Browse Tag

Christmas

SETTING THE INNER COMPASS- CHRISTMAS

7 mins read

In this column, I share four poems related to Christmas. Christmas is a social/cultural and spiritual celebration. Culturally, Christmas is a worldwide celebration of light in darkness, gift giving and gathering in community. Jesus may be part of these festivities or not. Often, he is just a prop. In my

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This Advent, We Wait for Justice.

9 mins read

We humans suffer enough already, without abandoning one another. The season of Advent holds inherent tension. Torn between a coming Christmas and present waiting, the heart is pulled and stretched between God’s promise and a reality that falls short. We raise our eyes to the hills, expectant of the breaking

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People, Look East!

1 min read

Advent and Christmas Reflections on the Middle East Week 1 Jimmy Carter and Simeon: What ‘Consolation’ for Israel and Palestine Today?, Rev. Dr. Chris Iosso A Perspective on Peace: Is There Shalom in the Land?, Marietta Macy Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, Calls for an “Advent of Justice”, The

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Turkey: Six Important Dynamics for US Christians

13 mins read

Dr. Iosso was aided in this article by consultation with an academic from Turkey and expresses his thanks to that person and to all involved in Turkish civil society. Turkey is a country of 83 million people, bordering 8 other nations, poised between Europe and Asia and Europe and the

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Christmas and the War Next Door

13 mins read

My mother loves Christmas. I came home to find her big traditional decoration for the Christmas tree. Our house is full of red colors today. Some pictures of Santa Claus here and there. I wanted to be happy and do like every kid: jump and shout out loud that Christmas

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A Perspective on Peace

10 mins read

Is There Shalom in the Land? This article was originally published in the Advent 2015 issue of the Presbyterian Hunger Program’s PHP Post, available at http://www.pcusa.org/resource/phppostadvent2015/. “They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.” – Jeremiah

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A 2014 Christmas Letter

3 mins read

Prayers for for Jerusalem, Gaza, Israel, the Greater Middle East…Iran….Pakistan… Cuba…North Korea…Nigeria…and our trouble spots in the US. This is not an article exactly, but nor is it a digital Christmas card. Let’s call it a Christmas letter. We do wish all our readers a Merry Christmas (or a Happy

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Where is the Prince of Peace?

10 mins read

Peace Discernment After Newtown By Chris Iosso   If young men are princes, then few seem to have the Prince of Peace as their model. Every now and then one of these young men commits actual murder, as has just happened in a Newtown, CT, elementary school. Violence, which is

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Christmas and the Better Angels of our Nature

11 mins read

The following letter comes from the December 2011 Salt & Light e-newsletter of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, speaking to violence in Palestine, the recent Human Rights Day issue of “Unbound,” an upcoming Convocation on Criminal—and Restorative—Justice, the work of ACSWP, and an upcoming course called “Presbyterianism: Principles,

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