I drove past a church this week advertising "Trunk or Treat" for children this Halloween, a somewhat recent innovation on the traditional "trick or treating" cultural ritual whereby costumed children and youth go door-to-door seeking candy. "Trunk or Treat" developed as a more reliably safe alternative to the potential rambunctiousness arising from kids roaming neighborhoods after dark, and it involves conscientious adults gathering to park their cars in a large parking lot (usually at a church), decorating their vehicles, and stocking the trunks with treats and other party favors.
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"Is the funeral service for the living or the dead?" This is not an uncommon question among church goers that I know and serve, and my answer is usually the following: "both and neither." A proper funeral service acknowledges that the congregation has not gathered in response to death in the abstract; a particular and beloved person has died. Therefore it seems unfortunate and shortsighted when the bereaved seek a funeral service devoid of some remembrance of and thanksgiving for the deceased.
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Much of this article was the basis for a
sermon preached at St. George's on September 19, 2010. --RLS
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A little more than a year ago, I made a decision to refrain from visiting blog sites dedicated to the ongoing “civil wars” tearing my beloved denomination from its spiritual home within my equally beloved Anglican Communion. The folks I serve know where I stand on these matters, but I slowly realized that the bitter tone and often nasty spirit (as well as occasional flat falsehoods) that so often find their way onto internet sites dedicated to these issues were making my own spirit brittle. Harsh polemics and personal invective permeate such sites at both poles. Now, I keep up with the goings-on in the larger church through ecclesiastical news outlets (knowing to take many with a “grain of salt”) and church magazines, as well as through personal conversations with leaders whose judgments I value. But I have not regretted for one minute scaling way back on my diet of blog commentary.
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I was interested to read about the latest survey of American spiritual life by The Barna Group indicating that despite appropriately wise cultural stress on the importance of religious dialogue, very few people end up changing their beliefs or practices as a result of exposure to other religious or worldviews. Obviously there is tremendous merit in learning as much as we can about the content of other faiths, but one might have expected such engagement to lead to some alteration or adaptation in people’s existing belief structure. Apparently, such change rarely happens. Only seven percent of those surveyed could think of any beliefs or practices they had altered in the last five years.
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