Doing the Holy Things: Baptism and Vocation

(Excerpt) Thank you, David, and thank you all. I\u27m honored to come here once again. Honored really to stand with you and to thank you who in season and out of season have cared about setting out the holy things of God in the midst of the holy people so that the holy One might be encountered and known and proclaimed, and that is the task you have done, you at the heart of many others in the Lutheran churches of North America. You have done this, in season and out of season, and it\u27s a task for which I thank you

On the Table-Servers: Ministry in the Assembly

(excerpt) Christianity came into existence at table. The earliest churches — that is, the earliest assemblies — seem to have continued the meal tradition of Jesus, the meal tradition with which the gospels are filled: \u27Behold a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and of sinners,\u27 went one description of Jesus (Luke 7:34). Christian communities struggled to understand and maintain Jesus’ remarkable open commensality — his astonishing, God-signifying, religiously offensive and politically dangerous eating and drinking with the hoi polloi, his critique of the dining-room practice of the closed circle, his re-working of mealmeaning

Holy Things: Foundations for Liturgical Theology

(Excerpt) Christian corporate worship has biblical foundations. This is so, of course, in the most obvious ways: at the heart of the meeting the book called the Bible is read and then interpreted as having to do with us. Sometimes, as ceremonial preface to that reading, the book is carried about, even enthroned. Furthermore, the text of the Bible provides the source of the imagery and, often, the very form and quality of the language in prayers, chants, hymn texts, and sermons. Psalms are sung as if that ancient collection were for our singing. Snatches of old biblical letters are scattered throughout the service, as if we were addressed. Frequently images and texts drawn from the Bible adorn the room which provides a place for the meeting. The very actions of the gathering may seem like the Bible alive: an assembly gathers, as the people gathered at the foot of Mt. Sinai; arms are upraised in prayer or blessing, as Moses raised his arms; the holy books are read, as Ezra read to the listening people; the people hold a meal, as the disciples did gathered together after the death of Jesus. To come into the meeting seems like coming into a world determined by the language of the Bible

Let us pray with confidence : Leaders of the Assembly Prepare

(Excerpt) Let us pray with confidence in the words our Savior gave us, calls out the presider to the assembly. Or, perhaps, another introduction is used: As our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to say, for example. Or, perhaps, the presider simply begins-enacting the confidence that the introductory texts call for-the assembly easily catching on that this is a communal act and joining in: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name ... In any case, here is an archetypal act of presiding: the leader proposing an important, beloved and known-by-heart act of prayer and drawing the entire assembly into its practice in a known-by-heart place

»The Bath and the Table, the Prayer and the Word«

»Ved Badet og Bordet, ved Bønnen og Ordet« N.F.S.Grundtvig og det lutherske bidrag til økumenisk, liturgisk fornyelse.Af Gordon W. LathropForfatteren, der er professor ved det lutherske, teologiske fakultet, Mount Eyrie, Philadelphia, i USA, tager udgangspunkt i bestræbelserne på at skabe liturgisk fornyelse i det 20. århundrede, bestræbelser der har kendetegnet både romersk-katolsk, anglikansk og andre konfessioners teologi. Ud fra dette perspektiv stiller han til overvejelse, hvilket bidrag Grundtvig kan give ind i aktuelle problemstillinger i internationalt perspektiv.Den afgørende erkendelse knytter sig for professor Lathrop at se til Grundtvigs mageløse opdagelse, fordi der her er tale om en forening af to synvinkler, dels indsigten i det, der i egentlig forstand gør gudstjenesten til et møde med det guddommelige, »Ordet og den Nærværelse« det formidler, dels det menighedsfællesskab, der stiftes blandt de mennesker, der modtager Ordet og svarer på det med tak, bøn og lovsang. I Grundtvigs fremhævelse af det sakramentale nærvær, menighedens fællesskab og den impuls for folkelig aktivitet, der hermed sættes fri, ser Lathrop en videreførelse af det fundamentale i reformatorisk teologi, og samtidig en erkendelse, der har den allerstørste nutidige relevans.Gordon Lathrop retter derpå blikket mod de danske grundtvigianere i USA, idet han stiller det spørgsmål, om den nævnte tankegang hos Grundtvig også har fundet nedslag blandt de danske emigranter i USA? Det fremhæves, hvor afgørende det var for grundtvigianerne, der kom til det nye land, at videreføre og omplante skoletraditionen, ligesom de fastholdt traditionen med salmesang og musik. Men hurtigt blev pionerånden fortrængt af en frugtesløs debat om bibelsyn i forhold til en ortodoks fundamentalisme samt i en ikke mindre rigid debat om bevarelsen af dansk sprog og folkelighed under de nye himmelstrøg.I mod disse tendenser ser Gordon Lathrop en frugtbar ansats knyttet til en indskrift, der er fundet på en klokke i en kirke i staten Wisconsin, en kirke med navnet West Denmark Lutheran Church.Teksten lyder:Til badet og bordet Til bønnen og ordetJeg kalder hver søgende sjæl.I en tolkning af de erkendelser, der kan hentes ud fra denne kortfattede tekst, ser Gordon Lathrop muligheder for at kunne formulere nogle af de indsigter, vi kender fra en salme som »Kirken den er et gammelt hus« og fra »Kirkens Gienmæle«.Afsluttende sætter professor Lathrop tolkningen af Grundtvigs gudstjenstelige teologi i forbindelse med nogle af de væsentlige udfordringer, der knyttter sig til den nuværende drøftelse af liturgi ud fra et økumenisk perspektiv

New genetic loci implicated in fasting glucose homeostasis and their impact on type 2 diabetes risk.

Levels of circulating glucose are tightly regulated. To identify new loci influencing glycemic traits, we performed meta-analyses of 21 genome-wide association studies informative for fasting glucose, fasting insulin and indices of beta-cell function (HOMA-B) and insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) in up to 46,186 nondiabetic participants. Follow-up of 25 loci in up to 76,558 additional subjects identified 16 loci associated with fasting glucose and HOMA-B and two loci associated with fasting insulin and HOMA-IR. These include nine loci newly associated with fasting glucose (in or near ADCY5, MADD, ADRA2A, CRY2, FADS1, GLIS3, SLC2A2, PROX1 and C2CD4B) and one influencing fasting insulin and HOMA-IR (near IGF1). We also demonstrated association of ADCY5, PROX1, GCK, GCKR and DGKB-TMEM195 with type 2 diabetes. Within these loci, likely biological candidate genes influence signal transduction, cell proliferation, development, glucose-sensing and circadian regulation. Our results demonstrate that genetic studies of glycemic traits can identify type 2 diabetes risk loci, as well as loci containing gene variants that are associated with a modest elevation in glucose levels but are not associated with overt diabetes

Genetic linkage analysis in the age of whole-genome sequencing

For many years, linkage analysis was the primary tool used for the genetic mapping of Mendelian and complex traits with familial aggregation. Linkage analysis was largely supplanted by the wide adoption of genome-wide association studies (GWASs). However, with the recent increased use of whole-genome sequencing (WGS), linkage analysis is again emerging as an important and powerful analysis method for the identification of genes involved in disease aetiology, often in conjunction with WGS filtering approaches. Here, we review the principles of linkage analysis and provide practical guidelines for carrying out linkage studies using WGS data

Common variants at ABCA7, MS4A6A/MS4A4E, EPHA1, CD33 and CD2AP are associated with Alzheimer's disease

We sought to identify new susceptibility loci for Alzheimer's disease through a staged association study (GERAD+) and by testing suggestive loci reported by the Alzheimer's Disease Genetic Consortium (ADGC) in a companion paper. We undertook a combined analysis of four genome-wide association datasets (stage 1) and identified ten newly associated variants with P ≤ 1 × 10−5. We tested these variants for association in an independent sample (stage 2). Three SNPs at two loci replicated and showed evidence for association in a further sample (stage 3). Meta-analyses of all data provided compelling evidence that ABCA7 (rs3764650, meta P = 4.5 × 10−17; including ADGC data, meta P = 5.0 × 10−21) and the MS4A gene cluster (rs610932, meta P = 1.8 × 10−14; including ADGC data, meta P = 1.2 × 10−16) are new Alzheimer's disease susceptibility loci. We also found independent evidence for association for three loci reported by the ADGC, which, when combined, showed genome-wide significance: CD2AP (GERAD+, P = 8.0 × 10−4; including ADGC data, meta P = 8.6 × 10−9), CD33 (GERAD+, P = 2.2 × 10−4; including ADGC data, meta P = 1.6 × 10−9) and EPHA1 (GERAD+, P = 3.4 × 10−4; including ADGC data, meta P = 6.0 × 10−10)

Localization of type 1 diabetes susceptibility to the MHC class I genes HLA-B and HLA-A

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) on chromosome 6 is associated with susceptibility to more common diseases than any other region of the human genome, including almost all disorders classified as autoimmune. In type 1 diabetes the major genetic susceptibility determinants have been mapped to the MHC class II genes HLA-DQB1 and HLA-DRB1 (refs 1-3), but these genes cannot completely explain the association between type 1 diabetes and the MHC region. Owing to the region's extreme gene density, the multiplicity of disease-associated alleles, strong associations between alleles, limited genotyping capability, and inadequate statistical approaches and sample sizes, which, and how many, loci within the MHC determine susceptibility remains unclear. Here, in several large type 1 diabetes data sets, we analyse a combined total of 1,729 polymorphisms, and apply statistical methods - recursive partitioning and regression - to pinpoint disease susceptibility to the MHC class I genes HLA-B and HLA-A (risk ratios >1.5; Pcombined = 2.01 × 10-19 and 2.35 × 10-13, respectively) in addition to the established associations of the MHC class II genes. Other loci with smaller and/or rarer effects might also be involved, but to find these, future searches must take into account both the HLA class II and class I genes and use even larger samples. Taken together with previous studies, we conclude that MHC-class-I-mediated events, principally involving HLA-B*39, contribute to the aetiology of type 1 diabetes. ©2007 Nature Publishing Group