Author: westportexperiment

I am a minister serving Presbyterian Reformed Church of Rhode Island, with strong interest in the history, theory, and contemporary application of parochial church extension.

O the power!

IMG_3868[1]“O how great must that power be, which produced the beautiful fabric of the universe, without the concurrence of any material cause! This proclaims it to be truly infinite: for nothing less could make such distant extremes as nothing and being to meet together. . . It is by the Divine Power that the heavenly bodies have constantly rolled about in their spheres for so many ages, without wearing or moving out of their proper course; and that the tumultuous elements have persisted in their order to this very day. He preserves the confederacies of nature, sets bounds to the raging sea, and keeps it within its limits by a girdle of sand.”

– Thomas Boston (1676-1732)

Nuestra Practica de Comunion

IMG_2435-e1555036044350Celebramos el sacramento de la Cena del Señor tres veces por año, normalmente el tercer dia del Señor (Domingo) de Enero, Mayo, y Septiembre.  El Domingo anterior, tenemos un servicio ‘preparatorio,’ en el cual a los miembros se les exhorta que examinen y preparen sus corazones para el sacramento.  Se invita a los comunicantes celebrar la Cena del Señor que se conmemora alrededor de una mesa comun al frente de la iglesia.  La celebracion utiliza un pan comun y una copa comunal de vino las cuales son distribuidas por turno a cada miembro sentado a la mesa.

Todos los que son miembros completos en buen estado de esta o cualquier otra congregacion de la Iglesia Reformada Presbyteriana son invitados celebrar la Cena del Señor con nosotros.  Miembros de otras iglesias que confiesan el mismo evangelio y que visitan primero com los ancianos tambien pueden participar.

Niños bautizados de la iglesia, mientras no elegibles para venir hasta que lleguen a la IMG_2437-e1555036180446edad mayor y den una profesion creible de su propia fe, junto con otras visitas que se les pide observar la celebracion son ehortados buscar a Cristo.  Miembros bautizados o visitas regulares interesadas en unirse a la iglesia deben de hablar con el ministro para arreglas un tiempo de instruccion en las cosas basicas de la fe Cristiana y los beneficios y responsabilidades de la membresia.

From a dying man to dying children

IMG_0285The following quote will strike our death-insulated, secular, consumerist age as morbid if not cruel. But as death is inescapable, we would do well to learn from a wiser generation – and all the more because their eyes were better trained to behold the great beyond. They realized that death was but the gateway into realms of everlasting happiness for the blessed and of misery for the damned. We could use a good ice-water dousing; and frankly, so could our over-stimulated children.

“Children, ’tis your Dawning time. It may be your Dying time…Go unto the Burying-places; There you will see many a Grave shorter than yourselves…Yea, you may be at play one hour; dead, dead the next.”

Cotton Mather (1663 – 1728)

Religion by whip and lash

Exo 32:1, “And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we [know] not what is become of him.”

“Hence we may understand that hypocrites so fear God as that religion vanishes from their hearts, unless there be some task-master (exactor) standing by them to keep them in the path of duty.”

-John Calvin