Many reading this will have participated in an Alpha course in the past and perhaps you or your church are still doing so; or it may be that you have never heard of Alpha.
If you are in this latter category, Alpha is a series of interactive sessions that explore the basics of life, faith and God, typically run over 11 weeks.
Each session looks at a different question around faith and is designed to create conversation.
Alpha was developed at Holy Trinity Church, Brompton over 25 years ago and is now run all around the globe. Over 29 million people have tried Alpha in 169 countries, and it has been translated into 112 different languages.
Courses take different formats, but generally they have three key aspects: food, a talk and good conversation. Everyone is welcome and all questions are accepted.
Whatever you do know about Alpha, it may be time to have another look or run Alpha again. Through this coming fall and winter, there will be a global Alpha campaign. Labelled “The Biggest Church Invitation of This Generation,” the face of the campaign will be Bear Grylls, known worldwide for outdoor survival and adventure and with 1.5 billion fans. He will be sharing his journey to faith; in his words: “Alpha was the best thing I ever did!”
Typically run over 8-12 weeks, it allows anyone to explore life, faith and God in a friendly, open and informal environment. In each session there’s food, a short talk, and discussion in small groups. Everything you need to run Alpha is available online and free to download.
This is an opportunity for churches or groups to tap into the interest generated in our communities. We should be ready for those who come seeking. Alpha materials have been updated and are now offered via free downloads. A complete revised set of 29-minutes talks delivered by Nicky Gumbel was released last year. A new Alpha film series launched in April, featuring stories from all around the world and covering the Alpha content in a contemporary visual format. There is also a highly successful Youth Alpha Film Series.
https://youtu.be/XLQZM1QwuUs
Register your course with Alpha Canada for no charge to access the talks, transcripts and training videos for free. Learn more, or register a course
Our Bishop recommends “Noticing God” by Richard Peace for study during Lent 2017.
In his opening words, Peace sets the goal of his book:
Where is God? How do we notice the presence of God? How do we encounter this God that we sense? How do we know it is God and not some figment of our imagination? Is it possible to know God at all? Questions like these have interested me for as long as I can remember. I suppose it all started when I was a child, probably around five or six years old, and I had a[n] experience …
In mystical encounters, in the ordinary, in the still small voice, in community, in creation, and more.
Books are available for $10 from the Cathedral Office; e-reader version for $9.99 at amazon.ca here: Noticing God.
Study on Mondays during Lent, beginning at 2:30 p.m. in the Lounge at the Cathedral Memorial Hall, 168 Church Street.
In the Spring of 2009, I travelled with Bishop Bill Hockin to St. Gertrude’s Roman Catholic Church in Woodstock, N.B. As we arrived, we noticed the parking lot was full. Upon entering the church, we found a large, ecumenical audience awaiting the introduction of Fr. Ronald Rolheiser. He spoke all morning, and related effortlessly with his audience. As he shared intriguing personal anecdotes and recounted stories from his own life-experience, Rolheiser emphasized the deep desire of many people for an authentic relationship with God. He called it a “holy longing.”
Ronald Rolheiser
Earlier that week, in Fredericton, Rolheiser had been the recipient of an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from St. Thomas University. He also delivered STU’s Spring 2009 Convocation Address.
Born on a farm in Cactus Lake, Saskatchewan, ordained as a Catholic priest in 1972, Ronald Rolheiser has a long affiliation with the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. His formal education saw him earn a B.A. (University of Ottawa, 1969), B.Th. (Newman Theological College, 1973), M.A. (University of San Francisco, 1974), M.R.Sc (University of Louvain, 1982) and PhD (University of Louvain, 1983). Currently, Rolheiser serves as President of the Oblate School of Theology, a Catholic graduate school for theological studies located in San Antonio, Texas.
In 1982 while living and studying in Belgium, he began to write a regular column in the Canadian newspaper, The Western Catholic Reporter. These columns featured reflections on theological, Biblical and secular issues. Choosing to call his column, In Exile, Fr. Ron wrote:
All of us live our lives in exile. We live in our separate riddles, partially separated from God, each other, and even from ourselves. We experience some love, some community, some peace, but never these in their fullness. Our senses, egocentricity, and human nature place a veil between us and full love, full community, and full peace. We live, truly, as in a riddle: The God who is omnipresent cannot be sensed; others, who are as real as ourselves, are always partially distanced and unreal; and we are, in the end, fundamentally a mystery even to ourselves.
Rolheiser’s weekly columns offered down-to-earth observations connecting theology, church history, The Bible and contemporary issues. Since its inception 34 years ago, 2000 commentaries have been posted online, each approximately 850 words in length. Currently, Rolheiser’s work is carried in over 80 newspapers worldwide. At once, provocative and pastoral, his writing explores key themes in Christian spirituality, including the Trinity, World Religions, Christianity and Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, Existentialism, Mysticism, contemporary spirituality tied to the pressing questions of today (ecology, feminism, masculine spirituality, cultural change).
His 2014 book titled Sacred Fire: A Vision for a Deeper Human and Christian Maturity (Image Book, Random House) received the highest award for a hardcover book from the Catholic Press Association. His 1999 book, The Holy Longing: The Search For A Christian Spirituality (Doubleday, New York) is considered by many to be a modern classic. Rolheiser writes for a diverse ecumenical audience. But his weekly on-line columns may be less well known to non-Catholic readers. His website, Ronald Rolheiser’s Column Archives offers an engaging collection of short articles suitable for either personal reflection or for educational reading on Christian topics and issues. The website includes a Search function which allows readers to explore a wide range of topics. For example, here is a selection of just 15 titles from the 2016 column-archives:
The report of the task force on the theology of money argues that the current economic system is an example of “structural sin.” Image: Saskia Rowley On October 18,an Anglican Church of Canada task force has released “On The Theology of Money,” a report calling the faithful to embrace a “vision of ‘enough'” when it comes to material wealth.
Jean Vanier has authored some 30 books that reflect the many causes and concerns that have come together to shape his life. Educated in England, France and Canada, Vanier entered the Royal Naval College, in Dartmouth, England in 1942. Three years later he went to sea with the British Navy, later transferring to the Canadian Navy as an officer on the H.M.C.S. Magnificent. In 1950 he went to France to study philosophy and theology and earned a PhD from the Catholic University of Paris. His doctoral dissertation explored Aristotle’s understanding of what constitutes true happiness.
While in France, Vanier, founded L’Arche in 1964. “L’Arche” has become a global network of compassion, offering homes, personal care and support to people with developmental disabilities: www.larche.org.
Currently, l’Arche operates in some 150 communities in 35 countries on 5 continents. The mission of L’Arche is “…to make known the gifts of people with intellectual disabilities, working together toward a more human society.” Vanier continues to live as a member of the original L’Arche community, which is located in Trosly-Breuil, France.
His book, Community and Growth, serves as a kind of down-to-earth manual exploring the sacred potential of life in a faith community. It’s packed with Vanier’s reflections on the challenges and opportunities of living authentically within a Christian community. For folks who belong to a local church (or Cathedral) congregation, it may be helpful in reading this book to substitute Vanier’s use of the word “community,” with the word “church.”
Community and Growth speaks directly to the day to day realities and vulnerabilities of a church community. Originally written in French in 1979, various revised editions have been published in English over the years, the most recent in 2006.
Community is a sign that love is possible in a materialistic world where people so often either ignore or fight each other. It is a sign that we don’t need a lot of money to be happy–in fact, the opposite.
The idea of “community,” like the idea of “church” can mean different things to different people. For those who have struggled with the problems and frustrations of community and/or church-life, this book is essential reading. Vanier’s writing is neither theoretical prose, nor a lofty academic treatise. Instead, his ideas are grounded by wisdom and insights gleaned at the front lines, after years dedicated to serving those less fortunate than himself. Vanier writes that our faith communities should be places of acceptance and mission, marked by joy, compassion and celebration.
He refers to the “gift” and the “anti-gift” within community. Some see themselves as ‘saviours’. They may have the intelligence to understand and exploit the failings of community, but they can cause much hurt and damage, i.e. the anti-gift. Vanier suggests that the proper way to come into community is to feel at ease there, to be ready to serve, and at the same time, to be respectful of the existing ethos and traditions. The gift of being available to serve, writes Vanier, can be modeled and shared in love, from one person to another. It nourishes the thinking heart and feeling mind of the community.
Quotes from Community and Growth:
“Community is a sign that love is possible in a materialistic world where people so often either ignore or fight each other. It is a sign that we don’t need a lot of money to be happy–in fact, the opposite.”
“One of the marvelous things about community is that it enables us to welcome and help people in a way we couldn’t as individuals. When we pool our strength and share the work and responsibility, we can welcome many people, even those in deep distress, and perhaps help them find self-confidence and inner healing.”
“When people love each other, they are content with very little. When we have light and joy in our hearts, we don’t need material wealth. The most loving communities are often the poorest. If our own life is luxurious and wasteful, we can’t approach poor people. If we love people, we want to identify with them and share with them.”
“Jesus is the starving, the parched, the prisoner, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the dying. Jesus is the oppressed, the poor. To live with Jesus is to live with the poor. To live with the poor is to live with Jesus.”
“If people in a community live only on the level of the human, rational, legalistic and active aspects and symbols of their faith – which give cohesion, security and unity – there is a serious risk of their closing in on themselves and of gradually dying. If, however, their religious faith opens up, on the one hand to the mystical – that is, to an experience of the love of God present in the community and in the heart of each person – and, on the other hand, to what unifies all human beings, especially the poor, the vulnerable and the oppressed, they will then continue to grow in openness.”
“Old age is the most precious time of life, the one nearest eternity. There are two ways of growing old. There are old people who are anxious and bitter, living in the past and illusion, who criticize everything that goes on around them. Young people are repulsed by them; they are shut away in their sadness and loneliness, shriveled up in themselves. But there are also old people with a child’s heart, who have used their freedom from function and responsibility to find a new youth. They have the wonder of a child, but the wisdom of maturity as well. They have integrated their years of activity and so can live without being attached to power. Their freedom of heart and their acceptance of their limitations and weakness makes them people whose radiance illuminates the whole community. They are gentle and merciful, symbols of compassion and forgiveness. They become a community’s hidden treasures, sources of unity and life. They are true contemplatives at the heart of community.”
Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation
By Parker J. Palmer
Jossey-Bass / 2000 / 117 pages
Parker Palmer is an author, educator, and activist who writes about teaching, life in community, leadership, spirituality and social change. He is the founder and senior partner of the Center for Courage & Renewal, based in Seattle, USA. couragerenewal.org. Palmer is a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). He lives in Madison, Wisconsin.
This book is constructed around a searching question: “Is the life I am living the same as the life that wants to live in me?” With this, Parker Palmer begins a thoughtful meditation on finding one’s true calling. Let Your Life Speak is a candid reflection on how to find truth and fulfillment while living authentically amid the complexities of the 21st century. No matter how lofty a person’s intentions may be, Palmer argues that vocation comes from listening to and accepting the “true self,” with its limits as well as its potentials.
Every journey, honestly undertaken, stands a chance of taking us toward the place where our deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.
Palmer’s career trajectory has taken him from earning a Ph.D. in sociology; to serving as community organizer in Washington, D.C.; to living in Pendle Hill, a Quaker commune, for a decade; to his present-day work as a writer, consultant, and traveling teacher. He shares that he has been able to refine his understanding of life-choices by various experiences such as quitting seminary, getting fired from a job, and dealing with a bout of severe depression. Telling stories from his own life and the lives of others, he shares insights gained from seasons of darkness as well as times of personal fulfillment and joy.
Writing with compelling vulnerability, Palmer helps illuminate positive pathways for those seeking to find their true calling; their vocation. Parker Palmer’s writing is like a walk through a sunny forest glade – fresh, lucid and live-giving. He gives the reader valuable insights for the journey forward. Let Your Life Speak will be of interest to those with serious questions about their future direction. “Vocation is not a goal to be achieved but a gift to be received.”
Selected quotes from Parker Palmer’s Let Your Life Speak:
“If we lived close to nature in an agricultural society, the seasons as metaphor and fact would continually frame our lives. But the master metaphor of our era does not come from agriculture – it comes from manufacturing. We do not believe that we ‘grow’ our lives – we believe that we ‘make’ them. Just listen to how we use the word in everyday speech: we make time, make friends, make meaning, make money, make a living, make love.”
“Every journey, honestly undertaken, stands a chance of taking us toward the place where our deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.”
“Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am.”
“Each time a door closes, the rest of the world opens up.”
“Self-care is never a selfish act – it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer others. Anytime we can listen to true self and give the care it requires, we do it not only for ourselves, but for the many others whose lives we touch.”
“But if I am to let my life speak things I want to hear, things I would gladly tell others, I must also let it speak things I do not want to hear and would never tell anyone else! My life is not only about my strengths and virtues; it is also about my liabilities and my limits, my trespasses and my shadow. An inevitable though often ignored dimension of the quest for ‘wholeness’ is that we must embrace what we dislike or find shameful about ourselves as well as what we are confident and proud of.”
“Our strongest gifts are usually those we are barely aware of possessing. They are a part of our God-given nature, with us from the moment we drew first breath, and we are no more conscious of having them than we are of breathing.”
Divine Renovation: From a Maintenance to a Missional Parish
By James Mallon
Novalis Publishing/2014/286 pages
Fr. James Mallon is pastor and priest at the Roman Catholic Saint Benedict Parish in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He speaks frequently on the topic of church renewal and has hosted internationally acclaimed DVD series on Catholicism and Dogmatic Theology. St. Benedict is an amalgamation of three former parishes and under Fr. Mallon’s care has achieved remarkable success in becoming a Christian community focussed on mission outside of its doors as opposed to an inward- looking maintenance ministry. In this book, the author offers practical guidance and a step by step blueprint on that process.
Its time to start making disciples. The future of the Church depends on it.
The Church today is faced often with the overwhelming task of maintaining property. While our buildings are an enormous gift from our past, they can also become one of our greatest burdens if we are not successful at becoming the missional church we are called to be. Jesus does not call us to be caretakers but, rather to serve him by serving the world and making disciples. “Its time to start making disciples,” says Fr. Mallon. “The future of the Church depends on it.”
Chapter two focusses on a grounding of the theory to be presented from Roman Catholic specific papal encyclicals and denominational specific documents. That goal completed, Divine Renovation progresses towards an insightful read for the Christian of any denomination. It is particularly applicable for any denomination that recognizes sacramental dimensions of the faith. “The sacraments are our greatest pastoral opportunity” and, perhaps one of the reasons I find it easy to recommend this book is that I agree wholeheartedly with most, if not all, of the author’s fundamental beginning points as well as the conclusions. Changing the “culture” of the Christian Community is necessarily at the heart of a transformation from maintenance to mission. It is that change of culture that consumes the majority of this text.
The practical road map leading to the transformation of church culture is divided into several sections. These might be alternatively titled: “Fr. Mallon’s marks of a healthy church.”
Giving Priority to the Weekend
Hospitality
Uplifting Music
Homilies
Meaningful Community
Clear Expectations
Strength-based Ministry
Inspiring, practical, challenging and a bracing call are among the terms others have used to describe an insightful book. A good read for anyone who cares about how to do Church in our current context. Fr. Mallon addresses the clergy of the Anglican Diocese of Fredericton during the clergy conference in August of 2016.
Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth
By Richard J. Foster
Harper Books / 1998 / 228 pages / Revised Edition
We read in the New Testament about the “Gifts of the Spirit” and the “Fruit of the Spirit.”
But, what do people mean when they use the term, “the Spiritual Disciplines?” What is a ‘spiritual discipline’ and how does the practice of these disciplines affect a person’s maturity in the Faith, as well as the corporate expression of that maturity in a local church community?
Richard Foster explores this important terrain in his book, Celebration of Discipline. Originally published in 1978, this volume has been republished several times, in revised and expanded form. Considered to be one of the best modern handbooks to focused, faithful Christian living, Celebration of Discipline explores the essential spiritual practices used today, and down through the ages.
Richard J. Foster is the author of several bestselling books, including Celebration of Discipline, Streams of Living Water, Life with God, Freedom of Simplicity and Prayer. He is the founder of the American intrachurch movement, Renovaré, an organization committed to the renewal of the Church in our day.
Foster divides the spiritual disciplines into three categories and explains how each of these expressions of the Spirit contribute to the symmetry and fullness of a person’s life-journey. The inward disciplines of meditation, prayer, fasting, and study, offer avenues of personal examination and change. The outward disciplines of simplicity, solitude, submission, and service, help prepare us to make the world a better place. The corporate disciplines of confession, worship, guidance, and celebration, bring us nearer to one another and to God.
“Like a child exploring the attic of an old house on a rainy day, discovering a trunk full of treasure and then calling all his brothers and sisters to share the find, Richard J. Foster has ‘found’ the spiritual disciplines that the modern world stored away and forgot, and has excitedly called us to celebrate them. For they are, as he shows us, the instruments of joy, the way into mature Christian spirituality and abundant life.” ~ Eugene H. Peterson.
Selected quotes from Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline:
“God has given us the Disciplines of the spiritual life as a means of receiving his grace. The Disciplines allow us to place ourselves before God so that he can transform us.”
“Humility, as we all know, is one of those virtues that is never gained by seeking it. The more we pursue it the more distant it becomes. To think we have it is sure evidence that we don’t.”
“Silence is one of the deepest Disciplines of the Spirit simply because it puts the stopper on all self-justification.”
“Of all spiritual disciplines prayer is the most central because it ushers us into perpetual communion with the Father.”
“To pray is to change. All who have walked with God have viewed prayer as the main business of their lives.”
“The purpose of meditation is to enable us to hear God more clearly. Meditation is listening, sensing, heeding the life and light of Christ. This comes right to the heart of our faith. The life that pleases God is not a set of religious duties; it is to hear His voice and obey His word. Meditation opens the door to this way of living.
“Fasting must forever centre on God. More than any other Discipline, fasting reveals the things that control us.
“Disciplines are not the answer; they only lead us to the Answer. We must clearly understand this limitation of the Disciplines if we are to avoid bondage.”
Ronald Rolheiser’s The Holy Longing is a modern classic. It has been read and endorsed by clergy and lay people across the Christian world. Essential reading for those seeking to understand and deepen their practice of Christian spirituality, this book explains the complexion of one’s personal spirituality and how to apply it to our worship, and our day-to-day lives. This book is for folks with questions about what Christians believe and what it means to actually live life by faith, following the example of Jesus and the Saints. It unpacks the key ingredients of an attractive, authentic spiritual life.
Rolheiser probes this question: “What is spirituality?” He writes about the confusion that can surround this subject amid the wide assortment of spiritual beliefs and practices of our day. With great sensitivity to debates and challenges swirling around the faith-life, he explains the “Nonnegotiable Essentials,” including the importance of community worship, the richness of ritual, the imperatives surrounding social justice, peacemaking, sexuality, the centrality of the Trinity, and more. The book presents an outline of Christian spirituality that reflects the continuing search for meaning at the heart of the human experience. Rolheiser writes about the search for love and wholeness in language accessible to all.
Ronald Rolheiser is a Canadian. He hails from Cactus Lake, Saskatchewan. He is a Roman Catholic priest and member of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. He serves as President of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas, is author of the several books The Restless Heart, Forgotten Among the Lilies, The Shattered Lantern, AgainstAn Infinite Horizon, and Sacred Fire: A vision for a Deeper Human and Christian Maturity. He is a community-builder, lecturer and writer, and his weekly column appears in more than 90 Catholic publications. Rolheiser received an honorary doctorate from Fredericton’s St. Thomas University in 2005. A substantial selection of his articles and reflections are available online at ronrolheiser.com
Selected quotes from Ronald Rolheiser’s The Holy Longing:
“Becoming like Jesus is as much as about having a relaxed and joyful heart as it is about believing and doing the right thing, as much about proper energy as about proper truth.”
“In this life, all symphonies remain unfinished. Our deep longings are never really satisfied. What this means, among other things, is that we are not restful creatures who sometimes get restless, fulfilled people who sometimes are dissatisfied, serene people who sometimes experience disquiet. Rather, we are restless people who occasionally find rest, dissatisfied people who occasionally find fulfillment, and disquieted people who occasionally find serenity.”
“Spirituality…is about being integrated or falling apart, about being within community or being lonely, about being in harmony with Mother Earth or being alienated from her. Irrespective of whether or not we let ourselves be consciously shaped by any explicit religious idea, we act in ways that leave us either healthy or unhealthy, loving or bitter. What shapes our actions is our spirituality.
“Write a book,” he told me, “that I can give to my adult children to explain why I still believe in God and why I still go to church—and that I can read on days when I am no longer sure why I believe or go to church.”
N.T. Wright is a widely-read British Bible scholar and retired Anglican bishop. According to Time Magazine, Wright is one of the most formidable figures in the world of Christian thought. He served as Bishop of Durham between 2003 and 2010. Currently he is Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at St Mary’s College, University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Some commentators have referred to him as a modern C.S. Lewis.
His writing actually opens up the Bible so that it can “speak” into the down-to-earth realities of one’s life. Wright offers fresh perspectives on how to approach Scripture; how readers can be nourished by the Bible day by day. He presents good reasons to ponder and pray through sections of biblical text. His insights encourage readers to ask important questions about how to go deeper in their faith-journey.
The 12 chapters of this book present a collection of N.T. Wright’s essays and talks — case studies that explore how and why the Bible speaks to some of the most pressing contemporary issues. There are interesting surprises between the covers of Surprised by Scripture. Some chapter titles follow:
Can a Scientist Believe in the Resurrection?
9/11, Tsunamis, and the New Problem of Evil
Idolatry 2.0
Our Politics Are Too Small
Selected quotes from N.T. Wright’s Surprised By Scripture:
“The question for us, as we learn again and again the lessons of hope for ourselves, is how we can be for the world what Jesus was for Thomas: how we can show to the world the signs of love, how we can reach out our hands in love, wounded though they will be if the love has been true, how we can invite those whose hearts have grown shrunken and shriveled with sorrow and disbelief to come and see what love has done, what love is doing, in our communities, our neighborhoods:”
“science takes things apart to see how they work, but religion puts things together to see what they mean.”
“But from the start the early Christians believed that the resurrection body, though it would certainly be a body in the sense of a physical object, would be a transformed body, a body whose material, created from the old material, would have new properties. That is what Paul means by the “spiritual body”: not a body made out of nonphysical spirit, but a physical body animated by the Spirit, a Spirit-driven body if you like: still what we would call physical but differently animated.”
“The church is not simply a religious body looking for a safe place to do its own thing within a wider political or social world. The church is neither more nor less than people who bear witness, by their very existence and in particular their holiness and their unity (Colossians 3), that Jesus is the world’s true lord, ridiculous or even scandalous though this may seem.”
“Here is the challenge, I believe, for the Christian artist, in whatever sphere: to tell the story of the new world so that people can taste it and want it, even while acknowledging the reality of the desert in which we presently live.”
Whatever you do know about Alpha, it may be time to have another look or run Alpha again. Through this coming fall and winter, there will be a global Alpha campaign. Labelled “The Biggest Church Invitation of This Generation,” the face of the campaign will be Bear Grylls, known worldwide for outdoor survival and adventure and with 1.5 billion fans. He will be sharing his journey to faith; in his words: “Alpha was the best thing I ever did!”
