Transforming Rituals: Daily Practices for Changing Lives

by Roy M. Oswald

Today's rapid, deep, and pervasive changes in North American culture present myriad challenges for faith communities now and in the years ahead. Oswald explores the use of rituals as spiritually... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566992192
• ISBN13: 9781566992190
• Release Date: December 1999
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Length: 157 Pages
• Weight: 0.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Transforming Rituals: Daily Practices for Changing Lives

Rapid, deep and pervasive changes in North American culture present special challenges for faith communities. Transforming Rituals by Roy M. Oswald with Jean Morris Trumbauer explores the use of rituals as spiritually healing practices for home, congregational or community life. Oswald outlines how individuals and groups can use both familiar and new rituals to name, evaluate, live out, celebrate, and grow through change. Just published by the Alban Institute, the book includes rituals for a variety of life events, and guides clergy through the process of planning for a ministry of ritual.Tilden Edwards, Executive Director, Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation, Bethesda, MD, writes in the foreword of Transforming Rituals that Oswald is "onto something really important" regarding the daily use of rituals in an ever changing world. "This book fills a hole in the literature available to help congregations, communities, and individuals to better understand the power and value of rituals in all the major events and transitions of human living, and to translate that understanding into a `ministry of ritual,'" notes Edwards. "With its many concrete suggestions for ritualizing a great variety of important occasions, I expect that this book will be one of those enduring resources for congregational leaders and individuals that will continue to inform the understanding and practical development of ritual occasions.""Because rituals involve the whole self in ways words alone cannot, rituals can offer unique insight into the meaning and purpose of life. They present the possibility of transformation for individuals and communities. Oswald sees the church as having prime responsibility to foster and support our ritualizing. To meet this challenge, he presents specific and original designs of rituals for personal and public life as well as guidelines to aid in distinguishing between helpful and destructive rituals," notes Caroline A. Westerhoff, author, Good Fences: The Boundaries of Hospitality.According to Celia Hahn, Director, The Congregational Spirituality Project, Alban Institute Research, Oswald teaches congregational leaders that daily rituals can be useful in any situation and how to find the time to observe them in a society where time is of the essence. "One big reason Sunday spirituality has little to do with our Monday-through-Saturday life, holds the author, is that we've imprisoned ritual in Sunday services. Here is a practical encyclopedia of lessons for church leaders on rituals," says Hahn.Roy M. Oswald is a senior consultant with the Alban Institute. He is the author of numerous Alban books and publications, including New Beginnings: A Pastorate Start Up Workbook, Clergy Self-Care, The Inviting Church (with Speed B. Leas), Discerning Your Congregation's Future (with Robert E. Friedrich, Jr.), Running through the Thistles, and Personality Type and Religious Leadership (with Otto Kroeger).