Get specific tips for multi-site bulletins. Numbered help: 7 general tips , 4 tips pulled from 17 examples, and 20 insights gathered from the community. Use this standard copy template for bulletin announcements to streamline your content. Remember to offer inspiration over information. Churches are making the dangerous assumption that if it. Church Bulletin & Announcements June 28-July 13, 2021 Orthodox Cross. All Bulletins/Announcements are now in Abobe Reader format. To view them, you must have Adobe Reader installed on your computer. If you don't already have it, get your free copy of Adobe Reader, by clicking on the link below and following the downloading and installation instructions
I'm New. Greetings From Our Pastor; Vision and Mission; Who We Are; What to Expect; Church Officers; How To Find Us; Ministries. Christian Education Ministr Funny Church Bulletin Announcements About Kids. Applications are now being accepted for 2 year-old nursery workers. For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs. Announcement to the Moms Who Care ladies group: There will be no Moms who care this week Announcement in the church bulletin for a National Prayer & Fasting Conference: The cost for attending the Fasting & Prayer conference includes meals.Miss Charlene Mason sang, I will not pass this way again, giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale, It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house
Bulletin announcements should be clearly written. And if worshipers are expected to follow the liturgy without announcement, it must be self-explanatory. 2. Short. A bulletin, by definition, is a brief document. The following tips may help you keep it that way: People seldom read long announcements SAMPLE CHURCH BULLETIN ANNOUNCEMENTS These sample bulletin announcements can be used when a Post / Chapter plans a New Member Recruitment Drive, or to recruit members to establish a new Post. The information in red is to be supplied by the Post or Chapter, or the person seeking to organize a new Post. This information should be revise Bulletin Announcements in English │ Bulletin Announcements in Spanish Contact. If you have questions about the information below, please contact the person listed at the end of the bulletin announcement. If you find that there is incorrect information, please contact Glenda Meekins at 407-246-4808 or firstname.lastname@example.org
BULLETIN & ANNOUNCEMENTS. Worship bulletins are posted weekly on our church website. We encourage you to use this resource as you worship with us at home, on TV or on the web. If you would like to receive the bulletin in the mail, please contact the church office by phone at 402-341-7761 or via email at email@example.com After all, your bulletins are a tangible way for members and guests to know what to expect from your church. They may miss announcements given during the service or want a reminder of upcoming events throughout the week. The church bulletin is a great reference point for them to return to! Bulletins also help people know what to expect during. I really liked this article and the suggested bulletin announcements from various people. Thanks. My question is WHERE do we publicize HOW do we reach. the potential catechumens, potential inquirers, if not in our church bulletins? All the alternative announcements mentioned with this article are all for church bulletins. Need advice. Thanks Filed Under: Church Bulletins Tagged With: Church Bulletin Samples, church bulletins, church communication basics, church visitors, Communications, yvon prehn. Why your Church Bulletin is the most important piece of Christian literature printed today outside the Bible. 19 March, 2018 By Yvon Prehn 4 Comment
A note on announcement length: I have had some questions about bulletin text length, so here are some word/character counts to give you a starting place: A short blurb (2 full lines) will be 24-28 words (140-150 characters WITH spaces; about the same as a classic tweet) A moderate announcement (4 full lines) will be 35-50 words (225-285. This church bulletin sample is truly an example of genius in layout and design. I'm not using that description because of its use of fancy graphics, but because it packed in essential communication components, including an order of service, place for sermon notes, announcements, a gospel presentation, and a weekly schedule that is ready-to-post on the refrigerator, all the parts that a church. Bulletins and Announcements. Announcements. 1. Our Summer Sunday evening 6:00 Mass continues in the garden chapel! Please see photos of the construction process here! 2. This weekend is the Fourth of July weekend! On Monday July 5, we will have Mass in the church at 9:00 AM. The office will be close
Church Announcement Templates. Browse our convenient church announcement templates that correspond to the seven message types we discussed above. 1. The Countdown Announcement. Mass will begin in 5 minutes. Please take your seats and drop children in the Moses room for the children's liturgy, NOT the tabernacle. 2 Bulletins and announcements for August 1, 2021. July 30, 2021 Natalie. SUNDAY MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS. Below you can find the announcements for all the services. Announcements-Aug-1 Download. BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 8AM SERVICE. Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday's 8am service on August 1, 2021. Printed paper copies of this.
Bulletins & Announcements. Click on the date below to view the Sunday Bulletin and the Announcements for that day: 2021. JULY July 4 - Bulletin and Announcements - Printable Version July 11 - Bulletin and Announcements - Printable Versio April 18th Announcements. April 11, 2021 Bulletin. April 11th Announcements. Good Friday Bulletin. Easter Sunday Bulletin. April 4th Announcements. March 28, 2021 Bulletin. March 28 Announcements. March 21st 2021 Bulletin Bulletins & Announcements. Click the button below to download a PDF copy of the bulletin for the 8:30 and 11 AM services. All-Church Camp Registration, Attention Newcomers, Director of Facilities Position, Ministries Administrative Assistant Position. Sermon by Kris Perkins, Associate Minister
Weekly Bulletins and Announcements Liturgy and Prayer > Sacraments Activities & Events Religious Education and Formation > This Sunday's Bulletin.... july_25__2021_bulletin.pdf: File Size: 1248 kb: File Type: pdf: Download File. Previous Bulletins.... july_18__2021_bulletin_full.pdf: File Size:. Bulletin Announcement Samples (For use in Church/Parish Bulletins to Announce the Upcoming Directory Program) These announcements are created to be a menu of possibilities for the directory committee to use. Of course, each committee may choose to create their own announcements, or perhaps modify some of these announcements to fit thei File Date Title; 02/19/2015: February 21, 2015 Bulletin: Download: 02/12/2015: February 14, 2015 Bulletin: Download: 01/29/2015: January 31, 2014 Bulletin: Downloa 05/07/2021 - Sixth Sunday of Easter [Parish Announcements] 04/30/2021 - Fifth Sunday of Easter [Parish Announcements] 04/23/2021 - Fourth Sunday of Easter [Parish Announcements] 04/22/2021 - This Sunday, We Celebrate Pr. Ron's Ministry. 04/18/2021 - Today's Adult Forum in progress - Correct link. 04/16/2021 - Third Sunday of Easter [Parish. Calendar Bulletins & Announcements Bible Classes Confirmation Ushers Acolytes Choir Mentorship Program Togo Missionary Officers Sermons. Bulletins & Announcements. 24686 Old Church Road Red Wing, MN 55066 (651) 388-4577 (651) 380-6585 firstname.lastname@example.org Home. Pastor. Congregation. History. Our Beliefs. Doctrine.
. Stock bulletins are blank on the inside and back for you to add your own church information. The free bulletin templates available below are easy to edit and designed for you to print at your church. Use these bulletin templates with any church bulletins found on our site Jan 28, 2021 - Explore Janice Robinson's board Church Bulletin Boards, followed by 1245 people on Pinterest. See more ideas about church bulletin boards, church bulletin, bulletin boards Some have argued that the printed church bulletin is on its death bed and that churches ought to embrace a new way of making announcements. But as church marketing expert Steve Fogg has pointed out, a printed bulletin is a great tool to communicate to first-time visitors and is helpful for people still finding their way into your church
New Hope Missionary Baptist 1575 W. 17th Street San Bernardino, CA 92411 t. 9098872526 email@example.com Bulletins for July 24 and July 25, 2021. by Communications | Jul 21, 2021 | Bulletins & Announcements, Publications | 0 comments. Artwork by Bill Reynolds and Gene LeVasseur Be in the know! Click the button below to receive Coming up at OSL email updates every week Bulletin Announcements Home > Church Events > Bulletin Announcements. Announcements for Sunday, July 25, 2021. Prayer of Preparation. Dear God, we come to worship you today. We come to sing, pray, and listen. You always hear us. Help us to hear you. Amen
Bulletins Click or tap on items below to view or download: July 25, 2021 - Ninth Sunday after Pentecost Bulletin News/Announcements July 18, 2021 - Eighth Sunday after Pentecos Church Easter Welcome (For Church Bulletin or Announcement) Resurrection Greetings! We would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to (NAME OF CHURCH) as we celebrate our Risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! Without a doubt, the impact this one man named Jesus has had on this world has been without equal or parallel Bulletins. Get a glimpse of what worship is like at Westminster by browsing the bulletins below. Our Sunday Announcements offer a weekly update on the latest WPC happenings. Members of the Westminster community may submit material for publication in the Sunday Announcements Bulletins and Announcements. Announcements for Sunday, July 18th. On August 1st we will welcome back the choir! Paula's Pantry is being used and cleaned out daily, we are in need of items to keep it stocked! Please see the bulletin for suggested items
Calendar, Bulletins, Announcements NOTE: Scroll to bottom of page if you are a church member and need to revise your contact information. COVID VACCINE INFORMATION.pdf Adobe Acrobat document [14.1 KB Background Check: Anyone age 18 and over who work with our youth must complete a background check. Click here to begin the process. For assistance, contact: 855-326-1860 and select option 3. Change of Address: If you've had a change of address since the publication of the Church Directory (2019), please send updated information to firstname.lastname@example.org The Greeting Card Ministry would like.
Announcements for Parish Bulletins and Websites. Welcome to the page designed for distributing announcements to parishes for their bulletins and websites. These announcements have been submitted for archdiocesan promotion or advertise an archdiocesan event. To submit an announcement for promotion on this site, please contact the Communication. Here's a great way to give a church welcome speech in church this Sunday! Use them either from the platform as someone shares verbally or insert them in your church bulletin. As a result, you will make people feel right at home! Written by a Pastor with over 35 years of ministry experience. In other words, you will know the letters come.
Immanuel Lutheran Church & School © 2017 | Church: (860) 583-5649 | School: (860) 583-563 Weekly Bulletin Announcements. Announcements for July 11, 2021. July 11 2021 Ann.pdf. Adobe Acrobat document [1.1 MB] Announcements for July 4, 2021. July 4 2021 Ann.pdf. Adobe Acrobat document [930.6 KB] Announcements for June 27, 2021. June 27 2021 Ann.pdf Bulletins. Click on the link Download File to the right to download the bulletin that you need. July 11, 2021. File Size: 457 kb. File Type: pdf. Download File. July 11, 2021 Hymn Insert Here are five digital methods to supplement your church bulletin. Video announcements. A prerecorded video announcement can make a personal connection with visitors in a way that text and grainy pictures never could. Fear not, church video announcements don't have to be boring or dry, they can be awesome. Email bulletins Announcements. Bulletins. TSB 2020-01 Non-DOT Transit Benefit Increase to $270. TSB 2020-02 DOT Transit Benefit Increase to $270. TSB 2020-03 Transit Benefit Program Requirements and Expectations. 2019. Bulletins. TSB 2019-08 DOT HQ Garage Painting/Restriping Notice; TSB 2019-07 TRANServe Credit Card: SmartPay3 Purchase Proces
Read Online Sample Church Bulletin Announcements Letter to a Suffering ChurchThe Year of the BibleUnwelcomeNew-York ObserverU-TurnsMissions in the Local ChurchMinutes - United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.Church Bulletin BitsBecoming CatholicThe Country Life BulletinTh Public Service Announcement (PSA) on radio and television. Religious Education. Your parish may wish to provide information about Divine Mercy Sunday for the CCD, First Communion, and Confirmation programs. The pamphlet The Message of Divine Mercy and prayercards of The Divine Mercy Chaplet may be particularly helpful
A church bulletin is a good place for couples to announce their recent or upcoming wedding. The proud parents of the happy couple may also wish to announce the marriage in a bulletin, especially if the couple resides in another city or state Bulletins, News and Announcements. Learn What's New in OMAP, the Office of Medical Assistance Programs. Medical Assistance Bulletins. Remittance Advice Alerts/PROMISe™ Banner Pages. Third-Party Liability/Coordination of Benefits Announcements. Fraud and Abuse Information and Prevention. Provider QuickTips. If you are having difficulty finding. . A typical page of church announcements will list upcoming church events, weddings, memorial services, birthdays and requests for prayer. It's important to write clearly and directly, but there's no need for church announcements to be boring
. With your knowledge of what it is, what it does, and how to make one, you are now in a better position to serve Church Bulletin 11 - Graduation - For the Lord Giveth Wisdom (Pack of 100) A4828. $7.99 . Add to Cart . Free Shipping Over $49. Church Bulletin 14 - Graduation - For the Lord Giveth Wisdom (Pack of 100) A7828. $8.99 . Add to Cart . Free Shipping Over $49. Church Bulletin 11 - Praise & Worship - Followers of God (Pack of 100
. There are even links to past Livestreams and Sermons. (keep scrolling) Everyone Is Invited. to hop on the Weekly Tuesday Night 7PM Zoom. It's a time of casual conversation, caring for one another. true true true true Evergreen Bulletin Announcements From the Office of the Chancellor Prime Time Single Catholics (PTSC) is a Washington-area social group serving single Catholics 40 and over. Come join us in Christian fellowship Campus Bulletins refer to the relevant news and announcements that are posted to Highlander Pipeline as well as email blasts sent to all or parts of the university community, or an outside group. Any faculty or staff member can submit a bulletin for approval via the Bulletin Services link under the Faculty/Staff Services tab on Highlander Pipeline
Cardinal Innovations announcements and bulletins are memos shared with our provider network. They include information that empowers providers to better serve our members. For example, communication bulletins offer network management news, quality management updates, finance information, and utilization management details The Altar Rosary Society Bakeless Bake Sale. A bit of news we have today; A Bakeless Bake Sale is on the way. During this Lent, it has been set, so this poem explains, lest we forget. Instead of cupcakes, cookies, or treats to buy, (Which add inches to the waistline-My, Oh, My!) our Society has a Lenten almsgiving opportunity to. Bulletins & Announcements. Bulletin for September 13, 2020. Bulletin for September 6, 2020. Bulletin for August 30, 2020. Bulletin for August 23, 2020. Bulletin for August 16, 2020. Bulletin for August 9, 2020. 33 Day Consecration to Mary. Bulletin for August 2, 2020. Bulletin for July 26, 2020 5350 North Sprinkle Road. Kalamazoo, Michigan 49004. ©2021 Haven Reformed Church


Pastor Scott Osenbaugh -- Lead Pastor
Pastor Scott is a native of California, though he prefers to claim America's heartland as his home. He loves books (just check out his office) and enjoys writing them as well as reading Pastor Scott has a recurring dream of being in a Christian publisher's warehouse with a blank check!
Pastor Syd Osenbaugh - Associate Pastor
Pastor Syd also hails from the west coast, but is far more 'at home' when surrounded by the corn and bean fields ofthe midwest. She loves to read and work on the computer - sometimes combining both. She has a passion for encouraging the arts (particularly dramatic arts) as a means of sharing Christ.
Pastors Scott and Syd have been married for 40 years. They have two beautiful daughters, Kristi and Beki.
Chase, Ian, and Elli - the grandchildren - are the delight of their grandparents' hearts!
Articles & Resources for Church Workers
Starting a Greeter Program
Four years ago I accepted the challenge of evangelism chairperson for our church. One of the first programs the pastor and I developed was the Sunday morning greeter program.
Motivating the Right Person into the Right Ministry
One of the greatest challenges for most leaders is selecting and motivating the right people into the right ministry positions in hopes of minimizing turnover and frustration. Even in the smaller church with limited personnel, it is important to coordinate people and ministry as much as possible.
“I TRIED, BUT NO ONE EVER CALLED ME”
“I tried, but no one ever called me” are painful words for a leader who has much work to do and not enough people willing to do it. These words are painful for the person who wanted to contribute, but was never called. These are also painful words for a person who is committed to helping people connect and contribute in meaningful ways within the church.


Thursday, September 17, 2009
In a few days I have my first Eagles game of the season so I welcomed an assignment to photograph the Trenton Central High School vs Notre Dame football game as a warm-up. The only trouble is everything in a pro football game moves about four times as fast. Everything except me.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Today, I had the joy of photographing a gospel choir group called the "Original Specials" at St. John the Baptist Church in Ewing Township, New Jersey. These six women have been singing together for 41 years. There were no tv cameras, no auto-tune, no studio effects, just authentic human feeling expressed beautifully through the voices of six people. That felt good!


Orderville was established at the direction of LDS Church president Brigham Young in 1875 specifically to live United Order, a voluntary form of communalism defined by Joseph Smith. Orderville was settled primarily by destitute refugees from failed settlements on the Muddy River in Nevada. The extreme poverty of these settlers likely contributed significantly to their devotion to the principles of the United Order.
Although the United Order was practiced in many Utah communities during the late 1870s, Orderville was unique in both the level of success it experienced under the communal living style, and in the duration of the experiment. In the course of a few years, Orderville grew into a thriving, self-sufficient community. The success and relative wealth of the community attracted more settlers and Orderville grew to about 700 people. Orderville not only provided for the needs of its population, but produced a significant surplus for sale to other communities, which was used to purchase additional land and equipment.
The Order continued in Orderville for approximately 10 years. During the early 1880s, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints lost interest in the experiment, but Orderville attempted to continue it. In 1885, the enforcement of the Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act of 1882 effectively ended the Order by jailing many of the Order's leaders and driving many of the others underground.


San Rafael Church, La Cueva, NM
San Rafael Church
La Cueva, New Mexico
The San Rafael church, located in the tiny rural community of La Cueva, is a stunning Neo-Gothic structure. It was built in 1865 during the period of Jean Baptiste Lamy, the Frenchman who was assigned by the Vatican to be the first Archbishop of Santa Fe. Abandoned as a parish church in 1952 for lack of clergy, the structure soon fell into ruin. Residents of El Queso, Buena Vista, Cañoncito, La Cueva and several other communities were forced to attend services outside their own area and the church stood abandoned for forty years.
In 1990, Father Walter Cassidy heard of Cornerstones and requested assistance, obtaining the signatures of 150 heads of household who committed themselves to a restoration project. Cornerstones began working with what was left of the community to restore the building. Volunteers from La Cueva and neighboring towns, with the assistance of outside volunteers recruited by Cornerstones, worked tirelessly over the next seven years to restore the building. Local craftsmen who had the skills and equipment to restore the beautiful Gothic windows were identified in nearby Mora. The tradition of women enjaradoras (plasterers), long present in Hispanic communities, was revived in La Cueva. Elderly women enthusiastically took up their traditional role, learning from those few who had retained the knowledge from the past.


Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Season of Lent. It is a season of penance, reflection, and fasting which prepares us for Christ's Resurrection on Easter Sunday, through which we attain redemption.
Why we receive the ashes
Following the example of the Nine vites, who did penance in sackcloth and ashes, our foreheads are marked with ashes to humble our hearts and reminds us that life passes away on Earth. We remember this when we are told
"Remember, Man is dust, and unto dust you shall return."
Ashes are a symbol of penance made sacramental by the blessing of the Church, and they help us develop a spirit of humility and sacrifice.
The distribution of ashes comes from a ceremony of ages past. Christians who had committed grave faults performed public penance. On Ash Wednesday, the Bishop blessed the hair shirts which they were to wear during the forty days of penance, and sprinkled over them ashes made from the palms from the previous year. Then, while the faithful recited the Seven Penitential Psalms, the penitents were turned out of the church because of their sins -- just as Adam, the first man, was turned out of Paradise because of his disobedience. The penitents did not enter the church again until Maundy Thursday after having won reconciliation by the toil of forty days' penance and sacramental absolution. Later, all Christians, whether public or secret penitents, came to receive ashes out of devotion. In earlier times, the distribution of ashes was followed by a penitential procession.
The ashes are made from the blessed palms used in the Palm Sunday celebration of the previous year. The ashes are christened with Holy Water and are scented by exposure to incense. While the ashes symbolize penance and contrition, they are also a reminder that God is gracious and merciful to those who call on Him with repentant hearts. His Divine mercy is of utmost importance during the season of Lent, and the Church calls on us to seek that mercy during the entire Lenten season with reflection, prayer and penance.
Attorney General Eric Holder is calling for an end to state laws that bar felons from voting, even after they have served their sentences.
"By perpetuating the stigma and isolation imposed on formerly incarcerated individuals, these laws increase the likelihood they will commit future crimes," Holder said Tuesday at a Washington, D.C., symposium on sentencing laws.
Holder said the restrictions bar 5.8 million Americans from casting a ballot, including 2.2 million African-Americans.
"Nearly one in 13 African-American adults are banned from voting because of these laws. In three states -- Florida, Kentucky, and Virginia -- that ratio climbs to one in five," he said.
Holder called the laws a vestige of post-Civil War racial discrimination, with a disproportionately high impact on minority communities.
The laws were not intended to improve public safety but rather "to stigmatize, shame, and shut out a person who had been found guilty of a crime."
Justice Department figures say Florida's law has disenfranchised roughly 10 percent of the population. Similar laws in Mississippi bar 8 percent of the population from voting, the figures say.
Three states -- Florida, Iowa, and Kentucky -- permanently disenfranchise convicted felons, unless the government approves an individual request to have rights restored. Eight others -- Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Mississippi, Nevada, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wyoming -- bar at least some, though not all, convicted felons from voting.
In most states, voting rights are restored after a sentence is served, though some also require completing terms of probation or parole. Nearly all states bar felons from voting while they remain in prison.


OUR CHURCH LEADERSHIP
Meet our pastors and leadership team
Emily Swan and Ken Wilson serve as co-pastors of Blue Ocean Faith Ann Arbor. Our official leadership also includes the rest of our pastoral team (Cassie, Penny, Caroline and Diane) and our church board.
In practice, most of the leaders in our church community aren’t listed here—individuals leading worship, prayer, small groups, youth, logistics, outreach and more. We’re a church that invites everyone to participate and serve and lead where they can.
Ken was born and raised in Detroit, is the father of six, grandfather of another six, and is married to Rev. Julia Huttar Bailey. Ken received a B.S.N. from the University of Michigan; before entering the pastorate, he worked in community mental health.
Ken is the author of several books, including Mystically Wired: Exploring New Realms in Prayer (Thomas Nelson 2010); and most recently A Letter To My Congregation: An Evangelical Pastor’s Path to Embracing Those Who are Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Into the Company of Jesus (ReadTheSpirit, 2014).
Ken was the founding pastor of Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor, served for seven years on the national board of Vineyard USA, and now serves on the Senior Leadership Team of Blue Ocean Faith Church Network. Ken enjoys walking, reading and writing—but arithmetic, not so much. Ken blogs at:
Emily grew up in Indianapolis and moved to Ann Arbor after college to work for Borders Group Inc. She received her B.A. in history from Butler University, and has worked toward her Master’s degree at Fuller Theological Seminary. Additionally, she spent three years studying Mandarin and Amdo Tibetan languages at Qinghai Minzu Dazue Nationalities University in Xining, China.
After spending some years working for two Fortune 500 companies in public relations, marketing, and finance, she served as a pastor for seven years for the Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor.
Emily is a BioLogos grant recipient, writing small group material around the creation stories in Genesis that makes space for evolutionary theory and deepens the Christian understanding of our sacred text. Emily is married to Rachel Murr. They live in Ypsilanti and enjoy cooking and playing tennis.
Emily blogs at:
Cassie Brabbs, Worship Director Cassie lives in Ann Arbor with her husband, Phil, and their three young children. She studied music in college and enjoys singing and writing songs.
Penny Johnson, Volunteer Coordinator Penny owns and operates an automotive manufacturing company in the Detroit area, founded by her late father. She lives in Livonia. Penny led the Single Moms Ministry at the Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor. She has three adult children, two granddaughters, two dogs, and three cats. Please do not drop anymore stray pets—or children—at her door.
Caroline Kittle, Youth Director and Administrative Assistant Caroline graduated from the University of Michigan and has a Masters in Women and Gender Studies from DePaul University. Caroline and her husband Matt have two children.
Diane Sonda, Sunday School Director Diane is an experienced elementary and middle school teacher with several years experience as a Children’s Ministry Director. Diane is married to Paul Sonda. They have six adult children and ten grandchildren. Diane has a degree in Special Education from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
OUR CHURCH BOARD
Robyn Charles is a former engineer, volunteer at 826michigan (Liberty Street Robot Supply and Repair), and the person you often see running the video camera on Sunday mornings. She is married to Al and they have two adult sons.
Steve Gray is the earnest midwesterner that most hipsters aspire to be: born and raised in Flint, MI; attended college in Indiana and law school in Illinois. For most of his career he has been a legal aid lawyer, until recently when he joined the faculty at the University of Michigan Law School as a clinical professor and directs the Unemployment Insurance Clinic. Steve is married to Joy Lange and has been for 32 years. They have two “adult” children.
Abram Jacobs has a diverse background including business, education, and technology—currently working in IT Leadership for a local mortgage company. He is the father of a young son and is married to Megan Patrick.
Penny Johnson (see above bio)
Tim Kowaleski is the Executive Director–HR Field Operations for Consumers Energy. He is the father of 2 adult sons and one adult daughter. His partner of 16 years is Rich Beswick.
Satish Ramade is a Software Engineer, Licensed Realtor, Entrepreneur and Business Owner. He is married to Clarissa and has two daughters.
Lisa Ruby is an attorney with the Michigan Poverty Law Program specializing in Social Security, Health and Welfare Benefits. She is the mother of an adult son and is married to Lisa Carico.
Emily Swan (see above bio)
Sue Weil is the mother of two and has been married to Lee for 30 years. She has a business degree and works as a Business Analyst in IT at the University of Michigan. Sue’s favorite place to visit is Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park.
Ken Wilson (see above bio)


Religious Education Classes have resumed!!
Contact the church today to sign your child up for this youth ministry.
ABOUT RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
Rev. Fr. Dean Nastos
Religious Education Director
Mary Sue Gladis
Religious Education Teachers
Pre K - 1 Grade Teacher Olympia Ruppe
Pre k - 1 Grade Teacher Elaine Greene
2-4 Grade Teacher Dorothy Bonstedt
2-4 Grade Teacher Dr. Cheryl Johnson
5-8 Grade Teacher Niki Georgatos
5-8 Grade Teacher Poly Mavridou-Hernandez
8-12 Grade Teacher
Floaters (PreK - 12)
Jen-Hope Belis, Joanna Hoch,
** Please contact the church office if you are interested in becoming a Sunday School teacher or assistant.
The life of the Orthodox Church perpetuates and fulfills the ministry of Jesus Christ. The close association between Christ and His Church is reflected in the images from the Scriptures which declare that Christ is the Head and the Church is His Body, and that Christ is the Bridegroom and the Church is His bride. Learn more»
Myron the Martyr of Cyzicus; Straton, Philip, Eutychian, & Cyprian the Martyrs of Nicomedea; Afterfeast of the Dormition of our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos and Ever Virgin Mary; Demetrios the New, Righteous-Martyr of Samaria; Eutychios, Eutychianos and Kassiani the siblings; Paul, Juliana, and those martyred with them (the executioners)


Remember Your Loved Ones on All Souls Day
It is coming up to November, the month of the Holy Souls and every year Bóthar helps to remember loved ones who have passed away by remembering them at a special mass held in St. John’s Cathedral on All Souls Day, November 2nd.
We will be doing so again this year.
Unfortunately, as we all have experience of, with life comes death. Precious people are lost to us and we want to find ways to honour their memory. To keep them with us as we continue our journey through life.
To remember them...
Because the world is not the same without them in it.
The love you have for them gathers up in the corners of your eyes or the lump in your throat. It gets you. Somedays when you least expect it.
That is the power of love.
This All Souls Day, we are transforming that love into practical help and support. Life-changing help for families who are struggling in the developing world. Nearly all of these families were directly impacted by the horrors of the Rwandan Genocide, 25 years ago.
Countless men, women and children were killed.
Mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews.
All of whom died in the most horrific of circumstances.
Those who were left behind had to try and rebuild their lives.
Some are still trying.
We currently have families who are in the middle of the Bóthar training programme and they are just waiting to find out when they will receive their Irish dairy cow.
This cow will CHANGE THEIR LIVES. It really will.
This is where you can honour the memory of your loved one to help a family who are in dire need of it.
Alternatively, you can call a member of the Bóthar team on 1850 82 99 99.
Wishing you good health and happiness.


When I was very much younger and a regular watcher of Blue Peter (a Children’s TV show for non UK readers), I knew Christmas was coming when John Noakes lit the first candle on the The Blue Peter Christmas coat hanger advent crown.
Well I no longer watch Blue Peter or even know if it still exists but today is the first of December, and it seems I can no longer pretend Christmas isn’t just around the corner.
And so it begins; lists of gifts to buy, cards to be made/bought/written/posted, stamps to be purchased, edible gifts to be considered, social gatherings to be arranged, food to be thought about, shopping – lots of, and of course my December blog schedule to be carefully considered! In the ideal glossy magazine version of my life I would have started planning all of this long before now. In my actual, slightly disorganised far from perfect life I haven’t done a thing!
It can feel overwhelming can’t it. Now I know it shouldn’t feel like that. I know, I mean I really know Christmas is about so much more than all of the above. As a Christian I believe Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus. I don’t believe Christmas is about giving or receiving the perfect gift, or producing the perfect meal or even having the most stunningly decorated Christmas tree, even thought I do get side tracked by all of these!
If I’m honest, Christmas actually makes me and I’m sure many others a little sad. It’s not uncommon for me to sniffle my way through the odd carol or nativity service. There is something very emotive about twinkling lights, candles, familiar words and music. Christmas is a reminder that life hasn’t always worked out quite as I might have hoped and it’s a time when I especially miss those who are no longer with me.
However, Christmas is also a lovely opportunity to celebrate and be with the people I love and hold dear. It’s a time to take stock and be thankful for the many, wonderful things I do have.
With that in mind, I shall take a deep breath, pour myself a seasonal Baileys and start on those lists……
Image, Changing-pages and retrobabble


from the book
I asked him where he was going to church. With no hesitation he said he was not going anywhere. His life was full. His work was valuable. He spent his days with people of many faiths and no faith at all, who gave him ample opportunity to practice his own.
Still immersed in church life, I was skeptical. "Say more," I said.
"After a lot of listening," he said, "I think I finally heard the gospel. the good news of God in Christ is, 'You have everything you need to be human.' There is nothing outside of you that you still need - no approval from the authorities, no attendance at temple, no key truth hidden in the tenth chapter of some sacred book. In your life right now, God has given you everything that you need to be human."


brief history of the Knight Templars.
According to Guillaume de Tyre the Order was founded by a vassal of the Count of Champagne, a certain Hugh de Payen, acting in collaboration with André de Montbard, the uncle of Bernard of Clairvaux. In 1118, the two knights along with seven companions presented themselves to the younger brother of Godfroi de Bouillon who had accepted the title of King Baudoin I of Jerusalem. They announced to the monarch that it was their intention to found an order of warrior monks so that 'as far as their strength permitted, they should keep the roads and highways safe . . . with a special regard for the protection of pilgrims.' The new order took vows of personal poverty and chastity and swore to hold all their property in common. The king granted them quarters which included the stables of what was believed to be the Temple of Solomon. The Patriarch of Jerusalem granted the new order of knights the right to wear the double barred Cross of Lorraine as their insignia. The original nine knights are generally believed to have been:
Gondemar and Rosal were Cistercian monks who were now just transferring their allegiance. Many would simply see this transfer as one that took place between the monastic and the military arm of the same order, for the Cistercians and the Knights Templar were so closely linked by ties of blood, patronage and shared objectives that many Templar scholars believe that they were two arms from the same body.
The position of Hugh de Champagne in this whole affair is curious and confusing in the extreme. There is a letter to him from the Bishop of Chartres dated 1114, congratulating him on his intention to join la Milice du Christ, which is another name for the Knights Templar. He certainly took up a form of lay associate membership of the order in 1124 and thereby created a bizarre anomaly in feudal terms, for by joining the Order and swearing obedience to its Grand Master Hugh de Payen he came under the direct control of a man who in the normal social order of things was his own vassal. There is a secret Templar archive in the principality of Seborga in northern Italy which has recently been discovered containing documents that demand further study. It is claimed that St Bernard of Clairvaux founded a monastery there in 1113, to protect a 'great secret'. This monastery under the direction of its abbot, Edouard, contained two monks who had joined the order with Bernard, two knights who took the names of Gondemar and Rosal on their profession as monks. One document claims that in February 1117 Bernard came to this monastery released Gondemar and Rosal from their vows and then blessed these two monks and their seven companions, prior to their departure to Jerusalem. This departure was not immediate and did not take place until November 1118. The seven companions of the two ex-Cistercians are listed as follows: André de Montbard, Count Hugh I de Champagne, Hugh de Payen, Payen de Montdidier, Geoffroi de Sainte-Omer, Archambaud de St Amand and Geoffroi Bisol. The document records that St Bernard nominated Hugh de Payen as the first grand master of the Poor Militia of Christ and that Hugh de Payen was consecrated in this position by the Abbot Edouard of Seborga.
Whether or not Hugh de Champagne was directly involved in the actual founding of the Knights Templar is a decision we will leave to scholars of far greater wisdom than ourselves. Whatever the truth may prove to be, two things are certain. Firstly the count of Champagne was at the very least a prime mover behind the scenes even if he is not to be numbered among the original nine founding knights. Secondly, all those involved in both founding and promoting the Order were linked by a complex web of direct family relationships.
The main reason given for the founding of the Order, to protect the pilgrim routes, does not bear any close examination whatsoever for the first ten or twelve years of the Order's existence. It would have been a physical impossibility for nine middle-aged knights to protect the dangerous route from Jaffa to Jerusalem from all the bandits and marauding infidels who believed that the pilgrims who provided such easy pickings, were a gift from God. The recorded actions of the knights make this an even more incredible scenario, for they did not patrol the dangerous roads of the Holy Land to protect the pilgrims, but spent nine years in the dangerous and demanding task of excavating and mining a series of tunnels under their quarters on the Temple Mount. These arduous tasks were completed with the patronage and support of the King of Jerusalem.
The tunnels mined by the Templars were re-excavated in 1867, by Lieutenant Warren of the Royal Engineers. The access tunnel descends vertically downwards for eighty feet through solid rock before radiating in a series of minor tunnels horizontally under the site of the ancient temple itself. Lieutenant Warren failed to find the hidden treasure of the Temple of Jerusalem, but in the tunnels excavated so laboriously by the Templars, they found a spur, remnants of a lance, a small Templar cross and the major part of a Templar sword. These artefacts are now preserved for posterity by the Templar archivist for Scotland, Robert Brydon of Edinburgh. Also in his keeping is a letter from a certain Captain Parker who took part in Warren's excavation under the Temple and several subsequent ones. Parker wrote to Robert's grandfather in 1912 and told of how on one of these expeditions he had discovered a secret room carved in the solid rock beneath the temple site with a passage leading from it to the Mosque of Omar. Parker went on to describe how when he broke through the stonework at the end of the passage and found himself within the confines of the mosque, he had to flee to save himself from a small army of extremely angry and devout Muslims. Two questions arise from the nature and position of these Templar excavations. What were they seeking? And how did they know precisely where to dig?
On the exterior of Chartres Cathedral, by the north door, there is a carving on a pillar, which gives us an indication of the object sought by the burrowing Templars, representing the Ark of the Covenant, but in a rather strange context. The Ark is depicted as being transported on a wheeled vehicle. Legend recounts that the Ark of the Covenant had been secreted deep beneath the Temple in Jerusalem centuries before the fall of the city to the Romans. It had been hidden there to protect it form yet another invading army who had laid the city to waste. Hugh de Payen had been chosen to lead the expedition mounted to locate the Ark and bring it back to Europe. Persistent legends recount that the Ark was then hidden for a considerable time deep beneath the crypt of Chartres Cathedral. The same legends also claim that the Templars found many other sacred artefacts from the old Jewish temple in the course of their investigations and that a considerable quantity of documentation was also located during the dig. While there has been much speculation as to the exact nature of these documents, a reasonable consensus is emerging that they contained scriptural scrolls, treatises on sacred geometry, and details of certain knowledge, art and science - the hidden wisdom of the ancient initiates of the Judaic/Egyptian tradition. Until very recently these legends received short shrift from academic historians, but that situation is undergoing considerable change. One modern archeological discovery tends to support the speculative scenario that the Templars knew where to look and precisely what they were seeking.. The Copper Scroll, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered at Quamran, tends to confirm not only the objective of the Templar excavations but also, albeit indirectly, gives some credence to the bizarre concept of the transmission of knowledge through the generations that led to the Templar's discoveries in Jerusalem.
The Copper Scroll, which was unrolled and deciphered at Manchester University under the guidance of John Allegro, was a list of all the burial sites used to hide the various items both sacred and profane described as the treasure of the Temple of Jerusalem. Many of these sites have been re-excavated since the discovery of the Copper Scroll, and several of them have disclosed not Temple treasure but evidence of Templar excavation made in the twelfth century.
At about the time the excavations were near completion, Count Fulk of Anjou sped with all haste to Jerusalem where he took the oath of allegiance to the new order. He immediately granted the order an annuity of thirty Angevin livres before returning to Anjou. When one considers that the vast majority of knights joining the order stayed within its ranks for their lifetime, this action by Fulk of Anjou is a trifle strange. His apparent freedom of manoeuvre, despite his oath of allegiance to the Order of the Knights Templar can be explained by the fact that Fulk was not only the Count of Anjou and a member of the Templar Orderbut was married to the sister of the King of Jerusalem who died childless, thus Fulk himself later became the King of Jerusalem.
The next notable figure to arrive in Jerusalem was the Count of Champagne who, as we have mentioned earlier, took the oath of membership in 1124. Behind the scenes in Europe Bernard of Clairvaux, who had become a senior advisor to the pope, consolidated his position within the Church. Bernard began to persuade the pope that the new military order which was already active in the Holy Land should be given papal backing and a formal position within the Church. For this they would need a rule, a formal charter stating the aims and objectives of the order, the obligations of its members to it and the rules of membership as well as the establishment of a formal command structure.
The main excavations in Jerusalem were completed in late December of 1127. Hugh de Payen with all the knights of the new order returned to France. The Grand Master Hugh de Payen and his principal co-founder of the order, Andre de Montbard, travelled to England to see the King and, having obtained safe-conduct from him, went directly north across the border to Scotland, where the two knights stayed at Roslin with the St Clairs, who were Hugh's relatives by marriage. The lord of Roslin made an immediate grant of land to the new order which became their headquarters in Scotland. The oldest Templar site in Scotland, once known as Ballontrodoch, is now called Temple after the order.
The Templars gained official recognition and were granted their rule in 1128 at the Council of Troyes, which was dominated by the thinking of Bernard of Clairvaux. The new order soon gained an exceptional degree of legal autonomy, which placed its activities completely beyond the reach of bishops, Kings or emperors, making it responsible through its grand master to the pope alone. Before his election the current pope had been a member of the Cistercian Order, and was a close friend of St Bernard, who was his principal advisor. This was not the only example of either nepotism or the 'old pals act' that can be found in the early years of the Templar Order. The grant of land at Ballontrodoch by the St Clairs of Roslin was followed by many similar gifts from other pious members of the aristocracy who also made generous donations of land and finance to the rapidly growing order. Membership grew with incredible speed and the order soon numbered among its ranks representatives from all the leading families in Western Europe. France, Provence, and the Languedoc-Roussillon areas became its major power base.
From the time of their foundation until the fall of Acre, the Templars exerted influence and then great power in the Holy Land. Guarding the pilgrim routes, transporting men, materials and pilgrims from ports in Europe, important though it was, played only a small part in their activities. They built castles in important defensive positions and played a significant role in military and established important bases throughout the Holy Land, to the extent that the Knights Templar became one of the most significant forces within the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Templars soon acquired a well-earned reputation for bravery in battle and never willingly surrendered to the enemy. However, their reputation for generalship and strategic thinking is not rated so highly. Their extensive and costly military activities in Outremer, as Palestine became known, were sustained by the profits from their estates and activities in Western Europe
Material wealth in the early twelfth century was almost invariably based on land and feudal dues. The Knights Templar owned estates of varying size scattered throughout every climatic zone in Europe from Denmark, Scotland and the Orkney Islands in the north, to France, Italy and Spain in the south. Their commercial interests were impressive and varied and their activities included the operation of farms, vineyards, stone quarries and mines. As a result of their two-fold interest in protecting pilgrims on the one hand and maintaining communications with their operative bases in the Holy Land on the other, the Templars operated a well-organised fleet which exceeded that of any state at the time. For military purposes, this included a number of highly maneuverable war galleys fitted with rams and for the purpose of carrying pilgrims, troops, horses and commercial cargoes, they owned a large number of ships which plied the Mediterranean between bases in Italy, France, Spain and the Holy Land. Their main seat of naval power in the Mediterranean was on the Island of Majorca, while their principal port on the Atlantic coast was the highly ified harbour of La Rochelle from where, it is alleged, they conducted trade with Greenland, the British Isles, the North American mainland and Mexico. Within fifty years of their foundation, the Knights Templar had become a commercial force equal in power to many states; within a hundred years they had developed into the medieval pre-cursors of multi-national conglomerates with interests in every form of commercial activity of that time and were far richer than any kingdom in Europe.
The transformative effect of Templar activity upon European culture and commerce was remarkable and yet many modern Church historians still accuse the order of being formed of illiterate knights. The so-called 'illiterates' developed sophisticated and coded means of communication which transcended the linguistic barriers which otherwise would have fragmented and diffused the commercial impact of their activities. Among the principal items of their trading activities were those which we would describe in modern terms as 'technology and ideas'. The Templar communication network was the principal route by which knowledge of astronomy, mathematics, herbal medicine and healing skills made their way from the Holy Land to Europe. Among the technological advances brought back by the warrior knights were mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, the telescope and a financial instrument which they acquired from the Sufis of Islam, known as 'the note of hand'.
The Templars were great builders. On their own estates they built and maintained fortified castles and farms, barns, outbuildings and mills as well as dormitory blocks, stables and workshops. Some Templar castles, particularly in southern Europe and the Holy Land, were built on defensive sites which posed incredible difficulties of construction. They were particularly renowned for building strategically situated castles with water gates on coasts and rivers. The classic round Templar church, founded on octagonal geometry and supposedly based on the design of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, became such a distinctive feature of Templar construction that it became almost diagnostic of their activity or involvement. This type of building formed only a small part of their church construction programme, albeit of very special and cabalistic significance. The vast majority of Templar churches, especially those in the southern regions of Europe, are small, undecorated, rectangular structures often with apsidal ends.
According to many scholars, including the ecclesiastical historian Fred Gettings, the Templars were openly involved in the financing and construction of the Gothic cathedrals. The sudden flowering of the Gothic style of architecture, which enabled cathedrals to be built of far greater height with more windows, brought about a new era in church design and art that allowed larger naves and greater spaces, uncluttered by pillars, to be created within church buildings. It is no coincidence that this architectural form, which cannot be explained as an evolutionary development from the Romanesque style that preceded it, arose after the knights returned from their excavations in Jerusalem.
While many of the great cathedrals were heavily influenced by Templar thinking, geometry and design, one above all others is a hymn to their direct involvement and belief, the Cathedral of Chartres. Constructed with almost unbelievable speed, Chartres Cathedral is portrayed by the Church as the product of co-operative effort by the townspeople, financed by the pilgrim trade. This totally fails to explain the massive and immediate input of financial resources that must have been necessary in order to pay for the quarrying and transport of the stone and the enormous expenditure on the vast numbers of stonemasons, sculptors and other craftsmen who would have been employed to complete such a vast and complex edifice at such speed. It is highly doubtful if the proceeds of the pilgrimage to Chartres over the period of its construction would have paid for the creation and installation of the stained-glass windows, much less for the construction and decoration of the entire building. The only source of finance in Europe at that time which could have produced the resources necessary was the Order of the Knights Templar.
In England, craftsmen who work in stone are known as stonemasons. In France they are known collectively as members of the Compannonage who, in the twelfth century, were broadly divided into three groups. These fulfilled separate functions under the umbrella of the same craft: the Children of Father Soubise were responsible for the construction of ecclesiastical buildings in the Romanesque style; the Children of Maitre Jacques were also known as Les Compagnons Passant and one of their primary functions was the art of bridge building. The craftmasons who built the Gothic cathedrals were known as the Children of Solomon, named after King Solomon who, according to the scriptures, commissioned the first temple in Jerusalem. This branch of the Compannonage were instructed in the art of sacred geometry by Cistercian monks and it was the Knights Templar who, acting with the agreement of Bernard of Clairvaux, gave a 'rule' to the Children of Solomon in March 1145, which laid down the conditions required for living and working. The preface to his rule contains words which have been intimately associated with the Knights Templar ever since:
We the Knights of Christ and of the Temple follow the destiny that prepares us to die for Christ. We have the wish to give this rule of living, of work and of honour to the constructors of churches so that Christianity can spread throughout the earth not so that our name should be remembered, Oh Lord, but that Your Name should live. [our emphasis]
It was not only the Order of the Knights Templar who attained immense wealth, property, power and prestige in the years that followed the completion of their excavations in Jerusalem. Under the guiding hand of Bernard of Clairvaux the once struggling order of Cistercian monks expanded at a similar rate. Within Bernard's lifetime the Cistercians established over 300 abbeys throughout Europe, a truly outstanding era of growth that was never even approached, much less exceeded, by any monastic order other than the Templars. The Cistercians became known as the 'apostles of the frontier' due to their habit of refusing donations of land near major centres of population and opting instead to site their new establishments in marginal lands in the mountains and barren reaches of Christian Europe. The Templars on the other hand, sited their possessions within cities, at centres of pilgrimage and sea ports as well as in the countryside, with a special emphasis on estates strategically situated near major trade and pilgrimage routes. In England and Wales they had over 5000 properties and they also owned a considerable number in Scotland, Ireland the Low Countries and the German states; they even had estates in Hungary guarding the overland routes to the Holy Land. Spain, long a centre of devout pilgrimage to the shrine of St James of Compostela, was liberally adorned with Templar strongholds and the order played its part in defending Christian Spain against Moorish incursions.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and similar orders arose and achieved some degree of renown by modelling themselves on the Templars. Two such orders in Spain were the Knights of Calatrava and the Knights of Alcantara. Both orders were founded shortly after the Templars and St. Bernard of Clairvaux is known to have played a part in this. There were many Templar establishments in Italy, which was one of the major embarkation points on the sea routes to the kingdom of Jerusalem, but the most important power base for the Knights Templar in Europe was the present country of France. In the south are the regions of Provence and the Languedoc-Roussillon which, in the Templar era, were separate entities from the kingdom of France. Throughout these southern regions Templar holdings were plentiful, with over thirty per cent of the total estates owned by the Templars throughout Europe situated in the Languedoc-Roussillon alone.
With Templar holdings strategically placed on hilltop positions that commanded panoramic views over the trade routes of Europe, important and transformative change soon took place. Prior to the Templars, Europe was a hegemony of squabbling feudal fiefdoms, counties and kingdoms. Long-distance trade was largely non-existent, except by sea, and all travellers were vulnerable to attack by brigands and extortion by feudal lords who charged a toll for safe passage through their lands. Towns were small and relatively powerless, being subject to the all-pervading will of the Church/State establishment or the arbitrary rule of the seigneur, or lord, of the district. With the advent of the Knights Templar all this was about to dramatically change.
The Templars declared objective of protecting the pilgrimage routes was not restricted to travel within the Holy Land. Not only did they control the routes spreading like a fan northwards from the Mediterranean coast, which were used by the devout in their attempts to reach the birth place of the Saviour, but they also policed all the other pilgrim routes as well. A complex series of communication networks linked every part of Europe to the major international sites of pilgrimage in Jerusalem, Rome and, most important of all in the twelfth to fourteenth centuries, St James of Compostela in Spain. These routes alone linked all the major population centres in Europe. In addition to these were all the national sites of pilgrimage, such as Canterbury in England; Chartres, Mont-St-Michel, Rocamadour and the many other sites of veneration of the Black Madonna in France. With Templar protection, travel by pilgrim or trader alike along the major routes of Europe was now possible in comparative safety and freedom from extortion or assault. One other innovation made by the Templars further enhanced the safety of trade and accelerated the change in the balance of power between the feudal lords and the towns. This was the creation of an efficient and sophisticated banking system.
The Templars used their immense wealth with skill and wisdom. Not only did they make substantial strategic investments in land and agricultural pursuits, but they also invested in basic industries which provided the essential ingredients for the massive expansion in building, both lay and ecclesiastical, which began to change the face of Europe. Using their own commercial insights as well as techniques which they adopted from their Muslim opponents in the east, they developed the concept of financial transfer by 'note of hand' into something like its modern equivalent, developed the bankers cheque and the pre-cursor of the credit card. This latter development arose from the financial needs created by the medieval equivalent of the 'package tour industry' - the pilgrimage trade. Whether to Rome, Jerusalem or Compostela, pilgrimage was a long, arduous and expensive enterprise for the pilgrim and a source of immense profit for the Church and innkeepers, ferrymen and others en route. The pilgrim would be wary of carrying large sums of money as he travelled, for fear of robbery, extortion or unforeseen accident. The answer was simple; seek out the master of the local Templar commanderie and deposit sufficient funds with him to cover the estimated cost of the return journey, including travel, accommodation and ancillary costs such as alms and gift-giving to the important ecclesiastical sites en route and at the final destination. In return for the financial deposit, the Templar treasurer would give the traveller a coded chit as a form of receipt and as a means of exchange. At each overnight stop, or where alms or offerings had to be given, the pilgrim would hand his chit to the local Templar representative who would pay any dues outstanding, re-code the chit accordingly and return it to its owner. When the pilgrimage was over and the weary traveller had returned home, he would present the chit to the Templar treasurer who had first issued it. Any balance of credit would be returned in cash, or if the pilgrim had overspent he would be presented with the appropriate bill. The entire pilgrimage trade policed by the Templars, who also acted as the bankers for this form of travel, bears a startling resemblance to the modern package tour industry. The modern equivalent of the Templar chit is, of course, the credit card.
Templar banking practise was not restricted to the pilgrimage trade, they also arranged safe transfer of funds for international and local trade, the Church and the State. In the medieval era it was forbidden for Christians to charge interest on loans and therefore money lending as a profession had been traditionally restricted to the Jews. This did little to enhance the reputation of the Jews as a racial group, which was already jeopardised by the persistent allegation that they were 'Christ killers'. The Knights Templar found a way around this restriction which allowed them to lend considerable sums of money at interest without being subjected to the charge of usury. It was quite permissible to charge rent for the leasing of a house or land, so the Templars used this principle in their money lending and charged 'rent' rather than interest for their services rendered. The rent was payable at the time the loan was granted and was added to the capital sum borrowed. By this euphemism the Templars avoided being brought before the courts on the un-Christian charge of usury. Templar wealth was such that their financial services were not only sought by the merchants and landowners of feudal Europe, but by the princes of the Church and State. They lent to bishops to finance church building programmes; to princes, kings and emperors to finance state works, building programmes, wars and crusades. Within the twin embrace of financial security and safe travel, Europe began to transform itself. Safe and effective trade over longer distances led to the accumulation of capital and the emergence of a newly prosperous merchant class, the urban bourgeoisie. The new-found wealth of the city merchants changed the balance of power still further in favour of the towns and cities. With the peace and tranquillity of the countryside now ensured by the activities of the Knights Templar the feudal lords began to lose the raison d'etre on which their power was based.
The Order of the Knights Templar, despite its relatively short life span, was the major instrument of transformative change in medieval Europe. The Templars brought many blessings of knowledge and technology from their Arab opponents in the Holy Land, that conferred immense benefits on the European population. The Gothic cathedrals that arose from their knowledge of sacred geometry still adorn the European landscape and form a permanent series of 'prayers in stone' that raise their spires skyward in silent supplication. When taken as a whole, rather than studied in isolation, the various activities of the Knights Templar are like a huge mosaic of individual pieces which together form a picture which accurately predicted the future. The order was not merely the medieval pre-cursor of the modern multi-national conglomerate but was in many respects an early embryonic form of the European Union. However, success, wealth and power stimulated jealousy and resentment, especially from those who were heavily in debt to the order.
Philip le Bel (1268-1314), the King of France, was one monarch among many who was heavily in debt to the Order. He also had a further cause for resentment, for when a young man, his application to join it had been refused. During one period of civil unrest in his nearly bankrupt kingdom he sought refuge in the Paris Temple.29 Bedazzled by the vast store of bullion he saw there, he resolved to find a way to make it his own and cancel his enormous debt to the knightly bankers. He soon found an opportunity to destroy the Order.
Plausible reasons for an investigation of any suspect individual or organisation were not hard to find in that age of repression and injustice. The perfect means for dubious enterprise had long been perfected. The dreaded Inquisition had honed its evil arts of torture, secret trial and condemnation during its sixty year novitiate in the campaign against the Cathars. Philip knew that there had been contact between the Templars and Islam and links had also been proved between the Knights and the Cathars Certain knights who had been expelled from the Order were bribed or blackmailed into making accusations of heresy against their former brothers.
The French King prepared his case with secrecy and skill. The death of the pope gave him the opportunity to suborn his successor. On Friday the thirteenth of October 1307, Jaques de Molay Grand Master of the Templars, and sixty of his senior knights were arrested in Paris: simultaneously many thousands of other Templars were arrested throughout the realm of France. A few escaped arrest and once the word got out the remainder simply fled; an episode commemorated by the saying Friday the thirteenth, unlucky for some.
Under the King's orders the Templar high command were tortured for several years. The financially astute monarch had the gall to charge the Order for their upkeep for the entire period of their imprisonment. The final barbaric act of this dreadful charade took place on the Ile des Juifs, on the 14th March 1314. The elderly Grand Master, Jaques de Molay and the Preceptor of Normandy, Geoffroi de Charney, were publicly burnt on a slow fire. Before his death de Molay is on record as prophesying the imminent demise of the king and the pope. Both died within the year. When the King's agents visited the Templar treasury immediately after the first arrests, their great treasure, the very cause and objective of this brutal enterprise, had vanished without trace, as had almost the entire Templar fleet The king had been foiled. French Masonic ritual indicates that Scotland was designated as the place of refuge or safe keeping for the Templar treasures
One of the charges against the Templars was that of idolatry; the veneration or worship of an idol called Baphomet Various translations have been offered for the name Baphomet; Idries Shah author of The Sufis, claims that it is a corruption of the Arabic abufihamet (pronounced bufhimat) which translates as 'Father of Understanding'. Magnus Eliphas Levi the mystical writer of the last century, proposed that it should be spelled in reverse as TEM. OHP. AB. This he then construed as Templi Hominum Pacis Omnium Abbas or 'Father of the Temple of Universal Peace Among Men'.34 Another legend equates Baphomet with the severed head of St. John the Baptist who was venerated by the Knights Templar. The Atbash cipher, an esoteric code used by the Essenes to disguise the meaning of their scriptures, was applied to the name Baphomet by the Dead Sea Scroll scholar Hugh Schonfield. The cipher produced the word Sophia, the spiritual principle of Wisdom which is usually associated with the ancient Greek or early Mesopotamian goddesses. The Templar cult of the Black Madonna, black carvings or icons of the Madonna and Child, supports this concept.
At first glance this cult looks like a variation upon normal Catholic practice of the time. The reality is very different however, especially when we take into account the influence of ancient Egyptian ideas on the Templars In ancient Egyptian symbolism, the colour black indicates wisdom. In the cult of the Black Madonna the Templars were venerating the Mother of Wisdom, the ancient goddess Sophia embodied in the form of the goddess Isis with the Horus child. This pagan concept was disguised as the Christian Madonna and Child.
Reactions to the suppression of the Templars varied from country to country. German knights of the Order either joined the Hospitallers or the Teutonic Knights. One leading Scottish Templar, William St. Clair of Roslin, who was the great-great-grandfather of the founder of Rosslyn Chapel, was killed in Lithuania fighting for the Teutonic Knights. In Portugal the Templars were not suppressed at all, they simply changed their name to the Knights of Christ and carried on under royal patronage.38 Many years later Vasco de Gama the explorer, became a member and Prince Henry the Navigator was a Grand Master of the re-named Order. The Archbishop of Compostela made a vain plea for clemency for the brave knights by writing to the pope begging that the Templars be spared as they were needed for the Reconquista the fight against the Moors to recapture Spain for the Catholic monarchy.
This pressing need for military skills, discipline and dedication to the Christian re-conquest of Spain was fulfilled in a simple way. Ex-Templars were encouraged to join similar military Orders which differed only in that they owed their allegiance to the Spanish crown rather than the pope. One Order, that of St. James of the Swordor the Knights of Santiago, was actually affiliated to the Knights Hospitaller to ensure its survival. They too became immensely powerful and controlled more than 200 commandaries throughout Spain by the end of the fifteenth century. Thus Templar influence continued in mainland Europe. In France and England some Templars joined the Knights Hospitallers, but most simply seemed to vanish.
People condemned for heresy in medieval Europe shared a similar fate to the alleged dissidents condemned in Soviet Russia during the Stalinist era. The victims became 'non-persons', their records were destroyed and all traces of them and their beliefs were completely erased. The only records remaining intact are those of the persecutor, Holy Mother the Church, hardly the most even-handed or dispassionate of sources. Thus getting to grips with the reality that lies behind the romantic myths and legends surrounding the warrior knights is extremely difficult. The French local archives disclose many details of their land dealings while other documents disclosing some of their history do surface from time to time.


Spring 2017 is here and I believe the warm weather is here to stay…I think. With spring comes beautiful days and the torrential activity. We have seen our share of tornadoes and hail over the current weeks and past few years — and will likely see more in the future. In this way, life is a lot like the weather.
My former pastor Wayne Barber (who is present with the Lord today) spoke of our lives in Christ as having similar to weather patterns. Brother Wayne would say, “Your life is in one of three modes: You are in the middle of life’s storm, you are coming out of life’s storm, or you are preparing to go into life’s storm.”
You can surmise from this statement that there is no “vacation” from life. We need to always be on the alert and sober for all things. But know this: The believer in Christ has the assurance that he or she is not alone, for He abides (taken up residence) in us.
As we celebrate this Resurrection Sunday, remember our hope in the midst of all conflicts and trials is in Christ Jesus. “He is risen, He has risen indeed!”


Can Southern Baptists Change?
Has change finally come to Southern Baptists? Ever since the news release of the probability of electing an African American president of the once all-white Baptist convention, signals change is possible. Many changes have come to the SBC over the last 25 years, but this will change the history of the convention.
Growing up in the racist south where segregation was the norm, I attended a black Baptist church. White visitors only came during the World Day of prayer services or when election time came around. I never heard of Southern Baptists or ever dreamed of working with them.
My first encounter with Southern Baptists occurred during my freshmen year at college. I accidentally showed up at the FBC in the town and got the surprise of a lifetime. Most of the students attending the University Of Southwestern Louisiana (USL) were catholic, but this northern Baptist girl would never attend catholic mass. When Sunday came I headed for the Baptist student union (BSU) where I thought the Baptists met for worship.
I arrived at the building before , but no one was around except for a man mowing the yard. When I asked the time of the service, he informed me that there were no Sunday services. He pointed to a steeple sticking out between the trees and said that was a Baptist church. Fearlessly I followed that steeple to an experience I would never forget.
As I approached that massive brick building beneath that tall white steeple I could not imagine such a church. I walked toward the front door, but it was locked. I knocked on a side door and a worker welcomed me inside. He escorted me to the sanctuary where I could wait until church started. My eyes wandered taking pictures of this beautiful place that I assumed was a black Baptist church.
I turned around in my comfortable seat to notice a T.V. camera in the balcony. My heart stopped beating for a moment and I froze with fright. I knew I was in the wrong place, but I couldn’t remember how to get out of there. Heading for the exit, my escort returned to inform me that blacks had never attended a worship service there and he was going to get the pastor. I apologized and told the kind gentlemen that I would just leave and return to the dorm.
Just as I was walking toward the door this tall white man came down the stairs. He extended his hand and introduced himself as the pastor. My heart was pounding so loud that I could hardly get words out of my mouth. He asked me if I knew the Black pastor in town. I quickly apologized and suggested that I go back to the dorm. This pastor said he would find me a church to attend. He walked me to his shiny black car and off we went.
It seemed like we drove forever to God knows where to find this suitable church. The pastor kept talking something religious, but I was frightened. I knew I was supposed to be matured, but right now I was a scared little girl. When we arrived at the church someone was outside mowing the yard. The pastor asked if this was the
and the man said it
was. The pastor told me this was a good
church and that I would be more comfortable here. I watched the tail lights of
that white pastor’s car disappear and I wanted to hide somewhere and cry. I had to wonder if he would appreciate his
daughter being treated this way.
Although my first impression of Southern Baptists was not a very pleasant one, I eventually found my way to the BSU. This place served as a launching pad to more than 40 years of missionary service. The more I hung out with those Southern Baptists the more I felt comfortable. I was watching their every move wondering just what God was teaching me through them. It felt like family at the BSU so naturally I followed my friends to “their” church.
Every Sunday morning I looked forward to attending
where Dr. Walter Fox
served as pastor. There are not enough
words to express how much this church added to my spiritual growth. They filled the music hall during my senior
recital and gave me a reception afterwards.
They never treated me like a
token, but a member of the family. I
will be forever grateful to BSU and those days at Emmanuel for my early days in
ministry. . Emmanuel
Through my association with the BSU I became a summer missionary which led to my being a US-2er and later a career missionary. God led me to attend a Baptist college where I was encouraged to attend Seminary in
. I have to admit I was in sad shape
spiritually, but so thankful for those old professors who shaped me for my
God led me to the inner-city of
as a fish out of water,
but with the love of a Savior who used me to make a difference. My eyes nor ears could not comprehend all God
was doing in my life because of the work of Southern Baptists. I will never
forget marching 60 inner-city children from the streets of
Orleans inside the Superdome to
sing for the convention. I was part of a
team and God did fantastic things in all our lives. New
Every year was a welcomed challenged, but God was working. Our focus was on Christ and sharing his love all over the land. My heart nearly burst when I was invited to speak from the pulpit of the church where I was not allowed to worship as a freshman in college. Love came down that day and that same pastor became one of my dearest friends. I traveled to many SBC churches and spoke at many conventions that I felt like the Home Mission Board poster child. We cried, laughed, and worked together sharing the love of God to everyone. I can honestly say I really enjoyed my employment with southern Baptists.
Meanwhile changes caused many heated discussions among Southern Baptists. To this day I never understood what all the fuss was about. The next thing I knew the convention split and I was writing my resignation. Although I was discouraged and very disappointed, I realized that I was just as a “token” with no regard to my leadership skills as a fellow worker. Many employees left the board to start other ministries which was all in the plan of God. Sadness gripped my heart as I watched churches decline and ministries die, but God was still working.
The turbulent winds of Katrina moved all of us closer to being servants of God. God brought all of us together to minister to the many needs of
. Our differences were put on the back burner
as we worked together. I was proud to be
associated with Southern Baptists. New
God relocated me to a state known for racism and hatred:
. Against warnings of my family and friends I
followed God’s will and settled in my new community. When God asked me to join the FBC in
Picayune, all He asked me to do was just love them. Fear was on many of their faces because I did
not fit the profile of what the media displayed as an African American. I have cried, laughed, worshipped, hugged,
and worked with these folk not because of civil rights, but because of whose we
If electing an African American is a God thing it will be a good thing. I wish they had done it sooner before the convention declined and they had no other choice. Pastor Luter knows how to deal with decline. He was given a dead church with the mandate to bury it or resurrect it. Through prayer and hard work the Franklin Ave. Baptist church is one of the largest growing Southern Baptist churches in the nation. God has used Pastor Luter to bring racial harmony in many SBC ministries. Many outstanding African Americans have played a part in many SBC programs that paved the way for this election I along with them will be praying for the move of God during the convention in June. I don’t believe Pastor Luter will change the convention, but I know he will introduce them to a Savior who can. One of my favorite quotes from my favorite pastor: It’s not about the pastor, it’s about the Master.


Radio broadcast is one of the quickest and easiest means of communication, most appropriate in terms of Nepal since its mountainous terrain allows little accessibility to other media forms. So, without a doubt, Radio is the single-most suitable means of communication to spread the Word of God.
For the last 50 years the people have been praying for a Radio ministry in Nepal but it was impossible due to the then regime. The birth of Good News FM 105.1 in 2007 may be interpreted as a furtherance of the widening of scope of mass communication within Nepali Christians and beyond. Good News FM 105.1, managed by efficient Nepali Christian leaders, is registered under Nepal Government with a view to promote, advocate and spread the Word of God through a Christian mass media. The Radio station is located in Anamnagar-32, Kathmandu. Read more


future of The Melchizedeks.
Session 30 of
9 June 2012 – recorded – Original English.
Verde in Placencia, Belize.
Present: Carole, B-Maya,
E-Maya, Cyril and Wivine.
Visitors: Father Melchizedek
Received by Wivine
Father Melchizedek spoke after 2h08min Total time meditation: 2h20min.
Father Melchizedek here: my children, I'm here to inform you about My Sons: The Order of The
Christ Michael and your Mother Spirit Nebadonia came together to organize their
local universe Nebadon and create the necessary Celestials they started by The Bright and Morning
Star Gabriel who is the Governor and Administrator of Nebadon,
as well as the Chief of all Orders of Angels.
worked all three together for a long period of time and one day My Parents
decided to create me: Father Melchizedek.
my Melchizedek Sons, the first large Order of Celestials of Nebadon, were
created afterwards by 3 Personalities: Christ Michael, your Mother Spirit
Nebadonia and Myself in this local universe according to the plans of The Universal
Father and those of Christ Michael (Jesus). Our Order appeared to help with the
creation of material life and educate Celestials and mortals that were generated
after us in Nebadon.
are here to carry out the desire of The Universal Father and The Eternal Son;
to support the development of humans coming out of animal evolution so that
they would be able to receive a God Fragment which will help them create an eternal
soul who will voluntarily follow a long path of ascension to become like God: Perfect
and a Creator exactly like Him.
Plans of The Universal Father and The Eternal Son contain the idea of the
creation of human souls coming out of animal life likely to reach this status
after a long path of ascension; of their own will, by their own decisions by pioneering
upwards through education and experience.
course, The Father and The Son-Mother could have created you 'perfect' just
through the power of Their Thoughts. It is easy for Them,
but that wasn’t the idea.
achieve this 'vision' the Superuniverses were
created, the local universes with their Constellations, Planetary
Systems with their material planets as well as all Celestials needed so
that you, the people of Urantia, could develop a soul with eternal survival, to
give you the opportunity to have access to the status of Light and Life as an individual.
is true that you, mortals of Urantia, receive a God Fragment or Thought Adjuster
with which you can fuse one day and thus obtain the possibility to reach Paradise
to be embraced by The Universal Father and become 'Perfect
like Him - a Finaliter'.
is not always the case on other planets. There are planets where mortals
receive a Thought Adjuster to grow a soul
with possibility of eternal life but these souls never fuse with their Adjusters which mean that they will never leave Nebadon.
yes, due to the fact that you get a Thought Adjuster with which you could fuse
you will leave one day this local universe Nebadon after your fusion.
fusion can happen on Earth, on the Mansion Worlds or on the Morontia worlds. You will also
receive many lessons in our “Melchizedeks schools” on Jerusem, then in our Universities
on Salvington and when your training will be completed Christ Michael will
graduate you so that you can leave Nebadon as a “novice spiritual Being” to
continue your ascension through the Spiritual Worlds of the Superunivers, then Havona until Paradise where you
will first encounter The Infinite Spirit then
The Eternal Son and eventually The Father.
Melchizedeks have indeed not received a Thought Adjuster as you did to help you create an
immortal soul which one day will reach The Father.
Melchizedeks have been created by a Creator Son, a Creative
Daughter and Me, Father Melchizedek who
has a connection with the Paradise Trinity, like My Parents.
Melchizedeks are aware of many things and study everything. One day we will
follow our Parents, Father Christ and Mother Nébadonia, in their next evolution
step together with all Nebadon when our entire local universe reaches the stage
of Light and
Life, when all the Superuniverses will have reached the era of Light
and Life and that the Supreme Being, of which we are also part,
receives all powers in Her hands of Her Master Universe and be crowned God the Supreme.
will serve then with 'Our Parents' at total different levels of consciousness
and reality, just like you, if you do the effort to join The Father, to be embraced by Him
and become like Him: Perfect!
human souls and celestials who serve in a local universe get opportunities to
climb, can obtain a higher status of service with more responsibilities or leave
as you Nebadon to take the road to Paradise. Otherwise, they will evolve and
collaborate with us in this local universe until all Nebadon has reached the
era of Light and Life.
Melchizedeks and all other Celestial Orders
of Nebadon were created for a purpose: to serve throughout the Administration,
in the management of the Constellations, the Planetary Systems, the material
planets, with the creation of material life on planets and to teach and assist all
in their spiritual development.
worry, we won't delay on you because we have also our
opportunities to reach more transcendent and absolute levels.
serve in a different way and we were created for another purpose, as for
example to help you grow and later... in the next “Universe Era"... we will serve God the Supreme with all our
experiences and knowledge acquired in this local universe....... in our own ways.
thank you my children. I wanted to clarify these details and we accept the
gratitude and respect you have shown towards our Order.
MEZZA VERDE GROUP
For the words in blue see The Urantia


“Wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”
There aren’t many stories about Jesus that are told in all four gospels. Depending on how you count, between 12 and 24 passages overlap. The woman with the alabaster jar is one of the few that is in all four gospels (though in John’s gospel he attributes the act to Mary rather than an unnamed sinner). The story is simple: in the days before his death, a woman comes up to Jesus with a jar of expensive ointment and anoints him with it. Sometimes it’s his head, sometimes his feet. Sometimes she washes his feet with her hair as well. Whatever the specifics, she takes something of high value (the expensive ointment) and uses it to care for Jesus. And in every story, the disciples just don’t get it.
Sometimes they think he shouldn’t be fraternizing with sinners, sometimes they think it’s a waste to spend the ointment on Jesus when it could have been sold and the money donated. But in every case Jesus rebukes them, explaining that she has done a good thing for him. This thing is so good, in fact, that Jesus says that she will be remembered throughout the world by all who honor Jesus and his ministry.
This is why you’ve definitely heard of her, right?
This is why her feast day is such a big deal, and why churches build up traditions around how they’ll celebrate Jar Day, right?
This is why little girls will dress as her and carry jars around the church, right?
No. Of course not. None of this has happened. The most we seem to celebrate the woman with the alabaster jar is when we lump her together with Mary Magdalene, despite the majority of the gospels defining her as a different person. While this may be a nice way to flesh out Mary’s character, it means we’ve completely eliminated a woman from the gospel story. And not just any woman. We took away the woman Jesus told us very specifically and on no uncertain terms to honor every where we share his ministry. Why have we forgotten her? Because she doesn’t have a name? The wise men don’t have names in the Bible and we managed to not only give them names but celebrate them every year. We even named a church season after them (Epiphany), despite the fact that they only appear in one of the four gospels.
There are so many amazing women who have been written out of history. Somehow we manage to write them out of the Bible, even when we keep the text.


8. A loss of interest in conflict
Symptom #8 is closely related to another “Symptom of Spiritual Awakening” that is not expressly stated in this list:
a loss of appetite for drama.
Conflict and drama feed on adrenaline and undermine balance, steadiness, and clarity. Conflict and drama grow out of attachment.
Attachment means I am seeking something in the external world that I feel is lacking in my internal world. Attachment comes from the feeling that life as it is, is incomplete.
In an attempt to fill the holes I perceive in my life, I attach myself to some external goal, person, pursuit, or accomplishment. I am locating my sense of identity in the external realities of life. In order for me to feel content and secure, I believe I need my circumstances to turn out a certain way and I need you to respond to me in a certain way.
When my life is bound by attachment, I lose my sense of self in whatever it is to which I have become attached. Attachment always creates conflict and drama as I fight to preserve the fragile realities that I believe are necessary to shore up my faltering sense of self.
Attachment causes me to become the victim of those circumstances or people to which I have given away my sense of self. The problem with attachment is that I am giving myself away in the wrong place.
This points to another “Symptom of Spiritual Awakening” that is surprisingly absent from this list:
Surrender is both the path and a primary symptom of the spiritual life. It is the antidote to attachment and the death of drama.
If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. (Luke 9:23)
When you are carrying your cross you do not get to carry anything else. To pick up your cross it is necessary to let go of everything else. In order to carry his cross, Jesus put down his power and his privilege. He gave up his position. Paul described Jesus’ action saying that Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:6-8)
When I “empty myself” conflict and drama are reduced. I begin to lose my addiction to the adrenaline rush of intensity. It is not that life becomes bland but there are fewer things by which I become hooked. Grasping and clutching are just not worth the energy drain they create. My sense of identity is no longer located in anything external. When I follow the self-emptying pattern of Jesus, my sense of identity shifts to a place within myself that exists independently of whatever may be going on in my external circumstances.
The more deeply I live from within, the more deeply I will diffuse tension and let go of demanding life be a certain way. Therefore drama diminishes and conflicts arise far less frequently. Grasping and clinging begin to loosen. I do not need the world to respond to me in a certain way in order to preserve my sense of who I am.
Surrender lies at the root of all freedom. I am liberated from the constant roller coaster of conflict and drama that used to drive my life. Instead there are growing moments of steadiness, balance, peace, and a degree of equanimity that enables me to live in the midst of change and uncertainty without being constantly elated or deflated by my circumstances.


A practical course for every Christian
The deliverance seminar is a one-day course that deals with the “do’s” and “don’ts” of pre-deliverance counselling, the basic deliverance guidelines and what to do when someone manifests.
Together with his wife, Marié, Pastor James Lottering runs a Victim Support Centre at Word of Faith Christian Centre where he offers counselling. Travelling extensively to do deliverance and present lectures, James teaches people how to identify curses and bondages in their lives and to walk in complete freedom.
Date: 3 March 2018
Time: 9am until 3pm
Cost: R150 pp (includes a manual and a light lunch)
Bookings are essential. To book your seat, contact Marié Lottering on 082 254 9878.
Grief is an overwhelming experience for everyone. Have you lost a loved one or suffered another great loss? If you are looking for support in a safe environment, GriefShare is where you will find healing and encouragement through your process of grief. GriefShare starts Tuesday 20 February at 7pm.
If you’ve just given your life to Jesus, or if you want to grow spiritually, but you’re not sure where to begin, join us at Starting Point, the first destination on our LifePoint journey, Sunday 18 February at 9am in The Chapel.
I love you blah, blah, blah. Hearts and flowers. Yadda Yadda. Cupid etc.
Join us at Valentine Schmalentine on the 17th of February at 6pm in Connection Café for an unromantic evening of fun, laughter, building your own tacos, pinatas, games, music, karaoke and fun for all singles.
The cost is R100 and includes Tacos and a Cocktail for everyone!
Let us help you prepare for the relationship of a lifetime. This exciting seminar is filled with laughter and good advice, as well as Godly principles for your marriage.
Compulsory for anyone who wants to be married by a Word of Faith Pastor.
R400 per couple (Includes teaching material, a light lunch and refreshments.)
Booking Essential! Email firstname.lastname@example.org
The next child dedication takes place on the 11th of February at 9am. To register your child for this special occasion speak to our friendly volunteers at the info desk in the foyer after our services or call the church office during the week on 041 399 4400.
This is your season! This is your time! Take a step of faith and start a Connect Group in your home. Our seven week Power Point course has been designed to help you grow and mature as a leader. This course will set you up to start your own Connect Group. Don’t miss out on this opportunity starting Sunday 11 Feb at 5pm in The Chapel.
Project Hope invites everyone who would like to get involved or who would like more information about their programmes to an information session on Saturday, 27 January from 9am to 12 noon! Find out about their camps, the meals they make, their Sunday school classes and life skills programmes as well as how you can make a difference in the lives of our city’s children.
Contact Madge or Shanaaz at the church office during the week for more info.
FamilyLIFE invites everyone who is separated, divorced or considering a divorce to a casual get-together with Nicolene and Riaan van den Broek at 10 am on Saturday, 10 February 2018.


In 1970, six sisters from the Abbey Our Lady of Nazareth at Brecht started a new foundation.
In 1981, the Priory of Our Lady of Klaarland became an autonomous monastery.
For the first 5 years, the six founding sisters lived in a former conference center in the district of Kiewit in Hasselt. It was a period of experimenting and finding things out. In 1975 they found a manor farm in Bocholt-Lozen, as definitive location for their community. The foundresses shared a longing for simplicity of life in a small community and a friendly atmosphere, in accordance with the spirit of Vatican II.
Growth and expansion
Soon after it’s foundation, the community knew a long period of stability, and it took some hard work to survive. However, this tough time is inseparable from the present: counting eight members around 1995, the community grew into fifteen members now. This growth necessitated the expansion of the buildings. In 1978 and 1979, a church and a part of the cloister had already been added to the original manor farm. In 2004, some extra rooms for sisters were built and the monastic square was completed. From 2008 to 2011, a great expansion of the complex was achieved: a new guest house, a new residence for families and small groups (De Klare Bron), a new library and a new access road. The workshops were also enlarged and partially renovated and seven new rooms for sisters were added.
In 2019-2020, professional production rooms for the monastery jam and cookies were built.
At May 31th 2020, the community celebrated it’s 50th anniversary, thankful and joyful.
On 21 May 1996, seven Cistercian monks were murdered in Tibhirine in Algeria. A major event that unexpectedly affected the small community of Klaarland. The first impulse was to populate the monastery in Algeria again, and this idea gained immediately a lot of enthusiasm. Brothers and sisters from different countries applied for being sent to Tibhirine at the Abbot General, Dom Bernardo Olivera. He asked one of the sisters of Klaarland, who at that time was councilor of the Abbot General in Rome, to act as coordinator. Thereby Klaarland became the place to stay for some of the volunteers who had applied for Tibhirine. And so the little community of Klaarland welcomed in the years after 1996 in a short time a number of sisters, among others from Italy and Argentina. Although it turned out that in the end it wasn’t possible to achieve a new foundation in North Africa or the Middle East, for the history of Klaarland this makes no difference. Klaarland had been ‘put on the map’, literally and figuratively, and attracted new sisters.
Finally, after years of waiting, in Syria, in the mountains near the border with Lebanon, a small group of sisters from Italy built a new monastery. In 2010, one of the sisters of Klaarland went to Syria for six months to provide some help.