repost: tenebrae liturgy/resources

I've noticed many hits to my site recently with folks searching for 'tenebrae resources.' Last year, I posed the question on my blog - wondering if anyone had tenebrae liturgies besides those in the UM Book of Worship. I did receive some feedback, but the comments no longer appear to be available, so here's another post about tenebrae with some resources i've since found. (Please feel free to comment if you have more ideas!)

The most helpful site I've found so far is here, put together by Ken Collins. On his site, you will find information about what a tenebrae service is and how to conduct a tenebrae service, typically on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, or perhaps Easter Eve.

Another good resource and complete liturgy can be found here, by Rev. Moira Laidlaw (who has many good liturgy resources that I check out regularly when planning worship.)

You can also find orders of worship/readings for tenebrae here, by Bass Mitchell, another site I frequently visit.

Hope this helps, and do share if you know of good resources.

from imdb.com: BushTV

found this blurb in imdb's daily studio briefing section:
"Bush TV - At least 20 federal agencies have produced and distributed hundreds of promotional news clips during the past four years, many of which have aired on the news programs of local TV stations with no disclosure of the government's role in their production, the New York Times disclosed Sunday. They include a State Department-produced clip filmed in Kansas City purportedly showing reaction of Iraqi-Americans to the fall of Baghdad, with one man appearing on camera saying, 'Thank you, Bush. Thank you, U.S.A.' Another report showed a public relations worker for the Transportation Security Administration appearing on camera as a 'reporter' describing the administration's launch of a security program as 'one of the most remarkable campaigns in aviation history.' The 'reporter,' the newspaper revealed, also 'used a false name.' Although recent articles have suggested that a handful of columnists and commentators had been paid by the Bush administration to air positive reports about its programs and policies, the Times said, 'the administration's efforts to generate positive news coverage have been considerably more pervasive than previously known.' The article also accused television stations of 'widespread complicity or negligence' and violating ethics standards by airing the clips without attribution."


Eesh. I don't know why things like this surprise me anymore, but sometimes I'm still caught off guard...

methodist blogroll

Shane Raynor over at Wesleyblog has created a Methodist blogroll, which I've added to my blog (in the ever-lengthening left-hand column) - if you want to add your Methodist blog, follow this link.

Let's Get Jesus Back - Bill Moyers

found via Deep Calls to Deep is this good article from Bill Moyers - Let's Get Jesus Back.

Some excerpts:
And they hijacked Jesus. The very Jesus who stood in Nazareth and proclaimed, “The Lord has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor.” The very Jesus who told 5000 hungry people that all of you will be fed, not just some of you. The very Jesus who challenged the religious orthodoxy of the day by feeding the hungry on the Sabbath, who offered kindness to the prostitute and hospitality to the outcast, who said the kingdom of heaven belongs to little children, raised the status of women, and treated even the tax collector like a child of God. The very Jesus who drove the money changers from the temple. This Jesus has been hijacked and turned from a champion of the disposed into a guardian of the privileged. Hijacked, he was made over into a militarist, hedonist, and lobbyist…sent prowling the halls of Congress in Guccis, seeking tax breaks and loopholes for the powerful, costly new weapon systems that don’t work, and punitive public policies.

Let’s get Jesus back.

The Jesus who inspired a Methodist ship-caulker named Edward Rogers to crusade across New England for an eight-hour workday. Let’s get back the Jesus who caused Frances William to rise up against the sweatshop. The Jesus who called a young priest named John Ryan to champion child labor laws, unemployment insurance, a minimum wage, and decent housing for the poor—ten years before the New Deal. The Jesus in whose name Dorothy Day challenged the Church to march alongside auto workers in Michigan, fishermen and textile workers in Massachusetts, brewery workers in New York, and marble cutters in Vermont. The Jesus in whose name E.B. McKinney and Owen Whitfield challenged a Mississippi system that kept sharecroppers in servitude and debt. The Jesus in whose name a Presbyterian minister named Eugene Carson Blake was arrested for protesting racial injustice in Baltimore. The Jesus who led Martin Luther King to Memphis to join sanitation workers in their struggle for a decent wage.

Toward the end, (which by the way is created from a speech Moyers gave at Riverside in NYC) he speaks about really loving our neighbors, another section I thought was excellent, but couldn't find a good place to cut and paste - so I encourage you to just read the whole thing yourself ;)

"Making Peace" Conference

I want to direct you to this conference called "Making Peace", sponsored by Jeff Krantz and Michael Hardin over at one of my favorite preaching resources, Preaching Peace. The conference is taking place at Watson Homestead in Central New York. You can find details and registration info on their site, but here's a bit more about the event:


Real tools for living Jesus' Vision -

...of peace with Creation
...of peace with ourselves
...of peace within our families
...of peace within the Church
...of peace for the World

As leaders in Christian churches, our hearts burn for the Kingdom of peace that Jesus offered. We find ourselves in a world bent on spiraling violence. We know ourselves called to be peacemakers, but find it more and more difficult to stand against the Principalities and Powers of this world without succumbing to the temptation to become violent in our rhetoric and lives.
What Making Peace offers is a set of tools, tools to understand the growth of rage in our day, tools to resist it in ourselves and in those around us, tools to lead us out of the mob that threatens to engulf us.

What Tools?

We'll come to understand why rage and violence continue to spiral upward through the use of Rene Girard's "Mimetic Theory."
Through study of the Bible, we'll uncover the way that Jesus resisted the victimage mechanisms of his day, and learn practical methods of applying those ways of resisting in our own lives.
We will use prayer, worship, and contemplative practices to build in ourselves a habit of relying on God's sources of strength for the task of resisting violence without becoming violent ourselves.

Test your Poverty IQ - from beliefnet

I found this quiz while surfing on beliefnet.com "Test Your Poverty I.Q.: Do you know how many children in the U.S. are living in poverty right now? Or which area of the world is home to the most hungry people? Take the quiz to see how attuned you are to the problem of poverty in the U.S. and in the world."

I did OK on the quiz, but a couple of the correct answers stuck out to me:
1) The richest fifth of countries in the world consume 45% of the meat, and the poorest fifth consume just 5%. Bad use of resources? You bet. Please, eat less meat. It is really not that difficult.

2) $17,960 - that's the poverty line in 2001 for a family of four (two parents, two children). I am single, and I earn about twice that amount. And I sometimes have a hard time with my finances. Putting things in perspective.

Related, check out this article by David Kuo. He talks about the federal budget in relation to poverty, along with his own personal choices - specifically, an $800 stroller he wants to buy for his baby. It's an extreme example, but Kuo is honest and up front about his dilemma in a confessional sort of way. Reminds me of my brother's post about moral opportunity that I highlighted last week. What choices are you struggling with?

A Cup Of Cold Water - Meditations by Charlened Elizabeth Fairchild

Thanks for responses to my request for communion liturgies. I'll be checking out your suggestions soon. Another piece I've been using in my weekly Lenten services is a guided meditation in place of a message or sermon. I've tried hard to find good ones on the internet, and I want to point you to the site where I've found the most quality meditations all in one place:
A Cup Of Cold Water - an Index Of Devotionals, Poems and Other Writings
By Charlene Elizabeth Fairchild. Many of you sermon-writers will recognize the name Fairchild - these meditations come from the same super site Sermons and Sermon - Lectionary Resources put together by Rev. Richard Fairchild. I encourage you to check both out.

Also, again my apologies to bloglet users - the site seems to keep "un-enabling" my subscriptions, and I have to manually re-do. Sorry for the inconsistency!