Sundays after church, 11:30-1:00. Oct. 22, Nov. 5 – Nov. 26 in the Fireside Room (No class on Oct. 29)
Bring a sack lunch if you wish.
Facilitators: Joyce Hocker and Pastor John Lund
All are welcome, even if you are unable to attend each week!
Further info: Beyond Belief
Beyond Belief book study will help us understand our own inner life as well as our vision and passion for beloved community
This Sunday after church we will begin a 5 session study and reflection of Elaine Pagel’s book Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas. The dates are Oct. 22, (skip Oct. 29), and then Nov. 5, 12, 19, and 26 and the class will be co-taught by Joyce Hocker and myself.
Joyce and I invite the UCC community into this book study because we are always in the work of un-learning, re-learning, and trying to articulate a useful and heartfelt Progressive Christian faith narrative for our own place and time. In that effort, it is helpful to try to unpeel the layers of Roman imperialism and Western colonialism from our source story and see how the early followers of “The Way” understood their faith community during dangerous and tumultuous times. The hope is that we may gain new insights about our own inner spiritual lives as well as the mission and practices of our faith community. We hope Beyond Belief will help us get to those critical conversations.
We invite you to read chapter one and consider joining us from 11:30-1:00 on Sunday. We won’t scan all the chapters but hope this may be a primer for you to jump into the class. The format of each session will include small group and large group discussion, shared wisdom from the book and from the group, as well as insights from Joyce and myself.
Please know that we realize 5 weeks is a lot of commitment. It is perfectly OK to come when you can and miss when you can’t make it. Please join us even if you can only make it to part of the class. Your participation will be most welcome!
If you have questions or need help getting the book, don’t hesitate to call the church.
Peace,
Pastor John