Category: Uncategorized

Welcome, come in and browse our pages. Here you will find studies suited for congregations, small groups, and individuals.  All of our studies are thoughtfully prepared and carefully written, with emphasis on individual and group reflection leading to personal spiritual growth.

 

 

Bible Studies

These in-depth studies bring new insights that will allow readers to study and learn from the biblical writers in ways that are applicable to our everyday lives. Each study begins with an introduction on the book being explored and sets the context and background. The studies are generally done in several-week sessions and so are rich in content and meaning.

 

For links to all studies, click here.

• Seek First the Kingdom – The Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew
  One of the main purposes of the Gospel of Matthew is to serve as a guide for Christians in living fearlessly into the ways of Jesus Christ. The Kingdom of Heaven is the vision that anchors this teaching.
• Parables in the Gospel of Luke – Proclaiming the Kingdom
  Stories from ordinary life that reveal the nature of God’s Kingdom. In these stories we find there is no length to which God will not go to redeem his people.

• The Gospel of Mark – The Beginning of the Good News
  Mark conveys a dramatic sense of urgency, challenging Christians to remain resolutely steadfast in their radical commitment as disciples of Christ.

• Colossians – Clothed with Christ’s Love: the Epistle to the Colossians
  Paul expressly interprets the death and resurrection of Christ as already accomplishing God’s redemption of the entire cosmos.

• Philippians – Love Overflowing: Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians
  One of Paul’s most beautiful and certainly one of his most powerful , yet practical, letters for Christians then and now.

• 1 and 2 Corinthians – “Christ in Me, Christ in You”: An Introduction to Paul and His Letters
  Paul’s letter makes powerful connections between his teaching and our daily lives as individuals, as members of a Christian community, and in the role of church leader.

• Ephesians – Rooted and Grounded in Love
  This letter offers us an opportunity to read, study, and reflect on insights into what God has accomplished for the entire world in the person of Christ.

• Galatians and Thessalonians – “Gospeling” the Faithfulness of Christ Among the Gentiles
  Helpful insights into the way Paul nurtured the growth and health of congregations he knew well, and how he taught them, over time, about the daily life of faithfulness and discipleship.

• Romans – Welcome One Another Just as Christ Has Welcomed You
  In the early decades following the death and resurrection of Jesus, local churches struggled painfully with how to live together peacefully.

 

Seasonal Studies

These studies are geared for specific seasons of the Church year, but the content is applicable any time.  The writers include the Rev. Drs. John Lewis and Jane Patterson and others. Studies frequently include audio recordings and reflections – in text and audio format – from clergy and lay persons from around the diocese.

 

For links to all the studies, click here.

• Their Eyes Were Opened – Easter Season 2016
  The season of Easter – or the Great Fifty Days of Easter, as the season is sometimes called – begins on Easter Sunday and lasts until the day of Pentecost.
• God Claims Us All – Epiphany 2016
  Epiphany marks the revelation, to the Magi and to us, that God is a God of all people and that God calls us to Himself, endows us with certain vocations, and asks us to use them for the good of all mankind.
• Mary, the Mother of God – Advent 2015
  Presented by Brother James Dennis, the study covers Mary in Scripture and history. It is in audio and PowerPoint (in Adobe Acrobat) format.
• Practicing Lent 2015
  The study focuses on five spiritual practices: prayer, repentance, love of neighbor, fasting and simplicity, and connecting to the saints.
• Following Jesus: An Invitation to Discipleship – Lent 2014
  Explores a different aspect of Christian discipleship each week. The topics are modeled upon Christ and his teachings and include: follower, worshiper, witness, neighbor, forgiver/healer, prophet, and steward.
• Watch and Pray – Advent 2014
  Looks in-depth at the lectionary readings for the four Sundays in Advent – the Old Testament, New Testament and Gospel readings – in 2014 (year B in the lectionary cycle).

 

Reflections Magazine Online

Published twice a year in print and online, this spiritual formation magazine explores in-depth topics that affect today’s Christians. Most articles include questions for personal or group reflection.

For links to all editions, click here

 

 

• Music as Spiritual Formation
  Music is the “quickening art” said Kant, and it forms us spiritually without our even knowing it. Music recalls us to ourselves even in our old age when all else is forgotten.
• The Way of Reconciliation
  There is a difference between giving up and surrendering.  Giving up says, “I quit.”  Surrender says, “I accept.”  I accept the circumstances of my life as it is today.  I accept that I do not have the control over it that I thought I had. I accept that God is aware and walks with me.

• Grace: How Shall We Respond?
  In this issue of Reflections our writers reflect on their own experiences of recognizing God’s grace. Sometimes that’s in suffering, sometimes in the visit of a determined dog, sometimes when Easter eggs produce more than chocolate candy. We invite your own reflection of God’s grace in your life and your consideration of how to respond to it in gratefulness.
• The Practice of Everyday Contemplation
  The contemplative life is one of awareness. It is focusing on the thing that is in front of us right now. It is listening to the sounds we hear, seeing what our eyes reveal, feeling what our bodies are feeling. It is being where we are right now, not where we were yesterday or might be tomorrow.
• Abundant Life
  Some say that God gives us trials and tribulations to make us stronger. I think that God takes the stories that life gives us and shows us how to use them to become stronger.
• A Serious Call to Christian Vocation
  Such is the nature of vocation; we are called, we are given gifts, we are set in a particular place at a particular time, to serve God’s people (that would be all people).
• Breaking Away
  How often in life do we limp along, recognizing that we are running out of energy and subsisting on daily jump-starts?
• Communion of Saints
  The notion that all who are in Christ – living or dead – are alive in Christ is a mark of Anglican theology.
• Sacred Spaces
  Once my experience of holy had been confined to a particular place and particular people – but in fact it had really been the launching pad for a spiritual journey that has taken turns I could never have seen.
• Teach us to Pray
  As the sun moves across the earth, someone is always approaching his prayer bench and someone is always ending his prayers. Like a river that circles the world, we dip into this stream as we open our prayer books and as we close them. The voice of God’s people is ever before him, ever imploring his mercy, ever praising him.
• The Holy Spirit
  Then the priest lifted Casey from the chair, set him on the floor, and off Casey ran, barefoot, toward his parents. “Mommy,” he shouted, “I got my feet washed. Just like Jesus.”
• The Kingdom of God
  If Christ had been there – and I, personally, think he was – he would have said something like, “The Kingdom of God is in your midst.”
• What we can still learn from the saints
  As St. Paul looks at it, the saints are everyone who’s been baptized, the entire membership of the Christian community.
• Spiritual Practices – Living the Gift
  Spiritual practices are ways we become awake and stay awake to God.