Education for Ministry: Fertile ground to grow your faith

“Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers” (Baptismal Covenant, BCP 304).

Every baptized Christian is called to ministry. What is yours? Education for Ministry (EfM) is a program of the School of Theology at the University of the South (Sewanee) that provides the foundational education to assist you in discerning and carrying out your ministry. Like the mustard seed (Luke 13:18-19), we need fertile soil to grow. EfM is that fertile soil and we are the mustard seeds. Learning scriptures, church history, and theology is the light shining on the soil, warming it so the seed will sprout.

The EfM program develops an informed and knowledgeable laity through a series of four, one-year seminars. A small group seminar (maximum of 12 participants and two mentors) is the nucleus of the EfM program. Likened to the original house churches of the first century, our group conducts all four years concurrently in the same seminar. Year one students study the Hebrew Bible; year two the New Testament; year three is church history; year four wraps it all together with theology. Additionally, there are several interlude periods when all four years will study from the same material which is linked to that year’s theme. Themes from past years include: Living Faithfully in Your World (2013-14), Living Faithfully in a Multicultural World (2014-15), and Living as Spiritually Mature Christians (2015-16). The theme for next year will be Living Our Journey Into God. From mid-September through mid-June, we meet at on Tuesday evenings for fellowship over a meal, to discuss our studies, and to reflect theologically. Participants will spend on average between two to four hours weekly preparing for the seminars.

Seminar groups work under the leadership of mentors who serve as enablers and administrators. Mentors are not teachers who impart information to a class in the traditional sense. Instead they manage the group dynamics, guide the discussion of lessons and theological reflections, and administer logistics with Sewanee. Rather, the role of the teacher is engineered into the program materials as well as being heavily shaped by your fellow participants. Bringing the light of what we learn to share in an intimate group setting each week allows for insights and growth — new affirmations and understandings — that can sustain and support us in our lives as Christians living day-to-day in the world while simultaneously teaching us to listen to the Holy Spirit’s guidance for our personal ministries.

EfM is not a program for ordination, but rather a series of lay education seminars conducted amongst a small, tight knit community. Neither is EfM a Bible study. While the readings during the first two years are centered on the Bible, more important is the development of skills in theological reflection. In learning to think theologically, we examine our beliefs and their relationship to our culture and the tradition of our Christian faith, making us more effective ministers in the world.

Finally, EfM is not for everybody. While it may be easier to think of EfM as four one-year units rather than a full four-year program…it is still a commitment. It is important that potential participants seriously consider whether they will have the time to devote to the program. As previously noted, students need to be able to commit to regular attendance and active participation, which will include several hours weekly of preparation. The group relies on each member for it to achieve its full potential. Absences diminish that potential. Participants must also commit to developing and maintaining a healthy group dynamic that values a diversity of opinions while respecting the dignity of every human being.

For the interested or just curious, talk to one of the experienced EfM folks (Brother Albert Francis, Fred Smith, Lisa Churchill, Gordon Shugars, and Agnes West-Kohler are a few recent graduates) at Saint Paul's or visit the EfM web site. There you’ll find lots of information, including sample lessons.

A new EfM year will begin in early September. The incoming group of participants is already 50% booked. Registrations close in early August or when all available seats are reserved. For more information contact Mark Patzman at EfM.stpauls@outlook.com.

--Mark Patzman


Texts
Year 1 The Hebrew Bible
A Short Introduction to the Hebrew Bible John J. Collins

Year 2 The New Testament
Introducing the New Testament Mark Allan Powell

Year 3 Church History
Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years Diarmaid MacCulloch

Year 4 Theology
Theology: A Very Brief Introduction David Ford
Mysteries of Faith Mark McIntosh
The Christian Moral Life Timothy F. Sedgewick
My Neighbor’s Faith Peace, Rose, and Mobley

Interlude 1 Transformed Lives: Making Sense of Atonement Today Cynthia Crysdale
Interlude 2 Care for Creation Delio, Warner, and Wood

Thought about the conversation at Skyline Church: a response to Robert Gagnon

The conversation about the Definition of Marriage at Skyline Church Sunday night, July 29, 2012, was held, at least on the surface, in a civil atmosphere. Below the surface there were, however, some strong emotions at work, which was to be expected.

My main interest in attending was to observe Robert Gagnon, the very Calvinistic Presbyterian theologian in action, to note his strategy in such a public presentation and to evaluate the coherence of his arguments. Gagnon has a virtual cult status as an exegete among his evangelical and fundamentalist followers, but it should be noted that North American Calvinist evangelical theology is not a theology shared by theologians at academic institutions in Europe and also not by a good many North American academic theologians. To claim, as pastor Garlow did, that Gagnon is considered to be THE exegetical authority on what the Bible says about homosexuality is not accurate.

Gagnon’s methodology Sunday night was to present a rapid barrage of Scriptural statements and theological claims – so many, in fact, that it would be impossible to comment on them all. By using that methodology Gagnon, in effect, made it virtually impossible to engage in any meaningful discussion about his assertions. I shall attempt to identify a few of his assertion and make a preliminary critique of them. To begin with Gagnon asserted that the Bible, both the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, uniformly condemn homosexuality. That may or may not be the case, depending of your exegetical method. On that basis he went on to elevate his biblical exegesis as the beginning and end of all there is to understand and say about homosexuality. Consigned to outer darkness is any insight we may have about homosexuality (and, for that matter, human sexuality) from disciplines such as: history, philosophy, sociology, biology, psychology, and the personal experiences of gays and lesbians - - - UNLESS they inform us negatively. What we are left with is a sense that the Bible means to enforce a loathing, disgust and aversion about gays and lesbians because God condemns gay and lesbian sexuality. It was quite revealing that when Rev. Canon Allisyn Thomas asked Gagnon how he would honor the love and commitment she has found among members of the Cathedral who have been in a loving and supportive gay relationship for many years, Gagnon rejected that there was anything to honor.

Gagnon based his argument that the only biblically permissible form of sexuality is sex between a man and a woman. Males and females united sexually represent a complementary wholeness. - - - That is a poor argument because it reduces human sexuality to a level of biological mating, leaving out some of the most important factors that take human sexuality from mere biological mating and turns in into a part of the way in which humans honor and care for one another. In fact, Gagnon made a great deal out of asserting that biologically males could not relate in a loving and caring way to other males. What he did not say was that males supposedly always are aggressive and inherently promiscuous and that is, in his opinion, why male homosexual relationships cannot work. Without going into any depth he asserted that it was different in lesbian relationships. Professor Gagnon must have been very selective in his reading of sources. No wonder that one the debaters characterized Gagnon’s sources as “junk science”.

Gagnon was not averse to using philosophical arguments to bolster his claims. They all seemed to be of the sort “if - - - then - - -“. It is one way of using Aristotelian logic, but in order for his arguments to have any kind of truth value his premises must be true. - - - And herein lies the problem. His logic is of the same kind as the following: (a) Robert Gagnon cannot fly; (b) A stone cannot fly; ERGO: Robert Gagnon is a stone. Indeed, the formality of the argument is right – but it is utter nonsense because his premises are faulty.

Gagnon treated his version of Biblical exegesis as if it was on the same level as science. “The Bible says all we need to know about homosexuality”; “Jesus condemns homosexuality implicitly because he observed the Law”. Here Gagnon is in deep trouble. One maxim in evaluating a scientific statement is to use Karl Poppers theory of falsification. Here is my simplified version: FOR A STATEMENT TO BE SCIENTIFIC IT MUST ALWAYS BE OPEN TO FALSIFICATION. Example: “All swans are white”. Is this a scientific statement? Yes, because we can never observe all swans at the same time so it is possible that there is a black swan somewhere. The statement can be falsified. It is a scientific statement. (A trivial one, of course, but scientific nevertheless).

Gagnon’s claim that the Bible always condemns homosexuality and that it can be proved by doing exegesis of the proper scriptures is not scientific because Gagnon does allow for falsification. Other exegetes who may disagree with Gagnon’s exegesis as already excluded. Gagnon is left inside a hermetically closed argument that is not based on objective science nor on (if that is possible) an objective reading of the Bible.

In contrast to Gagnon, bishop Gene Robinson quoted Jesus’ Johannine promised that he would send the Holy Spirit to lead his followers into all truth. Robinson made the significant point of asking: “When do I know that I hear the voice of God and when is it my own ego masquerading as the voice of God?” This was obviously not a scientific statement, but is has the virtue that we could treat it as such. It correlates to a high degree with Popper’s theory of falsification. Robinson’s statement is a open statement, in principle and  open to falsification (it could be his own ego, or he could be stark, raving mad). Science will not help us to answer Robinson’s question.

May gays and lesbians in the Church may well ask variations of Robinson’s question  and although science cannot help us to answer it, we can find verification in the collective gay and lesbian experience they have of God’s nurturing love for them both in the Logos (Scripture and the living Christ); in the sacraments; in the transforming life in the Body of Christ, in the people of God on a pilgrimage to reconciled union with God. This seems to me to be far more persuasive of what God is up to in the world than the what Gagnon’s angry God is up to.

Fr. Bjorn Marcussen

Fr. Bjorn Marcussen is the interim priest-in-charge of Latina - Latino Ministry at St. Paul's Cathedral in  San Diego. He is a retired priest of the Diocese of San Diego. Before retirement he was Rector of St. Philip's Episcopal Church, Lemon Grove, where he developed the largest Spanish speaking community in the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego. Fr. Marcussen is an ordained old catholic priest,  the Union of Utrecht of Old Catholic Churches. These are national churches in Europe that split from the Roman Catholic Church in the 18. and 19. Centuries over issues of growing papal central leadership as well as the introduction of new dogmas about the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary and Papal Infallibility and Universal Jurisdiction. The Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht have since 1931 been in full communion with the Church of England and since 1946 with the Episcopal Church. 

Fr. Marcussen transferred into the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego in January of 2000.  His interest lies in systematic theology and the theology of the early Church of the first millenium. He has for a number of years critically followed the way US evangelicals do theology and interpret Scripture.  He is especially critical of the theology and exegesis of the ultra Calvinist seminary professor Robert Gagnon. Wherever people stand on the issue of gays and lesbians in the Church, the evangelical/fundamentalist mode of interpreting Scripture leads to a theology that "has all the answers" rather than the understanding of Scripture as a guide that leads us into all truth in a balance between Scripture, Holy Tradition and Reason.