St. Bartholomew's School of Theology - The 2010 Lenten University Program
When: Wednesday Feb 24, March 3, 10, 17 and 24
What Time: Soup Supper 6:00 pm - 6:45 pm
Program starts at 7:00 pm, ends at 8:00 pm
Where: St Bartholomew's Parish Hall for supper
All programs offered in the Sanctuary
Child Care: Yes, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Feb 24 – Taizé — Learn about this new form of worship that is sweeping the globe. Taizé — A Parable of Community
Presenter: Dr William Eichorn, Director of Music and the Arts, St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church
What is there about Taizé that attracts thousands of young people each week to pray? In the 60 years of its existence, why have 4 Archbishops of Canterbury, Pope John Paul II, many Orthodox Metropolitans, 14 Lutheran Bishops and many pastors from all over the world come to worship at Taizé? What would make a young woman from Sweden say to me " I have seen the Church for the first time since coming to Taizé."
Pat and I visited Taizé on my sabbatical leave a few years ago. It helped me to understand and renew my faith in the youth of the world. For there, that week, in this small village in Burgundy, France, thousands of young people and others of more mature ages from different religious, socio-economic, and ethnic backgrounds all worshiped together. They also studied scripture, worked in the kitchens, cleaned the camp grounds and performed various sundry jobs in this community of faith.
Brother Roger, a Protestant from Switzerland, founded this community after the Second World War as a place to practice reconciliation between religions, nations and peoples of faith. The Community is now made up of brothers from all the continents and major denominations. Here is a place where we don't see the church as an institution but as the gathered body in its worshiping/communal form. As the philosopher Paul Ricoeur has said: "Taizé is the place where I experience "goodness." There is also a "happiness" about the life at Taizé.
Come and learn about this form of worship and experience the Holy Spirit in an authentic fresh way — come and see. So says theologian Oliver Clement about Taizé.
March 3 – Praying the Hours of the Day
Presenter: Sister Anita Lapeyre, known as Sister Tita, has been a teacher, administrator and most recently the Clinical Pastoral Education supervisor and director of the Center for Urban Ministry. She is now a spiritual director with the Spiritual Ministry Center.
This presentation will use song and scripture to show how daily short pauses of prayer/reflection can assist busy persons to find God in the midst of daily activities. The presentation will be based on Seven Sacred Pauses by Macrina Wiederkehr that aims at helping us live mindfully (contemplatively) through the hours of the day.
March 10 – Using Prayer to Experience a Personal Encounter with God.
Presenter: Sr. Jane O'Shaughnessy, RSCJ, is a mother and a grandmother who entered the Society of the Sacred Heart in 2001. She has had a career in systems and programming, been active in parish ministry, been a missionary in Asia and is currently in her fourth year as a spiritual and retreat director at the Spiritual Ministry Center in San Diego. She enjoys sharing prayer and spirituality and hopes that all will appreciate an evening of deepening relationship with God.
This evening we will enter into prayer as a personal encounter with God, our God who loves us and desires to be in communion and in communication with us. We will experience Lectio Divina, an ancient form of Christian prayer, developed in the early monasteries. In this form of prayer we hear the sacred Word, slowly and repetitively, entering into the scriptural scene and coming away with the personal word that has reached our hearts. We will also participate in Ignatian Prayer of the Imagination, making use of our senses and creativity to enter into the Gospel scene. Through prayer we will be there with Jesus in Jesus' time.
March 17 – Do you want a closer relationship with God ? If so, Centering Prayer may be for you.
Presenters : Chris and Sue Hagen have been members of St. Bart's for ten years. They have been practicing Centering Prayer for nine years and have been facilitating two weekly Centering Prayer groups at St. Bart's for over six years. Chris and Sue also co-coordinate Contemplative Outreach of North San Diego, an ecumenical Chapter of Contemplative Outreach, Ltd. This chapter has over five hundred members and twenty- one prayer groups.
Centering Prayer is a renewal of an ancient form of silent Christian prayer updated for our time. It is based on Matthew 6:6 "...When you pray go to your inner room and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you." The focus of Centering Prayer is the deepening of our relationship with the living Christ. Our presentation will discuss the origin and method of this prayer and there will be an opportunity to learn and experience Centering Prayer.
March 24 – The Reconciliation of Christ
Presenter: The Rev. Canon Dr. Jack Lindquist of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, has been licensed by Bishop James Mathes to serve as an Episcopal priest in the San Diego Diocese and is honored to be Canon for Biblical Studies at St. Paul's Cathedral. He also teaches half-time (two courses per semester) in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Diego. A brochure will be available after his presentation for those interested in his next study tour in "The World of the New Testament," scheduled for Greece and Istanbul June 2 to June 20, 2010. He is one of the outstanding New Testament scholars of our time.
Christianity does not "compartmentalize" life into the sacred (the holy) and the secular (the world). Rather, we believe that in Christ the sacred completely occupied the secular ("The Word became flesh," John 1:14) and the whole world was restored and reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:19). Indeed, all genders, races, languages and cultures are now called to reconciliation in Christ! In this study we will explore how St. Paul spread this message in the extremely diverse Roman Empire and what we may learn from his mission for Christian congregations today.