Speaking to The Christian Post, Dowd said he hopes the roundtable discussions will present science as God's way of divine communication to this generation. The 90-minute conversations, he added, will focus more on what "evolution-celebrating" Christians have in common than on their differences.  "We all honor scientific evidence as God's communication and that God is communicating new truths to Christianity today," said Dowd.

Some questions that he intends to tackle during the sessions include: how churches can evolve and be faithful to what God is revealing through science as opposed to Scripture, how Christianity is related to other people equally committed to a healthy future for the planet, and the difference between evolutionary and non-evolutionary Christians on how they relate to others on their faith.

An advocate of the "Epic of Evolution" or "The Great Story," Dowd argued that there are "truths" God has revealed through "evidential knowledge" today that could not have been revealed in the Bible. While science today lends evidence to tectonic plates as the method God used to create the Atlantic Ocean, he explained, people living during biblical times would have simply said, "God spoke it into being," or offered "mythic" explanations.

"It's just realizing that Scripture has continued and what I mean by Scripture is divine guidance. Divine communication just didn't stop in the Bible. I'm not suggesting that people ignore the Bible or treat it any less way as divine revelation," he told The Christian Post.

The first seminar of "The Advent of Evolutionary Christianity" begins Jan. 15 at 11 a.m. PST and goes through Feb. 1. Participants are required to register at evolutionarychristianity.com in order to join online.

The event featured lectures from Hyman, a metabolism expert, and Dr. Daniel Amen, a bestselling author and psychiatrist. Cardiologist Dr. Mehmet Oz wasn't able to join in person but recorded a video clip that was played for the audience.

He asked those making a "covenant" to follow the Daniel Plan to incorporate social connections, new learning, great diet, omega-3 fats, multi-vitamin, green tea, deep breathing, gratitude, prayer, and 6 hours of sleep into their lifestyle. Both Hyman and Amen also said their techniques would help with depression.

After the event, Warren responded to criticism that people might have about the doctors not being part of his church or not being Christian altogether. Hyman is Jewish and Oz is Muslim.

"My statement on that is: if I have a brain tumor, I find the best brain surgeon I can find. I'm not asking what his background is or what his belief is," he told online viewers. "If you are dying, you might even let an atheist save your life."

He recalls, "George Lucas sits down and seriously proceeds to talk for around 25 minutes about how he thinks the world is gonna end in the year 2012, like, for real. He thinks it.

"He's going on about the tectonic plates and all the time Spielberg is, like, rolling his eyes, like, 'My nerdy friend won't shut up, I'm sorry...'

"I first thought he (Lucas) was joking... and then I totally realized he was serious and then I started thinking, 'If you're George Lucas and you actually think the world is gonna end in a year, there's no way you haven't built a spaceship for yourself... So I asked him... 'Can I have a seat on it?'

"He claimed he didn't have a spaceship, but there's no doubt there's a Millennium Falcon in a garage somewhere with a pilot just waiting to go... It's gonna be him and Steven Spielberg and I'll be blown up like the rest of us."

Supporters say the baptism service should be 'expressed in culturally appropriate and accessible language' that is readily understood by 'non-theologically versed Britons'.But traditionalist clergy said the idea amounted to 'dumbing down'.

The new service would be used at 150,000 christenings each year. If the plan is accepted, it will be the third full re-write of the baptism ceremony in around 30 years - the version in the Church's Book of Common Prayer went virtually unaltered for more than 400 years until 1980.

Complaints centre on three sections of the baptism service from the Church's latest prayer book, Common Worship, authorised for use in 1997. In one, parents, godparents or an adult being baptised are asked to 'reject the devil and all rebellion against God' and to renounce 'the deceit and corruption of evil'. They are asked to 'submit to Christ as Lord'. The Reverend Dr Tim Stratford, from Liverpool, who is putting the plans before the synod, said in a paper that 'there remains some unhappiness about the language not being earthed enough'.

Bishops indicated yesterday that if the Synod accepts the argument a committee will be instructed to begin writing a new baptism service, but they warned that such re-writing would raise arguments over faith and doctrine.
 

Fearing a possible court challenge, Hawaii's state Senate has voted to silence the daily prayer offered before each session began - making it the first state legislative body in the nation to halt the practice.

A citizen's complaint had prompted the American Civil Liberties Union last summer to send the Senate a letter noting that its invocations often referenced Jesus Christ, contravening the separation of church and state.

That prompted the state attorney general's office to advise the Senate that their handling of prayers - by inviting speakers from various religions to preach before every session - wouldn't survive a likely court challenge, said Democratic Majority Leader Brickwood Galuteria.

"Above all, our responsibility is to adhere to the Constitution," Galuteria said after Thursday's vote to halt the daily blessings.

A three-member Senate committee formed to evaluate the issue recommended allowing nonsectarian, nonpolitical invocations that avoided references to deities, but the legislative body decided to do away with prayers altogether rather than constrain them.