“Christian formation is the lifelong process of growing in relationship with God, self, others, and all creation. In this process, we are transformed into the people God wants us to be.” ~ The Episcopal Church Office for Formation Ministries
Ongoing growth is vital to our life in faith, and we offer a variety of ways to engage in this important work. Our regular in-person adult formation class, the Adult Forum, meets before church on Sunday mornings in the Parish Hall. All are welcome. Our topics vary widely, largely based on the interests of those who attend.
In addition to Adult Forum, we offer seasonal resources for the whole parish, partner with local parishes for short courses, and are hoping to resume our occasional film and discussion series. We are also hoping to launch a Bible Study.
We do not have an active children’s Sunday School at the moment, but we would be happy to form one or discuss ways to help the children in your life grow in their faith. Contact Rev. Catharine.
If you are interested in Confirmation or Reception in the Episcopal Church, please contact Rev. Catharine.
Adult Forum
Adult Forum is a time to explore our faith through the study of scripture and history (and the consumption of coffee) at 9:15 Sunday morning in the Parish Hall. All are welcome.
We vary our offerings depending on participants’ interests: book discussions, video lecture series, single-topic presentations, Bible studies. At times we have supplemented our gatherings with mid-week Zoom sessions, some of them joint with other local parishes.
On January 19, the we will launch into the final three lectures in the ‘Great Christians’ series. The first one is on Martin Luther King, Jr., and the notes are available here.
The current hopper of potential topics to cover when this lecture series is over includes: Heresies, theological differences, and denominational distinctions; the origin of evil (reprise of a previous video lecture series); history of church music (video lecture series); practices of prayer and spirituality; reparations; connecting faith and ‘mundane’ life.
There will be no Adult Forum on December 29. On January 5 we will gather to talk a little bit about the feast of the Epiphany and to discuss our options for our next study series. Then on January 12 we will launch into the final three lectures in the ‘Great Christians’ series.
For Advent this year Adult Forum will be reading and discussing Stephen Cottrell’s Walking Backwards to Christmas. Each chapter is a first-person account of the Christmas story from the point of view of a different Biblical or traditional character. The HomeGroups website offers each chapter separately as a free pdf. The book itself is also available for sale on line. The introduction (not available at the HomeGroups site) is available here.
Proposed reading schedule:
- Sunday, December 1st: Introduction and Chapters 1, 2, &3
- Sunday, December 8th: Chapters 4, 5, & 6
- Sunday, December 15th: Chapters 7, 8, & 9
- Sunday, December 22nd: Chapters 10 & 11
