Marking Time: Christian Rituals for All Our Days - Softcover

Henke, Linda Witte

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0819218596 ISBN 13: 9780819218599

Publisher: MOREHOUSE PUBLISHING, 2001

Synopsis

Extraordinary life changes are frequently signaled by such ordinary experiences as the birth of a child, a child’s first day of school, a teenager’s acquisition of adult driving privileges, a career change, moving into a new home, and retirement from one’s life work. Marking Time provides readers with simple rituals that invite mindful, in-the-moment reflection on the significant moments in life and helps to frame them within the perspective of Christian faith and values.

Encompassing a broad range of life-cycle experiences from birth to death, Linda Witte Henke offers readers fully developed rituals suitable for reproduction and immediate use. Each rite includes an introduction with directions for preparation and use of the ritual, making the book useful even for those who have never participated in or led a ritual before. Marking Time includes ceremonies to mark important life events, such as pregnancy, the first day of school, children leaving home, and marriage, plus rites that mark the more difficult times, such as the death of a pet, times of unemployment, suffering due to natural disasters, the moving of a loved-one to an assisted-care residence, and many others.

About this title

About the Author

Author Linda W. Henke's interest in ritual has evolved gradually over a period of several years. First as a lay professional in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and more recently as an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Henke has become increasingly aware that our culture's hunger for ritual far exceeds the availability of resources that speak to that hunger. MARKING TIME is the natural marriage of her background as a journalist (bachelor's and master's degrees in journalism and a successful public relations career) and her more recent experiences as a parish pastor, preacher, retreat facilitator, and seminar leader.

Henke previously authored FROM THE SEEDS THAT WERE SOWN, a collection of devotional reflections on her experiences in preparation for ordained ministry, as well as numerous newspaper and magazine articles and book reviews. She currently serves as pastor of Saint Peter Lutheran Church in Englewood, Colorado.

Reviews

The ritual-creation business is very lively these days, but the making of ritual is rather more common in non-Christian or Wiccan communities than otherwise: Henke's useful and at times charming volume remedies that lack. While it may seem like gilding the lily to add new rituals for the recognition of a formal engagement or a child-naming, how but through Henke's book would one mark one's child's transition to adult driving privileges? or bless pets? or pray in times of natural disaster? or mark the move to a nursing home? For larger collections.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: MOREHOUSE PUBLISHING
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0819218596
• ISBN 13: 9780819218599
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192