Lutheran Morning Prayer
I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son,
that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger;
and I pray that You would keep me this day also from sin and every evil,
that all my doings and life may please You.
For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things.
Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me.
Amen.
Mozarabic Epiphany Prayer link
The heavens are shining with the clear beauty of the stars, O Lord,
and the very earth is made beautiful by a shining light,
because you appeared to the world
from your holy dwelling place.
Remove from our hearts all sadness,
for you came for this,
to make all things new.
Enlighten our eyes to purify us
that we may behold you forever,
that we who preach to the nations the glad joys of your appearing
may be made glad with you in infinite joy.
Amen.
Syrian Clementine Liturgy
O God, Who are the unsearchable abyss of peace, the ineffable sea of love,
the fountain of blessings, and the bestower of affection,
Who sends peace to those that receive it; open to us this day the sea of Your love,
and water us with the plenteous streams from the riches of Your grace.
Make us children of quietness, and heirs of peace.
Kindle in us the fire of Your love; sow in us Your fear;
strengthen our weakness by Your power;
bind us closely to You and to each other in one firm bond of unity;
for the sake of Jesus Christ.
AMEN.
Benediction
May the God of peace who raised Christ from the dead
Strengthen your inner being for every good work.
And may the blessing of God Almighty
Father, Son and Holy Spirit
Rest upon you and dwell within you
This day and evermore.
Amen.
Masculine Christianity?
The Orthodox Church
https://www.yahoo.com/news/young-men-leaving-traditional-churches-171506770.html
senecagriggs(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
Thank you, Dee.
One hopes that this way of thinking about “leadership in the churches” will become widespread in the seminaries.
I am impressed with the speaker’s boldness to suggest that to prefer “top-down” hierarchy in the Church is to set oneself at odds with The Cross. (This reminds me a bit of Walther von Loewenich’s “Luther’s Theology of the Cross.” That’s hard to find, long out of print, but is a worthy though challenging read.)
I’ll note that hierarchy probably would not emerge and persist in the churches if it did not confer some advantage in comparison with non-hierarchical forms of Christian community. People value those advantages and this motivates the embrace of hierarchy. It works better, until it doesn’t. Until the people abandon their theologies of glory (in Luther’s sense of the term), we may not see much “cruciformity” in leadership. IOW, I suspect that the problem is not just theological, it’s also sociological; not just about what people believe, but also about what they, collectively, want.
Samuel Conner(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
Once you grow over the “troop-size limit” (around 200), some sort of hierarchy is inevitable.
Headless Unicorn Guy(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)