May 2012
Ekklesia Project News
 
In This Issue
  •  In Memoriam
  • New EP Pamphlet
  • Reflections on CFI
  • Gathering 2012 Registration
  • New on bLOGOS 
  • Meet the EP
  • Center for Parish Development 

 

 

 

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the Ekklesia Project
 
 
  
 In Memoriam
Nancy Bullock
  
We give thanks for the life and witness of our dear friend and sister in Christ, Nancy Bullock (1958 - 2012), and 
we grieve her loss with her husband, Jeff, and children,
Eddie and Adrienne.
  
Nancy's lively presence at Summer Gatherings was a gift to us all, and her wise and loving counsel as a member of the Ekklesia Project Board of Directors will long be cherished.
 
May Nancy's soul and the souls of all the departed faithful by God's mercy rest in peace.
  
To read Nancy's obituary click here.
 
To read some reflections written by Debra Dean Murphy click here.
EP Pamphlet 16 Now Available
 
A new pamphlet in the Renewing Radical Discipleship series titled Aging, Dementia, and the Faith Community: Continuing the Journey of Friendship, has been written by John McFadden.  For several years, John and Susan have focused on writing and speaking on the themes of aging, dementia, community, and friendship.  In this pamphlet, John notes that more of our brothers and sisters in faith are entering late life, and as many as one half will ultimately develop dementia to some degree.  He speaks of specific practices in congregational life that can offer hospitality and inclusion not only to our friends journeying into dementia, but to their family care partners as well.  He also offers ideas on how congregations can minister to aging persons in the wider community.  You can find the new pamphlet here.

Congregational Formation Initiative:

Slow and Abundant Faithfulness 

BY JENNY WILLIAMS

 

In the mid-2000s, I served two small-membership United Methodist churches in small towns in West Virginia.  One of those churches served as a pilot congregation for the CFI process.   About 15 people in a church of 45 active members committed to a two-year engagement with the CFI material.  Of the five pilot congregations, ours was probably the least educated, and we were able to navigate the material very well.

 

As the introduction to CFI states, the curriculum is intended to be a scaffolding on which conversations can hang.  CFI studies provide a congregation with language to have discussions about the purpose of being a called-out people.  I was amazed to watch how discussions about formation and Christian practice aided this congregation in their faithfulness, both as individual Christians and as a church engaged with their local community.  Read More


 

Gathering 2012 - July 5-7 - Chicago

Slow Church: Abiding Together in the Patient Work of God   

 

Workshop updates: Jenny Williams and Erin Martin will lead "Turning the Soil: Digging Deeper into the Findings of CFI." Jana Bennett will lead "Fast Friends in the Age of Facebook." Joe Bowling will lead "Slow Church, Deep Economy and Comprehensive Community Development." Chris Franks will lead "Patient Economics." Ragan Sutterfield and Brent Laytham will lead "Food, Faith and the Cultivating of Taste."

 

 

Register Now using our registration page! You can choose to pay when you register using a credit card, or to pay later by sending a check or bringing one to the Gathering. As always, financial assistance circulates through EP. Persons with need should contact Brent Laytham for details. Persons who want to contribute may do so at the registration page.

 

Plenaries:

  •  Jonathan Wilson, "Are We There Yet?"
  • Kyle Childress and Stanley Hauerwas talk slow, talk slow church that is.
  • Phil Kenneson, "Practicing Ecclesial Patience: Patient Practice Makes Perfect"

Worship leaders this year include friends from Redeemer, Grace, and Sojourner (San Francisco) for the opening service, Englewood (Indianapolis) for the closing session, with Stan Wilson planning the footwashing and Monica Laytham as accompanist.

 

New on bLOGOS
 

Believe It or Not

BY RAGAN SUTTERFIELD

 

MenologianBelief isn't the most important thing.  What we need, we are told in John 15:1-8, is not to believe but to abide.  It is in abiding that we discover truth, it is in abiding that we come to know.  Knowledge and belief work on so many levels beyond our conscious and rational minds, it is through practice, through context, through community and imitation that we come to truth.  We find all of this in abiding, staying close, not letting go.  A part of this, Jesus tells us, is also submitting to the pruner's shears, allowing ourselves to be humiliated and reworked so that new growth can come.

Read  More 

Meet the EP: Julia Smucker

 

I grew up a Mennonite nomad, living first on the east coast (Virginia and Maryland), then three years in Jamaica (where my parents did voluntary service with Mennonite Central Committee), then a year in Ohio and then back to Indiana (where I was born) while I was in middle and high school.  This explainsjulia why I use the word "home" more loosely than most people.

 

Attending a Presbyterian college in eastern Washington was my first real venture outside the Mennonite world, and through this experience of suddenly having much less to take for granted, I came to re-embrace my Mennonite roots and was baptized during spring break of my sophomore year.  After college, during my own one-year service term with Mennonite Central Committee in Haiti, another unexpected turn came as I became involved with a Catholic parish community there.  A long and winding process of exploration followed, after which I was finally received and confirmed in the Catholic Church in October 2010.  Discovering others living the same ecclesial duality I was trying to figure out, in the Mennonite-Catholic ecumenical group Bridgefolk, was a vital part of this process because it showed me that it was possible to harmonize the two traditions and that I was not alone in doing so.

 

I am now completing an MA at St. John's School of Theology in Collegeville, Minnesota.  This has been a fascinating way to explore in-depth the Catholic tradition that I have come into and how my own voice can be a contribution to the living conversation within it. 

 From The Center for Parish Development

  

The Subversive Act of Missional Worship

 

Missional Church Convocation, July 26-28, Chicago

Keynote Speaker: Debra Dean Murphy

 

What is desperately needed in today's world is not new worship, but a rediscovery ofDebra the rich meaning and formative power of Christian worship. The Christian fellowship of praise and thanksgiving has the potential to shape faith communities in ways that are life-giving and transformative -- in redemptive contrast to the culture around us.  

 

Come and experience a dynamic resource for spiritual formation and congregational renewal: corporate worship; reflection on the Psalms; rich conversation; times of quiet; and Debra's keynote lectures. You will make connections that can be sustaining for your life and ministry. Sponsored by EP friends at the Center for Parish Development.

 

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The Ekklesia Project is a network of Christians from across the Christian tradition who rejoice in a peculiar kind of friendship rooted in our common love of God and the Church. We are convinced that to call ourselves Christian means that following Jesus Christ must shape all areas of life.