Theology Update for the Week of January 10

Dear friends in Christ,

This Sunday, in the new course on the collects of the Book of Common Prayer,Father Daniels will speak on the collects for the season of Advent. This class meets on the 5th floor at 10 o’clock, with hot (that’s “hot”) tea and coffee in the room. Newcomers are welcome every week. (We had to get out a few extra chairs last week, but we will make room!)

I will repeat the Sunday class on Monday, January 11, at 12:40 on the 2nd floor; the Monday class lasts 40 minutes.

Tuesday, January 12, the Rector’s Christian Doctrine Classbegins with a session on God the Father. I will be speaking on first things: creation, the fall, and the meaning of being made in God’s image. This course is designed for people who would like to be confirmed or received into the Episcopal Church. Anyone interested in the topic of the day is welcome to the class. It meets in Andrew Hall from 6:30 to 7:30pm

Looking ahead: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, a short and sharp novel by Muriel Spark, will be discussed in Good Books & Good Talk on Monday, January 25, from 6:15 to 7:45 p.m. Anyone who reads the novel is welcome to the seminar.

Monday evening, one of the young adults told me that outside it was “real ninth circle of hell.” It took me a minute to process it … but once I had, such delight: to know people who know Dante, and who know that at the center of evil is not fire and brimstone, but ice. Hell is just about absolute zero, any way you consider it.

O ye ice and snow, praise ye the Lord! But — ye ice and snow — your days are passing already, for our days are lengthening, and the springtime of the Lord is not far away.

Peace,
Father Austin