St. Mark’s Adult Education Meeting Summary
“A Wing and A Prayer”, by Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori
Group Discussion Series Led By Rev. Mike Kreutzer
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Part Four (cont’d.): Pages 61-88
The group discussed various aspects derived from Part Four: FUNNY PURPLE SHIRTS — The Church. The sections in the book included: “In the New Millennium” / “Walking on Water” / “Finding God in the Differences” / “Traveling Light” / “Lab Report” / “Sibling Rivalry” / “The Family Table” / “Live Long and Prosper / and “Everybody in the Pool.”
Group discussion this week began by discussing the high cost our country is paying for the war in Iraq. Not only the financial cost to the taxpayers, but the amount of energy and natural resources being used and most importantly, the many human lives being destroyed or severely wounded as a direct result of the fighting. There are many soldiers now coming back with permanent brain damage from all of the shelling and bombings. This is costing us for addition medical care as well as noting significant increases in divorce rates and family break-ups
It was noted that not all of our parishes wish to be together as would be the desires of the author. The one parish in Westerville, for example, will be proposing resolutions at the upcoming Diocesan Convention to accept the Windsor Report, to allow any parish that wishes to separate to keep the church buildings and property, and finally, a resolution for the bishop not to take any action against clergy who wish to separate. This clearly does not follow the desires of Jefferts-Schori to have everyone continue to worship together even if there are disagreements among ourselves. Discussion then turned to property ownership and how legally the diocese owns all of the individual church properties. There may be some few exceptions to this on the east coast where there are very old parishes. The question was also raised if the whole diocese could change and split from the mainstream church.
It was noted that even within Dayton, there are a few different factions that had spun off of the mainstream church, such as the Reformed Episcopal Church and the American Anglican Church. Within the Roman Catholic Church there are also similar liberal and conservative factions Finally, it was noted that in the area around St. Mark’s, there seems to be a growing trend to have a closer relationship between the mainstream Episcopal, Lutheran, and Methodists churches. This is exemplified by our shared Thanksgiving service and the use of the liturgy from each church when they are the host parish.
