One of the issues that I was interested in discussing at meeting #2 had to do with an event at Wheaton College from a few years back.
I shared an article on this by Alan Jacobs,
and after the meeting one member mentioned another article that was published in the Wall Street Journal at that time.
I found this issue to be interesting for a number of reasons. We have a few people with Wheaton connections in our group, and I have a very positive opinion of Wheaton myself. I visited there many years ago to see their C.S. Lewis library which also had a lot of good stuff on J.R.R. Tolkein, G.K. Chesterton, and Dorothy Sayers.
Maintaining our solid religious beliefs is important and so on the one hand I admired what this President had done out of his convictions. On the other hand, as a Catholic I see that Catholics and Evangelicals have so much in common as related to Christ and Scripture and a rich heritage that spans centuries, that I found it to be a shame that they couldn't find a way to keep Dr. Hochschild.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Second Meeting. Fundamentals
Second meeting was held May 21st at SSBC. Began to spend time focusing on fundamental assumptions. The two big ones that we begin with are:
1. We must be Christ centered. Our relationship with Christ is key to our Faith whether we are Catholic or Protestant.
2. Our Bible Study will be Scripture based. Bringing commentaries and insights from people who have commented through the ages will be welcome. Time will be provided for applying the texts to events and concerns in our lives.
We also spent time talking with a person who is involved with the Community Bible Study and she talked about the materials that they have which we could use for our study. People at the meeting all seemed open to using their materials which would give us some good structure.
Interesting discussion ensued related to a few of these issues. Will post more on these later.
1. We must be Christ centered. Our relationship with Christ is key to our Faith whether we are Catholic or Protestant.
2. Our Bible Study will be Scripture based. Bringing commentaries and insights from people who have commented through the ages will be welcome. Time will be provided for applying the texts to events and concerns in our lives.
We also spent time talking with a person who is involved with the Community Bible Study and she talked about the materials that they have which we could use for our study. People at the meeting all seemed open to using their materials which would give us some good structure.
Interesting discussion ensued related to a few of these issues. Will post more on these later.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
First Meeting
We had our first meeting at South Shore Baptist Church (SSBC) in Hingham on Tuesday evening May 6th. Eight of us met to discuss some ideas related to where we might go with an ecumenical Bible Study. We started with the thought that we would focus on the life and letters of Paul. We talked about a number of potential "big ideas", but eventually settled on sticking to the life and letters of Paul. We still haven't decided on the frequency that we will meet, the location, or the details or structure of the Bible Study, but some of the considerations included:
1. Don't want "just another Bible Study". There are a lot of those already, especially at SSBC. Yet sticking to a Bible Study format and bringing Paul's themes to bear on our lives can be done in interesting ways. Especially as we try to focus on his words in light of the themes of unity, ecumenism, and evangelism.
2. We will not be meeting every week, but for the short term every couple of weeks should work. E-mails and other conversations will continue between the scheduled meetings.
3. Leadership will be shared and will probably rotate among interested people.
I was pleasantly surprised at how well everyone got along at this first meeting. I had expected a little bit of contention and a little bit of suspicion, but I believe that all there maintained a charitable mutual respect and a genuine desire to work together to spread the gospel of Christ and to try to find ways to show the world that we Christians are perfectly capable of working together.
One point that we all agreed upon is the statement of Paul in Philippians 1:21 "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Catholics and Evangelicals had no problem with that general sentiment.
1. Don't want "just another Bible Study". There are a lot of those already, especially at SSBC. Yet sticking to a Bible Study format and bringing Paul's themes to bear on our lives can be done in interesting ways. Especially as we try to focus on his words in light of the themes of unity, ecumenism, and evangelism.
2. We will not be meeting every week, but for the short term every couple of weeks should work. E-mails and other conversations will continue between the scheduled meetings.
3. Leadership will be shared and will probably rotate among interested people.
I was pleasantly surprised at how well everyone got along at this first meeting. I had expected a little bit of contention and a little bit of suspicion, but I believe that all there maintained a charitable mutual respect and a genuine desire to work together to spread the gospel of Christ and to try to find ways to show the world that we Christians are perfectly capable of working together.
One point that we all agreed upon is the statement of Paul in Philippians 1:21 "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Catholics and Evangelicals had no problem with that general sentiment.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Origins
Back in June 2007, the Catholic Church announced that they were going to have a Year of St. Paul, which would begin June 2008 at the time of the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, and continue through June 2009. As part of this Year of St. Paul, people were encouraged to take part in activities related to Ecumenism and Evangelization. Also, churches named for St. Paul would play a prominent role in this special year.
Now as a person named Paul, who was born and grew up in St. Paul, MN, and who now is a member of St. Paul's in Hingham, I felt an urge to do something in honor of my patron Saint as part of this Year of St. Paul. Over the next number of months I have talked to several people about this interest and the idea for an ecumenical Bible Study done in partnership with the Baptists at South Shore Baptist Church (SSBC) in Hingham has emerged and begun to take shape. Matt Porter who has a strong relationship with both St. Paul's and SSBC and a strong interest in promoting something like this has been working with me to help get this started.
We have had two meetings so far, both held at SSBC, on May 6 and May 21, and have begun to plan for a Bible Study that we believe might begin this fall (2008) if not sooner. I'll write about some of the ideas that came out of those meetings in a later post to this blog.
Now as a person named Paul, who was born and grew up in St. Paul, MN, and who now is a member of St. Paul's in Hingham, I felt an urge to do something in honor of my patron Saint as part of this Year of St. Paul. Over the next number of months I have talked to several people about this interest and the idea for an ecumenical Bible Study done in partnership with the Baptists at South Shore Baptist Church (SSBC) in Hingham has emerged and begun to take shape. Matt Porter who has a strong relationship with both St. Paul's and SSBC and a strong interest in promoting something like this has been working with me to help get this started.
We have had two meetings so far, both held at SSBC, on May 6 and May 21, and have begun to plan for a Bible Study that we believe might begin this fall (2008) if not sooner. I'll write about some of the ideas that came out of those meetings in a later post to this blog.
Complete My Joy Hingham
"Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind." Paul in his letter to the Philippians 2:2 (RSV)
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