Dear friends in Christ,
As I write, beautiful snow is falling. This is a good day to read a novel (suggestions below!). In the meantime, the snow like all things will end, and God willing we will be able to enjoy good classes in the coming week, to-wit:
Monday, January 25, the “Good Books & Good Talk” seminar will discuss Muriel Spark’s smart novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Anyone who reads the book is welcome to the conversation: from 6:15 to 7:45 p.m. in Andrew Hall. If you haven’t read it yet, it’s only about 140 pages. You could be done by supper-time!
The class on the collects of the Book of Common Prayer continues Sunday with the prayers appointed for the season after Epiphany. The Prayer Book collects are a treasure-trove of condensed Anglican theology. We welcome newcomers every week; the class meets on the fifth floor of the parish house at 10 o’clock. The class is repeated on Monday from 12:40 to 1:20pm on the second floor.
Tuesday, the Rector’s Christian Doctrine Class will be on God the Holy Spirit: Being “Fully Alive” with the Gifts of the Spirit. Although designed especially for people who would like to be confirmed or received in the Episcopal Church, the class is open to anyone interested in the topic of the day. It meets in Andrew Hall from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Friday at 12:45pm, Father Spurlock leads a Bible study on the 2nd floor of the parish house. The group is working through the Gospel according to Saint Luke.
Coming in Lent: a three-week course on the Good Samaritan, beginning Wednesday evening, February 17. Professor Jeremy Waldron will join me in this class on the meaning of the parable and on some of its contemporary extensions in “Good Samaritan” laws and cosmopolitan thinking.
Here’s another novel suggestion: The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris. We will be discussing this at the next “Good Books & Good Talk” seminar, on Monday, February 22. Here’s the blurb: “In a New York beset with strange weather, Tim Farnsworth is a successful lawyer who suffers a peculiar affliction: the inability to stop himself from walking. His wife, Jane, struggles alongside Tim to keep their family together in the face of something they can’t define or defeat. But ultimately Tim alone must fight–to survive the pitiless weather, his encounters with strangers, and the inexplicable demands of his own body. Forced to reconsider everything he thought he knew, Tim faces his greatest challenge in a final journey on foot across America to reunite with his family. A mystery, an odyssey, a love story . . .”
A peaceful snowday to all,
Father Austin
