Dear friends in Christ,
Holy Communion is the topic for this Sunday’s class on the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion.I expect to cover most of Articles 28 and 29 this week, and then the following week do Articles 28 (again) along with 30 and 31. There are some awesome claims in these articles–and some challenging objections to “transubstantiation” and carrying the Sacrament around and things like that. We’ll meet at 10am on the fifth floor of the parish house.
And if you can’t make it on Sunday, I’ll repeat the class on Monday at 12:40pm on the second floor.
Then on Monday evening, November 16, the Good Books & Good Talk seminar will discuss Walker Percy’s Lost in the Cosmos, which promises to explain: “Why it is that of all the billions and billions of strange objects in the Cosmos–novas, quasars, pulsars, black holes–you are beyond doubt the strangest.” Or: “Why it is possible to learn more in ten minutes about the Crab Nebula in Taurus, which is 6,000 light-years away, than you presently know about yourself, even though you’ve been stuck with yourself all your life.” It is a very strange book. Some chapters turn into extended stories, such as the one about strangers who suddenly appear in a Phil Donohue program, one of whom (who looks a bit like Harry Truman) turns out to be a holographic projection from some intelligent extraterrestrial group that has been watching us and is disgusted. He (the Harry Truman-look-alike) says that a nuclear bomb will go off tomorrow, and that there is a place (which he names) where you could go to be safe and avoid any fallout. Then comes the QUESTION: Will you go to that place? (a) yes. (b) no.
Anyone who has read the book is welcome to the conversation: in Andrew Hall from 6:15 to 7:45pm.
Back to earth: On Tuesday, November 17, Professor Jeremy Waldron will lead the second session of our study of Oliver O’Donovan’s book On the Thirty-Nine Articles. We will be taking up chapters 3, 4, and 10 (on the Spirit, the Scriptures, and the sacraments). Visitors are welcome: in Andrew Hall at 6:30pm (It was a large and lively group last Tuesday; we’re off to a good start in this class, and I want to emphasize that new people are welcome every week.)
On The Web
On November 1, as the Theological Visitor of All Souls’ Church in Oklahoma City, I preached on the traditional gospel of the day, the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12). For the first time in my life, I grasped something of the underlying logic of the eight proper beatitudes (starting with Blessed are the poor in spirit). If you’d like to read my sermon, you can find it here.
Peace,
Father Austin
