The Check's / Bill's in the Mail
The mail has brought blessing and embarrassment
this past month. Just this week came a check from
our friends at The Simple Way
"with lots of love." They wrote that they believe that
The Ekklesia Project is one of "the fresh things the
Spirit is up to in the world." And so, I think, are they.
Now the embarrassment. A large bill for
Gathering 2007 was lost in the mail. So our report in
last month's newsletter that we were $6000 in the
black was in error. In the end, we were a bit over
$2,000 in the black, which will all go toward the room
deposit for next year's gathering.
Meet the EP
Vince Amlin is a member of the United
Church of Christ and a Masters of Divinity
student at the University of Chicago- two
things that perhaps make him an unusual
candidate for the EP. He came to this
summer's gathering at the suggestion of
Professor Hauerwas as part of a Ministry
Fellowship from the Fund for Theological
Education. This fellowship allowed him to
design a summer project to deepen his future
ministry. Vince's original project centered
around different models of church-world
interaction.
Though he had just spent 3 weeks on a
Catholic Worker farm in upstate New York,
once he came to the Gathering he knew that he
had to explore "Church as Kingdom" for the
rest of the summer. FTE was gracious enough
to allow him to rewrite his project, and he
is presently preparing to leave for Church of
the Servant King in Eugene, OR after visiting
for several weeks with Englewood Christian
Church in Indianapolis. For Vince, the EP
Gathering felt like a homecoming where he was
able to reconnect with his call to ministry
and he is looking forward to next year.
Two reviews from Jon Stock
Two recommendations this month. One is a
collection of Moral Theology essays entitled
Gathered for the Journey published by
Eerdmans ($28). The books features several
essays by EP endorsers, including
"Love and Liturgy" by Therese Lysaught,
"Jesus Christ, Scripture, and Ethics" by
David Matzko McCarthy, "Pilgrim People" by
Bill Cavanaugh. Also contributing are Kelly
Johnson and Tobias Winright.
Secondly,
Brian Rosner, senior lecturer in
New Testament and ethics at Moor Theological
College, has written a provocative biblical
study, Greed as Idolatry. Rosner
works in the best tradition of
biblical scholarship by bringing the biblical
text home, forcing usto confront our attitude
towards money and material possessions. By
exploring the Pauline phrase "greed is
idolatry", Rosner pushes the
reader to take this Pauline vice far more
seriously than many of us do. (Eerdmans $22)
And Now ... Gathering Videos
The
Gathering videos are now available at the website
under What We Do - Gathering - 2007 Gathering. Or
just click the hot link.
From the editor
One of those "I wish I could remember who
said it" lines I have quoted frequently over
the years goes: "the opposite of faith is not
doubt; it is fear." Those who share that
understanding were hardly shocked to learn
that Mother Teresa harbored doubts and
expressed them freely. Brian Volck has
posted a link to a thoughtful and insightful
review of Mother Teresa's book, Come be my
Light, on the EP website. You can go
directly to that review here.
John McFadden, editor
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