Education
Spirituality Today is a six week
workshop on the various inner hungers of people today and how
different forms of spirituality can satisfy such hungers.
Polls indicate that 93% of people believe in God. Between 70-80 million people claim to be active in church (i.e. attend at least once a month.) Nine out of ten Americans indicated that they pray frequently. So, where are we “spiritually?” The Barna Research Group of California surveyed the unchurched, asking a simple question: “Why don’t you go to church?
· 74% said they don’t because they don’t see any value in it and can connect with God elsewhere.
· 61% said churches have too many problems
· 48% said they simply don’t have time. Sunday is their only day to relax.
· 40% were bothered by the church being too money-oriented.
· 12% said they don’t attend because they do not believe in God.
All Dressed Up and Somewhere to Go
is a four week workshop on various understandings and aspects of eschatology in th Church.
Immortality
Age cannot reach me where the veils of God have shut me in,
For me the myriad births of stars and suns do but begin,
And here how fragrantly there blows to me the holy breath,
Sweet from the flowers and stars and the hearts of men, from
life and death.
We are not old, O heart, we are not old, the breath that blows
The soul aflame is still a wandering wind that comes and goes;
And the stirred heart with sudden raptured life a moment glows.
A moment here – a bulrush’s brown head in a gray rain,
A moment there – a child drowned and a heart quickened with
pain;
The name of Death, the blue deep heaven, the scent of the salt
sea,
The spicy grass, the honey robbed from the wild bee.
Awhile we walk the world on its wide roads and narrow ways,
And they pass by, the countless shadowy groups of nights and
days;
We know them not, O happy heart, for you and I
Watch where within a slow dawn lightens up another sky.
- Susan Mitchell (1866-1926)
Change
& Changes:
Change is difficult, especially in the church. How can we understand, accept, relate to the changes in our Church?
The Second Vatican Council happened from 1963 to 1965. We all have experienced the dramatic and, to many, the unsettling changes that have taken place in the church since then and continues to take place.
People have reacted to these changes in different ways. Some still object to the changes because they see it as a violation of their faith. Some, who because of past hurts with the church, see the changes as a continuing way to experience the hurt and isolation they feel. Some grew up with an image of a church that was unchanging and when changes took place, it began to shake the foundation of their faith. Others see the changes in the church as the church going “Protestant,” meaning that the church became too lax, adopted a “anything goes” attitude to things and the world. Some feel that the church, with its changes, is trying to “fit in” with the modern world. Many have reacted positively to the changes in the church. Some even feel that it has not changed enough and needs more drastic changes. These people are comfortable with change and they see change as a necessary and worthwhile component of life in the world and in the church
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