Signs of the Times • 21 April 2016 • No. 69
¶ Processional. “We are stardust, we are golden, we are billion year old carbon, And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.” —Joni Mitchell, “Woodstock”
Author: ppadmin
Holy Great Smokies
A call to worship recalling the mountain sites of covenant and confrontation in Scripture
by Ken Sehested
Call to Worship
Come to the place where horizons expand, and the gulf between earth and sky shrinks. Here covenants unfold and confrontations are staged.
Read more ›Bearing Courage: Rooted in Hope
Address to the 2016 Alliance of Baptists Convocation
by Ken Sehested
It’s daunting to sit on this stage alongside the talent assembled for this presentation. Obviously I cannot speak of women’s experiences from the inside; but I have consciously, most of my life, attempted to stay close to both the pain and the promise of women’s voices. Not as a moral gesture or generous heart, but for the sake of my own soul. In the end, this is our mandate as followers of the Way, to locate ourselves in compassion proximity to the cracks, attentive to wherever life is unraveled. In the prophetic words of Leonard Cohen, “There’s a crack in every thing. That’s how the light get in.”
Over the course of my life I’ve frequently been asked how I ended up where I am. Raised in a small West Texas town, then in South Louisiana, in traditional Southern Baptist congregations shaped by pietist-revivalist religious currents (which is very different from fundamentalism), to then evolve into a career as an outspoken advocate for justice, peace and human rights.
Read more ›A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence and Power
by Jimmy Carter (2015), reviewed by Bernie Turner
This year Jimmy Carter turned 90 years of age. In his "early" years at the age of 88 he wrote this amazing book A Call to Action. The book is amazing because Carter sets forth his concern for women and children in a powerful way. He reveals how he called on his "friends" from around the world to join him in addressing the issues of violence against women and children.
In this effort he went to the United Nations and helped pass statements of understanding and concern. In this cause he formed a group which he called “Elders” who were leading and prominent political and religious leaders with whom he met to address these concerns. He recognized the value of their political power and their wisdom. In this book he speaks out on "The Bible and Gender Equality." He tackles he very sensitive issues of, genocide of girls, rape, slavery and prostitution, "honor" killings, genital cutting and child marriages.
Throughout the book he has quotes from religious leaders of many faiths, Islam, Hindu and Buddhism. One of my favorite quotes comes from Ritu Sharma, co-funder and president of Women Thrive Worldwide. She says:
Read more ›News, views, notes, and quotes
Signs of the Times • 14 April 2016 • No. 68
¶ Processional. “Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua. Osanna, Osanna in excelsis” (“Heaven and earth are full of thy glory. Hosanna, hosanna in the highest”) —“The Ground,” by Ola Gjeilo, performed by the Heritage Concert Choir at Western Washington University
Acclaim the One whose breath is your bounty
A litany for worship inspired by Psalm 148
by Ken Sehested
Let the room be filled with laud and laughter, oh people of Mercy. Fill the air with music and merriment, with the sound of delight annulling the wail of indigence.
Praise your Maker, you wind and wave. Sun and moon and Bethlehem’s star, shout in exultation!
Read more ›Earth’s habitus
A meditation on creation
by Ken Sehested
“All of creation is a song of praise to God.” —Hildegard of Bingen
Creation is not simply the props and drops,
the costumes and orchestra,
the catwalks and footlights
on the stage of salvation’s drama.
Rather, creation is an active part
in history’s narration.
Without the cosmos,
Salvation’s story
cannot be comprehended.
Without earth’s habitus,
the play’s opening is obscured,
the storyline confused,
the finale unintelligible.
Heaven’s Delight and Earth’s Repose
A litany for worship inspired by Psalm 145
by Ken Sehested
Worthy, worthy the One who conceived the earth and gave birth to bears and basil and beatitudes alike.
We extol you, Heaven’s Delight and Earth’s Repose!
Read more ›Satisfy the earth
A litany for worship on Earth Day
by Ken Sehested
In the beginning the Verdant One saw everything that was made, and behold, it was lavish and delightful. (Genesis 1:31)
The earth is satisfied with the fruit of God’s greening hand. (Psalm 104:13)
Read more ›News, views, notes, and quotes
Signs of the Times • 9 April 2016 • No. 67
Abbreviated issue
This edition of “Signs of the Times” is abbreviated to clear space for hiking in Utah, with some of our kiddos, pictured at right, 
in Dead Horse Point Park: Rich, Jonathan, Jessica, Sydney and (behind) Nancy and Ken.
¶ Processional. Grammy winner Rhiannon Giddens and friends sing at a College Park Baptist Church, Greensboro, NC, rally against HB2, a draconian piece of North Carolina legislation aimed primarily at gay and transgendered persons but also threatens, in the guise of “religious liberty,” discrimination against others (including, of all things, the rights of NC cities to establish minimum wage laws). (3:17. Thanks Jane)
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