Loving God, author of each distinct human life, you imagined our children from all eternity. Each of them is your unique thought. Each is unrepeatable. Each is remarkable. O God, each is a child of blessing, a child of love, a child of joy. And so we thank you for our children in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Rev. Dr. Ronald Cole-Turner is the H. Parker Sharp Professor of Theology and Ethics at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, a position relating theology and ethics to developments in science and technology. He is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ, a founding member of the International Society for Science and Religion (currently serving as vice president), and has served on the advisory board of the John Templeton Foundation and the Metanexus Institute. Cole-Turner is the author of Transhumanism and Transcendence: Christian Hope in an Age of Technological Advancement,The New Genesis: Theology and the Genetic Revolution, the co-author (with Brent Waters) of Pastoral Genetics: Theology and Care at the Beginning of Life, the editor of Human Cloning: Religious Responses and of Beyond Cloning: Religion and the Remaking of Humanity, the co-editor of God and the Embryo: Religious Voices on Stem Cells and Cloning, editor of Design and Destiny: Jewish and Christian Perspectives on Human Germline Modification, and editor of Technology and Transcendence. His wife, Rebecca, is a spiritual director and retreat leader. They have two daughters, Sarah and Rachel.

V. Earle Copes (b. Norfolk, Va, 1921) is a lifetime career musician and ordained United Methodist Minister, now retired, who serves as organist at First Congregational Church, Winter Park, Fla. His career has involved a number of full-time church positions in several of United Methodism's largest churches; faculty positions at several colleges and a seminary; the editorship of a professional journal for church musicians; and consultant to the revision committee for the 1966 United Methodist Hymnal. While in Dayton, Ohio, he was instrumental in establishing the Dayton Organ Academy, a scholarship program for gifted high school students.

 

Copes has composed over 200 anthems, organ pieces, and orginal hymn tunes, and has had an active career as an organ recitalist and consultant, as well. Works published by Selah include the anthem, To Jordan Came, and the organ works, Flourish on McKee andV. Earle Copes: Intonations and Harmonizations.

Copes received his B.A from Davidson College in North Carolina and his Master of Sacred Music and Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He has received awards from the Carnegie Foundation and the Federal Republic of Germany.