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Every service that marks a death or the anniversary of a death, remembers the life of a unique person and should be prepared with utmost care and thought, and approached with reverence. We tread on holy ground when we accompany those who are experiencing loss. This practical and extremely helpful resource book provides guidelines for creating individualised funeral, thanksgiving and memorial services and includes a wide range of prayers, readings and reflections for each stage of the service from the gathering words of welcome to the committal and final blessing, and suggestions for symbolic acts of remembrance. Resources are also included for creating special services, such as for those facing their first Christmas after a bereavement. All resources may be downloaded from the accompanying CD Rom. Pastoral guidance is offered for every step of the way in funeral ministry, including the first visit to a bereaved family, prayers for a funeral visit, making practical arrangements with funeral directors, crafting orders of service, using music and images, and supporting those in particularly distressing circumstances.
Assist Our Song combines accessible teaching about the theology and shape of worship with essential information about the forms of music used, including congregational hymns, songs, canticles and psalm chant, and music performed by choirs and musicians. It explores the range of resources available, how to extend repertoire, blending the old with the new, changing patterns of church life, and other practical issues. Its aims are the heightening of the profile of music within the church, increasing the skills and understanding on the part of musicians and choirs, assisting leaders of worship and empowering congregations to see themselves also as ‘ministers of music’ It offers practical assistance for the ‘delivery’ of music – choosing music, making the most of choirs and working with musicians. It will be welcomed by all who lead, provide or curate music in worship, as well as clergy and ordinands who lack musical expertise or confidence.
This is a comprehensive introduction to Scotland’s major pilgrim routes, past and present. It covers every region and offers inclusive, simple devotional directions related to each journey. The Pilgrim Guide to Scotland is both evocative and inspirational, following each pilgrim journey as a story and as an experience. This is accompanied by simple route and geographical information for walking and travelling in a variety of ways. For those who prefer to explore from the convenience of their armchairs, there is a plethora of enthralling story and information. The concept of pilgrimage is undergoing major revival as a contemporary form of spirituality and faith in Scotland where, for many centuries, it was actively suppressed. Scotland has an exceptionally rich Celtic, medieval and modern spread of sacred places. The pilgrim theme opens up the history, environment and faith of Scotland in a unique way. A fascinating and unique way of exploring Scotland’s spiritual and cultural heritage.
Mission in Contemporary Scotland is the first book to fully examine the challenges and opportunities of Christian mission in contemporary Scotland. It covers all of the most important topics and questions engaging the church today, such as the reality of decline, the changing nature of domestic mission, the response of the Church to change, and the different models of mission that are being used today. Describing and analysing a wealth of concrete examples from a Scottish context, this study gives practical guidance to church leaders engaged in Fresh Expressions and church planting in a Scottish context. A major contribution of the book is to envisage ways in which the institutional Church can respond imaginatively to its secular and pluralist context. This is the first work of its kind and fills a significant gap in the market.
For anyone who is concerned about Church decline, the contents of this book offer an essential blueprint for building God’s whole community in the coming years. This unique set of resources offers practical help and insight for all who want to grow, enrich and develop their congregational life. The Church of Scotland has drawn on the findings of extensive new research that it has commissioned in order to put together this set of carefully crafted and informed resources aimed at helping every congregation to understand why people leave the Church, how to avoid unnecessary departures and, above all, to develop an enriching, vital Christian fellowship with the large numbers of Churchless Christians in every community across the country. This ground-breaking book, illustrated by Dave Walker, offers information, hope, insight, prayerful reflection and practical ideas for bringing together in fellowship all Christians, whether they are members of an institutional Church or not.
Rewilding the Church explores afresh the compelling invitation of Jesus to ‘Follow me’ and the call to ‘throw off everything that hinders and entangles’. It poses provocative questions and issues a call to contribute to the great rewilding of the Church – and to be rewilded ourselves. The same human instincts that have disrupted our natural environment have also constrained and domesticated the Church and Rewilding the Church commends a rediscovery of the adventure of faith.
This inspirational study balances historical reality with present-day relevance for all readers seeking the reality of Jesus in their lives.
First extended treatment of the city of St Andrews during the middle ages. St Andrews was of tremendous significance in medieval Scotland. Its importance remains readily apparent in the buildings which cluster the rocky promontory jutting out into the North Sea: the towers and walls of cathedral, castleand university provide reminders of the status and wealth of the city in the Middle Ages. As a centre of earthly and spiritual government, as the place of veneration for Scotland's patron saint and as an ancient seat of learning, St Andrews was the ecclesiastical capital of Scotland. This volume provides the first full study of this special and multi-faceted centre throughout its golden age. T...
Behind the theme of this new volume in the popular annual Pray Now series, is the belief that everyone has a story to tell, no matter what age or stage of life they are at, and that in worship we weave our stories into the bigger story of God. Our stories are shaped by encounters with other people, with the physical world, with the variety of our own experiences and emotions, and with God. This volume offers a dynamic resource for prayer and reflection that will enable a deeper understanding of how all these kinds of encounters shape us. More than seventy short sections, each containing a scripture quotation, prayers for morning and evening, a short meditation, suggested scripture readings a...