During my last semester at Wake Forest University’s School of Divinity, I walked the brick pathway of Hearnz Plaza with one of my professors. Our conversation’s focus was on my future plans to move away from my native North Carolina…
Is the pandemic-era church a church without baptisms, funerals and other major rituals?
“I have to ask myself: am I doing anything I was called to do when I became a pastor?”
An alternative to ‘virtual communion’ for the scattered church
Amid discussions about the practice of “virtual communion” in these extraordinary times, we commend an ancient Christian practice that may be relevant for churches today, especially for those that have decided they cannot celebrate communion virtually.
Scrounging for ‘what elements you have around you’ to share virtual Communion
We joined others at the Lord’s Table(s), a community scattered by a deadly pandemic but gathered, alone together, in homes across the city, sacralizing the common things of life by making holy the elements we had around us.
When a transwoman served me communion
To be presented the Body of Christ by a transwoman created a role reversal I had not anticipated. As a pastor, I am accustomed to being the one serving the elements. Today, I was the one who received. And in that moment, I was changed yet again.
Hoping for cessation of ‘war on Christmas’ rhetoric? Don’t, historians say
Another season of the so-called “war on Christmas,” especially in the wake of Donald Trump’s election, may be just enough to drive some people over the edge. And all indications are it isn’t going to go away. “There is no…
Southern communion
By Laura-Lee Kidwell Jones As a hospice chaplain, I am regularly asked, “Why do you visit with Alzheimer’s patients?” My standard answer includes, “Because perhaps they will know that someone is there and they will, possibly, for even a moment…
A lavish welcome to the table
By Amy Butler I’ve always been a little sensitive about being left out, and I don’t even need a therapy session to tell you why. When I was a little kid we would visit my grandparents every summer, and during…
Tasting the Kingdom
Weekly communion heals, unites N.C. church and community
By Jeff Brumley It was back around 2008, during a monthly Friday Lenten service at First Baptist Church on Highland Avenue in Winston-Salem, N.C., that Pastor Darryl Aaron made an unsettling observation. “The economy was real bad, tilting into the…
World Communion Sunday leads across the divide
By Terry Maples Last Sunday, I worshipped at Central Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) where my wife, Joan, serves as minister of music. All worship elements focused on and celebrated World Communion Sunday. Music included Love in Any Language, He’s…
At the Table of Christ
Two rituals, sacraments or ordinances lie near the heart of the faith: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Baptism marks the start of one’s journey with Christ and one’s welcome into the great family of Christ followers. The Lord’s Supper reconnects…