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The COVID-19 pandemic has complicated death-related issues in the Navajo Nation. Even so, affirming all that's good about "walking in beauty" gives Navajos on the Jesus Way a bridge to comfort people bound by fearful Navajo taboos about death.
How do worship and prayer practices form and sustain us during times of great suffering and grief? Watch this online conversation with Tish Harrison Warren, an Anglican priest and author of the new book Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep [IVP 2021]. In this video, Warren reflects on themes of suffering and lament, vulnerability and joy, and how the Compline prayer service in the Anglican tradition provides a spiritual anchor in dark times. Warren is interviewed by Noel Snyder, program manager at CICW.
May God give us grace and strength to resist lies, arrogance, injustice, racism, and oppression in all forms. In worship, we are called to confess sin, to lament brokenness, and to pray for the end of these travesties, even as we are called to preach and celebrate sacramentally the gospel of Jesus Christ—in which power is made perfect in weakness, in which each person and culture is cherished as God’s gift, in which our hope is based on the life, death, resurrection, and continuing ministry of our ascended Lord, Jesus Christ. We long for a seamless connection between faithful public worship and vital Christian witness in every sector of society and in every cultural context.
Many preachers and congregations claim that politics have no place in their worship. But pastors Meg Jenista Kuykendall and Katie Ritsema-Roelofs say that addressing public issues in worship is essential for congregations to become to Christlike communities.
While funerals have often been seen as family affairs or private activities, death impacts entire communities: both the worshiping community and the community at large. The resources below explore the value and vitality of funeral worship.
Pope Francis has said, "Without the people of the sea, many parts of the world would starve." Though seafarers aboard ships are essential workers, few people think of them. But port chaplains do. Your church can include seafarers and port chaplains in congregational prayers.
The coronavirus pandemic has raised the profile of chaplains and profoundly affected how they do their work. Learn how you and your congregation can pray for chaplains and those they serve.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, bus drivers and other public transport workers have been praised as essential workers. Yet they remain largely invisible to those with the option to travel by private automobile. Your church can include bus drivers and other essential workers in congregational prayers.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced care facility chaplains to adapt. Your church can apply some of these best practices—and remember to include senior care residents and staff in congregational prayers.
James Abbington was inspired to insert an old gospel song before the eulogy at the funeral for baseball star Henry “Hank” Aaron. The reaction prompted him to honor the heritage of Lucie E. Campbell, an influential Black gospel musician whom many people have forgotten.
Although news coverage of public figures’ funerals often focuses most on speakers and eulogists, music is crucial. James Abbington thought pastorally while planning music for baseball star Henry Aaron’s homegoing.
In this episode, Najla Kassab, ordained minister in the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon and president of the World Communion of Reformed Churches, speaks with Maria Cornou about the fear and sadness that COVID-19 brought to the Lebanon and the healing power of God's grace through worship and new ways of seeing injustice and being community for Christians in the Middle East.
