Church of Scotland Ready to Approve Same-Sex Marriage

Traditionalist minority worry disagreement on the issue will make it harder to work together on mission.

The Church of Scotland—the largest Protestant church in the country—is another step closer to allowing its ministers to officiate same-sex weddings.

The majority of the denomination endorsed draft legislation to let clergy marry same-sex couples, with 29 presbyteries in favor and 12 opposed. The proposal will go before its General Assembly gathering in Edinburgh in May for approval.

While clergy will not be required to marry same-sex couples, the move makes the minority who oppose the national church’s involvement in gay marriage worried about further division.

“There’s still a continued struggle within the Church of Scotland,” Mike Goss, a minister in the presbytery of Angus who opposed the change, told Premier Christian News. “The group of folk are called traditionalists, folk who stand by the Bible, we’re not going away. We’re still there.”

The traditionalist wing of the church has debated its response to the moves toward affirming same-sex marriage for years. Even as the Presbyterian church prepares to allow the practice, the denomination’s official stance recognizes the tension.

“The Church recognises that there are diverse views on the subject of same-sex marriage,” it says. “We are committed to ensuring that debates on this subject are held in a spirit of humility and grace, that the tone and tenor of discussions are civil and people are respectful of those who hold opposing views.”

Scotland legalized civil partnerships for same-sex couples in 2005 and marriage in 2014. The Church of Scotland—also known by its Scottish name, Kirk—endorsed clergy in same-sex relationships back in 2009 but so far has not allowed ceremonies …

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Sunday School Paused During the Pandemic. Will It Come Back?

A new report shows dramatic disruptions to religious education classes as fewer attend or volunteer.

When Tracey Fixen volunteered to serve as the Sunday school superintendent for her church, she had a clean slate. There had been no religious education programing at Our Savior’s Lutheran in Colefax, North Dakota.

“I started saying, ‘We’re going to watch videos so we have some sort of adult education,’” she said. The 200-person church now offers lessons during a coffee hour prior to the Sunday service each week.

Many of the materials they have are “outdated,” Fixen said—it’s not in the budget to invest in new ones right now—but putting on some kind of Sunday school is more than a lot of churches are doing.

As US church attendance remains stagnant and congregations move toward a focus on Bible studies or small groups, religious education classes on Wednesday nights or Sunday mornings have largely fallen away.

Plus, those extra gatherings were put on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic. Will they ever come back?

New data from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research shows that half of churches surveyed report that their religious education programs were majorly disrupted in the past two years, though evangelical churches weren’t as affected as mainline, Catholic, and Orthodox congregations.

The majority of churches had fewer religious education offerings in 2021, while a quarter recouped some of those losses by March of this year.

Among the surveyed congregations, “a few consolidated classrooms and combined age groups, while some did away with their Sunday classes and moved them to weeknights for the whole family,” the researchers wrote. “For some churches, these decisions may have been a conscious choice, but for others, they may have been …

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Conservative Methodists Launch Global Methodist Church

The leaner denomination will focus on international partnerships, but many conservatives in Africa are holding out for the much-delayed 2024 conference vote.

Methodist congregations that know their future is not in the United Methodist Church (UMC) officially have a new place to land: the Global Methodist Church (GMC).

Launching on May 1, the new denomination plans to uphold traditional, conservative Wesleyan theology but run on a lighter, leaner infrastructure that emphasizes grassroots accountability and ministry connections.

After years of delays, with the next opportunity to vote on a proposal to split scheduled for 2024, some UMC congregations in the US are starting the disaffiliation process and plan to join the GMC as soon as they can. And though many leaders in Africa—where Methodism is growing rapidly—align with the movement’s conservative stances on LGBT issues, they’re more inclined to wait.

At least one regional body, in Europe, has already decided to switch all its congregations over to the Global Methodist Church; in the US, the denomination’s top court has yet to rule on whether regional bodies can disaffiliate together under current church law.

For now, US churches are opting to join the GMC one by one. Mosaic Church in Evans, Georgia, plans to join the new Methodist denomination, but the process to leave the UMC will take months.

From the pews, not much will change. Mosaic’s name and logo will remain the same, as will the format for Sunday worship. Lead pastor Carolyn Moore will continue emphasizing Wesleyan theology in her sermons, and the church will continue its work partnering with ministries that help the people who, in Moore’s view, tend to “fall through the cracks” of other churches. Even the pension plans for Moore and other staff members will still go through Wespath Benefits and Investments, the organization …

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Everything You Need to Know About Home Window Repair

Windows are an essential component of any home. It lets you see outside, enabling you to breathe properly. It can also act as a barrier, keeping colder or hotter air from entering your home. As a result, it significantly affects your home’s energy efficiency.

However, like any other component of your home, windows have a shelf life. It’s a good idea to enlist the aid of specialists to repair or replace your windows when the time comes. You will learn everything you need to know about home window repair in Moore, OK.

To get some fresh air, everyone appreciates sitting near their windows. You must, however, repair any windows if they are not working properly. Replacing them with the help of a professional can increase ventilation and light in the area and provide a variety of additional advantages, including sound energy efficiency. If you’re familiar with the hardware, you can do it yourself, but if you’re not, you’ll need to hire a professional. Window replacement is essential for any workplace or home because a new window can provide a trendy aesthetic and many functional benefits.

Benefits of Window Repair

Following are the benefits that you get from a proper home window replacement in OKC.:

Noise Reduction

Noise pollution is harmful to your health. A proper repair can construct a window to reduce outside noise and provide a pleasant environment. The quintuple glass and insulating frames can help reduce noise from farm equipment, barking dogs, and transportation, allowing uninterrupted naps and relaxation.

Enhance Security

A well-kept and repaired window that is not readily broken will provide you with excellent safety and security. Because the window will have sophisticated locks and security, you can lock it from the inside and open it whenever you want, giving you peace of mind.

Convenient

A window can help your home become more energy efficient by preventing hot spots and chilling draughts. A properly working window minimizes the number of UV rays entering the building, keeps your living space consistently comfortable by controlling the air, and helps in the reduction of energy expenditures.

Dust Reduction

Blinds and shades that protect the property from dust and allergies are included in contemporary windows. The repaired windows are cordless and easy to clean, making them appropriate for dogs and children.

Increase the Value of Your Home

Whatever you do to improve your home will boost its value. A new window can make your home appear more attractive and expensive, resulting in a high return on investment.

Increases the Effectiveness of Energy Usage

A window extends the life of your air conditioner and helps you save money by enhancing your home’s energy efficiency. Good fiberglass windows are built of high-quality materials and are environmentally friendly. It lets in natural light while also keeping the temperature in check remodeling in Oklahoma City. It improves the aesthetics of your home from the inside out, but it also comes in a variety of indoor and outdoor finishes that may be combined with the design of your home to raise the charm of your property, which can impress everyone.

Conclusion

Here comes the end of the article. If you have read the whole article, you are now well aware of everything you need to know about home window repair in Moore, OK.

Contact Us:

Home Renew

Address:722 N Broadway Ave Suite 301 Oklahoma City, OK 73104
Phone: 405-437-2104

Opposing Porn Isn’t as Lonely as It Once Was for UK Evangelicals

New efforts to protect children win secular allies.

Ask Ian Henderson what he does for a living, and he has to decide whether to respond with the quick version—that he runs a charity—or the potentially awkward version—that he works in pornography education and recovery.

“Sometimes it’ll really open a conversation,” said Henderson, the CEO of Visible Ministries and the Naked Truth Project, which helps over 10,000 people a year in the United Kingdom through training, support groups, and counseling.

Facing a porn epidemic can feel like being dropped into the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37, Henderson said, up close with filth and pain while God shows him “how bad things have gotten.” As pornography has proliferated online, however, more of his fellow Brits are open to talking about its dark side too.

For ministries such as Naked Truth and Christian advocacy groups such as CARE (Christian Action Research and Education), opposing pornography is no longer the lonely position it was for British evangelicals back in the 1970s and 1980s, when they were maligned as prudish killjoys.

Now, websites face legal challenges for hosting abusive content; research is revealing more about how porn affects the mind; and parents of faith and no faith share concerns about kids’ early exposure to sexual material online.

“For a while, there’s been a clear divide of [pornography] being unacceptable in Christian circles and socially acceptable if you’re not a Christian,” said Hannah Lodge, an administrator at Naked Truth. “I think that gap is closing.”

When pastor Ioannis Dekas learned that his teenage son had searched for porn on a school device last year, “It was a wake-up call,” he said. “I had …

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As for Me and My Household, We’ll Resist Mammon

Money promises autonomous abundance. But we need someplace where we cannot hide.

Several friends helped my wife, Catherine, and me move into our first apartment, down and then up two steep and narrow sets of stairs. Three items seemed almost impossible to get up those stairs: a fragile old chest of drawers my wife had inherited from her grandmother, a queen-sized box spring, and an unfathomably heavy sofa bed.

We christened them the Ordeal of Delicacy, the Ordeal of Dimension, and the Ordeal of Strength. Twenty years later we remember those ordeals; the friends who cheerfully endured them with us, sweating and swearing on a hot June day; and the sense of relief when we managed to overcome each one.

A few years later, it was time to move again when my wife took the job she has held ever since. This time, the college that hired her covered the moving costs.

The professional movers went through the same ordeals on our behalf that our friends had gone through a few years before—sweating and likely swearing as well—but I certainly cannot remember their names, or even a hint of their faces. They were paid, fairly, to do a fair job. And once the job was done, they were gone.

This is the power of money: It allows us to get things done, often by means of other people, without the entanglements of friendship.

To this day, I owe my friends something for the move early in our marriage—at the very least, my thanks and my affection. Indeed, I already owed them something before the move. To be a friend is to be intertwined with someone else in a loose but permanent way.

But our relationship, such as it was, with the professional movers was different. It began and ended with a modern form of magic—a transaction that, without the slightest actual effort on our part, transported all our possessions from …

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Tips to Hire an Advertising Agency

Advertising is a growing and leading agency. But many companies think that they can manage and tackle their marketing requirements in-house. But it is not at all possible. You need to hire an advertising agency in Portsmouth that can help to hold your position in the process of growth and success. An experienced and skilled professional will help you a lot. They can manage creative control. You need an agency expert who can supervise the whole company’s growth. Apart from this, advertising agencies may offer so many services such as website creation, digital marketing, social media marketing, and all.

But how should you choose? What tips should you follow while hiring an advertising agency for your company?

  1. Do your research: You should do your research. Some companies are so stressed for help that they dive into a long-term agreement without searching and knowing much about the agency. This is a rapid and foolish decision. As a company owner, you should not do this. You will have to choose an agency wisely before diving into a long-term and stable relationship with the agency.
  2. Determine what you want and why: At first, you need to be sure about what you want to advertise and why. So, before starting your research, it is necessary to decide your goal. If you want to increase your loyal followers and let customers know about your product or service then, you should ask the advertising agency to arrange an upcoming event and program to promote your brand. It is also essential to know which advertising medium is best suitable for your customers and viewers.
  3. Decide the budget: As a company owner, you know how much you can spend on advertising. Without deciding the amount of time and required money to reach your goals, you should not proceed much. Without proper budget planning, your campaigns cannot get a chance to reach your visitors and audience.
  4. Innovative ideas: Innovation is the power of success. Discuss as Digital Marketing and Advertising Agency. The advertising agency is still growing and updating. So, innovation can save you in this case. You can convert an audience to your customer by applying your innovative thoughts. If you are too busy to make many kinds of innovative ideas then, you should hire an advertising agency that can do this for you. But you need to remember one thing innovation should not stop with one campaign. It should go on and on and through this, you can push your brand to evolve.

So, as you can see, if you have the ability and budget, you should hire a media and advertising agency that can build your brand and engage with your target viewers. Apart from this, you can get a regular performance report from your hired advertising agency. So, you should not waste your time and get ready to speak to a professional who can help you in this regard. But your brand may have a particular story to tell. So, no matter how efficient the ad agency is, you should share your viewpoints.

Contact Us:

Richardson Media Group

Address:75 Congress Street, Suite 214, Portsmouth, New Hampshire 03801
Phone: (603) 373-8866

How to Choose The Best School in Tampa

How to choose the best school for your kids? You may wonder how to choose a good school in Tampa FL for your kids. You need to make careful planning for this. You should remember one thing education is the passport for the future. You should always emphasize the importance of education in preparing prosperity for the whole world.

So, how do you need to choose the best school for your child’s glorious future where the global conditions are constantly in flux? There are so many things that parents should consider at the time of choosing the best school for their children.

  1. Extracurricular activities: Education is not the only thing that makes your child perfect for their future. Extracurricular activities are also important for your child’s growth. The school will help your child to developmental and physical growth through various activities and cognitive skills. These all should be an essential part of a student’s future. The school will also help your child to adopt team spirit, leadership quality, and self-confidence as well. You should check the school website and prospectus as well to have a proper idea about these all.
  2. The ratio of student-teacher: This is another consideration that you need to check while choosing the perfect school for your child. Small class sizes will create a positive impact on your child’s education. The lower student-teacher ratio will help your child to participate in all kinds of class discussions and they can express their opinions as well. The lower student-teacher ratio will also develop the scope of teaching and learning. So, you should visit the campus before admitting your child to the academy prep Tampa. You can also seek guidance from available resources.
  3. Style of teaching: Style of teaching is very important and it varies from school to school. We all know that two individuals are not the same. So, for many students, visual learning is far easier than any other method of learning. You need to understand what type of learner your child is. After that, you can consider the best school for your child based on their learning style. So, checking the teaching style of the school is necessary before admitting your kid to the school.
  4. Collect information about the school: You will have to gather other information about a school before finalizing the admission process. If you are buying a car, vacuum cleaner, or fridge, then, you may consult your friends, family, and colleagues. In the same way, while investigating schools, you will have to make phone calls and collect written materials from various schools to determine their facilities and all. You can also check the local paper and magazines to check the details about the school.

Above all, you need to check the academic performance of the school. You need to check that during the past few years, the academic scores have risen or decreased. From all these, you can consider the best private schools in Tampa FL. Apart from this, you should check the safety measures of the school. You need to ensure that your child will be safe in school.

Contact Us:

Tampa Preparatory School

727 W Cass St, Tampa, Florida 33606

Phone: +18132518481

SCOTUS Tackles Arguments over Prayer at the 50-Yard Line

Justices pepper lawyers with possible scenarios and questions about coercing high school players.

The US Supreme Court justices spun more than a dozen hypothetical prayer scenarios during oral arguments in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District on Monday.

They asked the lawyers arguing for their respective sides if a teacher could pray before class or after, silently or out loud, in a clear voice or a low mumble.

They asked if coaches could pray on the sidelines, in a press box, or a huddle. If they could pray with a prefatory statement that student participation wasn’t required. Or with the sign of the cross, the words of the Our Father, or hands lifted high. Could they pray with a crowd, into a mic, into a camera, with a group of players gathered around, or if no one was there and they were alone?

Justice Stephen Breyer, pointing out that the court has ruled on prayer in schools several times before, said, “This doesn’t seem like a new problem; it seems like a line-drawing problem.”

And then one of the justices even asked about literal lines drawn on the ground. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wanted to know why Washington state high school coach Joseph Kennedy insisted on praying in the center of the field, at the 50-yard line.

“He had to thank God,” she said. “But why there?”

The real line the court was trying to find, though, wasn’t marked with field paint. The justices tried to push the lawyers and each other to agree to a point where prayers protected by the First Amendment could be separated from prayers prohibited by the protections of the First Amendment.

Everyone agreed that the coach has a right to pray, but only as an individual and not as a representative of the public school, and not in a way that would coerce students into a religious practice.

“You’re not …

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Give Your Self A Fair Trial With A Criminal Attorney

If you have been charged with criminal activities, then it is important to find a good attorney who can defend you. However, you must be careful of lawyers who try to take you for a ride by charging you high fees and substandard services. So, here are some valuable tips that will help you find the right attorney for your case. Want to know more? Here have a read.

They Always Consult You

There is no doubt that criminal lawyers are there to protect you, but when it comes to big decisions it is your choice. You always have the option of admitting guilt. Your lawyer will also take the time to analyze your options and suggest a better way to deal with the case.

Confidence And Experience

The attorney must be experienced as criminal cases tend to move fast and can be very complex. So, your attorney has to have a good presence of mind to be able to respond to the prosecutor. Your lawyer must be well-versed with the rules of the court. When you select a fort bend criminal attorney you can tell by the way he speaks if he is good or not. A well-mannered lawyer usually means that he will behave the same in court. An experienced criminal defense attorney in Sugarland will not need to raise his voice. He will explain everything to you with a calm voice, but with a lot of authority.

No False Promises

Any lawyer who guarantees you victory in a court case that is complex is very full of himself. A reliable attorney will explain both possible outcomes to you, which is a good thing and you should consider hiring him or her. It is always good to get a realistic picture than to get sugar-coated lies.

Fees

Lawyers are expensive so you must know how much you are paying. Collect written price quotations from different lawyers and compare them, this is just to make sure that you will not end up paying hidden costs. Go through the clauses in your contract properly before you sign it.

Do Your Research

The good thing is that Sugarland has many sugar land criminal defense attorneys, but not all of them are up to the mark or have sufficient experience. So, what do you do? Well, use the internet to look up names. Make a list of popular lawyers or law firms, visit their websites, and read what their previous clients have written about them. You should also ask friends and family for their suggestions.

Wrapping Up

There is no denying that a criminal process can be very stressful.  This is why you must focus on hiring a sugar land DWI lawyer who is easy to communicate with. There may be times when you need to speak to a lawyer for an emergency and he should be available to talk to you. So, follow the tips mentioned above and you should not have any problems at all. Be sure to take your time and consider every single option in front of you before you decide to move ahead with things.

Resources: https://www.wattpad.com/user/bettercalllaw

Contact Us:

Lawrence Law Firm, PLLC

Address:695 Industrial Blvd #100, Sugar Land, TX
Phone: (832) 356-4404