Dear friends in Christ,
This Sunday’s class on the collects of the Book of Common Prayer will consider the prayers appointed for Lent. Some are old, some new; altogether they provide a course of condensed Anglican thinking about salvation, penitence, time, preparation, grace and good works, and much more. We meet on the fifth floor at 10 o’clock. On Monday I will repeat the class, on the second floor, from 12:40 to 1:20pm.
Tuesday, February 9, the Rector’s Christian Doctrine Class will be on the Holy Bible: The Word of the Lord. 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 7:30pm.
And on Friday at 12:45pm Father Spurlock will continue his 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 (found only in Saint Luke’s Gospel) and on some of its contemporary extensions in “Good Samaritan” laws and cosmopolitan thinking. Each session will be in Andrew Hall at 6:30pm.
On Monday, February 22 (have I mentioned that this is the real Washington’s birthday?), the “Good Books & Good Talk” seminar will discuss The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris. The protagonist of this novel, a successful New York lawyer, is afflicted with the periodic compulsion to walk: when it comes upon him, there is no stopping it, and no controlling it. What does it mean? Anyone who reads the book is welcome to the seminar, which will be held, sitting in place, from 6:15 to 7:45pm
(Several years ago, I saw the play “Copenhagen,” about a meeting during World War II between Heisenberg and Bohr. There was a lot of walking in that performance, but there it was laden with the questions of the uncertainty principle).
If I may, a personal note: My daughter, Emily, is now Dr. Austin also, having successfully defended her thesis on the Iliad last week. Yours truly was there, and in awe.
Peace, Father Austin
