Register Now for a Chance at $50 of Books
Every person registered for Gathering 2007 by
June
10 will be entered in
a drawing for $50 in free books from Wipf & Stock,
Doulos Christou and
Brazos Press (there will be 3 winners). Only 5 days
left, so
register for
Gathering 2007 NOW (if you haven't already). To
register, go
to the EP
website,
log in, then select the registration button
in the left
column.
EP Finances
The EP continues to operate in the black for
2007. As of May 16th, we can report $6,222
in income (almost entirely contributions --
thank you!) and $5,022 in operating expenses
(expenses not directly related to the
Gathering). If you have any questions about
our financial picture, please contact
Treasurer Michael
Bowling.
From the Editor
After nearly 35 years of service as senior
pastor of large UCC congregations, I am now
serving as chaplain in two settings, one
compensated and one volunteer. The ethical
mandates of completing a parish ministry
require me to maintain complete distance from
the congregation I served these last 23
years for at least two years. Both my spouse
and I deeply grieve this necessary period of
separation from our cherished community, but
it also
provides an opportunity to experience some of
the new things God is doing in our midst. We
currently worship with an "emergent church"
that meets in a downtown bar. Shaped as I
have been by rigorous Reformed liturgy and
Biblical scholarship, I struggle at times
with San Damiano's informality (worship time
is listed as "10:30ish," which seems to be
code for "sometime around 11") and the
decidedly non-academic approach to scripture
("the Beloved Disciple must have been very
old when he wrote the Book of Revelation").
But the pastor and the congregation get the
heart of Jesus right most of the time, and
they take Christian discipleship very
seriously. So we are trying to open ourselves
to the ways the Spirit is moving through this
community of folks mostly in their twenties,
seeking to fulfill our role as elders. I am
finding there much of what I have long
yearned for: Evangelical Christianity's
unapologetic faith in Christ married to
progressive
Christianity's commitment to social and
economic justice, precisely the combination
many of us cherish in the EP. In an era
where Christ's Church knows so much division
and conflict, it is good to know that God is
weaving new webs of Christian unity. Oh, and
if the Brewers score six runs on more on
Saturday, the chicken wings are only fifteen
cents.
John McFadden, editor
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