Advent Reflections Return

Voices of Hope, Advent 2010

Please join us this Advent for reflections featuring some of today's most exciting voices.

Each week an author will post a reflection in The Beatitudes Blog with an invitation for you to contribute to an ongoing conversation as we wait in joyful anticipation for the Light of the world. 

Monday, November 22   - Carol Howard Merritt

Advent Reflection: How Do You Keep Awake After 2,000 Years?

Carol Howard Merritt is a pastor of Western Presbyterian Church, an intergenerational congregation in Washington, D.C. Western’s deep commitment to serving the poor in the city has helped to initiate programs like Miriam’s Kitchen, a social service program for the homeless which provides a hot, nutritious breakfast for over 200 men and women; Project Create, which teaches art to children in transitional housing; and HIPS which stands for Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive.

Carol’s the author of Reframing Hope: Vital Ministry in a New Generation (The Alban Institute, August 2010) and Tribal Church: Ministering to the Missing Generation, (The Alban Institute, September 2007).

Carol is also the co-host of the Internet Radio Show, The God Complex, with Bruce Reyes-Chow. And she blogs for the Huffington Post.

Monday, November 29 -  Bruce Reyes-Chow
Advent Reflection: Embracing a lifetime of Advent waiting 

One of the leading voices of postmodern culture and its impact on the Christian church, in June 2008 Bruce was elected to service as Moderator of the 2.3 million member Presbyterian Church (USA) denomination. This is the highest elected office in the denomination and he will serve until July 2010.  Bruce is also the founding pastor of Mission Bay Community Church, a young, urban and quirky Church located in the Excelsior District of San Francisco.  A Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, MBCC is made up of mostly 20 and 30 somethings and is one of the highest reviewed religious organizations on Yelp.com. 

Monday, December  6  - Ron David
Advent Reflection: Be Patient, Not Passive

Ronald David is a pediatric neurologist, Episcopal priest, chaplain, and recently certified Diplomate in CPSP. As a supervisor in clinical pastoral education at the Hospital of the Good Samaritan in Los Angeles, California, he experiences chaplaincy as the perfect melding of clinical theology and medicine. Troubled by the distortions and misunderstandings of theological concepts as represented in medical science and care, Ronald is writing a book on the relationship between health, spirituality, and religion.

Monday, December  13  - Phyllis Tickle
Advent Reflection: Humbling Sunday

Phyllis Tickle is the founding editor of the Religion Department at Publishers Weekly, is the author of over two dozen books in religion, including the The Divine Hours, a series of manuals for observing fixed-hour prayer and, most recently, of the best-selling volume, The Great Emergence. She spends much of her time now in lecturing, both nationally and internationally, about Emergence Christianity.