{"id":1276,"date":"2012-08-10T04:04:13","date_gmt":"2012-08-10T08:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayspirituality\/?p=1276"},"modified":"2016-10-19T08:21:27","modified_gmt":"2016-10-19T12:21:27","slug":"voicing-gods-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2012\/08\/voicing-gods-word.html","title":{"rendered":"Preachers Help One Another"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Hartwick Seminary Institute of Theology was established in 1991 by a group of Lutheran congregations in counties of upstate New York for 2 primary reasons: To provide training for Deacon Candidates, and to provide continuing education and growth in faith for clergy. This being the first year I\u2019ve attended, I can surmise its mission has expanded to include Catholics, Episcopalians, and me\u2014because we were all there. And we all were able to set aside our purist aspirations in order to meet our practical needs.<\/p>\n<p>One workshop, titled, His Words, Your Voice, led by Deacon Randy V\u00e9lez, was designed to strengthen the ministry of preaching. V\u00e9lez offered real-world advice such as make sure your spiritual message is researched well but without letting the research material become the message.<\/p>\n<p>V\u00e9lez introduced me to the Lectionary, a 3-year cycle of weekly lections used to varying degrees by the vast majority of mainline Protestant churches. Generally, a lectionary is a list of scriptural text recommended for use in worship or study. I do not use a lectionary and V\u00e9lez never insinuated that I needed too. In fact, his focus on serving God was so acute V\u00e9lez epitomized the presence of a spiritual love and grace. Was I in the midst of the kingdom of God?<\/p>\n<p>Even if my human situation is not entirely void of evil, I still can feel the kingdom of God, Love, Truth. It reminds me <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayspirituality\/2012\/07\/all-the-ingredients-of-the-bible.html\">of a verse in Bible<\/a>, \u201cThe kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, \u2018Look, here it is!\u2019 or \u2018There!\u2019 for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.\u2019\u201d (Luke 17:20-21, ESV)<\/p>\n<p>Deacon V\u00e9lez said he and a handful of other Deacons from the Lutheran, Catholic, and Episcopalian faith get together every Wednesday morning to discuss the lectionary. \u201cWe do not discuss our theologies because they are very different, therefore our goal to give a thoughtful, spiritually directed sermon or homily is reached,\u201d said V\u00e9lez.<\/p>\n<p>The thought leaders at the Theological Institute supported use of the many different<a href=\"http:\/\/healingsciencetoday.wordpress.com\/2011\/10\/01\/max-mclean-reads-the-bible-without-anger\/\"> Bible version<\/a>s. The participants even asked one another to rethink certain rituals. After my experience at the seminars, it has become more apparent that religions and churches that aim to meet humanity\u2019s needs are less likely to get caught up in arguing or criticizing theological issues or traditional preferences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Hartwick Seminary Institute of Theology was established in 1991 by a group of Lutheran congregations in counties of upstate New York for 2 primary reasons: To provide training for Deacon Candidates, and to provide continuing education and growth in faith for clergy. This being the first year I\u2019ve attended, I can surmise its mission&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":429,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,8],"tags":[558,559,557,556],"class_list":["post-1276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community_world","category-religion","tag-hartwick-classes","tag-hartwick-college","tag-new-york","tag-things-to-do-oneonta"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Preachers Help One Another - Everyday Spirituality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2012\/08\/voicing-gods-word.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Preachers Help One Another - Everyday Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Hartwick Seminary Institute of Theology was established in 1991 by a group of Lutheran congregations in counties of upstate New York for 2 primary reasons: To provide training for Deacon Candidates, and to provide continuing education and growth in faith for clergy. This being the first year I\u2019ve attended, I can surmise its mission&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2012\/08\/voicing-gods-word.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Everyday Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-10T08:04:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-10-19T12:21:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cheryl Petersen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cherylpetersen\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Preachers Help One Another - Everyday Spirituality","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2012\/08\/voicing-gods-word.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Preachers Help One Another - Everyday Spirituality","og_description":"The Hartwick Seminary Institute of Theology was established in 1991 by a group of Lutheran congregations in counties of upstate New York for 2 primary reasons: To provide training for Deacon Candidates, and to provide continuing education and growth in faith for clergy. 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