Faith Seeking Understanding

This October 11th through 13th, PBS will run a six hour series titled “God in America”, which will “explore the historical role of religion in the public life of the United States.” The good, the bad and the rest. St. Nicholas’ will be the Primary Local Sponsor of the series, and this will involve not only mention on the series but also opportunities for us to be especially involved in this program. For more information, contact Jane Wolf or check out www.pbs.org/godinamerica/.

This Fall, we will begin a new design for our Christian Education for younger children. The program is called Godly Play, and is truly special.

“Godly Play teaches children the art of using religious language – parable, sacred story, silence and liturgical action – helping them become more fully aware of the mystery of God’s presence in their lives.” It uses Montessori methods of teaching, has been around for over 30 years, and has been used with great success in several parishes in our Diocese.

Two web resources on Godly Play are www.godlyplay.org and www.godlyplayfoundation.org. There is also a Facebook page.

Last month, Doña Josie and Deacon Roland Rose attended a training program in Austin, and will be helping us get started. We are all very excited about this, and want everyone to be aware of it. To that end, there will be a meeting after the 9:00 Service on Sunday, August 22nd for parents of elementary-age children and the folks involved in Godly Play to talk about the new program, answer any questions people might have, and get ready to begin classes on September 12th.

For more information, please contact Josie or Roland, or the Parish Office.

This blog is intended to be a place for news, discussion of topics of interests, and other communications that might matter to members and friends of St. Nicholas’ Episcopal Church in Midland. Anyone who wishes can register and post, and anyone can comment on a post by simply filling in your name and E-mail. However,  I will moderate a bit if things get inappropriate.

Now, to begin with some things the Vestry is doing:  For some time now, the first few minutes of many of our meetings have been spent in some type of teaching or learning. This year, we will be reading a book together, Christianity for the Rest of Us, by Diana Butler Bass. Bishop Mayer suggested it during our Vestry Retreat last month, and our goal is to read and discuss a chapter a month from Section II. In April we will do an overview of the book and begin looking at Part II, which talks about ten practices that Bass sees as characteristic of lively and effective mainline parishes that have something distinctive to offer in contrast to the evangelical mega-churches.

Central to her thesis is the idea that we need to look at how to be a ‘Village Church’, a place of welcoming community, searching, and wisdom in a culture that seems not to be very interested in these things.  Behind this is the obvious, if often ignored, reality that the older ways of doing church among the mainline churches is really no longer a viable way to go. We are not an extension of the establishment or an entry into social respectability. So, what are we, and where are we going. The ‘good old days’ whatever those were, are gone forever; and something different, something, perhaps, more distinctively Christian, is called for.