Yr. B, Wk. 2: Our EfM Class's Culture

← | latest | →

(Interested in joining us? Link to our Visitor's Center.)

Image: A banner representing our class's culture, with images selected by participants. The tree and rainbow represent this year's theme of living faithfully in a multicultural world. So do the joined hands, which also represent mutual support. The image of the sacraments represents both our communion with each other and our grounding in church tradition; the EfM logo represents our grounding in the practices of this program. The Oz image recalls how participants over the years have found resonance with the theme that what we think we need most is something we already have. (Sorry, Pete, that Dave Matthews didn't make the cut.)

Worship and Gathering
Marilyn brought an olio of prayers from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, from Iona, Reverend Sloane Coffin, some in third person and some personal (like the Psalms!), all different expressions of the need for God. This fit the theme of "living faithfully in our multicultural world."

Marilyn asked us to share any experience we'd had in the past week that was a "hint of heaven." Scott and Susan both rejoiced over the amazing grace of a dog who was lost, but now is found. A dog figured in Marilyn's story of a soup chef who served her "heaven in a bowl." Nuno rejoiced in a turning point for his father. Jessica told of good news for the worshipers in her morning prayer group. Pete told how relieved he was to get the phone call at 3 a.m. that "I'm home safe."

Living Faithfully in a Multicultural World:
1st yr: Jessica; 2nd yr: Susan; 3rd yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn, Kathy ; 4th yr, Scott. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: Kathy, preparing for surgery.

Discussion of the Readings
We each came to the class prepared to discuss something particular from the reading in the RRG. We highlighted these ideas:

• Challenges to listening - awareness that our body's response may be a motion of the spirit or a reaction of the intellect.
• The demographic diversity of religions in America since 1965, and how little personal experience we've had with it.
• "A vision that is loved provides energy" for ministry, which is defined here as helping to bridge the "gap" between God's dream for humanity and the current reality.
• "Less a clash of cultures than a marbling" : two perspectives on that quote.
• The fact that EfM does a version of this listening lesson every year attests to its being essential to the program, not just a means to an end.
• Desmond Tutu's expansive view of family and faith: there are no outsiders, only insiders.

Everyone contributed to our list of what we DO, what we DON'T do, and traditions we CHERISH.

(Interested in joining us? Link to our Visitor's Center.)