Christian Service Research Articles

An unusual Christian Service: For those who have donated their bodies for medical education and research

An unusual Christian Service: For those who have donated their bodies for medical education and research

The Careless Society: Community and Its Counterfeits.

* Introduction Professionalism * John Deere and the Bereavement Counselor * The Professional Problem * The Need for Oldness * Professionalized Service and Disabling Help Medicine * The Medicalization of Politics * Well-Being: The New Threshold to the Old Medicine * Diagnosis and the Health of Community * Politicizing Health Care Human Service Systems * A Nation of Clients? * Do No Harm * Redefining Community * A Reconsideration of the Crisis of the Welfare State The Criminal Justice System * Thinking About Crime, Sacrifice, and Community * Rethinking Our National Incarceration Policy On Community * Community Organizing in the Eighties: Toward a Post-Alinsky Agenda with John Kretzmann * Regenerating a Community Christian Service * On theBackwardness of Prophets

When the Bottom Line Is Faithfulness: Management of Christian Service Organizations.

When the Bottom Line Is Faithfulness: Management of Christian Service Organizations.

When the Bottom Line Is Faithfulness: Management of Christian Service Organizations

When the Bottom Line Is Faithfulness: Management of Christian Service Organizations

"This World is not Conclusion": Dickinson, Amherst, and "the local conditions of the soul"

"This World is not Conclusion":Dickinson, Amherst, and "the local conditions of the soul" Benjamin Lease (bio) Blessed are they that play, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Emily Dickinson, Letter 690 . . . as the great florist says, "The flower that never will in other climate grow." Emily Dickinson, Letter 1038 . . . whereas in poetry the words themselves lift the poem, in part at least, out of pure play into the sphere of ideation and judgement, music never leaves the play-sphere. The reason why poetry has such a prominently liturgical and social function in archaic cultures lies precisely in its close connection, or rather indissoluble union, with musical recitation. All true ritual is sung, danced and played. We moderns have lost the sense for ritual and sacred play. Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens1 My title draws on the opening line of a famous poem by Emily Dickinson —and on a statement by William Carlos Williams about the urgent need for the American writer (as exemplified by Poe) "to originate a style that does spring from the local conditions, not of trees and mountains, but of the 'soul'" (227). Williams is referring not to a religious concept but to the need of a writer to find a voice true to his or her inner self. But it is [End Page 38] useful here to use his phrase to examine Emily Dickinson's discovery of an authentic voice —a voice shaped in part by the music she heard in the First Congregational Church, Amherst; by the definitions (charged with religious meaning and feeling) offered up to her by her treasured lexicon; and by the revelations about nature offered up to her by Amherst's teachers and divines (many of whom were challenging inauthenticity). I want, in what follows, to touch on what was innovative and liberating in what seems to many to be the unrelievedly stern and constricting religious life of Amherst. The world of Emily Dickinson, I suggest, centered on a personal religious experience of music, of language, of nature —an intensely personal experience guided by such highly unconventional and controversial personages as Isaac Watts, Noah Webster, Edward Hitchcock. The enormous popularity of his hymns made Watts a pervasive presence in the Connecticut Valley; Webster and Hitchcock made their towering presences known personally in Amherst. The adventurous innovations of these spiritual leaders help explain the pervasive presence in Emily Dickinson's poems of what Huizinga calls "the sense for ritual and sacred play" (158). 1 Judy Jo Small has made the claim that music was central to Dickinson's practice as a poet —that her business was, in the poet's own words (and emphasis) "to sing" (29-30). Small cites a Mount Holyoke Female Seminary classmate's reminiscence of an open-air spontaneous song session with Emily Dickinson -a session that included hymn tunes in "long metres, short metres, hallelujah metres, et id omne genus . . ." (49).2 I would urge that Dickinson's experience of singing hymns and listening to singing choirs at weekly church services, from early childhood to about the age of thirty, was of crucial importance to her emergence and development as a poet.3 The hymns of Isaac Watts were a rewriting of Holy Scripture into song. Watts did not hesitate to sacrifice accuracy and elegance so that scripture could be sung aloud during a Christian service and experienced emotionally [End Page 39] by each member of the congregation. A great favorite among the several hymn books used at the First Church, Amherst, was Samuel Worcester's editions of The Psalms and Spiritual Songs (familiarly known as Watts and Select Hymns). Dozens of editions appeared from the 1830s to the 1860s when Worcester's son, a professor of rhetoric at Amherst College, expanded his father's earlier compilation —a compilation set apart from others by its elaborate directions for musical expression provided for the guidance of choir leaders and congregants (Watts 4-5). Both in England and New England, Isaac Watts was a highly controversial figure because his free adaptations of scripture into musical verse seemed to some to verge on blasphemy. In New Brunswick, Maine, William Allen (President of Bowdoin College and a former Congregational...

Toward the New South: Dilemmas of Southern Reform before the Second Reconstruction

These two much needed books help to fill major gaps in the study of southern social activism prior to the civil rights movement. Robert F. Martin's biography of white reformer Howard Kester explores the development of his political ideas and commitments in relation to changing historical and personal circumstances, particularly in the 1930s. Linda Reed examines two predominantly white organizations that helped prepare the soil for the later civil rights explosion-the Southern Conference for Human Welfare and its successor, the Southern Conference Educational Fund. On the surface the books are quite different: a biography versus an organizational history; somewhat separate time periods; one stressing religious values and vision, the other more secular. Yet they share common themes. They are both about the quest for an effective strategy to transform the South-more concretely, the search for appropriate linkages of economic reform with civil rights. Moreover both studies contend with the traditional tension in American social movements between strategies of education and moral suasion versus direct action. Born in 1904, Howard Kester grew up in a lower-middle-class family in rural Virginia and West Virginia, his world suffused with white evangelical Protestantism. Indeed, at his christening his parents dedicated him to the ministry, and he claimed early on his mission of Christian service. Martin shows how as a Presbyterian seminary student and YMCA worker in the 1920s his perspective shifted from the conservative Christian paternalism (p. 1) of his youth, which approached social betterment through piety and charity, toward evangelical Christian liberalism, the latter expressed in his work as

Martyrdom and the First Epistle of John

Little children, keep yourselves from idols. This sentence (1 John 5:21) has perplexed its commentators,' who have found it an unsuitable peroration to the Epistle both in content and in form. The First Epistle of John treats Christian service, not as a series of observances, but as an infinitely extended act of love; touching doctrine, its cardinal tenet is not that God is one, but that the One God sent his son to die as man. It would seem that John could not have been so platitudinous, or his audience so recalcitrant, as to require this banal prohibition, and it has therefore been interpreted to mean more (or less) than it says. Particular satisfaction may arise when the interpreter has turned John into a sermon for his own times: 2

Providing Pastoral Care for the Elderly in Long Term Care Facilities Without a Chaplain Utilizing Coordinated Congregational Resources

Elderly persons living in long term care facilities are often separated from or have no pastoral care sources. Spiritual care by chaplains was not available in any of the six nursing homes in Wausau, Wisconsin. Twelve Lutheran congregations in the area worked out a plan to provide the necessary pastoral care. The congregations formed a coordinating agency, Greater Wausau Christian Services, Inc. Through the services of one staff person, the director, who enlisted the lay and pastoral resources of the participating congregations, pastoral care was provided. Worship led by the pastors, meaningful visits made by trained and supervised lay people, and the availability of a trained chaplain became a reality for nearly seven hundred residents in the six long term care facilities.

Paying Peter and Paul: benefits of a hospital-based lay pastoral visitation program.

Lay chaplaincy in hospitals is an idea whose time has come. Its benefits are many. Patients receive more pastoral attention. The professional chaplain receives support and an opportunity to teach his or her craft. The hospital finds the cost-effectiveness of the chaplain greatly increased. The churches may utilize the program as a training ground for their own lay ministry. And the lay chaplains themselves are enabled to participate in a form of Christian service that is as old as the Church itself and deeply rewarding.

Valla's Ambivalent Praise of Pleasure: Rhetoric in the Service of Christianity

Valla's Ambivalent Praise of Pleasure: Rhetoric in the Service of Christianity

Books: A Life Cut Short/Refugees and Christian Service Abstracts: Forgiveness and Missions

Books: A Life Cut Short/Refugees and Christian Service Abstracts: Forgiveness and Missions

The first anaesthetic in Central Africa

The Reverend Doctor Robert Laws (1851-1934) followed in the footsteps of David Livingstone to Central Africa. At the beginning of a long and distinguished career as a medical missionary in Christian service to the country that has since become the Republic of Malawi, he was a prime mover in the setting up of a mission station at Cape Maclear, on the shores of Lake Malawi (formerly known as Lake Nyasa and closely associated with the discoveries of Doctor Livingstone). There, on 2 March 1876, Laws used chloroform to produce surgical anaesthesia when he operated on a young African male who had a cystic tumour above his left eye.

Diary of a Country Missioner—Manchuria, 1940

Thanks to the foresight of Maryknoll's founders, the archives contain an estimated 90,000 pages of diaries and related materials from the China missions, dating from 1918 through 1952. The excerpts printed here were selected from the diaries of Father John A. Fisher who was assigned in 1940 as pastor of the parish of Ch'iao T'ou (Chiaotou), a market town south of Mukden (Shenyang) in Manchuria. Father Fisher was also responsible for the outstation of Pen Hsi Hu (Benxihu), and all Catholic families in neighboring villages. In contrast to the Maryknoll Sisters who always lived and worked in community, he was, like most Maryknoll Fathers, the one missioner in his station, assisted by Chinese catechists. With thirty American priests and twenty-eight Sisters in 1940, Maryknoll served a territory in Manchuria of 40,000 square miles with a population of 2.5 million. Manchukuo (Manchuria) at that time was a frontier region under Japanese domination, only partially settled. Impoverished peasant families from China were migrating northward in search of livelihood. Father Fisher's diaries record their difficulties, some beggars, some poor farmers, and some who worked in the coal mines. While Father Fisher helped the poor and needy as he could, his main tasks were pastoral—celebrating Mass, administering the sacraments, visiting the homes of the sick, the elderly, the lapsed members, arranging dispensations for mixed marriages, organizing catechumenates for new Christians and reaching out to non-Christians. One entry describes a funeral Mass held in a rural home, the first Christian service ever held in that village or entire district. These diaries record both the special problems of his time and place, and the routine events of daily living. This was a time of inflation and rationing, a constant struggle to get flour, coal, and other necessities: Japan was at war with China. The church and rectory are prepared for winter, the stoves installed, coal laid in, storm doors mounted, and windows papered. An ironsmith makes basketball hoops. The pastor substitutes in the primary school when the teacher is sick, works in the vegetable garden, swims in the mountain streams, and plays basketball with the school-boys. This was a lonely life; he had one American visitor during the period of these diaries. It was a dangerous time and place. Gerard Donovan, a fellow Maryknoller in the same vicariate, had been kidnapped, held for ransom, and finally murdered by strangulation just two years earlier. As for the larger historical context, Father Fisher scarcely alludes to the heightened tensions that would bring his own country to war with Japan in just one more year, leading to arrest and imprisonment for all Americans in China. A single reference (October 11) reads: “News of the Americans being ordered to evacuate in all the newspapers today. Has the people wondering and a few of the local authorities more vigilant…. A load of materials arrived for building the hen-coop.”

REFLECTIONS FROM AN URBAN RURAL MISSION PERSPECTIVE

International Review of MissionVolume 69, Issue 276-277 p. 522-526 REFLECTIONS FROM AN URBAN RURAL MISSION PERSPECTIVE Edgar File, Edgar File Dr Ed. File, member of CWME/URM advisory group, is professor of Urban Studies at York University and Director of the Canadian Urban Training Program for Christian Service in Toronto.Search for more papers by this author Edgar File, Edgar File Dr Ed. File, member of CWME/URM advisory group, is professor of Urban Studies at York University and Director of the Canadian Urban Training Program for Christian Service in Toronto.Search for more papers by this author First published: October‐January 1980 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-6631.1980.tb01382.x AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume69, Issue276-277October‐January 1980Pages 522-526 RelatedInformation

Book Reviews : Pauline ATHERTON and Roger W. CHRISTIAN, Librarians and Online Services (Knowledge Industry Publications, 1978)

Book Reviews : Pauline ATHERTON and Roger W. CHRISTIAN, Librarians and Online Services (Knowledge Industry Publications, 1978)

Education for a Leisure Society

Research Article| November 01 1975 Education for a Leisure Society Robert Strom Robert Strom Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar The American Biology Teacher (1975) 37 (8): 496–499. https://doi.org/10.2307/4445370 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Robert Strom; Education for a Leisure Society. The American Biology Teacher 1 November 1975; 37 (8): 496–499. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/4445370 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentThe American Biology Teacher Search This content is only available via PDF. Copyright 1975 National Association of Biology Teachers Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

The “Senior Blessing” at Abilene Christian University’s College of Business Administration

The mission of Abilene Christian University (ACU) is to “educate students for Christian service and leadership throughout the world.” The universitycommunity takes this mission seriously as do we in the College of Business Administration (COBA). Not unlike most Christian business schools, we try to implement our mission by integrating faith and learningin various ways throughout the curriculum and co-curriculum. For example, we attempt to teach the various business disciplines from a Christian worldview, and many professors begin each class session by asking for the Lord’s blessing on the class. In addition, the university has a daily chapelservice that is mandatory for undergraduate students. Once a month, we have a specialized COBA chapel that is organized by students in the College of Business. Both COBA faculty and students have served as speakers during the last year. In addition to these fairly typical attempts at biblical integration, we will describe in detail in this paper one unique co-curricular activity that serves as a capstone of our attempts to integrate faith and learning. This activity is called the “Senior Blessing.”

Gordon Roy Cameron, 1899-1966

Gordon Roy Cameron was born in Australia on 30 June 1899 at Echuca, a small town on the Victoria side of one of the bends on the Murray River. His father, George Cameron, was then a Methodist minister at a small village called Wamboota. George Cameron’s parents (Grandfather Cameron and his wife, earlier a Miss Miller) who came of hard-working farming stock in Dyce, Aberdeenshire, with forbears in Inverness and Fort Augustus, had left Aberdeen for Australia the day after their marriage early in the 1870’s and taken up land in Minlaton in St Vincent’s peninsula, South Australia. They had eleven children, of whom George Cameron was the eldest; he seems to have had a hard life on the farm. When he was twelve years old the Government of Victoria began opening up the Mallee area in northern Victoria, and he and his father each drove a wagon containing members of the family and their few goods over the 500 miles trek—much of it over uncleared scrub, desert and hill country—from Minlaton to the Mallee area, where they took up about a hundred acres of scrub to make a farm, later extended to some two thousand acres. There they and their neighbours built the mud house that still survived in 1920. Some fourteen years later the farm was going well, the younger children were growing up, and George Cameron, who had recently taken part in Bible Christian services and had developed a reputation as a local preacher, decided to join the Bible Christians as a candidate for the Ministry. In due course he was appointed to a circuit as a probationer in Horsham, North Victoria, where he met Emily Pascoe, whom he later married.

Churches and Christians in China, 1950-1967: Fragments of Understanding

A T A SIGNIFICANT BREAK in the experience of Christians and Christian 11 churches in China, it is appropriate to reconsider the problem of Christianity under the People's Republic since I949. By the end of i967 Protestant and Catholic sources alike were unable to report one church building in China being used for Christian services, or a single Christian parish or organization functioning as such. Red Guards and other elements of The Cultural Revolution appeared to have accomplished almost complete suppression' of visible Christian activity since August i966. Needless to say, there are substantial grounds for believing that hundreds of thousands of Chinese Christians maintain their faith in private, and that some of them secretly continue Christian fellowship despite the ban on such in family or friendship groups, all affected by pervasive propaganda and controls that influence attitudes as well as behavior. No one knows whether, from the current strife within the Chinese Communist Party and its governmental organs there may soon come some measure of temporary relaxation-or a later long-range stabilization by a regime more confident and therefore less tense, in any case desiring to encourage the widest possible cooperative effort among all groups. Christians in China are too few to be worth serious political consideration, but they would presumably benefit by any decline in severity against the numerous Muslims and the diffuse, battered, but large aggregate of adherents to Buddhist, Mongol, Tibetan, and tribal religious traditions. There might also be a return to the earlier Chinese concern for the sympathetic interest of some elements in the international religious world-Muslim, Buddhist, Christian-a concern which has lately been tossed into the revolutionary furnace. So much for fact and outlook as i967 passes. For several years the officially designated Chinese greeters of foreign visitors and spokesmen in the accessible cities had been using the standard pronouncement that Protestants in China numbered about 700,000 and Catholics about 3,000,000, both figures explained as exhibiting a moderate decline from I949, creditable as to liberty and beneficial as to sifting. inner

The Population of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan 1961

place of worship?a great heap of rocks 60 yards long, 50 yards wide and 10 feet high.x An inscription made by the Kona Civic Club in 1928 tells us, Tn this heiau January 28, 1779 Captain James Cook, r.n. read the English burial service over William Whatman, seaman, the first recorded Christian service in the Hawaiian islands'. There is a tablet in front of the heiau, Tn memory of Henry Opukahaia, born in Kau 1792. Resided at Napoopoo 1797-1808. Lived in New England until his death at Cornwall, Conn., in 1818. His zeal for Christ and love for his people inspired the first American board mission to Hawaii in 1820.' All these memorials remind us of the earliest epoch in the modern history of Hawaii. Great changes have come to the islands since then. In 1959 they became the fiftieth state of the United States. Polynesians have abandoned their traditional methods of agriculture, separating themselves from their old cooperative communal ties. Cotton clothes have been substituted for the old-time bark cloth, or tapa, which is now used only on ceremonial occasions. However, amidst all the transitions from the old to the new, this little piece of England in Hawaii is a permanent token of the friendship of two of the world's greater nations, whose explorers, Christian missionaries, statesmen and scholars, soldiers and sailors stand shoulder to shoulder in the free world.