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~ The Musings of the Rev. Douglas Forrester

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Monthly Archives: May 2016

Listening and Learning at Reveille UMC

30 Monday May 2016

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Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

Grace and peace to you. I pray you are well. 

We have now entered the Season after Pentecost, but I would like to take you back to the previous season of the liturgical calendar: the season of Eastertide. It was during this season that we engaged in an intentional season of prayer in which many of you participated. Next comes a time of reflection and discernment. How is it with your soul? What is God saying to you as you pray for our church? What is next for Reveille United Methodist Church?

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A Pastoral Letter from Bishop Young Jin Cho

30 Monday May 2016

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Screen ShotBishop Cho has provided a pastoral letter to the churches and clergy of the Virginia Conference following the quadrennial meeting of the United Methodist General Conference. You can read the full text here.

On Death: What it Means to Truly Live – Boulders and Stones

26 Thursday May 2016

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The concluding sermon in our death series is up8580408850_6d45ee21e6. This sermon is about grief and how we can help one another through it. It is also available in the iTunes store. Check it out.

 

The Burden of Ordination: LGBTQI Persons and the Church

18 Wednesday May 2016

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steeple.001Only look at your tools, your needle, your thimble, your beer barrel, your articles of trade, your scales, your measures, and you will find this saying written on them. You will not be able to look anywhere where it does not strike your eyes. None of the things with which you deal daily are too trifling to tell you this incessantly, if you are but willing to hear it; and there is no lack of such preaching, for you have as many preachers as there are transactions, commodities, tools and other implements in your house and estate, and they shout this to your face: “My dear, use me toward your neighbor as you would want him to act toward you with that which is his.”‘

– Martin Luther (1483-1546), writing on Christian Vocation

 

Like every other United Methodist clergyperson, I have been following with varied levels of interest/frustration/heartbreak the 2016 United Methodist General Conference in Portland. What follows is a meditation on one of our most controversial issues: the ordination of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex persons.

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Balancing Covenants: A Clergy Self-Care Manifesto

09 Monday May 2016

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Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor;  and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” – Matthew 4:8-9

Claire 1

A prayer request from my daughter Claire.

 

“You are the third United Methodist pastor to present with these symptoms since I began at this medical practice, eighteen months ago,” said my physician.

I didn’t know whether to feel better or worse. I thought “At least I know I am not alone.” Then I tried to figure out who the other two were.

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It Was 60 Years Ago Today

04 Wednesday May 2016

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Screen Shot 2016-05-04 at 4.35.54 PMI fondly remember the day at the 2006 session of the Virginia Annual Conference when we paused from the business of the day to recreate the General Conference debate fifty years prior which would grant full clergy rights to women.

In my twenty years of ministry, I have had the opportunity to work with several wonderful women who were faithful clergy colleagues and gifted servants of Christ.

Yet while we have granted equal clergy rights to women, sixty years has not closed the pay gap between men and women clergy.

 

On Death: The Farewell Discourse of Jesus and What it Means to Truly Live

01 Sunday May 2016

Posted by Douglas Forrester in worship

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Here is tgravestone-1193507-1279x1926he full manuscript for today’s sermon, which is the first in this series. The audio will be online, probably by Wednesday. Next Sunday, May 8, we will hear perspectives from our Associate Pastor (and former Congregational Care Minister), the Rev. Stephen Coleman. 

Last Sunday night, I was answering questions posed to me by members of our Youth Group when I was asked this question: “Why are we having a sermon series on death anyway?” As it turns out, this series represents our return to the Revised Common Lectionary readings for a while, and these readings just happen to include passages from the Farewell Discourse of Jesus, found in the Gospel of John, chapters 14 through 17, wherein Jesus prepares his disciples for his impending death and resurrection.

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