Riverside Church in New York City held a members-only meeting Sunday, following a week of sensational headlines in competing newspapers covering the departure of Pastor Amy Butler.
Amy Butler stepping down after five years at Riverside Church in NYC
The Rev. Amy Butler, the first woman to become pastor of the historic Riverside Church in New York City, is stepping down after five years in the pulpit.
The time is now to discard labels and stop taking sides
The season is here to create welcoming, loving and affirming faith communities and structures that make honest and just space for individuals from different social, political, economic and theological locations.
The endless work of combatting rural poverty can leave you in the dark, but hope flickers
On many days, the endless work of combatting rural poverty leaves you in the dark, utterly hopeless, Frances Ford says, but as Perry County’s own begin to build it themselves, hope flickers. True asset-based community development is sluggish work, and, at times, maybe impossible work.
James Cone and becoming black with God
In his lovely, gentle way, he was professionally pissed off, never fully comprehending how anyone could ever imagine a God who was not an advocate for the oppressed.
Inspired by youth, churches rising to oppose gun violence
Inspired by the concept that nothing changes if nothing changes, people of faith are responding the gun crisis by organizing everything from congregational letter-writing campaigns to strategy conferences to local gun buybacks. Clergy and laypeople involved say the key is doing something — anything — rather than caving in to the enormity of the gun violence issue.
Courageous conversations are no longer optional. It’s time to cross boundaries.
We’re going to have to do more, to move past talking (even preaching!) and into the messy and painful work of deep conversation held together by real relationship. In fact, it’s increasingly my conviction that this may be the heart of the faith community’s work in this moment: building authentic relationships upon which these difficult conversations can rest.
Are public attitudes toward clergy changing? It’s complicated.
Few ministers need coaches or surveys to tell them what Americans think of clergy these days. They can rely on their own experiences for that. Amy Butler does. Based on interactions with strangers on flights, at parties and in other…
Facts or truth? What’s keeping you grounded?
These days the words of the Psalmist keep coming to mind: “I will lift up my eyes to the hills; From where shall my help come?” I imagine that when he wrote these words, the chaos of his life was swirling around…