Directions of a Pastoral Lifetime: Part Iii: Elders' Studies

By William Flewelling

I n the Christian church Disciples of Christ, a prominent part of the leadership of the local congregation consists of elders. These are lay people, for the most part. The first and major part of this book consists of studies prepared for the elders at First Christian Church in New Martinsville, West Virginia. There are also some other studies on the same model for other purposes and a few samples of materials I had earlier prepared to assist elders in their normal worship responsibilities.

I have served as a minister in the Christian church Disciples of Christ from the time I finished seminary in the spring of 1976. I retired in October 2007 and have continued in a modest role since then. Out of my ministry came an impulse to come to terms with the rich spiritual and theological, pastoral, and personal ferment that I encountered. The bases of that search lay in my reading and study, in my prayer, and in my pastoral practice.

My background includes a BA from the College of Wooster with a major in chemistry and an MS from Purdue University, working in the school of chemical engineering. I left Purdue as a PhD student, having completed everything except the dissertation, in January 2003. I received my DMin from Christian Theological Seminary in 1976 and was then ordained to Christian ministry by the Region of Indiana and First Christian Church in Lafayette, Indiana.

Over the years, I found that my writing in a variety of formats served me well in growing my understanding and capacity as a pastor, sharing the writings as I went along with friends and colleagues and parishioners. These I am collecting in major part in the series I am calling Directions of a Pastoral Lifetime. I hope that the value I have found in them may be more broadly shared.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 21, 2015
• ISBN: 9781496964755

William Flewelling

I am a retired minister from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) living in central Illinois. Led by a request from Mildred Corwin of Manua OH when I arrived there in 1976, I long developed and led a series of bible studies there and in LaPorte IN and New Martinsville WV. These studies proved to be very feeding to me in my pastoral work and won a certain degree of following in my congregations. My first study was on 1 Peter, chosen because I knew almost nothing about the book. I now live quietly in retirement with my wife of 54 years, a pair of dogs and several cats.

Book preview

DIRECTIONS OF A

PASTORAL LIFETIME

Part III: Elders’ Studies

WILLIAM FLEWELLING

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© 2015 William Flewelling. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse   01/20/2015

ISBN: 978-1-4969-6476-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-6475-5 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Scripture quotations are taken from Kittel’s Biblia Hebraica (BHK) Copyright 1906 published by:

Wurttembergische Bibelanstalt Stuttgart

Contents

1. Public Prayer

2. Prayer

3. Church Structure: In Principle

4. TRANSFORMING CHURCH BOARDS

5. The Lord’s Prayer

6. As We Pray In the Way

7. Servant Leadership

8. Notes on Spiritual Matters

9. Notes On Spiritual Matters - II

10. Baptismal Spirituality

11. Ways We Pray

12. Reading Scripture

13. Notes on Spiritual Matters - III

14. Christian Unity: Our Polar Star

15. Notes on Spiritual Matters – IV

16. The Twelve

Peter

17. The Twelve

James and John, Sons of Zebedee

18. The Twelve

Judas Iscariot

19. The Twelve

Andrew, Philip, Thomas & Matthias

20. The Twelve

Simon the Zealot (or Canaanean),

Judas of James, Bartholomew, James of Alphaeus, Matthew

21. Notes On Church

22. Liturgy

23. Contemplation

24. Solitude

25. Lectio Divina

26. Daily Office

27. The Offering In Worship

28. Daring To Come in the Way of the Lord

29. O For a Closer Walk

30. Matters For Elders’ Musing

31. Constructing The Elder’s Prayers

32. Whence The Church Year?

33. Attitude and Presence

34. Living Faith in A Pluralistic Age

35. Worship As Prayer Together

36. Who Wants Spiritual Maturity?

37. How Do We Work?

38. High King of Heaven

39. This Faith

40. Models For Renewal:

41. How Far To Follow

42. Toward Renewal: By The Spirit

43. Some Gospel Views

44. Where We Are Going

45. The Concept of Our Constitution

46. Community of Love

47. Considerations On Prayer

48. How We Stand

49. Communion: Some Thoughts

50. Meister Eckhart: Living With God

51. Notes On Commitment

52. Notes On Developing Spirits

53. Prayer At The Table Of The Lord

54. Stewardship And Church Finance

55. Building On Redemption

56. Discovering Ourselves

57. Differences And Faith

58. Mission Thoughts

59. About Paul - 1

60. About Paul - 2

61. About Paul - 3

62. About Paul – 4

63. About Paul – 5

We Disciples:

1. On The Way to Cane Ridge

2. On the Way to the Campbells

3. Alexander Campbell

4. Stone And Campbell

5. Missionary Societies

6. The General Convention and the Journals

7. Church of Christ – By 1897

8. Struggles And Division, Again

9. Restructure: New Vision

Membership Class

1. The Bible

2. Sacraments

3. The Disciples of Christ

4. FCC of New Martinsville, West Virginia

Elders’ Resources

1. On Offertory Prayers

2. Communion: For Those Unable

3. For The Elder At The Table of The Lord

Also By This Author

Poetry

Time Grown Lively

From My Corner Seat

Enticing My Delight

The Arthur Poems

From Recurrent Yesterdays

In Silhouette

To Silent Disappearance

Teasing The Soul

Allowing The Heart To Contemplate

As Lace Along The Wood

Devotional

Some Reflective Prayers

Reflective Prayers: A Second Collection

A Third Collection Of Reflective Prayers

For Your Quiet Meditation

Directi

ons Of A Pastoral Lifetime

Part I: Pastoral Notes, Letters To Anna, Occasional Pamphlets

Part II: Psalm Meditation, Regula Vitae

Part IV: Studies

all published by AuthorHouse.com

Foreword

In the Winter of 1998-99, probably in December 1998, the Elders of First Christian Church in New Martinsville WV asked me, their new pastor, for studies. Some of the topics were requested by one or more of the Elders and many were originated by my reading and curiosity as their pastor. Also, in those years (1999 – 2003), the Region of West Virginia in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) offered their ministers a retreat of sorts, called Ministers and Mates. One year, the Regional Minister, Bill Allen, suggested the clergy could provide their own leadership in this retreat and sent our notice of a series of topics which would be possibilities. Many of those topics, I was capable of addressing, I thought well, and offered the planners a series of possibilities, saying they could use any of them, or none, as they wished. Those topics also ended up as part of this series used with the Elders between February 1999 and July 2003. Parts of the collection were never used after being prepared.

In about 2002, First Christian Church in New Martinsville had several former Methodists begin to attend regularly and become rather involved. These women inquired about the Disciples: what sort of Church are we? In response to that question, during the summer of 2003 I began to develop We Disciples, a series of 9 sessions. The structure of the sessions was much like I had developed with the elders. So I have chosen to include this series here.

In 2001, I was approached by a sometime attender about what becoming a member would mean. She came from a rather more conservative tradition and was looking. I suggested a short class, four weeks on Sunday nights; she agreed and attended all four. I advertized and only several of the elders of the Church chose to come as well.

Principally through my years in LaPorte, IN (1981-1990), I found my elders looking for materials to help them in their public functions. In response, I offered some materials on Offertory Prayers, Home Communion, Communion prayers as a help to them. Particularly did the Offertory Prayers prove of immediate help to those Elders.

William Flewelling

Public Prayer

When you are called upon to pray in public, an entirely new dynamic comes into play for you.

At some time, you began to develop a sense of prayer which is personal and private, a matter of communion or communication between you and God. Private prayer happens in a variety of ways: what worked for you once may change as you mature, a fact that says only that you change and what proves to be meaningful to you changes too.

You likely were in a situation where you were asked to add some verbal comment to a group Thanksgiving, a sentence prayer in collaboration with others. At first a cause for embarrassment and difficult, such exercises often come to be reasonably comfortable.

Public prayer is yet another act. The ability to pray publicly well depends more on realizing the difference than on any oratorical skill one may possess.

Praying in public is always speaking on behalf of someone else, usually a group. As one praying in public, you are no longer a private person but the embodiment in word of the whole group.

As such, words such as I pray are inappropriate, in fact meaningless in that you are, for the moment, no longer I but We.

Public prayer never stands alone, but comes as part of a larger situation.

You may be asked to pray with another or a few others, extempore and in their home. Their situation, their home is to be brought before God in prayer.

You pray for a meal: the occasion and the meal, eating itself, become the genesis and the genius of the prayer.

Asked to pray in an interfaith situation, the scope of the collected body, including for example Jews and Muslims, Buddhists, Hindi and Sikhs, affects your prayer

Worship-leading prayers likewise attend to the congregation on whose behalf you offer prayer, the themes of the worship service and the particular part of the service involved.

Praying in public is best as brief as possible, but not briefer than possible.

Quickly address God.

Sum up the occasion in a few short sentences.

Ask for what is appropriate … or

Offer what is to be offered … or

Give thanks for what God does in this.

Close.

* * * * * * * * *

When asked to pray for someone or some situation, make the effort to dredge the emotional tone of those involved.

Place the emotional and spiritual need in the context of what you believe about God. For example: I experience God sustaining in all events. So, I give thanks for God’s loving presence, even in tragedy.

Allow your own devotion and faith to ring through your words; sincerity is vastly more important than eloquence, and humility than grandeur.

In the early Church, the prayers offered publicly and in worship settings – that is, whenever the congregation was gathered before God – were clearly said on behalf of the assembled people.

Prayers are to be heard and understood by the people.

The people are expected to own the prayer as their own, affirming it with their Amen.

Thus, our aim is to allow the affirmation of the people, either verbally or internally.

Keep direct to the matter at hand. My practice, for example, is to suggest that:

Invocations call upon God in terms of the anticipated theme of the day; I rely on the Gospel for substance;

Offering prayers acknowledge the gifts and the persons they present to God, asking God’s blessing;

Communion prayers are thanksgiving prayers mentioning bread and wine and calling upon the deeper reaches of communion with God in Jesus.

If you are praying for something to be used in a specific way, stay with the specifics, always within the context and guidelines of your faith in God.

An anecdote:

One Sunday, while the offering was being collected, a brand new, young elder asked in a whisper and in a panic where the prayer was: she thought it was provided! Having only a brief moment, finding a scrap of paper, I offered her the following:

Lord,

Bless these offerings

   to your service;

Bless the givers

   to your life;

Increase in us

   the Life of Jesus.

Amen.

She also asked for a communion prayer. Another scrap of paper found provision for these words.

Gracious God,

   We come to Holy Communion.

Open us to your goodness;

in Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Both prayers invite elaboration, of course. But both attend at some level with the immediacy of the situation at hand.

Prayer

At The Table

Of The Lord

On behalf of the people of God who assemble to worship you are asked to pray at the Table of the Lord, over the elements of communion. We come in faith to share in the openness with God, as we often find here. The prayer serves us as a blessing and confirmation.

Among the names of communion stands Eucharist, meaning Thanksgiving. We come here, giving thanks. And such thanks needs to be in the prayer.

We remember the Last Supper as the First Eucharist. Thus we recall that the Supper is associated with Passover … in Matthew, Mark and Luke as the Passover meal and in John as the meal the night before the Passover. Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 11 summarises:

1. on the night when he was betrayed

2. Jesus took bread

a. blessed it,

b. broke it,

c. gave it;

3. saying this is my body … do this in remembrance of me.

4. After supper he took a cup of wine,

a. blessed it and

b. gave it,

5. saying this is my blood of the new covenant which is given for many … drink this … in remembrance of me.

Furthermore, in 1 Corinthians 10, Paul affirms that we are involved in a participation in the body and in the blood of Christ; we are together personally involved.

As Christians, we join generations that have found themselves formed by communion. Not only is it food that becomes us, physically, but also it is a sharing together in what Christ gives us, a food that becomes us, spiritually.

He says this is my body … this is my blood. (I personally believe he means what he says.)

He bids us ‘do this in remembrance of me.’ The word is anamnesis, an act in which the remembered is made virtually present in mind and in soul and in fact.

Paul slides between body as the substance of Christ and Body of Christ as the Church. When we participate in the body of Christ … in communion, as in the way the Corinthians would participate in the demons by sharing in the sacrificial beasts, eating the roasted meat of an animal sacrificed to the pagan gods … we are united with the Lord and united together in the Church.

We have discovered long since that communion creates Church.

With such parameters in mind, we come to the Table, and to offer prayer at the Table on behalf of the Church so assembled about the Lord’s Table. Remember:

We are where we belong, at the Table of the Lord.

We come to remember and to participate in the living Christ.

We come giving thanks.

We come, speaking on behalf of the assembled congregation.

Immediately at hand are bread and wine.

CONSTRUCTING THE PRAYER

1. We give thanks for what God does for us, most particularly in Jesus.

2. We bring to God bread and wine, as Jesus has shown us to do.

3. We invoke God’s blessing on the bread and on the wine, perhaps through calling upon the Holy Spirit, in order that we be drawn near to partake in that of which Jesus said ‘this is my body … this is my blood … do this in remembrance of me’.

4. We ask that God fulfill in us this communion, making of us one people in the faith of Jesus.

The Didache is a writing for Churches, a sort of manual dating from about the year AD 95. It includes in a suggested prayer the line As this broken bread was scattered upon the mountains, but was brought together and become one, so let thy Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into thy kingdom.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

FOR EXAMPLE

God:

We thank you for

the bounty of this day,

the fullness of life which is ours

by the redemptive love of Jesus.

We bring you this bread and wine

as Jesus has bid us do.

Bless these elements;

pour on them your Holy Spirit

that they be for us

the union with Christ Jesus.

Fulfill in us this communion in spirit

and in kind

that we be united with all the faithful

in the Body of Christ throughout the world,

that our lives be offered in joy

to your glory; in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Amen.

Church Structure: In Principle

Structure in organizations is not an end in itself. Rather, organization is done in order to accomplish something as a group. In terms of a Congregation, the root impetus comes from the consensus of the entire group. We work in relation with the whole by means of counsel and consent.

Under the gospel, then, we gather with the anticipation of mission, what we together discern of God’s calling for this congregation in this place and time.

Principle 1: We organize for the purpose of carrying out our mission.

Problem 1: What are we trying to do? What is the congregational consensus on what we are trying to do? What do we believe our mission is?

- - - - - - - - - - -

Once we decide what we want to accomplish, then we are set to ask: How might we accomplish our mission? How might we organize ourselves to that purpose?

Remember: if the congregation does not believe that our mission is involved, nor that our mission is important to our being a people of God in this time and place, then the matter of organization amounts to how we arrange names on a page. Consensus building on mission is important.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

In order to carry out mission and do ministry as a congregation, organization needs to provide for separate and distinct needs.

Someone has to make decisions about rules and about money matters. Normally, and productively, the congregation delegates this to the Board. (In some congregations this is called a Council.)

Someone has to develop, promote and implement program. This includes communication and calendar arrangement. In the last half of the 20th century, among Disciples, this has typically fallen to Functional Committees, standing bodies with area-responsibilities, sometimes coordinated by way of a Cabinet of some sort.

Someone has to tend to ministry needs. Disciples have put these responsibilities with the Elders and Deacons. (Deaconesses are properly Deacons; the anomaly arose in an era when Deacons were all men and congregations saw a need to include women in official ways.)

Ancillary to all of this is the Pastor, whose function is:

Pastoral,

Priestly,

Prophetic … and also

Administrative.

Some deal with the position as if a CEO; others see the position more as resident theologian. Often the Pastor is in an uneasy leadership role of awkwardly defined dimensions. Mostly, the Pastor best leaves the lay leadership to lead in partnership with pastoral insight. (Or such is my studied bias.)

Principle 2: Mission happens best when the rules are made to provide broad policy and budget parameters … and then let the program grow.

Problem 2: Some way has to be provided for spawning program development. In the case of the Functional Committees model, procedures are set in cement by Constitution and By-Laws. In more flexible, ad-hoc and responsive formats (eg., the task force model, where the group is focused on short term objectives) the spawning apparatus is also not set in cement.

- - - - - - - - - - -

The questions to be considered are:

who gets things started?

how are organizers set free to be creative?

what is the budgeting process so that

planners are not left begging?

- - - - - - - - - - -

One possibility would yield:

a board to make policy and budget decisions, setting parameters under congregational-set consensus, and

a cabinet to organize, spawn, sponsor, coordinate task forces for specific needs or aspects of mission. (Such a cabinet needs to be chaired or convened by someone other than the Pastor; the Pastor should function as staff to the cabinet, as to the board, the Elders, Deacons and task forces/committees.

The Structural Questions

1. What is our mission? That is, what is it that God has for us to do in this time and place?

2. How can we best arrange ourselves for the purpose of making our mission possible to do here? And easy to do?

3. How can we balance the need for policy and budget oversight and the desirability for flexibility and freedom and responsiveness?

The Administrative Questions

1.   How do we provide the necessary support in terms of material, knowledge, staff time?

2.   How do we set free the creativity and joy of those called into the mission God gives us?

3.   How do we celebrate in satisfaction all that God accomplishes through this people?

These questions remain distinct. They need to be treated separately.

TRANSFORMING CHURCH BOARDS

By Charles Olsen

Notes in Review

Having seen too many worn out Board members, Olsen reconsiders what is happening. Most Boards expend most energy on reports, details, a multitude of minor decisions and a certain hand wringing over major ones. Most Boards do not see their work as of a spiritual nature, leadership as service, decision making as a sincere effort to take the time to discern the will of God, selection as affirmative of God’s call to them.

Olsen offers the vision of the Board as doing worshipful work. He suggests of Boards that:

reports are offering

to be consecrated in prayer;

reflection by scripture

and theological processing is central;

tradition and stories,

corporate and personal, are vital;

discernment seeks the will of God

for us, now and here.

We grow as spiritual leaders and as a group of spiritual leaders as we come to a comfort level together that allows us to share our faith stories, personal ones and our share in that of the congregation as a whole.

Taking a key from Romans 12:1-2, Olsen points out:

I appeal (or summon) you: urgency

therefore: based on the story of God’s grace

by the mercies of God: people of faith are

connected to the mercies of God.

Present: lay on the altar of sacrifice

your bodies: that which names our wholeness to

the world

as a living sacrifice: an offering, made sound,

given

Holy and acceptable to God: God is the one for

whom we work.

Which is your spiritual worship: how we honor

God and come alive, spiritually.

Further, from Romans 12:2, we meet:

Be not conformed to this world: Do not unwittingly be controlled by the style of this world.

He names them: a culture of advice,

a culture of politics,

a culture of favors to trade,

a culture of bureaucrats,

a culture of managers,

a culture of corporations,

a culture of strategic plans,

a culture of parliamentary

procedures.

But be transformed

Seek the mid of Christ: the center of it all.

Become servant leaders.

So that you may discern what is the will of God:

Absolute confidence in God.

What is good and acceptable and perfect.

Such disarmament comes in the context of

"the gospel, the cross, suffering love

and servanthood."

Four Transforming Practices

1. Where have we come from? History telling:

reflect upon the story of the congregation

in the light of scripture,

in the light of theological meaning in our

formative events.

Out of that history comes a sense of continuity with what God has done here and is now doing, is now about to do.

2. Distilling wisdom: 6 steps.

a. a significant story;

b. unpack it;

c. capture the essence

d. connect with scripture: a beginning, not an end to discussion;

e. weave the stories together

f. identify meanings and beliefs on the basis of the story.

3. Seeing with Spiritual eyes: prayerful discernment

Taking a long view, seeking the indication of the Spirit, paying attention to the Spirit, assuming an open heart: discernment leaves blessing upon the vulnerable.

Discernment is not:

consensus decision making;

a political process;

a logical, rational ordered discipline;

simply making decisions.

Discernment is: prayerfully uncovering

what God is up to, what God is calling people to be and to do.

Requirements: silence, patience, trust in

God … but also gathering as much information as possible, cultivating a deep-hearted openness.

4. Visioning the future, always open to God’s surprise. This is not a strategic plan. It is an incarnate expression of what is seen as God provides the way ahead.

- - - - - - - - - - -

The call to service is spiritual leadership. The story of Moses is chosen. He notes:

1. the call was initiated by someone else,

2. an element of mystery surrounds the contact,

3. God’s presence can be found.

4. Calls come from heaven but are very earthy

5. people validate the calls.

6. feelings roused must be found, processed.

Marliss Rogers writes; If groups are formed out of a sense of vocation rather than mere volunteerism, the people’s service is seen as connected closely to their spiritual journey, the burnout factor decreases and the value of the service to people’s lives increases.

Important considerations: Motivation, the sounding with a spiritual friend, the local tradition and structure for spiritual leaders.

Bring along: your feelings, honestly owned,

your needs,

your spirituality,

your character.

Discipline: If the church is to have leaders who are powerful and alive in the Spirit, full of love and grace, and sensitive to the work and word of God acting in people’s lives, those same leaders must be disciplined. – By which he means scripture reading, prayer and reflection.

____________________

He notes that Boards operate by well-established group dynamics.

The Lord’s Prayer

Debts, Trespasses or Sins?

In scripture, we find the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew and in Luke.

The pertinent verse in the Vulgate (Latin) reads:

____________________

Thus we see in my translation the scripture’s statement in the Greek and in the Latin (those affecting our use in Church) of the Lord’s Prayer as given by Matthew and Luke.

Our route of the prayer into our use is by way of the worship practice over the centuries. For English language use, the way it was done at Sarum (or Salisbury) in England in the Middle Ages bore great influence.

The Latin text used is as in the Vulgate.

Our Father who are in heaven,

sanctified be your name.

Your kingdom/reign come (Advenio)

your will be done just as in heaven

also on earth.

Our daily bread give to us today

and dismiss for us our debts

just as also we dismiss

the indebtedness to us.

And lead us not into temptation

but free us from evil.

Prymers, or Lay Folk’s Prayer Books arose. Of these, in the line of interest, we find for example:

Forgife us oure gultes, also we forgifet

oure gulrtare (13th Century)

And ure misdedis thu forgyve hus,

as we forgyve them that misdon hus

   (mid 13th Century)

And forgife us oure misdides,

als we forgeuen hem that us misdon.

   (14th Century)

and forgeue vs oure dettes

as we forgeueth to our detoures (14th Century)

And forgyue vs our trespasses,

as we forgyue them that trespass against vs.

   (1538)

Early English translations of Matthew’s version are also influential

Finally, we meet Cranmer’s use in 1549, The Book of Common Prayer.

Oure father whiche art in heauen,

hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done in earth

as it is in heauen.

Geue vs this daye our dayly bread.

And forgeue vs our trespasses

as we forgeue them the tresspasse

against vs.

And leade vs not into temptacion.

But deliuer vs from euill.

(The doxology was added in 1661.)

Now: The Episcopalians follow the Prayer Book.

The Methodists were born from the Church of England, the Episcopalians: hence, trespasses.

The Reformed Churches followed Calvin who used the Greek version of the New Testament as then known: hence, debts.

Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists stem from the Reformed tradition, at least in origin. So do Disciples.

In recent years, as an Ecumenical effort, a supposedly common text has been offered:

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed by your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins

as we forgive those

who sin against us.

Lead us not into temptation

but deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power

and the glory are yours

now and forever. Amen.

_________________

It now comes among Disciples to local custom, the relative influence of Methodists and Presbyterians, and the traces of the early Disciples leader, Robert Richardson (originally an Episcopalian).

In principle, we note of the prayer:

1. our calling upon God’s reign in holiness;

2. our dependence upon God

3. our use of as between ‘forgive us’ and ‘we forgive’

4. our plea for deliverance.

As We Pray In the Way

Our Lord Taught Us

Our Father

who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name.

Tradition gives us that Jesus spoke of God, the Holy One of Israel, as Father: in Aramaic, ‘Abba. The letters of Paul suggest that the church in the earliest decades took up as their own that name, ‘Abba or Father.

1. The appeal is to positive relationships with a father or father-figure.

2. We note, however, that abusive fathers who leave a legacy of {father = one who beats, one who belittles, one who is sexually abusive} make this a problematical term in some circles.

3. At question is the implied authority, or authoritarian relationship. Or is this to be understood as a nurturing, guiding, protective figure?

4. Does using the name ‘Our Father’ for God imply that real fathers on earth are men of a certain, positive, character?

5. Note: God, even as Father is reserved in theological terms from any gender-specific identity.

We set God in heaven, symbolically up. Perhaps it is best to say heaven is wherever God is.

The good old term is hallowed, archaic enough to