Connie, Angie, Sue+ and Beth met in Sue’s office at 6:30. We opened the meeting with a prayer of thanksgiving for our many blessings.
We discussed the idea of adding a holy water font to the worship space. Sue found several options available commercially, and visited the League of NH Craftsmen Sunapee Craft Festival. Sue saw Charles LeFond at the festival, and Charles has generously offered to work with us to custom design and fabricate a holy water font for Transfiguration.
Angie brought volume 3 of the series “That The World May Know – Faith Lessons†by Ray Vander Laan. This is a series of lessons filmed on location in Israel which provide a video tour of places where the stories of the Bible actually happened. Ray Vander Laan is a teacher and historian.
We previewed the “Living Water†episode from volume 3 “Faith Lessons on the Life & Ministry of the Messiahâ€. Ray filmed this at En Gedi, an oasis in the desert. “Life is possible because there is water, and water is life,†Ray shared the story of David hiding in the desert from Saul and living in the desert for months, when he arrives at En Gedi. For months David has been drinking the water found in cisterns, like at Masada. Cistern water is stagnant, warm and often has things floating in it. He arrives at En Gedi and sees living water, a flowing waterfall from the rocks. The area is filled with vegetation and life. Ray and the group with him explore the analogy of our modern culture living in a desert, and needing a place like an oasis for refreshment. We each need to spend some time in En Gedi with God, in prayer and study to get strength for life. There are many people that are spiritually dying of thirst, and we need to be able to bring water to them. We ask ourselves; are we living water to the community?
The “Living Water†video prompted a discussion of introducing “living water†into our worship space. We could incorporate a fountain of water flowing down a wall at the front of the sanctuary behind the bench. Perhaps we could place candles around a fountain to symbolize living water and the Holy Spirit. And living water reminds us of our commitment to the Millennium Development Goals, could we tie living water to a service project such as “The Blood, Water Mission Group†which provide much needed water resources to villages in Africa.
Our discussion centered on how to use the series effectively for our congregational renewal program. Each lesson from the series is approximately 20 minutes long. There are 7 volumes in the Faith Lesson Series for 56 episodes with additional series for Easter and Christmas. We will review the Easter and Christmas series for the Advent and Lent adult education programs. We will review more of the Faith Lesson series for an ongoing adult education program. Questions remaining; when can we hold adult ed sessions, frequency and duration of the program, will people come, is the content appropriate for the audience?
Possible adult ed for the fall; Churches Teaching Series book on “What the church teaches about the Bibleâ€
Book recommendations:
“Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus†by Joachim Jeremias, ISBN 0-8006-1136-5
“The Robe†by Lloyd C. Douglas, ISBN 0-395-40799-0
At our July meeting we reviewed the video “Churches for Common Prayer: Buildings for the Liturgical Assembly." produced by the Episcopal Church Building Fund with The Episcopal Church Electronic Media Department. The consensus is that this video is a good match for our worship renewal plans.
Our next meeting is Sept 3 at 6:30 in Sue’s office.
Notes submitted by Beth Bell Lavoie