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St. Paul's Episcopal Church
3rd Street South & 3rd Avenue West
Virginia, Minnesota 55792 (map)
218-741-1379
cellular 218-780-1348
 Coat of Arms of the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota
 

via media
at St. Paul's Episcopal Church
 
via media is coming
 will be at St. Paul's
February 13 through April 17, 2005
      
    via media represents a renewed commitment to evangelism in the Episcopal Church.

During 2004, our newsletter (East Range Epistle) has had several articles about via media:
 St. Paul's Episcopal Church announces a new contemporary series of faith-based courses starting February 13, 2005.  In recent months, the Episcopal Church has been making headlines globally and locally.  The increasing amount of tension in relation to the actions of the General Convention in Minneapolis in 2003 and the recently consecrated openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, has created a buzz within the Church, as well as in the larger community.

In response to the attention, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, is offering a series of eight Christian education courses called "via media."  The program is focused on continuing the conversation, and it's open to anyone who has ever been curious or interested in the Episcopal/Anglican tradition.  Our objective is to create an open and inclusive environment that appeals to people wondering about the Episcopal Church or about St. Paul's Episcopal Church, as well as our existing congregation members.  We encourage people to bring their ideas and questions, and we'll provide the informational resources and a place to exchange your thoughts and voice your opinions.

via media represents a renewed commitment to evangelism in the Episcopal Church. One of the lessons of General Convention is that the Church needs to spread the message of an inclusive, powerful, passionate God to all people. Our churches have experienced a tension between "traditional" and "progressive" ideals in the weeks following the prophetic actions of General Convention. An evangelism tool that presents the basic tenets of Christianity from an inclusive, Anglican approach to scripture, traditions, and reason, leads the participants to a broader view of the journey of faith and the role that the Church can play in society. via media represents an inherently Anglican program that represents the mainstream of American Anglicanism and will help grow the Episcopal Church.

Over a period of eight sessions in ten weeks, St. Paul's Episcopal Church invites those seeking a spiritual community to enter both the journey and the conversation.

The schedule is:

February 13:
 Anglican Way of Being Christian
     We hunger for food to sustain our bodies, we also hunger for spiritual food to sustain our souls.  This spiritual hunger is a hunger for community, and it was planted in us by God.  Religious faith is a way to respond to our deep hunger for communion: for relationship with each other and with God.
February 20:
 God & Creation:  The Abundance of God’s Goodness
     Believing in God in the Episcopal Church does not require believing in an old white man with a long, flowing beard.  God is the source of life, the lover of our souls (the bread and wine of communion) and the hope to satisfy our hunger.
February 27:
 God in Jesus: An Incarnational Faith
     In Jesus God became human—God became one of us.  How the Incarnation took place has not concerned Anglicans as much as what it means for every aspect of our lives.  The Incarnation, in other words, means simply and profoundly that material reality—our bodies and the creation around us—matters in deeply spiritual ways.  All that God created was not only good, it was and is deeply cherished and loved, so much so that God desires to be in full communion with what God creates.
March 6:
 God the Holy Spirit:  The Breath of New Life
     Religious communities of faith are not the only places where God can be encountered.  God is at work throughout the world, in God’s own creation, in every people, nation and community and through more ways than we can count or ever know.  This is what Christians mean to describe when they talk about the Holy Spirit.  Jesus likened the Holy Spirit to the wind — we can’t see it nor do we know when or where it will blow.
March 13:
 The Word of God for the People of God (The Bible)
    Most Anglicans are comfortable with language describing the Bible as sacred and divinely inspired, we are not of one mind on exactly what we mean by that claim.  All Episcopalians would agree, however, that the Bible continues to shape lives of Christians today, but not necessarily as a rulebook or a science textbook or even as the literal work of God dictated to a secretary.  Anglican Christians rely on the Bible as an integral component in their life of faith.
April 3:
 Sin:  Roadblocks to Abundant Life
   As Anglican Christians, our approach to sin begins with the unqualified goodness of Creation, including ourselves, confirmed for us by God’s loving embrace of our humanity in Jesus and in the work of the Holy Spirit throughout the world.  In other words, God longs for us to thrive, and sin is whatever separates us from God, and prevents us from living that abundant life which Jesus said he came to proclaim.
April 10:
 Thy Kingdom Come:  The Promise of Christian Hope
    Anglican Christians have understood the Kingdom of Heaven – or Reign of God – as much more than the institutional Church.  In the Gospels, Jesus frequently used the images of banquet or feast to describe the Kingdom — a feast of joy and peace to which everyone is welcome.  For this reason, Anglicans have devoted a great deal of energy to liturgy, and to the Eucharist in particular.  At the Eucharistic table we catch a glimpse and have a taste of that banquet still to come.  With the energy of this weekly vision we are sent out into the world as the body of Christ to give tangible expression to the coming Kingdom. God’s purpose from the very beginning of creation has been that all people come to experience the fullness of communion with God and one another.
April 17:
So What? What does it mean to be a Christian in the 21st Century?

    So what are we to do with all the questions that we’ve asked, and the answers we have found in community?  What does all of our theology, our Scripture, Traditions, and our Reason, bring us to think about the world around us and our role in the Kingdom of Heaven?

Using a combination of learning styles that includes video, written materials, small group discussion, and large group forum, a group of people encounter the basic principles of Christianity through the Anglican approach of Scripture, Traditions, and Reason.  All people are encouraged to ask questions, and to learn how to answer their own questions of faith.

Sessions will begin at 12:30 PM with a lunch and will end no later that 2:30 PM.  Daycare is available.  There is no charge.

For more information on the via media program at St. Paul's, leave a message at the office (218-741-1379) or send an e-mail to Pat Gillespie.

For more information on the via media program, visit the via media website.

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Last Updated: 05-04-10