The Gift of Friendship
Friendship is a priceless gift
That cannot be bought or sold
But its value is far greater
Than a mountain made of gold
For gold is cold and lifeless
It can neither see nor hear
And in the time of trouble
It is powerless to cheer
It has no ears to listen
No heart to understand
It cannot bring you comfort
Or reach out a helping hand
So when you ask God for a Gift
Be thankful if He sends
Nor diamonds, pearls or riches
But the love of real and true friends........
There are many ways people celebrate Easter......
Different cultures have their own unique traditions that accompany the commemorations.
Some are solemn and others are joyful.
Each of us brings his or her own family, faith or national customs to the occasion, customs that symbolize for us the meaning of Easter......
The Meaning of Easter
The meaning of Easter is Jesus Christ's victory over death. His resurrection symbolizes the eternal life that is granted to all who believe in Him. The meaning of Easter also symbolizes the complete verification of all that Jesus preached and taught during His three-year ministry. If He had not risen from the dead, if He had merely died and not been resurrected, He would have been considered just another teacher or Rabbi. However, His resurrection changed all that and gave final and irrefutable proof that He was really the Son of God and that He had conquered death once and for all.
However, Easter did not always symbolize Christ's resurrection from the dead and the meaning of Easter was quite different than what Christians celebrate today. The feast day of Easter was originally a pagan celebration of renewal and rebirth. Celebrated in the early spring, it honored the pagan Saxon goddess Easter. When the early missionaries converted the Saxons to Christianity, the holiday, since it fell around the same time as the traditional memorial of Christ's resurrection from the dead, was merged with the pagan celebration, and became know as Easter. The meaning of Easter was also changed to reflect its new Christian orientation.
Today, the meaning of Easter, for million of Christians, is that of honoring and recognizing Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead, and His glorious promises of eternal life for all who believe in Him................
No matter what your Faith is or what you personally believe in, whether we are talking about Easter or other Holidays or something else.............
The most important thing to do ~ is to LOVE ~ LOVE your Family ~ Friends and ALWAYS treat people the way you would want to be treated....in return......
My Easter Basket is filled
with thoughts of you...
You put the hip in my hop Bunny..
Hop over here for Easter...
Another Eggscuse For Chocolate
Hippity Hoppity Easters On Its Way
It's Easter For Peep's Sake
You are some bunny special!
A Basketful of Blessings
From one egghead to another
Have an Egg-cellent Easter!
Happy Easter Everyone!
Remember the reason for the
season and make yourself
The World A Better Place
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We're getting ready to begin our 7th year having Heart to Home in our Church. One thing we think women should know is that every woman can be involved in Heart to Home. Whether you're a college student or a grandmother, married or single. Whether you have children or not --or if your children have grown up and your nest is empty-- there is a place for you in Heart to Home.
HEART SISTERS -
A Heart Sister is a single woman, a wife and/or mother with children still in her home, or a single mom with Children in her home. A Heart Sister agrees to commit to a small group (Heart Group) for a minimum of nine months. She will be the guest of honor at a Host Heart Mom’s home along with other young women and enjoy Christian hospitality through a meal, friendship, fellowship, and Bible study.
A Heart Mom is a Christian woman who honors God and agrees to help guide and influence a younger Christian sister. She is a woman who is passing on the legacy of faith and fellowship. She may serve as a Host Mom who shares the hospitality of her home, a Helper Mom who assists the Host Mom, assisting with the activities or food preparation and she may be the Bible teacher who delivers the lesson. A Heart Mom commits to a Heart Group for a nine-month season.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE A HEART MOM, EMAIL email@example.com BY AUGUST 25th.


"We Walk by Faith and Not by Sight" 2Corinthians 5:7
We are told that our faith journey is a tremendous blessing and reward. It is a journey that is exciting, life-altering, and mind boggling.
He is teaching you to trust Him so He can do something bigger and better than you ever dreamed possible (Ephesians 3:20-21).
He is teaching you to let go and trust Him with your heart, your soul, your life (Proverbs 3:5-6).
He is teaching you to walk every single day in the spirit so that He can do even greater works in you and through you (John 14:12).
Why am I writing this? Because this is the root of the awe and wonder Ezra, Neema and I realize every day in this faith journey leading the Nancy Foundation. When I left for Tanzania, Ezra and Neema had done great networking and set up a tentative itinerary. But we knew from past experiences that God would put us on the path HE wanted for us. The people, organizations, and experiences were laid out for us before we even realized it! The lyrics of Matthew West's song "Do Something" have inspired us to do some small part...."I thought, "God, why don't You do something? He said, "I did, I created you". "If not us, then who, if not me and you...if not now then when?"
The first week I met with area Social Work Officers who gave me information on the perils of women and young girls. Most girls are valued only for the bride price the family gets from a future husband's family: cows, goats, etc. Many men feel that the education of women is a waste of time and money, so they are not encouraged to study and aim for a high school or college education.
I visited the Bugisi Health Center (the center we have been supporting since March 2018) for 4 days over the second week. The Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles were gracious hosts. We verified all of the supplies purchased for the women there (prenatal vitamins, ultrasound fees, and kanga traditional fabrics to wrap the newborns in when they are born at the health center). We interviewed prenatal patients as well as post partum patients who were recipients of our donations and described the impact the donations have made on their lives. When the staff come together before daily morning report, one person reads the bible readings for the day, another leads prayers and intentions, and a spiritual song is started and sung in Swahili. This is a perfect collaboration of faith and healthcare in this faith-based clinic. I felt right at home!
The day after I returned to Shinyanga, Neema & I were requested by the faith-based Ngokolo Health Center at the cathedral to teach prenatal class. We presented some nutrition information using a poster of the African Food Pyramid, discussion of old pregnancy myths, etc. The Head Nurse asked us to return every day the following week to teach more women. She set up a tent & projector for us, as the number of women were too numerous for the hospital spaces. I found in-utero videos of fetal development which were positively received. The other crucial discussion was to discourage pregnant women from eating dirt during pregnancy. It is a readily accepted custom and is for sale throughout the marketplace.
We have been invited back next Easter to present at the local youth conference. We also have been asked to conduct more classes for the women in the area.
Below are excerpts from the annual report at Bugisi Health Center:
"The desired outcome of the Nancy Foundation's participation was an increase in the number of women enrolled in antenatal care, and ultimately a decrease in maternal and infant mortality by severe anemia and malnutrition. From June 2018 onward, a 185% increase was seen in successful deliveries and a 224% increase in admissions. As this increase is mostly seen from the implementation of the Nancy Foundation's program onward, it can safely be said that the distribution of free prenatal vitamins, ultrasounds and kangas has contributed to the improvement of lives of pregnant women in Tanzania. Thus while Bugisi performs well on neonatal health, it is important that the Nancy Foundation keeps up their efforts to consistently improve both maternal and child health in rural Tanzania."
God has lead us to focus on saving the lives of pregnant women and their infants, but this also affects each family they belong to.
Your generous donations will help us keep up with the soaring increase in numbers of women receiving crucial help. If our goal is to save lives and increase access to healthcare, the funds required are also increasing! If you could see the poverty there, you would know why we don't want to turn any needy woman away due to lack of funds. God bless you for your loving support!


Thanksgiving…all of it back to the LORD, our GOD, Almighty. Amen.
Romans 14:17-19 (New International Version)
17For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.
19Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.


The Return of the Christ
& The Shepherd Kings
2 1/2 HR. 2 disc Set DVD – $30
From biblical sources we learn that the birth of Jesus had long been predicted by Jewish prophets, as well as sages in several different lands. Likewise we learn that the birth of Buddha, Pythagoras, and Mithra had also been prophesied by the wise men of their eras. Today millions of Christians around the world await the Second Coming of Jesus, wondering exactly what form such a rebirth would take. This fascinating historical odyssey takes us on a journey into a world of deep spiritual Mysteries, where we discover the existence of the Four Great Kumaras, the four “eternally deathless Sons of God” who incarnate periodically on our planet.
Long spoken within the innermost circles of the Ancients, and chronicled in the Vedas, the ancient scriptures of India, it is believed that Jesus, Buddha, Thoth, Horus, Krishna, Rama and Osiris were all incarnations of these powerful and illumined Bodhisattvas. But who are the Four Great Kumaras and by what signs shall we know them? How do they differ from one another, and what evidence is there that they have walked the Earth in past ages, and will walk the Earth again? How are they connected with the Great White Brotherhood and the establishment of the spiritual Mystery Schools? What are their hermetic signs and seals that have followed them from one incarnation to the next? And perhaps most intriguingly, are they returning to our planet today? This is one presentation you won’t want to miss!
ORDER THIS DVD NOW


It’s not easy being an INFP, period. I wouldn’t trade the way I am for anything, though. I might like to change the way the world is, but I like myself just fine the way I am. It’s splendid to be able to spend hours in my own company and be happy. I would hate to be dependent upon the presence of other people for my happiness. I know so many people who can’t stand to be alone, ever, who can’t tolerate silence for longer than about thirty seconds, who never seem to stop talking, who always have to have either the TV or the radio on in order to drown out their own thoughts. I don’t have any desire to be like them.
But it has really been hard adjusting to “church life.” I had a bit of a crisis at one point, feeling like perhaps I didn’t belong, didn’t fit in. The constant emphasis on “community” and on doing things with people and on serving in active, visible ways was starting to make me feel quite alienated and misunderstood.
But I’m coming out of that, thanks be to God, and I mean that literally. I realized that God made me this way, and He is the one I need to be talking to about it. So I started praying about it, and several things have happened.
I was led to investigate what it can mean to be a hermit, in the spiritual sense, while making one’s way in the secular world. I started learning about “Rules of Life,” and decided to work at establishing a habit of regular prayer – morning, noon, and bedtime. Insights and new thoughts started coming to me. Then, for Advent, a class was offered – four sessions on “Contemplative Prayer.” I could hardly believe it. I signed up. The parishioner who led the class is a wonderful, gentle, introverted man who, having been ordained as a Roman Catholic priest at one time, has had lots of training and guidance and believes that mystics and contemplatives do have a place in the church, and do serve in an important, albeit invisible way, through prayer.
I’m starting to finally believe that you don’t have to sing in the choir, or serve on the Vestry, or be in the Altar Guild, or volunteer for everything, or help with the feeding program, or make small talk at coffee hour, or lead the youth group, or teach Sunday School, or attend every single meeting that comes up, in order to be a good human being and a good Christian. Don’t misunderstand me – these are all wonderful things to do, and I’m glad there are people willing to do them. But there are also “invisible” ways to serve and they are perfectly valid and valuable.
I’m serving when I drop money into the collection plate, and when I contribute to special needs that arise. I’m serving when I pray for others. I’m serving when I take photographs for use in the newsletter or on social media. I’m serving when I update the church website, which is a job I’ve just agreed to take over from Cat, because I finally feel confident enough to do it. I’m serving when I bake cookies for the Kairos prison ministry or for a bake sale. Let the more extroverted folks have a get-together to pack them – it’s fine for me to drop them off and leave.
I sat in my pew on Sunday, drinking in the sight of the altar before me. It was beautiful – the stained glass windows behind it, the big gold cross shining in the middle, the warm light of the candles, the beauty of the flowers. The white linens, and the big red Gospel, and the figurines of the Three Wise Men, carefully arranged there in honor of Epiphany. I had my own little epiphany as I sat there letting the beauty and power of it all wash over me. To me, all of those visual symbols are mysterious and magical. If I were on the Altar Guild (which I have been approached about) and had helped to arrange all of it, if I’d unpacked the Wise Men and set them into place, if I’d laid out the linens and arranged the flowers and placed the candles, the whole scene would have lost its power, for me. My proper place is in the pew, in the congregation, where I can lay down the burdens of life for a week, and commune with my God, in my heart, in my own way. I can best appreciate the liturgy from that perspective, as one of the “people.” It’s how I recharge my spiritual and emotional batteries. After a week out “in the world” dealing with all the pressures and hassles of my job, I need to come and sit and be reminded that there’s more to life than stress and noise and rushing around. I need to be refreshed. The gifts I have to offer need to be nurtured and cared for; if I allow church to become another job, I won’t be able to serve God the way I’m suited to do.
It’s interesting that it’s in church where I’m finding a way to free myself from the extroverted majority’s opinion that you have to be social and busy and outwardly productive in order to matter. And I’m grateful.


Marian Hope Academy opened in September 2013. We offer learning for Kindergarten through 12th grade students. We utilize the Classical Christian Philosophy as the curriculum foundation. With that, however, we believe that children are created “uniquely special” and, therefore, learn in “uniquely special” ways. We are not an academy that focuses on a “cookie cutter” curriculum but rather desires to build appropriate curriculum to meet and challenge the level of each child. Varying teaching strategies and experiential learning activities will be incorporated into each child’s curriculum plan. We are blessed to have a remarkable committee of dedicated educators and parents eager to help each student in our academy become the amazing person God created them to be and to achieve their God-given potential.
To provide the highest quality of education, it is important we maintain a low teacher-para/student ratio no higher than 1-10. We provide daily opportunities for one-on-one learning as needed, large group activities, and pairing of differing developmental levels. We will provide weekly opportunities for Art, Music, Fitness, Cooking, Latin, Oral Communication (such as speech/debate/forensics) and Drama/Presentations and other stage opportunities to verbally communicate ideas and information. We will additionally coordinate field trips and a monthly mission outing. The students in our academy will also take on a variety of responsibilities to foster work ethic, organizational skills, and cleanliness.
Most importantly, our academy is governed by the love of Jesus Christ. The children receive daily prayer and devotion. We want the Bible to come to life for our students and for each to know how very much God loves them. Read our Statement of Faith. “And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is.” ~Ephesians 3:18


This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. This is my command: Love each other. ~ John 15:12-17 (NLT)
Okay, first, let me clarify that, in no way, am I questioning the “trueness” of Jesus’ friendship with us. He’s proven Himself a worthy Friend, over and over to all of us.
What I am asking is, have we done the same?
What standard can you measure the “true-ness” of our friendship to Jesus Christ? I think there is a very clear standard here in this passage,
“You are my friends if you do what I command”.
It’s very popular right now to lay claim to “being a friend of God”.
We all know what the measure of a true friend is in our worldly relationships.
We chose friends who will be loyal, faithful, loving, kind, encouraging, helpful, supportive, etc.,
We avoid “friends” who stab us in the back, turn on us when we need them, are cruel, are not there when we need them, etc.
So, knowing that Jesus is the most faithful Friend, I must ask,
What kind of friend are we to Him?
Do we turn on Him, rather than defending Him to others?
Do we show His love to those in need?
Are we faithful to Him in our thoughts, words, actions and reactions?
It’s one thing to lay claim to being a friend of God but quite another to prove it with our lives.


"Has been a lifesaver so many times!"
- Catherine Rampell, student @ University of Washington
"Exactly the help I needed."
- Jennifer Hawes, student @ San Jose State
"The best place for brainstorming ideas."
- Michael Majchrowicz, student @ University of Kentucky
The book of Kells
The book of Kells: a celtic masterpiece: In a time when the British
Isles were bombarded by raids from the ferocious Vikings of the Scandinavian
Peninsula, many works great works of art were destroyed. Often, beautiful works
were buried underground for safety. However, many were never uncovered. One
amazing work that managed to survive through these tumultuous times was The Book
of Kells. This sacred book has a rich history in Ireland, which does not begin
with the Viking raids, but centuries earlier.
* © Copyright DueNow.com Inc. *
The book of Kells: a celtic masterpiece
The Book of Kells: A Celtic Masterpiece
In a time when the British Isles were bombarded by raids from the ferocious
Vikings of the Scandinavian Peninsula, many works great works of art were
destroyed. Often, beautiful works were buried underground for safety. However,
many were never uncovered. One amazing work that managed to survive through
these tumultuous times was The Book of Kells. This sacred book has a rich
history in Ireland, which does not begin with the Viking raids, but centuries
In fourth century Ireland, Christianity was seen as a religion of the lower
classes and slaves. The majority of the population, including the aristocracy,
was pagans. It was not until the sixth century that Christianity became
prevalent among the aristocracy. This rise of Christianity in Ireland is partly
due to one of the patron saints of Ireland, Colum Cille, who later became St.
Columba of the Catholic Church.
Colum Cille was born in the year 521, and was destined to be the heir to the
throne of Ireland, for he was blood related to the leaders of the country. But,
he realized that he did not want to be part of the political scene of Ireland.
Instead, he wanted to devote his life to Jesus Christ. Therefore, he fled to the
island of Iona off the western coast of England.
On Iona, there were a few settlements of Irish, and Colum Cille established a
monastery, which became known as the Columban order. His monastery would send
missionaries to the rest of the Isles and to the continent, spreading the word
of Christ to the pagan tribes. It is mostly due to the missionary work of Colum
Cille\'s monastery that Christianity became so prevalent in the British Isles.
But, in the ninth century, the island of Iona came under the attacks of the
violent Norsemen, and the monastery was abandoned. Many of the monks were killed
and the settlements plundered. The remaining monks fled back to the mainland and
established a monastery at Kells, in the County of Meath, which eventually
inherited the prestige that Iona had as the center of the Columban order. It was
here that they sought refuge from the Vikings threats.
Finally, in 878, the abbot of Iona, who was always referred to as "the
successor of Colum Cille", went back to the monastery on Iona to retrieve
the shrine and other valuable items that remained there. Some think that the
book of Kells was one of these "precious objects of Colum Cille" that
were brought back to Kells. Over the next 120 years, Kells fell under the
attacks of the Vikings. The church of the Kells was destroyed and rebuilt
multiple times over this period. How any of the great works that were retrieved
from Iona survived these sackings is still unknown.
The first mention of The Book Of Kells in history was in the monastery
records in 1006, when it was stolen from the Church of Colum Cille in Kells. It
was not referred to as The Book of Kells, though. Instead it was called the
great gospel of Colum Cille, and was considered the most important relic of the
western world. It was also entered in the records that the book was found two
months later, but it had been buried and stripped of its of its gold, jewel
studded cover. After this entry, it is almost as if The Book of Kells had been
forgotten about until 1539, when the monastery was dissoluted.
Upon the dissolution of the monastery, Richard Plunket, the final abbot of
the monastery in Kells, gained ownership of The Book of Kells. Then, it is
believed that The Book of Kells fell into the hands of Geralde Plunket, most
likely a relative of the last abbot. On certain pages, there is writing that is
initialed "GP" and it gives the number of pages that were present,
upon his receiving of The Book of Kells. But, a lot of information is not known
about Geralde Plunket, and
View Full Essay
Book of Kells, County Meath, Scotland in the Early Middle Ages, Trinity College Library, Dublin, Celts, Vikings, Medieval art, Abbey of Kells
More Free Essays Like This


“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
Is there anything God cannot do?
Yes. He cannot sin. Specifically, He cannot and will not do anything He does not want to do. To put the matter positively, God can do anything that He wants to do.
Christian, God has desired to save you. He has done it. Jesus has already died for your sins. His righteousness has already been imputed to you by faith in Christ. Your salvation is His work in your life. Rejoice today! Although your finances are bleak, although your health is failing, you are going to heaven! “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”


Autom : Hematite Devotional Saints Bracelet with 22 Medals
Hematite Devotional Saints Bracelet with 22 Medals : $23.94
Wear this beautiful Devotional Saints bracelet with assorted Catholic image of Saints and be reassured every day of their intercessions
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- Includes: Immaculate Heart, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Grace, Sacred Heart, Divine Mercy, Guardian Angel, St. Jude, Holy Family, St. Michael, Crucifixion, Madonna & Child, St. Francis of Assisi, Our Lady of Fatima, Infant of Prague, St. Therese, St. John Paul II, Divino Nino, Head of Christ, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, St. Pio, St. Benedict
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Oh, Holy Night (Christmas Carol) (sheet music)
“O Holy Night” (French: Cantique de Noël) is a well-known Christmas carol composed by Adolphe Adam in 1847 to the French poem “Minuit, chrétiens” (Midnight, Christians) by the poet, Placide Cappeau (1808–1877). In Roquemaure in 1843, the church organ was recently renovated. To celebrate the event, the parish priest asked Cappeau to write a Christmas poem and Cappeau obliged. Soon after, Adolphe Adam wrote the music.
I made this arrangement back in 2011 but forgot all about it after leaving to celebrate Christmas in Miami, FL. I made the last adjustments and finished it for this Christmas.
It has recently been popular when Mariah Carey made a recording in 1994.
Level: 3-4, Pages: 1 (2 including cover)


Time to invite God In
There should never be a time that you don't invite God into your individual life. As a couple it is very important to invite him in together as one so you can receive His guidance for your lives as a unit. He is the head of your family and before the body can move it must get the signal from the head. God's Word as given to us from the bible emphasizes the significance of our spiritual condition. It tells us the importance of being on the same page as a couple spiritually. We can not reach our full marriage potential if we are in different places spiritually.
This fall as our ministry begins its new sessions of workshops our focus is on intimacy. We will begin with what is known as spiritual intimacy. God's plan for his married couples is to obtain intimacy on all levels not just physical. Spiritual intimacy enhances our physical intimacy to a level that expands us beyond our wildest dreams. We become connected deep down into the core of our being and we become one in every way. Spiritual intimacy is the foundation for all intimacy between a loving couple.
Any good construction is only as strong as its base. By seeking spiritual intimacy it allows the couple to develop trust, oneness, and closeness. It places God as the Head of the household. It completes the marriage making it stronger. By taking the focus off of self and selfish needs and placing it on God and Kingdom building. It gives the couple a secure center to work from as it introduces hope and joy into the marriage. It provides a home environment where there is safety, peace, love and forgiveness. Most of all it reduces conflict between the couple.
As you start reflecting on your marriage or relationship this fall make sure to invite God in. It's time!!! If you have not begun to develop spiritual intimacy now is a great time to start. You can start by first talking about it. Discuss your true beliefs. Talk about your religious backgrounds. Did you attend church growing up and how does that affect you as a married person today. Many of you reading this now will think that this is something that the couple should have investigated at the beginning of the relationship, and I too agree. However in most cases spirituality is not something that most new couples discuss, and many never have pre-marital counseling.
Second do you as a couple attend church? If not, a good first step is to find a good bible based church that both of you agree to attend. Then attend regularly and get involved in your church family. Find out from God what work He wants you to do in the church. We all have jobs and there is nothing too big or too small when it comes to Kingdom building.With the right church home you will be provided with the spiritual foundation you need for learning and relationships. As a couple you should join the marriage ministry at your church, if the church does not have one then join an outside one such as 2-R-1-N CHRIST. As you grow and learn then maybe you can become mentors to other couples and bring this type of ministry to your church.
Third learn how to pray together. At first this may make you uncomfortable because prayer is very intimate, but that is the key to open the gates to spiritual intimacy as a couple. As you continue to do it you will become more comfortable and you will desire to connect together more often in this way with God.
Fourth you must study God's Word by reading and learning your bible. As we stated above being a part of a marriage and relationship ministry will teach you a lot. You must also go to regular bible study sessions and read and study the material. This is something great to do together. Obtain other books that are relevant to your needs. These sources are good to use to address your toughest questions.
All in all we must remember that God created the union of marriage. He is the ultimate source. We need to keep Him as the focal point in our relationship. The beauty of it all is that when a couple achieves spiritual intimacy as God intended it to be everything else enhances to a super degree. Spiritual intimacy will provide power to you as a couple. You will be able to walk together and never touch the ground because your foundation is built on the Rock of Christ.


More than a million Christian visitors come to Israel each year, to visit the sacred sites, where pilgrims from all sections of Christianity can pray.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre: located in the Old City of Jerusalem and believed to be the site of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion and burial, is one of the holiest sites in Christianity.
There are many other important Christian churches and sites in Jerusalem, though, some of which we will list here:
Cenacle: The Cenacle, which comes from the Latin word for supper “cena”, is located on Mount Sion and believed to be the site of Jesus’s Last Supper. The building on the site has changed many times, and a Gothic structure currently stands there.
Church of All Nations: Also known as the Church or Basilica of the Agony, this Roman Catholic church situated on the Mount of Olives contains a section of the bedrock where Jesus is believed to have prayed before his arrest. It sits near the Garden of Gethsemane, which is also an important Christian site.
Mary’s Tomb: The tomb believed by Eastern Christians to house the Virgin Mary is located in the Kidron Valley at the foothills of the Mount of Olives. It is very close to the Church of All Nations.
Church of the Pater Noster: This Roman Catholic church on the Mount of Olives is located on the site of Jesus’s teaching of the Lord’s Prayer.
The original 4th century basilica on the site was designed by the Emperor Constantine I and built under the direction of his mother, Helena.
Ecce Homo Church: Part of the Via Dolorosa in the Old City, this church contains an arch that was part of a Roman gateway. It is believed to be the site of Jesus’s trail by Pontius Pilate and of Pilate’s Ecce Homo speech. Archaeological evidence has proved otherwise, however.
Church of the Condemnation and Imposition of the Cross: This Roman Catholic church, which also contains the Church of the Flagellation, is located in the Old City. It is traditionally believed to mark the site where Jesus was condemned to crucifixion and took up his cross. A Byzantine church originally stood on the site, which was later converted into a mosque before being restored to a Catholic church in the early 20th century - a desired destination for pilgrims.


The Debate on Circumcision Rages
“You have to be circumcised.”
“No you don’t. If you do, you’ve fallen from grace and rejected Jesus!”
Back and forth the argument goes and has gone for nearly 2,000 years. And the REASON it has is because amateur theologians use SOUND BITES instead of SOUND DOCTRINES to make their case.
In this study, we will NOT be considering verses out of the greater context of Scripture and orthopraxy, but rather we will consider the “proof verses” on both sides of the fence and try to form a comprehensive understanding that brings ALL of Scripture into harmony.
The Origin of Circumcision
Circumcision (the removal of the foreskin from the penis) is first mentioned (which does NOT necessarily mean first practiced!) in the Bible when the commandment was given from YHWH to Abraham as a sign of a covenant between them.
Gen. 17:10 “This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 “And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you. 12 “And every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations, a servant who is born in the house or who is bought with money from any foreigner, who is not of your descendants. 13 “A servant who is born in your house or who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised; thus shall My covenant be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14 “But an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”
Let’s see what we can take away from this passage:
- This covenant is between YHWH and Abraham as well as all the seed of Abraham.
- This covenant extends to people who are not natural-born seed of Abraham, but join themselves to His people (YHWH’s chosen people).
- This covenant is everlasting – not temporary.
- Uncircumcised males will ultimately be cut off from among the people of YHWH.
Okay, at this point, Scripture seems clear, right? But once we get into the New Testament, we’re going to hear several excerpts from Paul which taken at face value seem to be saying the EXACT OPPOSITE of the above. So don’t walk away just yet. Be wise. Hear the whole matter out before forming your own conclusion.
Old Testament Observance
Now, we think we understand the commandment of circumcision. But just to be on the safe side, let’s look at what the seed of Abraham and foreigners who wanted to be joined to the seed of Abraham believed and practiced. This will tell us whether THEIR understanding of the commandment was the same as OUR understanding of it.
Gen. 34:14 They said to them, “We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us. 15 Only on this condition will we consent to you: if you will become like us, in that every male of you be circumcised, 16 then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters for ourselves, and we will live with you and become one people. 17 But if you will not listen to us to be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and go.”
That’s our example of obedience, and it tells a story congruent to the commandment. Now let’s take a look at a case of disobedience as well to round out the picture.
Ex. 4:24 Now it came about at the lodging place on the way that YHWH met him (Moses) and sought to put him to death. 25 Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and threw it at Moses’ feet, and she said, “You are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me.” 26 So He let him alone. At that time she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood” — because of the circumcision.
So, from what we read here, I would say, yes: what we took away from reading the commandment seems to be what was actually practiced in the days PRIOR to Messiah. But this was never really of any controversy. The real question is what was done AFTER Messiah, and that will be our focus for the remainder of the study now that we have a foundation from which to build.
How Messiah (Yahshua) Himself Walked
Luke 2:21 And when eight days had passed, before his circumcision, his name was then called Yahshua, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.
Yahshua himself was circumcised on the eighth day according to the commandment. And, we knew that already, but it is worth mentioning here that Messiah was our perfect example. We were later instructed to “walk even as he walked” referring to Messiah.
1John 2:6 The one who says he abides in him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.
The Debate Between Paul and Barnabas
Now I do apologize for the huge passage I’m about to drop on you, but there’s just no other way to really understand what’s going on than to take in some context, so let’s do it.
Acts 15:1 Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 And when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue. 3 Therefore, being sent on their way by the church, they were passing through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and were bringing great joy to all the brethren. 4 When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that YHWH had done with them. 5 But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.”
Acts 15:6 The apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter. 7 After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brethren, you know that in the early days YHWH made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8 And YHWH, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; 9 and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. 10 Now therefore why do you put YHWH to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Master, Yahshua, in the same way as they also are.”
Acts 15:12 All the people kept silent, and they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating what signs and wonders YHWH had done through them among the Gentiles. 13 After they had stopped speaking, James answered, saying, “Brethren, listen to me. 14 Simeon has related how YHWH first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name.
15 “With this the words of the Prophets agree, just as it is written, 16 ‘After these things I will return, and I will rebuild the tabernacle of David which has fallen, and I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, 17 so that the rest of mankind may seek YHWH, and all the Gentiles who are called by My name,’ 18 says YHWH, who makes these things known from long ago.
Acts 15:19 Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to YHWH from among the Gentiles, 20 but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood. 21 “For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath.”
So let’s break this down important piece by important piece and then we’ll try to fit it into the greater context of Scripture.
- In verse 1, we see the purpose of this WHOLE chapter: a FALSE DOCTRINE that goes directly AGAINST TORAH (the Law of Moses). This false doctrine says that, “unless you are circumcised, you cannot be saved.”
Now, let’s analyze this. Abraham was called out of Babylon, blessed, entered into covenant with YHWH and walked with Him for DECADES before he was circumcised! What does that tell you about circumcision being a PRECURSOR to salvation?
Gen. 17:23 Then Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all the servants who were born in his house and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s household, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the very same day, as Elohim had said to him. 24 Now Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 26 In the very same day Abraham was circumcised, and Ishmael his son. 27 All the men of his household, who were born in the house or bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.
- In verse 5, some former Pharisees (followers of Yahshua now) stood up and made a case for obedience: “It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.”
- In verse 10, Peter APPEARS to disagree with Gentiles being required to obey the Law of Moses, nut verse 11 explains otherwise. What Peter is explaining is that we are not SAVED by obeying the Law of Moses. There is a difference between “being saved by something” and “something being required.” Abraham was not SAVED BY circumcision, but it was REQUIRED of him all the same.
- So what was the conclusion of the Council of Jerusalem? In verses 19-20 they identified parts of the Law that would be given to Gentiles from the very beginning of their walk, and in verse 21, it was explained that they would be exposed to the rest of the Law of Moses gradually – over time (as Abraham was) when they went to synagogue every Sabbath to hear and learn the Law.
So does this “proof text” against circumcision / the Law actually say that Gentiles would be somehow exempt from circumcision or obedience to the rest of Moses? A close reading reveals that, no, this is not the case.
Paul Says that Circumcision IS of Value
Rom. 2:25 For indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26 So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor of the Law? 28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. 29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from YHWH.
Let me paraphrase this and put it into more succinct, easily digested terms:
- Circumcision is of value if you are obedient to YHWH in everything else.
- Circumcision is MEANINGLESS if you disobey YHWH in other things.
- Having circumcised skin but NOT a circumcised heart does not make a person righteous.
Does that make a little more sense? Circumcision is a SIGN of a covenant with YHWH. But displaying the sign and breaking the covenant does NOT entitle you to the rewards promised. KEEPING the covenant is what entitles you to the benefits of participation – not displaying the hollow sign alone!
Circumcision of the Heart
There is a very popular doctrine that say, “In the Old Testament, people had to circumcise their flesh, but in the New Testament we have to circumcise our hearts instead.” Now, let’s look at this doctrine from two perspectives and see if we can’t shine a little contextual light on this (rather erroneous) sound bite.
The first thing we need to understand is this: circumcision of the heart is NOT something NEW in the New Testament. Actually, circumcision of the heart and the greater importance thereof goes all the way back to the Books of Moses! In other words, it’s a commandment under the Law of Moses.
Deut. 10:16 Let your circumcision be of the heart, and put away your pride.
Deut. 30:6 And YHWH your god will give to you and to your seed a circumcision of the heart, so that, loving him with all your heart and all your soul, you may have life.
So circumcision of the heart didn’t just appear out of nowhere, and likewise, circumcision of the flesh did not go away. We saw in an earlier section of this study that Paul said that it is still “of value.” Granted – it doesn’t SAVE a person and never did, but it IS still a requirement. In fact, Paul enumerated various “strikes” Gentiles at Colossi had against them before they came into covenant with Messiah, and one of those strikes was – uncircumcision.
Col. 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Messiah. 9 For in him all the fullness of godliness dwells in bodily form, 10 and in him you have been made complete, and he is the head over all rule and authority; 11 and in him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Messiah; 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of YHWH, who raised him from the dead. 13 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the stake. 15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.
Did you see it? In verse 11, these Gentiles were given their “circumcision of the heart.” But what we REALLY want to notice here is verse 13. Do you see how Paul mentions in PAST TENSE how these Gentiles WERE “dead in their transgressions and the uncircumcision of their flesh?” So circumcision of the heart didn’t just appear, and circumcision of the flesh didn’t go away.
Circumcision = Rejection of Messiah and a Fall from Grace
If there was ever a Book that people who teach against Law LOVE to quote from, it’s Galatians. It’s no wonder Peter warned believers centuries ago that unlearned, unstable people twisted Paul’s words to lead others into the error of lawlessness. Like Peter well said – Paul’s writings are “hard to be understood!”
2Pet. 3:15 Regard the patience of our Master as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, 16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things HARD TO UNDERSTAND, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of lawlessness and fall from your own steadfastness.
Now, having been duly warned, and having been appropriately taught what the Law and the Scriptures say, let’s look at one of Paul’s “hard to understand” writings and see if we can’t make sense of it:
Gal. 5:2 Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Messiah will be of no benefit to you. 3 And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. 4 You have been severed from Messiah, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
Severed from Messiah? Fallen from grace?! These sound absolutely HORRIBLE!!!!!! But what if I told you that these things are actually… necessary steps of maturity as we grow in our walk and service of YHWH?
For additional context, let’s take a look at another passage from Paul which frames Messiah and grace NICELY in their application to our lives. Then, we’ll be able to return to this snippet of Galatians and make perfect sense of it.
Heb. 10:26 For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a terrifying expectation of judgment…
When Adam and Eve sinned, they did not die immediately. Instead, they had some TIME to come to repentance. This is called grace. When we come to Messiah, we are not perfect from day 1. Rather, we BEGIN a journey along which we learn and grow and change. We are perfected over time.
A child circumcised on the eighth day is taught the Law from near infancy. By the time he reaches the age of accountability, he KNOWS right from wrong intrinsically. This is not the case, however, for Gentiles – those of us who were not originally “of the circumcision.”
So we, like Abraham who was ALSO A GENTILE need to learn to walk in the covenant before we manifest the SIGN of the covenant – namely, circumcision. And this is what Paul is teaching us. Let me paraphrase the passage from Galatians in my own words, and see if it makes more sense to you after:
“Once you get circumcised, you are taking the training wheels off the bike, and you are now on your own – an adult! Messiah’s grace no longer covers your mistakes. You are now a full-fledged citizen of the Kingdom and will be held accountable for crimes you commit. You are getting circumcised before you are ready thinking that this action justifies you, but you are wrong. All it does is puts you out on your own before you are ready and sets you up for failure.”
Now read the Galatians passage again. Are you seeing it? Did the light bulb come on?
The Word of YHWH is not temporary. It was never meant to be changed or replaced down the road. His commandments are eternal and endure forever.
That being said, not every commandment applies to us from day 1. We have a grace period from the time we decide to become one of His until the time we learn it “all,” and are ready to stand upright as an adult.
When you first decide to serve YHWH, you don’t know much. You’ve repented. You’ve said, “I don’t want to break your laws (sin) anymore.” And you are now “saved” by your faith and very much under grace because, without knowing it, you’re probably sinning daily! But you’re also LEARNING daily, and as you do, you continue to repent and change and obey the Word (will) of YHWH.
But we DON’T drink milk forever! Eventually, we are weaned from the milk and start eating meat that we’ve hunted ourselves. When we are ready to uphold the covenant, then and only then should we also display the SIGN of covenant as a worthy and full-fledged participant.


Click here to open the May 2016 Printable Visiting Teaching Postcard! Then print on cardstock (or posterboard paper cut to letter/A4), cut to size, and post! (Or, click here to skip to the instructions)
Click here to open the April 2016 Printable Visiting Teaching Postcard! Then print on cardstock (or posterboard paper cut to letter/A4), cut to size, and post! (Or, click here to skip to the instructions)
One of the things I love most about being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the visiting teaching program. As someone who is shy and struggles with the confidence to go out and meet people, visiting teaching gave me an assignment to contact women in the church. This gave me a reason to break out of my shell and go out and speak with people. Visiting teachers try to go and visit women in person, get to know them and share a spiritual message with them. The purpose is to help develop friendships and ensure that no member of the church is left alone or lonely. Many visiting teachers don’t share a message, but I love sharing the message because it sets the tone for the visit, invites the spirit, and give me something to talk about with those who I might not know very well. I also have found that sharing the message is a way for us to be vulnerable about the things with which we are struggling.
I used to bring copies of the message with me, but found myself throwing the papers away as soon as the visit was done. It seemed a shame to do that, but it also seemed a shame to add more papers to the stacks of papers that so easily seemed to clutter my home. So sought to create a ways to make the VT message more *keep-able.* Years ago, I recalled collecting recipe cards with scriptures. Because I like to cook, that appealed to me; I kept the cards and whenever I opened my recipe box, I would look at recipes and read the scriptures on the cards. I found it was a great way to introduce scripture reading in my life, and made me begin to love cooking even more.
Soon I began printing the visiting teaching message on cardstock paper for the women I visit taught. But it wasn’t just the visiting teaching message for the month, it also included a seasonal recipe. I began to notice that many women looked at the recipe first– then the message. But the next time I visited them, they still had the card. Sometimes we chatted about the recipe, and foods we liked. Doing this made the visit more personal and led to discussions about budgeting, food allergies, what to cook for dinner, and so on. It made a way for new friendships to develop and deepen, and I loved it.
Currently I live too far from a church building to attend every week (we drive about 3 hours once a month or more to go to the closest church branch). But even though I am so far away, I still get to do visiting teaching! Now I print 2 of the visiting teaching messages (and recipes!) on size A4, or 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper, front and back, the cut it in half, address each card, and post them. I still email, call, and speak with the women I visit teach. But in my small way, sending them a visiting teaching postcard is a small gift from me every month.
I invite you to share in this tradition with me, and am placing my visiting teaching postcards here for you to print, cut in half, stamp and address …. or just print and share…. with the women you visit teach. This is a free service because I love visiting teaching, and I want to make it as easy and friendly for you to do as possible– especially when you can’t personally go visit the women you visit teach every month.
Please feel free to share your visiting teaching ideas and suggested recipes in the comments below!


A parish priest shows how it is possible to be gay and Catholic if we understand homosexuality as a gift from God.
'This book should be read by every bishop, priest and lay pastor in the Catholic Church as well as every gay or lesbian person who has concluded that being happily gay and Catholic is not possible. The author provides an extremely accessible guide to Catholic teaching, social theory and gay and lesbian theology which will enable every reader to truly appreciate the 'remarkable gift' of being gay and Catholic.' - Elizabeth Stuart, Senior Lecturer in Theology, University of Glamorgan, Wales.
For generations, gays and lesbians from Catholic backgrounds have struggled to reconcile their sexual orientation with their Church's rigid anti-homosexual stance. Some leave the Church in despair while others suppress their sexuality in order to remain in the Church.
Maurice Shinnick argues that homosexuality should be seen as a gift from God, rather than a curse. He shows how attitudes to homosexuality have developed in different Christian denominations around the world and offers a careful re-reading of Catholic teaching. This Remarkable Gift calls for a genuine dialogue between the Church and gay and lesbian people and offers a guide to the paths such a dialogue could follow.
Maurice Shinnick is a parish priest in the Archdiocese of Adelaide, South Australia. He pioneered a pastoral program for people living with HIV/AIDS and is a chaplain to Acceptance, an organisation that supports gay and lesbian Catholics. In 1992 Fr Shinnick received an Order of Australia Medal for his work.
Table Of Contents:
Conventions and abbreviations
1 Opening the dialogue
2 A gay and Christian identity
3 A clash of loyalties
4 Developing Catholic sexual theology
5 Uncertain bishops struggle as teachers and pastors
6 Broadening the dialogue: the contribution of modern social theory
7 Finding a new direction through dialogue
Allen & Unwin
Allen & Unwin
0 - 0


Wear your kilts! Bring your tartan!
Celebrate St. Andrew's Feast Day Nov. 20 in Ben Lomond
Hear the Kirkin O’ the Tartans!
Sound the pipes! Heat up the pies!
Celebrate St. Andrew’s Feast Day!
Clear the dance floor!
6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 20
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 101 Riverside Avenue, Ben Lomond, California
($10/person, $25/family) Benefiting Valley Churches United
St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, so it seems appropriate that St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church should be located in Ben Lomond, CA , where Scots were among the first settlers, landowners and shopkeepers.
The unincorporated town and the church are located in the valley of the San Lorenzo River, not to be confused with the nearby community of Scotts Valley (two Ts) which was named after Hiram Scott, who bought town in 1850. St. Andrew’s church was constructed of local redwood in 1899 and consecrated as an Episcopal Church in 1901, where it has held Anglican services and served the San Lorenzo Valley ever since.
Also in 1850, Thomas Bums, a loyal and probably nostalgic Scot, settled on top of a 3,000-foot mountain overlooking the San Lorenzo River, with the idea of growing grapes and making wine. He named his mountain Ben Lomond, for the historic mountain in southwestern Scotland, the land of his birth.
The need for redwood timber to build fast-growing San Francisco was stripping the forest resources of Oakland, and eyes turned south to the virgin forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The lumberjacks sent their logs down the river to the railroad junction in Felton, and lived in new towns near the saw mills, in Boulder Creek, and on a tract laid out at the foot of Ben Lomond Mountain on the river. Mill owners wanted to call this tract Pacific Mills, but the U.S. Post Office objected to naming a town after a business, and he settled on Ben Lomond, after the mountain.
Nearly 80 years later, when the city of San Cruz dammed a creek in the valley to create a reservoir for fresh drinking water, it was named Loch Lomond, after the largest lake in Scotland. City officials even flew to Scotland to carry back a cup of water from that lake to christen the California version of Loch Lomond.
The Scottish immigrants in the mountains who were part of the new Golden State’s first population boom had begun adding Scottish names to maps well before the founding of Ben Lomond. Along the coastal highway at what is now La Selva Beach they named a community Rob Roy, after the Scottish folk hero. Over the ridge from Ben Lomond, the town of Bonny Doon was developed. Scottish heroes also provided street names – Wallace, Monroe and McDonald –in Santa Cruz.
When Santa Cruz County developed a public park along the river south of Ben Lomond, it was named, appropriately, Highlands Park. Earlier in the century, a river resort named Rowardennan attracted visitors from San Francisco.
So it is fitting that parishioners at St. Andrew’s should celebrate the feast day for the patron saint of Scotland, and also fitting that they should have a “Kirkin of the Tartans” ceremony at the church.
Because the Nov. 30 date of St. Andrew’s Feast Day (a national holiday in Scotland) sometimes conflicts with the weekend after the American Thanksgiving holiday, the Ben Lomond church has developed a tradition of having its St. Andrew’s Feast Day on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and of joining it with a “kirkin” (blessing in Scottish Gaelic) of the tartans ceremony and church service.
Parishioners, community members, families and friends bring a representative piece of plaid fabric that is the “flag” of an ancestral Scottish clan – in the form of a swatch, a blanket, jacket or kilt – to be blessed. There are bagpipes, blessings, Scottish dancers and traditional foods.
The origins of the ceremony began in 1745, when the Scottish Jacobite rebellion was defeated by the Hanoverian English government. Thirty years before the English found themselves battling American colonists, they put down this Scottish rebellion, and they tried to keep Scottish nationalism under wraps by banning in 1746 the playing of bagpipes, the bearing of arms, the wearing of kilts and the display of any tartans of the Scottish clans. In the decades when these bans were enforced, the Scots would secretly wear tartans under their clothing when they went to church. Thus, when the minister ended the worship service with the benediction, that tartan was secretly blessed and God’s favor was bestowed upon the Scottish people.
The open “kirkin”ceremony began nearly 200 years later. In 1941, as the war in Europe was escalating, former Saint Andrew’s Society president and famous American religious leader Dr. Peter Marshall initiated the Kirkin’ o’ the Tartan in this country as a fundraiser for British war relief in conjunction with the St. Andrew’s Society of Washington, D.C. For the first decade the service was held at the capital’s New York Avenue Presbyterian Church.
The Episcopal Church – former nemesis of Scotland (when it was Roman Catholic in the 16th century and later with the emergence of the Presbyterian movement) – ironically became the site of a the U.S. national kirkin in 1952, when the Washington ceremony was moved to the Washington National Cathedral, an Episcopal church. The service has been held every May in every year since, and raises money for scholarships for Scottish students.
The Ben Lomond ceremony raises money for the holiday relief efforts of Valley Churches United.
Of course, we must mention golf, since the church shares a name with the most famous, and oldest golf course in the world. The annual St. Andrew’s (CA) golf tournament is held every spring in Scotts Valley.
St. Andrew is one of the original 12 disciples of Jesus, the brother of Simon Peter, and a follower of John the Baptist before becoming an apostle. He is said to have preached in Asia Minor and Greece and to have been crucified in Greece.
Although most commonly associated with Scotland, Saint Andrew is also the patron saint of Greece, Russian and Romania. In Germany, the St. Andrew’s Feast Day is celebrated as Andreasnacht (“St. Andrew’s Night”), in Austria with the custom of Andreasgebet (“St. Andrew’s Prayer”), and in Poland as Andrzejki (“Andrews”). The cross on which St. Andrew was crucified by Roman Emperor Nero has been adopted as the national flag of Scotland, and later incorporated into the British Union Jack.
There other traditions associated with the feast day, probably pagan in origin.
In parts of Germany, Austria, the Slovakia, Poland and Romania, superstitious belief exists that the night before St. Andrew’s Day is specially suitable for magic that reveals a young woman’s future husband or that binds a future husband to her. Many related customs developed around this: for example, the pouring of hot lead into water (in Poland, one usually pours hot wax from a candle through a key hole into cold water), divining the future husband’s profession from the shape of the resulting piece In some areas in Austria, young women would drink wine and then perform a spell while nude and kicking a straw bed. This was supposed to magically attract the future husband. Yet another custom is to throw a clog over one’s shoulder: if it lands pointing to the door, the woman will get married in the same year.
In some parts of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, young women would write down the names of potential husbands on little pieces of paper and stick these into little pieces of dough. When cooked, the first one to float to the surface of the water would reveal the name of a girl’s future husband.
In Romania, it is customary for young women to put 41 grains of wheat beneath their pillow before they go to sleep on the eve of St. Andrew’s Feast Day, and if they dream that someone is coming to steal their grains that means that they are going to get married next year.


Our installation team was out bearing the cold at First Presbyterian Church in downtown Fond du Lac earlier this month, adding a custom 12′ reverse LED illuminated cross to the steeple.
This was not a typical project here at Flyway Signs but it shows off our fabrication skills.
To make the cross, aluminum was cut down, formed and welded into shape and then painted. There are 180 white LED lights in the cross. Most illuminated signs you see in town have less than 100 LEDs, so this cross will definitely light up the night sky!
I think you will agree that the cross adds a lot of character to the church as compared to with the old steeple. Here’s a before picture to see the difference it has made and some pictures of the installation process.


Pregnancy Prayers is an app that gives you daily prayers to pray over your growing baby based on the weekly development. This app is not just for mothers, but also for anyone who wants to join her in prayer.
WHY DO PARENTS LOVE YOUR PRODUCT?
This is a unique app that guides you in praying for your growing bundle of joy.
WHAT MAKES YOUR PRODUCT STAND OUT FROM ALL OF THE REST?
Pregnancy Prayers was written by a mother as she searched for the words to pray over her own pregnancy. She used the weekly developments to guide her prayers and write this app as her baby grew. We pray this app brings peace to others as they pray through their pregnancy.
To learn more about Pregnancy Prayers visit their website: www.prayingdaily.com
And be sure to connect with Pregnancy Prayers on their social media channels:
The price of the app will be discounted for the show to $1.99!


By Adam Lidgett Law360 (October 24, 2019, 3:12 PM EDT) — Life Spine Inc. and two executives have agreed to pay nearly $6 million total toread More
Former Catholic brother speaks out about church sex abuse scandal
NEW YORK — Allegations of sex abuse within the Catholic Church have been widespread for years, but it’s not often that someone from within the clergy talks about the problem.
Richard Cardillo is one of the few who will.
Read more here:


Have you ever wondered what the Kingdom of Heaven would look like? Jesus said: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock”. Have you ever wondered what it would look like if you opened the door?
Grace Church has a passion and desire to open the door into the Kingdom of Heaven – that when people visit our church, they leave knowing they have encountered God. GRACE CHURCH 2012 is going to be an exciting place to be! With a focus on encountering God and equipping people, we feel the Kingdom of Heaven will be experienced in our daily lives.
On January 29, we farewelled our Senior Pastor Kerry Medway, who planted our church over 17 years ago and appointed Todd and Sarah Murray as the next Senior Pastors of Grace Church. Grace has a new leader, but is still under the same management from up above!
At the ripe old age of 33 for Todd, it’s hard for Todd to wear the ‘Senior’ label. Although Senior might not be the best label, Todd began the Youth Ministry in Grace Church in 1999 with a group called ‘Solid Rock Youth’. This later changed into ‘Ignite Youth Church’. Ignite grew up to 150 young people worshipping God every Wednesday night. In July 2010, Todd transitioned the Youth Ministry in Grace over to Bindi Packer, who is now our current youth pastor.
As well as having a background in youth ministry, Todd also oversaw the Missions work in Grace Church, taking him to places such as Russia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Philippines and many other countries to help those people in need. Todd has been living in Port Macquarie for 25 years, married his high school sweetheart in 2000 and now has two amazing children, Hannah (7 years) and Lacie (5 years).
This year, we introduce a new team member to the Grace Church team – Ross Nancarrow. Ross has lived around the Hastings for the last 8 years, after moving from Perth. He says 1981 was a ‘watershed year’, when he came to faith and married Donna. He now has 4 adult children scattered around the country. After his theological studies, Ross worked in church base ministry and with disadvantaged people groups for over 25 years. This work has taken him all over Australia and into many countries in conjunction with Christian and leadership development. Recently, Ross and Donna lived in Bangalore, India for a year, doing medical mission and consulting for the Academy of Church Planting and Leadership.
For 2012, our Grace Church Pastoral Staff will consist of Todd and Sarah Murray (Senior Pastors), Ross Nancarrow (Associate Pastor), Matt Doeland (Worship Pastor), Denise Farey (Children’s Pastor), Bindi Packer (Youth Pastor), Jane Bax (Women’s Pastor) and Brandon Erga (Trainee Youth Pastor). This is a great team of diverse gifting, talent, experience and ages and a team passionate and sold out for God.
Big vision! At Grace, our pastoral team believes we are to be leaders of leaders … that as Pastors, our role is to equip others to encounter God. Volunteers lead, staff assist, is a motto of our leadership practices. We believe that as individuals are encouraged to deepen their relationship in God and focus on their own talents, gifts and abilities, then the church will rise to be an unshakeable force in our community.
We seek to be a church known for hosting the presence of the Lord, where people are saved, healed and restored. To put legs on this vision, one of the big exciting things is that Grace Church will be running a new and fresh Bible School called Grace School of Supernatural Ministry (GSSM). This is an exciting venture and something that we have invested many thousands of dollars into.
It is our prayer and vision that Grace Church will be known as a church that teaches the Bible thoroughly and is guided by the Holy Spirit in everything we do. As well as GSSM, we will be refreshing and improving areas in our church, such as Pastoral Care, Connect Groups, Overseas Missions work; we will be introducing new business training and equipping seminars with the International Christian Chamber of Commerce. Our Worship Pastor, Matt, will begin work on Graces’ third worship album, and there is loads more already planned for the 2012 calendar.
Does Heaven beckon you? In 2012, why not consider opening the door to Jesus and see what can happen…


Become a Mentor - Getting Started
Welcome to MentorYouth.com! Our hope is that you will seriously consider mentoring a young person in your community.
We are a faith-based website with the purpose of facilitating Christian adult mentors all across America to serve young people in their own communities.
Who can be a Mentor?
Any caring person willing to give of themselves and their time in order to invest in a young person . . . might that be you?
Why be a Mentor?
Thousands of young people have already signed up and are waiting for a caring adult to step into their lives. Who better than someone who offers God’s love and hope?
Our youth need caring adults guiding them through their struggles with growing up while learning to make responsible choices. Who better than someone who values God’s wisdom and honestly strives to follow it?
Questions to Ask Yourself
We’ve included some questions to help you make a decision about getting involved as a mentor.
How to Become a Mentor?
It’s as simple as entering your zip code and selecting the Mentor Programs which interest you. Your Mentor Programs of interest will contact you for an interview.
Click here to search for a mentoring opportunity near you!
Some of the local mentoring programs listed on MentorYouth.com that are in need of mentors may not share your spiritual values. This is a great opportunity to share your life and testimony and to influence people in your community by being “salt and light”. If you are not sure how much of your personal faith you are allowed to share as a volunteer, please ask beforehand.


How might a young Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) seminary graduate be persuaded to accept a first ministerial call in rural northwestern Minnesota? According to the Reverend Karla Mickelson, Associate for Synodical Administration for the Northwestern Minnesota Synod, it isn’t easy. She explained that newly graduated seminarians today are in high demand with pastor retirements far outstripping the numbers of ordained seminary graduates available to replace them. A 2015 report from the ELCA Research and Evaluation Department projected that in 2019, in the US, approximately 404 ordained pastors would retire and only 207 newly ordained pastors would be available to replace them.
Synodically Authorized Minister (SaM) Kathy Levenhagen, Minister for Community and Leader Engagement on the Northwestern Minnesota Synod staff finds that few seminary graduates are familiar with life in rural areas anymore. She cited urban beliefs that there are no local doctors, no local grocery stores, no local shopping options and no recreational options in rural communities. She explained that these beliefs lead to reluctance to relocate for today’s prospective rural ELCA clergy. She acknowledged that married clergy spouses often find that unless they are in a health-related profession, employment opportunities are scarce. Most families require two incomes which makes rural clergy recruitment difficult.
Shortages of ordained clergy are from a new issue in recruiting ELCA pastors. The Growing in Faith to Serve (GIFTS) program began in western North Dakota in 1986 to train lay people to serve as pulpit supply pastors when no ordained clergy were available. The Northwestern Minnesota Synod and the Eastern North Dakota Synod joined to create the School for Lay Ministry in 2011 with similar goals as stated on their website:
The School for Lay Ministry’s purpose is to provide adult Christian education in the areas of the Old and New Testament, Lutheran Confessions, Pastoral Care, Worship & Liturgy, and Church History. To do this, we draw on the gifts of seminary professors, those who serve in specialized ministries, and others. The School serves the synods of Northwestern Minnesota and Eastern North Dakota and is open to any person, lay or rostered in the two synods. http://www.eandsynod.org/events/lay-school
While lay leaders may be filling in when pastors go on vacation or are ill, with the shortage of ordained ministry who can provide pastoral services such as communion, weddings, funerals, confirmation and baptisms, a need was discerned to create the SaM certificate program which provides temporary ministerial services until an ordained pastor can be found or ad congregation determines its future viability.
Levenhagen, a synod staff member, is also a twelve-year SaM serving the ELCA congregations of Lake Bronson, Kennedy and Lancaster in northwestern Minnesota. She explained that as schools and businesses disappear in rural communities, often the last local institution remaining is the church. Congregations facing the prospect of closing due to lack of ordained leadership and/or lack of funds to pay a full-time rostered minister, may lift up an individual for approval by the School of Lay Ministry Advisory Committee for participation in the SaM program.
The School of Lay Ministry offers an optional certification program for its participants. Taught by seminary professors and those in specialized ministry positions, curriculum is offered over a two-year period with courses in Old Testament, New Testament, Worship & Liturgy, Pastoral Care, Lutheran Confessions and Church History. Individuals who are approved for certification are required to attend continuing education classes. SaMs may be found serving as interim pastors for churches seeking an ordained pastor, working with an ordained pastor in a multi-point parish setting or providing pulpit supply for ministers who need a temporary substitute.
General qualifications for the SaM program applicants include:
-Membership in an ELCA congregation for at least one year
-Recommendation by the individual’s pastor and/or congregation council
-Meeting and interviewing with synod staff and/or synod committee
-Demonstrated ability and willingness to participate in a preparatory program leading to possible service as a SaM or provided satisfactory evidence of prior preparation meeting the SaM program’s goals and standards
-Submitted written responses to the questions on the candidacy entrance form
-Provided references within and outside the church
-Authorized the synod to obtain an in-depth background check
The 2020 School for Lay Ministry classes will be held three times during the year on March 7, May 2 and September 26. The March 7th class title is “Cross + Generational Worship. It will be held between the hours of 10 am and 4:30 pm at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Fargo. The cost is $50/person. Registration details may be found at http://www.eandsynod.org/events/lay-school or by calling the Northwestern Minnesota synod office @ 218-299-3019.


North Dakota Catholic Daughters of the Americas Website
Catholic Daughters of the Americas
by: Laurel Ann Dukart, Immediate Past State Regent
Welcome to the North Dakota Catholic Daughters of the Americas (CDA) website.
On Saturday, March 27th (Palm Sunday weekend), the North Dakota State Board had the pleasure to institute North Dakota's 21st CDA Court [Court Our Lady of Grace #2769] in Watford City.
The 52nd Biennial North Dakota State Convention "Holy Spirit, Come Zoom With Us" took place on Saturday, May 1, 2021 via Zoom. The State Officers and State Chaplain were in Belfield along with the National Director/Supervisor Nancy Bambenek. The Official Call to Convention has been sent to State Chaplain, National Jean Gatz our keynote speaker spoke before and after the business meeting. Installation Mass took place at St. Bernard's Catholic Church. A small banquet for the newly installed officers followed. Congratulations to the new State Officers and State Chaplain, may God truly bless you as you begin your journey.
God is good!
In this time of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, let us remember that God is always good. As Catholic Daughters let us to exercise our motto "In Unity and Charity (Love)".
Let us keep JOY in our hearts:
only then Love Yourself.
Please stay safe - hope this finds you and yours well. God bless.
If you are wanting information that you can't find, please feel free to contact one of the State Officers , State Chairmen or Local Court officers listed on a leadership web page.
In Unity and Charity,
“May the Holy Spirit grant you the gifts you most need
and those you will make the best use of."


Since Israel recovers from the trip of Pope Benedict XVI in his historic trip to the Holy Land, it is perhaps time to get Bethlehem Holy Land City a fast rundown of the best Christian sites in the Holy Land. Yes, Israel could be the Jewish homeland, but the Christian religion has stayed tied into the Holy Land for over 2000 decades, as a result of the stories of a certain Jesus of Nazareth. No matter your religion, there are a number of amazing , websites in Israel and they are worth checking out.
Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus of Nazareth
Bethlehem is known across the world as the birthplace of Jesus of Nazareth to Christians. Bethlehem is to one of the earliest communities around the world though its numbers are dwindling. The must-see place to visit at Bethlehem is that the Church of the Nativity, likely the planet’s most important Christian website and among the world’s oldest working churches. And certainly the place.
The site of Jesus’ arrival is under the Church, marked with a 14 star in a subterranean grotto. Should you strike peak tourist season, you could just get overwhelmed with the intensity and fire from a Christian pilgrims as they kneel down to get a bit closer to this magical star…
Little known fact about Bethlehem: it’s significant significance for all three big faiths – and its being likely the most significant Christian website in Israel, Muslims think Bethlehem was a significant prayer stop about the Prophet Muhammad’s method to Jerusalem, while Jews comprehend the gravesite of this biblical martriarch Rachel at Bethlehem, the 3rd most important website in the Jewish religion.
Bethlehem is easy to get to a tourist in the event that you get hooked up with a tour service. You can always get yourself, however, the safety checkpoints between Jerusalem and Bethlehem (a few 5.5 miles separate both ) do not make it a simple alternative.
You’re probably going to need to devote some time at Jerusalem since it’s a few of the holiest sites for three of the significant religions, including Christianity, Islam and Judaism. We highly suggest any trip to Israel contains the Old City in Jerusalem – it is 1 place where you may wind up overstaying, there is so much to see! The Significant Christian sites you will want to capture in Jerusalem, both inside and outside the Old City would be the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Church of St. John the Baptist, along with also the Church of All Nations.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is thought to be the site of Jesus’ crucifixion and therefore considered among the most important Christian sites in Israel. It is an Church on the interior, possibly less so as it is wedged between buildings. Areas are marked by the websites through the Church in Jesus’ final hours also in his passing. You can be certain it is 1 nice location to see, if my spouse was amazed. Open to all faiths and entrance, it is open in the morning til night most days.


In my earlier blog, The Grand Old New Imperial Hotel, I wrote:
Had the hotel been there in Biblical times, what events we might have witnessed from our balcony. King Herod, the ostensibly psychotic master builder of Bible infamy dwelt opposite as he planned his Second Temple. So did Pontius Pilate. If one accepts the narrative of Simon Sebag-Montefiore, in his Jerusaelm : The Biography, we could also have watched the last journey of Jesus of Nazareth. It was but a short distance from the Citadel where he was condemned and Golgotha where he died: across the square, right at the New Imperial, left just past the Med, and straight on to the Hill of the Skull (where the Church of the Holy Sepulcher now stands). The present Via Dolorosa runs from the site of the Antonine Fortress, on the northern edge of the Haram ash Sharif, to The Church, its course set by custom and customers from Byzantine days.
And now it appears that this indeed might have been the case.
2 thoughts on “Nova Via Dolorosa”
[…] a short piece on recent archeological discoveries in Jerusalem that strongly suggested that the Via Dolorosa that Jesus trode on his final journey to Golgotha was the wrong route, and that instead, it began […]
[…] The Grand Old New Imperial Hotel Nova Via Dolorosa […]


Leah Butler and Bea Vasey have been watching the plight of Syrians fleeing from their homes and now they want to do something to help.
They were among the people at Christ Church in Petrolia on Monday to begin to figure out what they can do to help a Syrian Refugee family settle here.
The Lambton Anglican Refugee Committee is one of the many community groups trying to bring Syrian refugees to Canada. The federal government wants to settle 10,000 people here before February from the millions of people who have left the war-torn country.
Petrolia resident Sylvia Fairbank is working with the Lambton committee which hopes to bring two families to the area, one of whom could settle in Petrolia if there is enough volunteer help. Fairbank says about 20 to 25 people will be needed to help run errands and find housing among other things.
When the doors to the church opened, more than a dozen people were already there to talk about what could be done. Vasey and Butler were among the crowd. “I feel like I want to help,” says Vasey. “I’m totally in support of refugees coming to Canada.”
Butler agrees saying she has always been interested in the Middle East and she would love to help ease the pain of some of the people there. “I can help with whatever they need… This is a whole new culture, all new ways for them and they’re leaving their country and parts of their family behind. They don’t have anything.”
Rev. Kim Metelka who is part of the organizing committee says finances are just now starting to flow in. The committee needs about $34,000 to sponsor two families. Donations can be dropped off at Christ Church.


The purpose of the Joseph Ministry 2012 was to facilitate ministry. God has blessed Encounter Church of God with great facilities that have enhanced our possibilities to build the Kingdom. The facilities are a tool for ministry, but not the vision. Our purpose is to reach individuals for Christ, make disciples, and help them fulfill their purpose in life. This past year we were able to build a church in Haiti, Evangelize our community, to enhance...
Welcome to The Learning Center at Encounter! “Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me.'” Matthew 19:14 KID KAM Parents Click Here to login to the KID KAM service. * (Requires Internet Explorer and a valid login) A ministry of Encounter Church of God. 12240 Five Mile Road Fredericksburg, VA 22407 540-548-4914 phone 540-548-4915 fax www.tlcate.com
Encounter Church of God in Fredericksburg, VAWhere the Spirit of God Can Be Felt, Seen, Lived, and Experienced
10:00 am Sunday Discipleship Classes
11:00 am Morning Worship Service
6:00pm Evening Worship Service
6:00pm Relentless Love Students (Open Gym)
7:15pm Relentless Love Students Worship Service
7:30pm Adult Bible Study
‘ Kids Classes
‘ IMPACT Young Adults
A Christ-centered church gathering with one purpose: Making Disciples of Christ.
We are committed to the development of individuals through a relationship with Christ; connecting them through the Word, Worship, and Service.
Thank you for visiting our Church Website. We are confident that you will be blessed as you browse the many ministries that the Church has to offer.
We are a Pentecostal Church in Spotsylvania County with the mandate to get the gospel of Jesus Christ out to the world in the presence and power of the Spirit. We are a Church of God congregation of many throughout our country and world with our International Headquarters in Cleveland, Tennessee.Learn More