Soundings

The past few decades have witnessed tremendous advances in the field of prenatal genetic screening. The new technologies that are being introduced promise to be game changers in the whole area of prenatal care.

In the past few decades, a number of churches across the different denominations have issued official statements calling their congregations to be places of inclusion and belonging, especially for people with disabilities. For example, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, in a statement published in 2011, reminds its member churches that:

In the past few decades, there has been an avalanche of excellent books on marketplace ministry such as Every Good Endeavour: Connecting Your Work to God's Plan for the World (2012) by the late Timothy J. Keller, and The Kingdom of God in Working Clothes: The Marketplace and the Reign of God (2022) by R. Paul Stevens.

In 1947, the famous British novelist, playwright and critic, Dorothy Sayers (1893–1957), made this sharp observation:

One of Charles Wesley's most endearing Christmas hymns is surely "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus", which was first published in Hymns for the Nativity of Our Lord in 1745.

Since the sexual revolution, which burst onto the scene in Western societies during the 1960s, the traditional understanding of marriage has fallen out of favour and many alternatives have been proffered.

One of the most influential voices in the Word of Faith Movement is that of the late Kenneth Hagin, who has been described as the father of the movement.

Christians from across the different ecclesiastical traditions—Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant—believe that the Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit (2 Tim 3:16-17). The Church has always held the Bible to be the Word of God through which God and his purposes for the world are revealed.

In his great Sermon on the Mount, Jesus uses two metaphors to describe his Church: salt and light (Mt 5:13–16).

According to a study conducted by the Pew Research Centre, roughly six in ten American adults who self-identify as Christian hold at least one New Age belief, which includes a belief in reincarnation, astrology, psychics and the presence of spiritual aura or energy in certain physical objects.

The phrase "silver tsunami" is often used to describe the extraordinary rise in the number of older people throughout the world today. It is employed by not only politicians and academics, but also the ageing service sector.

As we observe Aldersgate Day this month to commemorate Wesley's transformative experience of the grace of God in his life on 24 May 1738, let us turn our attention to one aspect of his theology of grace, namely, prevenient grace.