New Progressive Hymns by Bill Flanders
William Flanders makes his progressive hymns available for free on his website.
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A New Christianity is Being Born
Despite the mournful laments of many that Christianity is a dying faith, that churches are no longer relevant, and that religion is perceived as a destructive rather than redeeming exercise, I register my opposition to these claims. The core stories of Christianity are about birth. The Christmas story, with the babe in the manger, the shepherds and the animals, tells of a humble birth heralded by angels. The Easter story is one of new life born out of death.
Going to Church
In an honest and often blunt assessment of the Church she loves and longs to move forward into the 21st century, Susan Flanders looks at Christianity and her Church through the background of her own life. In her own journey as priest, wife, and mother she reflects on the great challenges that the Church has faced and continues to face and she also poses some of the changes it must make if it is to be a relevant force in today's world.
Preaching
Preaching is a unique form of expression, probably more like a spoken op ed column than anything else. You get to speak, uninterrupted, for usually ten to twenty minutes, and it is your job to bring ancient scriptures alive in all their veiled, puzzling and even sometimes obnoxious voices. In the Episcopal and many other Christian denominations, there is a lectionary or schedule of selected Bible readings in a three year cycle. Each Sunday has its suggested texts, and you are to connect these readings with your own life and that of your hearers in a way that matters. A preacher must always face the “So what?” question about her work – why do people need to hear this? And finally, a sermon is supposed to be “good news” or Gospel in Christian terms. Underneath all that, at its best, our preaching should tell the truth about the way life really is, and where we all get caught, and how and why we need saving help. The task is daunting, and I love its fierce demands.
Who Is Our Neighbor?
Who is our neighbor? That's the question: Who is this person we're to love? The one across the street? Or next door? Or in the apartment up above?
This, My Song
This, my song, a skeptic's hymn, ode to mystery within, Sung to you no one can prove, dwelling there, as real as love.
Prayer in Sacred Community
Last month, when we focused on worship and prayer, we had a lot of debate about how we do this with non-traditional concepts of God, especially in church settings. Folks talked fairly easily about private prayer, usually meditative or contemplative, non-formulaic, very personal. They pray, and they find in varying degrees that their times of prayer feed their spirits, enrich their lives, and help shape their decisions and behavior.
Spirit Within Us
Spirit within us, Spirit we call Holy, With us, not of us, God's own self with ours. Presence of power, Spirit to spirit given, This be our prayer now: Through us your will be done.
Here Is Bread and Here Is Wine
Here is bread and here is wine, Food and drink we savor with delight; Now upon this altar blessed, Moving us beyond our taste and sight.
Progressive Christianity Forum – An Exploratory Workshop
For several years, and especially in the few years since I retired, Bill and I have talked about our frustration with most conventional worship services. We find the traditional language depicts a God in whom we cannot believe, and we find the whole enterprise of worship to carry too much emphasis on propitiation, guilt, and a sort of abject deferral to some being to whom we are supposed to owe praise and subservience. We have attended services in other traditions, read widely about variant understandings and experiences of God, but we’ve found little out there in books or practice that looks at worship in radically new ways.
Within Our Life We Have Two Homes
Within our life we have two homes, Known in our minds, and in our bones. To one who often will return. For one our spirits ever yearn. For one our spirits ever yearn.
God’s Dearest Work of Art
God's dearest work of art we long have called the heart, The depth within from which begin the prayers that we impart.
