject of life after death. N. T. Wright is the author of the book Evil and the Justice of God which I spoke of in Sunday’s Sermon.
Link: www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1710844,00.html
by John Collins on May 26, 2008
According to Barbara Brown Taylor in The Luminious Web: Essays on Science and Religion, pages 29-30:
“In 1996 Pope John Paul II endorsed evolution as part of God’s master plan, just four years after he lifted the Roman Catholic Church’s three-hundred-fifty-year-old condemnation of Galileo. When he first ordered a reexamination of Galileo’s case in 1980, he made a statement that might have applied to Darwin as well. ‘Research performed in a truly scientific manner can never be in contrast with faith,’ he said, ‘because both profane and religious realities have their origin in the same God.’”