Community of Learning

Dear People of Christ Church,

This week Paul Hartge, our Micah Intern, will be our preacher at both services. It's been wonderful these past few weeks to hear the different voices of our stewardship speakers, and we'll also hear from Bill Fowler this week about what stewardship means to him. Please turn in your pledge cards, and really consider in prayer how your financial giving to your church community can reflect how valuable our community is.

A church community is a community of pastoral care, fellowship, and worship, but it's also a community of learning and teaching. Even those who don't attend our book groups or seasonal series are still learners as they approach their faith; in listening to Scripture as part of our worship, in hearing sermons, in reading the Quarterly and (hopefully) reading pieces in this space as well. We never stop learning in our daily lives; our faith commitments can also be areas of intellectual growth.

We're a learning community, but we're also a teaching community. Of course we teach our children, but we teach each other, too. Having Paul Hartge, our Micah intern with us this year is about learning from him and what he has to share, but it's also about his learning from us. Part of this year for him is discerning whether God might be calling him to ordained ministry. Each person in this community is part of that discernment work as he learns about ministry and his gifts and desires. And so, this week, he turns his focus to preaching.

During my year as a Micah intern, I had the chance to preach both at my internship site (the Church of St John the Evangelist in Boston), and at the Episcopal Chaplaincy at Boston University. As part of my work with St John's, I worked with homeless people in Boston, so when two men whom I'd worked with in that community found out I was preaching, they came out on a cold December evening to hear me. I was, of course, nervous, but afterwards Matthew and Al held up signs like Olympic judges-one "10" and one "9.5." (Matthew thought it was a little much for me to receive two perfect tens, but he assured me that I'd done well). I actually still have those signs-a reminder of that time of intense prayer and work, certainly, but also support from the people I was ministering with. So all blessings to Paul this Sunday! I know each of you will offer him the hospitality of your listening hearts.

Speaking of learning, you've also seen printed here that we hope to offer a series on faith and politics in November. All the way back to St Augustine (and certainly earlier), the question of the relation of the individual believer to his or her country has been a subject of lively debate in the Christian tradition. In the founding of this country, the separation of church and state was viewed to protect the church from the state, rather than the other way around, as we tend to read it now. What do St Paul's words about being transformed, rather than conformed to the world, have to say to us? To our civic participation? This series will be more a time to talk about these wider issues than, necessarily, a "pro/con" on what the church says about particular issues (though we will get to some of them as well). Please let us know of your interest in participating. We're hoping to get a Bible Study off the ground, too, possibly jointly with St Peter's.

Finally, you'll see in our "Staff news" section that we have big news! Stephen and his wife Tanya expect the birth of their daughter in early November, and my family and I are moving to Medford, where my husband's church is, as well as my son's preschool, which my daughter will soon attend. (It's Mama's turn to have the longer commute, and our kids are ready for a house with a proper yard). Our new house is West Medford, not far from the Arlington line, so it's not too far. I will likely be out of the office Wednesday and Thursday of next week, but Emilie, our administrator, always knows how to find me and I'll be on email.

Blessings,

Sara+