How are faith and religion in the news this week? Here are three stories which talk about religion and politics, extremism, and mental health:
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Saturday, August 6, 2011
A Fun Financial Idea!
Have you ever made a personal or household budget? Have you ever sat down to create a strategy to give more, save more, or spend in ways that are more enjoyable for you or helpful to others?Here is one form of a financial challenge. Feel free to participate or alter it in a way that is most helpful to you!
1. Create a Personal/Household Budget
a) Designate specific amounts of money to various types of expenses.
b) Within this budget, designate a particular amount of money or percentage of income to charitable giving.
2. Find Creative Ways to Cut Costs
Throughout the month, find creative ways to cut costs within the particular categories of your budget (i.e. ways to spend less than your designated amount for groceries, gas, etc.)
3. Calculate the Unspent Remainder At the End of the Month
a) Add up the unspent money from your various categories.
b) Designate 50% of the remainder to 1) savings or 2) your debts.
c) Designate 50% of the remainder to 1) more charitable giving and/or 2) and item you are saving to purchase.
Have fun with this!
Friday, August 5, 2011
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Updates on Drought and Famine in Somalia
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the children, men, and women who are suffering and currently starving in Somalia due to the devastating drought and famine that is plaguing that country. Tens of thousands of Somali refugees have traveled on foot at great personal cost to Kenya and Ethiopia where they are residing currently in refugee campus. The UN is calling this the world's 'worst humanitarian crisis.'
We call others to both 1) stay aware of these crisis as it affects people in Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia and to 2) explore ways to aid and advocate alongside those who are suffering.
We offer some news stories and commentary.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Being Reformed: Being Presbyterian - Questions For This Week!
This Sunday (August 7) we will continue an eight-week series on basic Presbyterian doctrinal issues entitled “Being Reformed: Being Presbyterian.” This week will be a discussion about scripture in the Reformed and Presbyterian tradition. Subsequent classes will deal with God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the church, and the future, with a wrap-up session on Sept. 4. Seven different facilitator/teachers will lead this series.The classes will be held at 11:20 a.m. in South Hall, immediately after English-language and Spanish-language worship and prior to Korean-language worship.
As part of this series, we encourage you to participate by answering a question each week in advance of the class. Even if you can’t attend one or any of the classes, feel free to chime in with your answers; we’ll use them as part of the class discussion.
This week’s questions:
1. How do you feel about the death of Jesus?
2. What is meaningful for you?
3. What feels troubling for you?
Feel free to leave a comment below or to email your answer/thought to: BobTatFORE@aol.com. You can also post your comment on the Facebook Page for Pasadena Presbyterian Church.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Young Adults in the News!
As a young adult community, we want to stay aware of the particular gifts that young adults bring to our world as well as the particular challenges that young adults face. We are also curious to learn about culture and trends among young adults.
Here are some recent stories that concern young adults:
Monday, August 1, 2011
Prayer For Our World
Loving God,
We come to You on this day as Your people - built up, yes, but also perhaps feeling beaten down. . .Filled with joy, yes, but also filled with sadness and with questions. . . . We come to you with gratitude for our health and wellbeing, but some of us are also afraid because our health is not what it used to be. . . In this time of prayer, turn us toward You - our True Comfort - and turn us toward one another as a family of faith, that we might demonstrate Your love in human faces and in human touch.
We pray for a world that does not always know that it is loved. We pray for people down the street who are without jobs, without hope. We pray for people who seem a world away - caught up in political protest and turmoil, enslaved in human trafficking, starving in famine. . .
On this day, we especially raise our voices and our concerns for the people of Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia, as they are truly caught in famine and drought, children and parents alike who are suffering and even dying for lack of food and water. Help us to be a part of the very prayers we make. Turn us toward them - Your beloved people - that we might be of aid in ways we can.
On this day, we especially raise our voices and our concerns for our own nation - as politicians fight, sometimes necessarily or at other times, unnecessarily. We pray for our President and leaders in Congress. We pray for all of those who will be affected by their decisions. We are all affected, but on this day, we pray for those who are especially vulnerable - the poor, the sick, the needy, those who long for equal access to resources and education. Turn us toward these people as well, and help us to be a part of the very prayers we make.
We pray for our congregation. For all that is going well and blossoming here, we give You thanks. We pray for all three of our language ministries -- English, Korean, Spanish - that we might be a family of faith together, giving thanks for the multiculturalism that is here, as just a small piece of the beautiful multiculturalism that is found in Your world.
And we pray for those in our midst who are struggling. We are especially mindful of those people who are listed in our bulletin with particular needs. We pray also for those whose names are not listed, but who are known to us in our hearts, in our very lives. In silence, we offer their names to you. . .
We give thanks that they and that we are Your beloved children. As as we inhabit such a posture of privilege, we are bold to pray the prayer that Jesus taught us, saying. . .
Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy Name,
Thy Kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil,
For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and Glory.
Amen.
-A Prayer of the community at Pasadena Presbyterian Church, July 31, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)