4 Advent Video Hymns written for the Worship Design Studio, which created its own separate videos. Recordings and videos by Ken Janzen           Listen to Audio 1: https://progressivechristianity.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Make-Of-My-Heart-a-Stable-Advent-1-by-Amanda-Udis-Kessler.mp4   Listen to Audio 2: https://progressivechristianity.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Make-Of-My-Heart-a-Stable-Advent-2-by-Amanda-Udis-Kessler.mp4   Listen to Audio 3: https://progressivechristianity.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Make-Of-My-Heart-a-Stable-Advent-3 ..read more

This is a difficult essay for me to write. Fifty-five years ago an introduction to the New Testament class in college changed my life. I became fascinated intellectually with the Bible. It’s a fascination which led me to give up a professorship in political science. Sadly, I have recently come to a somewhat different conclusion regarding the Bible. I now see it as a major problem for the Christian religion, a stumbling block for most people when it comes to knowing God in a deep experiential sense. This essay is written in response to a recent essay by Brandan Robertson in Progressing Spirit e ..read more

  You are incomparable. I am incomparable. So why do we persist in comparing ourselves to others? And suffering the frustration that results? You and I are, as the scripture says, crowns of creation. Little lower than the angels. We’re microcosmic mirrors of the grand and glorious cosmos, another way of saying that we’re made in the image of God. This is who we really are, so why don’t we revel in it? We may be the crown of creation, but we’re also subject to all manner of delusions. We wander the world with a device in our pockets or purses almost all the time. Is it really a smartphone ..read more

  On November 12, Paul Glass and Charles D. Evans of Falmouth were honored with this year’s AARP Andrus Award for Community Service. It’s AARP’s most prestigious and visible state volunteer award for community service. They are the first married and black gay couple in AARP’s history to receive the award. AARP, formerly the American Association of Retired Persons,  is one of the largest organizations in the country, focusing on issues affecting Americans over the age of fifty with a membership of over 38 million members as of 2018. The AARP Andrus Award for Community Service is an an ..read more

Imagine . . . you begin the day in the classroom of the earth, learning about God’s good creation by feeling it, working with it, helping coax its fruit to maturity. After a scrub and an exchange of work gloves and hat for pen, notebook, and laptop, you sit around a table with professors, peers, and community ministers, learning about God’s good creation in lively discussion about Genesis 1-3, Jesus’s agrarian parables, the challenge of preaching familiar texts, eco-theology, human sexuality, practices of Sabbath, science and scripture, humanity’s call to be co-creators with God, the beauty o ..read more

  An Op-Ed from Pacific School of Religion President Rev. Dr. David Vásquez-Levy BERKELEY, Calif., Nov. 9, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — I am deeply concerned about the rise of Christian nationalism in this country. I say this not just as a Christian but as the president of Pacific School of Religion (PSR), a progressive Christian seminary founded in 1866. Christian Nationalism, and the ideologies that have fueled it from the very founding of our nation, have left a centuries-long trail of devastation that continues to this day. Through an alliance with White supremacy, it has served as ..read more

    Does Jesus really mean we must love our neighbor? And who is our neighbor?     When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, an expert in the law, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and t ..read more

  Rev. Dr. Caleb J. Lines sat down this week for an interview with Ciprian Khlud about the basics of Progressive Christianity.     Rev. Dr. Caleb J. Lines is an ordained minister with standing in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ. He has a passion for pursuing social justice for the marginalized, demonstrating the Good News of God’s radically inclusive love, and proclaiming a relevant message for today’s ever-changing world. He currently serves as the Senior Minister of University Christian Church in San Diego, the Co-Executive Director ..read more

  Let’s assume that a chance for peace still exists on the other side of the current Israeli/ Hamas war.  By no means a sure thing, but we have to hope.  We can talk all day about how Israel is right to want to destroy Hamas.  Hamas’ October 7th attack was barbaric and reckless.  We can talk also about how the world is right to want the safe release of the hostages.  Lastly, we can talk about the Palestinians being right to want the just achievement of a two-state solution.  The challenge is that all of these complicated and messy goals need to be worked on s ..read more

  An old hymn of mine, recently rewritten slightly. Recorded here by the Orange Coast Unitarian Universalist Choir.     Listen to Audio: https://progressivechristianity.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/For-a-Faith-by-Amanda-Udis-Kessler.mp4   Click Here For Music Sheet   About the Author   Amanda Udis-Kessler is a songwriter and published composer of sacred music (everysoulmusic.com; queersacredmusic.com), a writer (sermons, other worship materials, adult faith formation curricula, a sociology monograph, and other writings), and community educator on matters of r ..read more