This groundbreaking resource will be put to immediate use in churches up and down the country and will transform the way that worship is both conducted and experienced. Liturgy is all too often about words and is led from the front. This imaginative and profoundly theological companion is packed with ideas on how to enrich the liturgy by creating a context of action, movement and symbolic expression involving the whole assembly. A modern 'Priest's Handbook', this will not only instruct and inspire clergy and worship leaders, but will fully engage congregations in creating worship that is nurturing and challenging.

The SCM Studyguide: Liturgy, 2nd Edition is an introduction to liturgy that considers the basic 'buliding blocks' needed to grasp the subject area. It outlines the essential shape and content of Christian worship and explores a range of liturgical dynamics of which both students of liturgy and leaders of liturgy need to be aware. This 2nd edition of the popular Studyguide is fully revised, updated and expanded. The book takes account of new developments in scholarship, engages with new contexts for liturgical celebration (notably, fresh expressions as part of a mixed economy of church), encompasses recent revisions in liturgy and seeks to broaden the engagement beyond the British context to consider the wider global context.

Sunday worship, baptisms, weddings and funerals are the shop window of the church and there is nothing more important for mission than getting them right. How do we help congregations and occasional visitors encounter God through them? This practical guide draws upon the treasury of the church's tradition and experience to establish good practice and enrich understanding. Part One explores the changing landscape in which we live and the place of worship within it. Part Two asks how our churches can be more welcoming and provides a handy 'worship audit'. Part Three focuses on the main services (CW & BCP Communion, Evensong and the pastoral services) and how to bring these liturgies to life. Part Four helps us to maximise the opportunities offered by the seasons of the Christian year. Part Five focuses on using the non-verbal elements of worship well - liturgical colours, candles, oil, incense, icons etc Part Six is an extensive glossary designed to answer every question you might ever ask about worship and liturgy.

Developing Healthy Churches is an utterly practical and realistic guide for any leader seeking to revitalize and grow their church. The long-awaited sequel to the bestselling Healthy Churches’ Handbook, this new volume will help you implement tried and tested approaches for healthy church growth in your parish.

If ever a period of time felt ‘fractured’ it is now. Whichever way we turn, we witness the dismembering and fracturing of many previously taken for granted realities, with maps and borders – physical and metaphorical – being redrawn before our eyes. What place for the feminist practical theologian in such a climate? “In Fragments for Fractured Times”, one of the world’s leading feminist practical theologians, Nicola Slee, brings together 15 years of papers, articles, talks and sermons, many of them previously unpublished. Collected from diverse times, places, settings and occasions, Slee offers an introduction to each fragment, “holding it up to the light and examining its size, shape, texture and pattern”. Drawing on a wide and diverse range of her writing, Slee demonstrates the richness and variety of feminist practical theological writing. What feminist theology brings to the table of scholarly thinking and embodied practice is, she suggests, something creative, artful, prophetic as well as playful – a resource for Christian living and thinking in fractured times.

Provides a grounding in the historical development of the Sacraments from the Old Testament through to modern day thinking. General ideas of sacraments and ritual are covered as well as Old Testament practices, the response of Jesus and the Early Church.

In Spiritus Loci Bert Daelemans, who graduated as an architect and a theologian, provides an interdisciplinary method for the theological assessment of church architecture. Rather than a theory, this method is based on case studies of contemporary buildings (1995-2015), which are often criticized for lacking theological depth. In a threefold method, the author brings to light the ways in which architecture can be theology – or theotopy – by focusing on topoi (places) rather than logoi (words). Churches reveal our relationship with God by engaging our body, mind, and community. This method proves relevant not only for the way we perceive these buildings, but also for the way we use them, especially in our prophetic engagement for a better world.

Is the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in Christian theology good news or bad news for women? Is the Holy Spirit in traditional Christian doctrine the guardian of the status quo or does it offer the dynamic possibility for change? How do the gifts of the Spirit, ecstatic and relational, inform feminist thinking of the Christian God. Opinions on these key questions vary wildly but are often formulated without coherent theological argument. Feminist theology has a history of questioning God the Father and God the Son - this study begins the theological questioning of God the Holy Spirit. Searching for the Holy Spirit brings feminist pneumatology into discussion with more traditional doctrine of the Spirit, notably the very significant early Christian treatise by Basil of Caesarea, De Spiritu Sancto. The results offer exciting new possibilities for both theology and the place of women in the church.

There is a spiritual hunger in the world today. Many people are seeking answers to life's hard questions. Many people come to church seeking inspiration, help for personal problems, or faith's perspective on life. They come seeking things you cannot find in a search engine. The church has exactly what they need, but too often there is a gap between our message and our ability to send it. Each week, as people pause to learn about faith and get a word of hope, a lot rides on the sermon. Susan Cartmell took a journey across the country to visit churches with great preaching and lively worship. What she discovered was that Evangelical Christians and Unitarian Universalists were using themed preaching effectively to attract new members. Working in her church over the last five years, she has designed a new system for preaching with themes in mainline Protestant churches. She shares her method and her journey in a story that invites you to consider new ways to preach faithfully without using the lectionary.

There is a clear lack in the Church of England of a coherent and thought through treatment of evil and the devil within the texts which the Church of England traditionally identifies as the repositories of doctrine. Focusing on initiation, healing and deliverence liturgies within the church, "Fight Valiantly" seeks to rectify that defecit, considering the Church of England's liturgical practice in the parishes, and highlighting the present danger of worshippers receiving an inconsistent and potentially incoherent account of the relationship with evil.