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Trinity's Rev. Otis Moss - a profile

"At that time Jesus said to the multitudes of the Jews: 'Which of you shall convince me of sin? If I say the truth to you, why do you not believe me? He that is of God, heareth the words of God. Therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God.' The Jews therefore answered, and said to him: Do not we say well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? Jesus answered: 'I have not a devil: but I honour my Father, and you have dishonoured me. But I seek not my own glory: there...

The News: Sen. Barack Obama's Chicago church has been promoting him -- and criticizing his rival Hillary Clinton -- from the pulpit. • The Issue: Has the church violated federal law that restricts a church's political activity? • What's At Stake: The church's tax-exempt status and its ability to raise money. Mr. Wright, who will be ending his 36-year tenure as the church's senior pastor in June, has previously been criticized for comments deriding President George Bush and lauding Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam. Now Mr. Wright's and his successor's repeated enthusiastic promotion of their famous parishioner may...

It looks like the senior pastor at Obama's home church is retiring after 36 years at Trinity United Church of Christ. Perhaps they are replacing him in anticipation of an Obama presidency with someone less controversial. Hmmm...just musing...

AUSTIN - When it comes to road improvement and maintenance, by most accounts, the South Plains and Panhandle are fortunate. Despite a $1.1 billion accounting error, the Texas Department of Transportation recently reported no projects in the region have been canceled or delayed while cities like Dallas, Houston and Laredo had at least a half dozen highway projects delayed. But the $1.1 billion-error, which occurred because TxDOT inadvertently counted some bond money twice and consequently allocated more funding than it had, is just the latest problem plaguing the beleaguered agency. For months, TxDOT executive director Amadeo Saenz and other transportation...

Sometimes the truth just has a way of coming to light. A public information officer with the Texas Department of Transportation this week wrote a column in the Herald-Press describing the financial woes facing TxDOT and how because of those problems the state’s transportation department doesn’t have the money to deal with many of the state’s transportation issues. Apparently, several of the state’s senators do not feel that is the case at all. David Dewhurst called out the state’s interim chairwoman of the Texas Transportation Commission, Hope Andrade, on this very issue, according to a story from the Associated Press....

Not one of the 11 East Texans who approached the podium at Wednesday's hearing on Interstate 69 voiced support for the planned highway. "This is highway robbery, and we should not pursue this project," said David Simpson, a Longview resident and fifth-generation Texan. "This process has bypassed the Constitution. It has bypassed the U.S. Congress, and I'm opposed to it because of the unconstitutional way that it has been pushed through." The public hearing, held at Maude Cobb Convention and Activity Center, was a chance for residents to comment and ask questions about Interstate 69/Trans-Texas Corridor. The corridor would extend...

THE HOLY TRINITY Saint Thomas Aquinas Excerpt from: LIGHT OF FAITH, The Compendium of Theology  36 Philosophical character of this doctrineThe truths about God thus far proposed have been subtly discussed by a number of pagan philosophers, although some of them erred concerning these matters. And those who propounded true doctrine in this respect were scarcely able to arrive at such truths even after long and painstaking investigation.But there are other truths about God revealed to us in the teaching of the Christian religion, which were beyond the reach of the philosophers. These are truths about which we are...

January 15, 2008 Buying a hybrid is currently a pastime for early adopters and those who are prepared to pay to salve their environmental conscience . Do the return-on-investment (ROI) math and you’ll realize that the fuel savings never bridge the economic rationale gap because of the higher initial cost of hybrids. That appears about to change! Ultra-capacitor-based energy storage systems have long promised a breakthrough for the automotive industry and AFS Trinity’s announcement of the real world performance specs of its plug-in hybrid system is landmark. The company’s patent-pending Extreme Hybrid (XH) technology employs a proprietary dual energy storage...

Republican Mitt Romney retorted to questions about his faith by surging rival Mike Huckabee on Wednesday, declaring that "attacking someone's religion is really going too far." In an article to be published Sunday in The New York Times, Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, asks, "Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?"

The Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, Lutherans, Pentecostals, Mormons and a few other faiths have three things in common – they believe in Jesus Christ, that He is the Son of God and that He died and was resurrected for our sins. So what’s the problem? The political pundits continue to try and make Mitt Romney’s religious beliefs a big issue as he runs for the Republican presidential nomination. Different denominations of Christianity are just that – different denominations – which means different worship practices of the same fundamental Christian beliefs. Some people have commented that they cannot support Mitt Romney because...

The Concept of the Most Holy TrinityThe Relationship between the Three Persons in One God  Some doctrines perplex us more than others. Offhand, we could enumerate the following: The Incarnation (the infinite God is born of a woman, the Virgin Mary, and takes upon Himself our finite humanity) The Virginal Birth (Mary remained a virgin before, during, and after the conception and birth of her Son, Jesus) The Immaculate Conception (Mary's being conceived in her own mother's womb without the stain of Original Sin) Creation ex nihilo (the creation by God of something out of nothing) We assent to...

This past week an ABC News debate aired on "Nightline," which pitted popular theists against Internet atheists. While I'll have more to say about that battle of wits in my next article, it testifies to the growing number (30 million Americans) of those who profess there is no God. Add to that what I believe is possibly three times the number of functional atheists, those who believe in a God but practically don't show it, and America is facing a new religious horizon in which atheism is becoming a formidable foe. Though the majority of Americans continue to claim to...

The Sign of the Cross    FR. WILLIAM SAUNDERS My friend is Greek Orthodox. In his Church, they make the sign of the cross crossing themselves from the right shoulder to the left, but we do the opposite. Why is there a difference? When did this come into practice? The sign of the cross is a beautiful gesture which reminds the faithful of the cross of salvation while invoking the Holy Trinity. Technically, the sign of the cross is a sacramental, a sacred sign instituted by the Church which prepares a person to receive grace and which sanctifies a moment...

Let’s consider two more reasons for the critical importance of the historic Christian doctrine of the Trinity. First, the Trinity doctrine sets the Christian view of God apart from all other religious perspectives, including other monotheistic viewpoints (such as Judaism and Islam). Only the Christian God is one in essence but three in personhood (in philosophical terms: one What and three Whos). This triune nature means that God is superpersonal (more than merely a personal being).

1945 : United States conducts first test of the atomic bomb The United States conducts the first test of the atomic bomb at its research facility in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The terrifying new weapon would quickly become a focal point in the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. The official U.S. development of the atomic bomb began with the establishment of the Manhattan Project in August 1942. The project brought together scientists from the United States, Great Britain, and Canada to study the feasibility of building an atomic bomb capable of unimaginable destructive power. The...

To some, being Italian-American means overindulging in pasta and joking about tough guys.  But being Italian means being heir to a rich tradition stretching back before the Caesars.  Included are philosophers like Seneca, poets like Dante, artists such as Michelangelo, and saints like Francis of Assisi.To some, being Catholic means giving up chocolate for Lent.  But those who explore their Catholic heritage discover thousands of years of meaning, insight, and life-giving resources: inspiring stories about people from Abraham to Mother Teresa, practical instruction by some of the most brilliant thinkers of all time, tried and true spiritual practices that make...

the filioque: a church-dividing issue? an agreed statement of the North american orthodox-catholic theological consultation saint paul's college, washington, d.c. october, 2003 From 1999 until 2003, the North American Orthodox-Catholic Consul-tation has focused its discussions on an issue that has been identified, for more than twelve centuries, as one of the root causes of division between our Churches: our divergent ways of conceiving and speaking about the origin of the Holy Spirit within the inner life of the triune God. Although both of our traditions profess “the faith of Nicaea� as the normative expression of our understanding of God and...

Sunday, June 03, 2007 Sheed on the Trinity One of the finest popular examinations, explanations, and defenses of the doctrine of the Trinity is found in Frank Sheed's masterful Theology and Sanity. A shorter work, A Map of Life, presents a much more concise version of some of the same material, yet with the same clarity and precision that marks Sheed's many writings: Thus the doctrine of the Trinity, at first seen only as a  sheer challenge to Faith grows steadily more luminous to the  mind which accepts it and comes humbly to the study of what  the Church has...

The Father as the Source of the Whole Trinity The Procession of the Holy Spirit in Greek and Latin Traditions by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity The Greek and Latin Traditions About the Procession of the Holy Spirit In its first report on The Mystery of the Church and of the Eucharist in the Light of the Mystery of the Holy Trinity, unanimously approved in Munich on 6 July 1982, the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church had mentioned the centuries-old difficulty between the two Churches concerning the...

GRAPEVINE, Texas (SBT)—Pentecostal mega-church pastor T.D. Jakes of Dallas, often criticized for holding a non-trinitarian view of God, will speak for the second time during Fellowship Church of Grapevine's Creative Church Conference (C3) for pastors. Jakes will appear at the Southern Baptist congregation Feb. 22-23 along with fellow preachers Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, LifeChurch pastor Craig Groeschel of Edmond, Okla., and Houston pastor and former SBC president Edwin Young, father of Fellowship pastor Ed Young. Jakes is internationally known for his media ministry and as pastor of The Potter's House. He has been featured in...

Historical proofs as to the way the trinitarian doctrine effected the pure doctrine of the disciples. The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics: As to Matthew 28:19, it says: It is the central piece of evidence for the traditional (Trinitarian) view. If it were undisputed, this would, of course, be decisive, but its trustworthiness is impugned on grounds of textual criticism, literary criticism and historical criticism. Edmund Schlink, The Doctrine of Baptism, page 28: "The baptismal command in its Matthew 28:19 form can not be the historical origin of Christian baptism. At the very least, it must be assumed that the...

INCARNATION GOD SENT HIS SON, TO SAVE US by J.I. Packer The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. JOHN 1:14 Trinity and Incarnation belong together. The doctrine of the Trinity declares that the man Jesus is truly divine; that of the Incarnation declares that the divine Jesus is truly human. Together they proclaim the full reality of the Savior whom the New Testament sets forth, the Son who came from the Father’s side at the...

One of the first things that a Catholic mother teaches her young child in the way of prayer is the sign of the cross. She shows the young one how to bless himself, while at the same time pronouncing the names of the three divine Persons of the Blessed Trinity. While the child at that age may understand little of the words pronounced, there will come in time a gradual awareness of this great mystery of our faith; for throughout one's life as a Catholic there will be frequent references in prayer, in the reception of the sacraments and in...

The Holy Trinity

NEW YORK - A new 10-nation survey of Pentecostal and charismatic Christians, considered the fastest-growing stream of Christianity worldwide, shows they are deeply influencing the Roman Catholic and mainstream Protestant churches and are poised to make a big impact on global affairs. p>The poll released Thursday by the Washington-based Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that "spirit-filled" Christians, who speak in tongues and believe in healing through prayer, comprise at least 10 percent of the population in nine of the 10 surveyed countries. The study also found that followers are more willing than previously thought to bring their...

Folks, I've been leafing through volume 11 of the Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Catholicism which I purchased second hand. The title of this volume is What is the Trinity? and also contains a study on The Holy Spirit. Bernard Piault wrote What is the Trinity, and indeed it's a very rich study on this most central question in Christian Theism. At the beginning of its fifth chapter I found three tables detailing the different kinds of Trinitarian heresies and their refutations. I'm going to try to reproduce these tables below for your information. All those spaces correspond roughly to those...

Presbyterians Adopt New Trinity Wording by UPI Wire Jun 30, 2006 BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - June 30, 2006 (UPI) -- Leaders of the Presbyterian Church (USA), meeting in Alabama, have come up with 12 new phrases to describe the Christian doctrine of God in three entities. Instead of "Father, Son and Holy Spirit," worshippers may substitute "Compassionate Mother, Beloved Child and Life-giving Womb" or "Rock, Cornerstone and Temple," the Los Angeles Times reported Friday. Delegates to the group's 217th General Assembly voted 282-212 to "receive" those substitutions and 10 others written by a panel of pastors and theologians who felt the...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- At some Presbyterian churches the Holy Trinity -- "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" -- will be out. "Mother, Child and Womb" is in. Delegates to the national assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted yesterday to "receive" a policy paper on sex-inclusive language for the Trinity, a step short of approving it. Church officials are enabled to propose "experimental liturgies" with "alternative phrasings" for the Trinity, but congregations won't be required to use them. Besides "Mother, Child and Womb" and "Rock, Redeemer, Friend," options include: • "Lover, Beloved, Love" • "Creator, Savior, Sanctifier" • "King of Glory,...

The divine Trinity — "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" — could also be known as "Mother, Child and Womb" or "Rock, Redeemer, Friend" at some Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) services under an action Monday by the church's national assembly. Delegates to the meeting voted to "receive" a policy paper on gender-inclusive language for the Trinity, a step short of approving it. That means church officials can propose experimental liturgies with alternative phrasings for the Trinity, but congregations won't be required to use them. "This does not alter the church's theological position, but provides an educational resource to enhance the spiritual life...

Presbyterians Think Of Changing 'Father, Son, Holy Spirit' POSTED: 5:09 pm EDT June 19, 2006 UPDATED: 7:11 pm EDT June 19, 2006 BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The divine Trinity -- "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" -- could also be known as "Mother, Child and Womb" or "Rock, Redeemer, Friend" at some Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) services under an action Monday by the church's national assembly. Delegates to the meeting voted to "receive" a policy paper on gender-inclusive language for the Trinity, a step short of approving it. That means church officials can propose experimental liturgies with alternative phrasings for the Trinity, but...

We believe in the Blessed Trinity because we believe in Jesus, Who revealed the Trinity. God had prepared the Jews not only to welcome the Messiah, but to recognize through revelation what philosophers like Aristotle achieved through reason: that there is a God and there can only be one God.Moses said to the Jews, “Acknowledge today and take to heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other but to believe in God Who is the only God.” When the Messiah finally came, He revealed a huge mystery that went far...

June 11, 2006 The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity Psalm: Sunday 25 Reading 1Dt 4:32-34, 39-40 Moses said to the people:"Ask now of the days of old, before your time,ever since God created man upon the earth;ask from one end of the sky to the other:Did anything so great ever happen before?Was it ever heard of?Did a people ever hear the voice of Godspeaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live?Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himselffrom the midst of another nation,by testings, by signs and wonders, by war,with strong...

One reason for The Da Vinci Code’s success it that the Catholic Church has made itself a vulnerable target over the last few years, according to Patrick Madrid. Mr. Madrid, who will speak in Toledo on Wednesday night, is an apologist whose role is to defend and explain Catholicism. He said in an interview this week that the church is still reeling from the “two black eyes” it suffered starting in 2002. “First there was the priest scandal, and then the inept handling by bishops. I think the Catholic Church has gotten itself into such a mess, such a public...

"It's not a question of 'maybe' or 'if'," says the Temple Institute's Rabbi Yisrael Ariel. "Bringing the Paschal sacrifice is a Torah obligation incumbent upon the People of Israel these very days." Speaking with Yoel Yaakobi of the weekly B'Sheva newspaper, Rabbi Ariel said that though there are some grave Halakhic [Jewish legal] problems associated with bringing the Paschal sacrifice, "we have found the solutions, and the obligation is as strong as ever. This is one of the only two positive Biblical commandments that those who forsake it are liable to receive the ultimate karet [cutting off] punishment. From the...

Is God a Trinity?Why is the Trinity mysterious?Why is this doctrine so HARD to understand?(Part 2)  Who Was Jesus?The Bible does not teach the doctrine of the Trinity. But we are still faced with the question: Who was Jesus Christ? Was He a man that lived such a perfect life that God decided to call Him His Son at baptism? Or was He God who became a man and died for all men?In the past in most theological circles, a rejection of the doctrine of the Trinity included a rejection of the divinity of Christ. But before this booklet...

Is God a Trinity?Why is the Trinity mysterious?Why is this doctrine so HARD to understand?(Part 1)  Is the Trinity Biblical?A Gallup Poll taken in 1966 found that 97% of the American public believed in God. Of that number, 83% believed that God is a Trinity.Yet for all this belief in the Trinity, it is a doctrine that is not clearly understood by most Christian laymen. In fact, most have neither the desire nor the incentive to understand what their church teaches. Few laymen are aware of any problems with the doctrine of the Trinity. They simply take it for...

Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe that Jesus is God (big "G") as the Father is God. They believe that Jesus is a god (small "g") only as Satan is a god (2 Cor. 4:4). Jehovah's Witnesses generally offer the following arguments as "proof" of their conclusion: Inequality with the Father disproves the deity of the Son. The Watch Tower tract, What Do Jehovah's Witnesses Believe?, states, "Since Jesus said that he is 'God's Son' and that the 'Father sent me forth,' Jehovah's Witnesses believe that God is greater than Jesus On. 10:36; 6:57). Jesus himself acknowledged: 'The Father is greater...

Many people do not believe that Jesus was the Son of the living God. While some are actively hostile to any idea that Jesus may have been God’s son, many simply consider Jesus to have been a good teacher, or a good moral person who set a good example for everyone. Still, these people do not believe that Christ was in any way divine. Anyone who believes that the biblical account of Christ’s life was even remotely accurate would likely view him as a good person. However, what Jesus said of Himself presents some problems for those who want to...

October 05 2005 The Rev. William Klock: "The Life of Renewal" From the Rev. William Klock of Christ Church REC in Oregon, we have the sermon The Life of Renewal, based on Ephesians 4:17-32 and St. Matthew 9:1-8. Rev. Klock does his usual excellent work in exegeting these passages, and I like what he writes here about the passage from the Gospel of St. Matthew:Our Gospel lesson illustrates the renewal that St. Paul writes about in the Epistle. Look again at St. Matthew?s gospel: And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city. And...

The Rev. William Klock: "Our Unity in Christ" Considering some of the news we have seen lately about efforts towards reunification of the various churches, the sermon Our Unity in Christ by the Rev. William Klock of Christ Church REC in Oregon is quite timely. This point is quite pertinent to much of what has been going on:We need to be realistic and acknowledge that there are factors in the Church that tend to drive us apart. But in our lesson from Ephesians we learn a second fact about the Church and that is that underneath all these differences...

September 15 2005 The Rev. William Klock: "The God of Comfort" From the Rev. William Klock of Christ Church REC in Oregon, we have The God of Comfort, which is based on Ephesians 3:13-21 and Luke 7:11-17. This sermon is a fitting one for the anniversary of 9-11, and for a time such as this when we as a nation are wrestling with the problems arising from Hurricane Katrina. As Rev. Klock notes, Today?s lessons couldn?t have come at a more appropriate time. This Sunday we?re reminded that we are to look for God?s comfort and consolation in our...

The Rev. William Klock: "Our Godly Devotion" From the Rev. William Klock of Christ Church REC in Oregon, we have the fine sermon Our Godly Devotion, which is based on Galatians 6:11-18 and the Gospel of Matthew 6:24-34. I thought this portion was quite apt for our day and age:Think about it: which is something you should fear more, the persecution of men or the ?persecution? of God. The Romans or the Jews could imprison these young Christians. They could beat them. They could kill them. But nothing they could do would disinherit them from God?s promise of eternal...

The Rev. William Klock: "The Godly Virtue of Purity" Last week, the Rev. William Klock of Christ Church REC in Oregon preached a sermon on "The Godly Virtue of Love" and now this week's sermon is The Godly Virtue of Purity, based on Galatians 5:16-24 and Luke 17:11-19. I thought this sermon was excellent:Our hearts are spiritual battlefields. On one side the sinful desires of the flesh, of our natural fallen selves, of what should be the ?old man? battles against the ?new man? created by God?s grace in each of us. The ?old man? has no concept of...

Psalm 17 (18): 2-7, 17I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord s my firmament, my refuge, and my deliverer. My God is my helper, and in him will I put my trust. My protector and the horn of my salvation, and my support. Praising I will call upon the Lord: and I shall be saved from my enemies. The sorrows of death surround me: and the torrents of iniquity troubled me. The sorrows of hell encompassed me: and the snares of death prevented me. In my afflication I called upon the Lord, and I cried to my...

The Rev. William Klock: "The Godly Virtue of Love" From the Rev. William Klock of Christ Church REC in Oregon, we have the sermon, The Godly Virtue of Love, which is based on Galatians 3:16-22 and Luke 10:23-37, the readings for Trinity 13 from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. He notes the following about our use of the Decalogue in the liturgy:The Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, have been a part of our Communion liturgy since the second revision of the Prayer Book in 1552. The Old Testament Law summarised as these ten short commandments is something we need...

The Rev. William Klock: "A Fading Splendor and a Shining Hope" From the Rev. William Klock of Christ Church REC in Oregon, we have the fine sermon, A Fading Splendor and a Shining Hope, which is based on the readings for Trinity 12 in the 1928 BCP, 2 Corinthians 3:4-9 and St. Mark 7:31-37. This sermon has several good points, one of which that impressed me being this one:Even greater, the Christian priesthood is a broader priesthood. In the Old Testament, God called on the tribe of Levi to be the priesthood and the role of serving as mediator...

WHITE SANDS MISSLE RANGE, N.M. - Thousands of people gathered Saturday at Trinity Site, a restricted area of the White Sands Missile Range, to mark the 60th anniversary of the world's first test of an atomic weapon. Scientists working at Trinity site as part of The Manhattan Project created the nuclear device used in the test on July 16, 1945. That successful detonation led to the construction of the two atomic bombs that killed hundreds of thousands of people in Japan in August 1945, essentially stunning Japan into surrender and ending World War II. The depression created by the blast...

With this quote from the Bagavad-Gita, Oppenheimer summoned in the nuclear age at 5:30 in the morning at the Trinity Site in New Mexico. The yield of code name Gadget was estimated to be equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT - 2,000 B-29s worth of explosives. A quote from Brigadier General T.F. Farrell regarding the blast - "The effects could well be called unprecedented, magnificent, beautiful, stupendous, and terrifying. No man-made phenomenon of such tremendous power had ever occurred before. The lighting effects beggared description. The whole country was lighted by a searing light with the intensity many times that...

The more I discover about Trinity Church's Trinity Sunday clown Eucharist Holy Communion Travesty, the worse it gets.  That, at this time of difficulty, an ancient and historically important congregation would choose to mark the Feast of the Holy Trinity and its patronal feast this way is diagnostic of some terminal disease.  To do it at all is bad enough.  Anyway, the service bulletin is here, and there are pictures here.  Expagan also has links to videos of the event.  You have to wade through some snarkiness about Anglican orders to get there, but we've brought this on ourselves.  I...