A Church is defined
not only by its beliefs and its organisation, but by
the people it celebrates as leaders and saints, and the symbols which gather
round them stories of identity and mission.
As well as biblical figures such as David, Matthew, Mark,
Luke, John, Andrew and James, we have churches named after Ninian, Kentigern.
Columba, Margaret, Knox, Chalmers and others. Sunday School children have
counted the tassels on pulpit falls of faded embroidery of now rather dimly
burning bushes and puzzled over the translation, never mind the meaning, of "Nec
Tamen Consumebatur". There are symbols shared with the Christian church and
large, some that are peculiar to Reformed history, and some, including the
Burning Bush, that are not as uniquely Presbyterian as we might think.
- The Burning Bush.
Robert Cobain of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland has researched the origins
and significance of this still-meaningful symbol.
Burning Bush
The Burning Bush is of course about Moses before it is about Covenanters and
Presbyterians. St Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai is on the traditional
site of God's appearance to Moses and Orthodox Christians recall its spiritual
significance and its power as reminder of the holiness of sacred places.
- Bible Class, Busy Bees,
Deaconesses, PWMU, Christian Endeavour, APW, The
Presbyterian
Archives have brought together badges which have been part of the history
of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Presbyterian writers
Catherine
Marshall
-
Christy
-
A Man Called Peter
- Mary E Goin, Catherine Marshall: Three Decades of
Popular Religion. Journal of Presbyterian History, fall 1978. Vol.
56, 219-235.
Kathleen Norris see also
. . ./norris.html
Marie Gray
- Irish At Heart, HarperCollins New Zealand.
- Tamu - A New Zealand Family in Java, Moana Press,
1998, 2001.
Theologians and Writers members of these classes have found
helpful :-)
- John Bluck
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
- Joy Cowley
- Meister Eckhart
- Richard Foster
- Lloyd Geering
- Joyce Huggett
- Phillip Keller
- Anthony de Mello
- Thomas Merton
- Eugene H Peterson
- Philip Yancey
Other Saints and Sinners