Where we’ve been, where we’re going

Posted on October 31, 2010 by Steve Gruenwald

The book club has been going for ten months now, and I thought it might be of interest to recap where we’ve been. Here’s the history so far:

January: Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell)
February: My Stroke of Insight (Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D)
March: Mark Twain trio:
Letters From the Earth
Extracts from Adam’s Diary
Eve’s Diary
April: Ninety-Five Theses (Martin Luther)
May: The Plague (Albert Camus)
June: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Rebecca Skloot)
July: Good Omens (Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett)
August: Man’s Search for Meaning (Viktor Frankl) and
Existentialism and Human Emotions (Jean-Paul Sartre)
September: The Shack (William P. Young)
October: Only a Theory (Kenneth Miller, Ph.D.)

And next:

November: Candide (Voltaire)

I’m pretty pleased with the variety and richness of the material we’ve covered. My only regret is that we have not found more people who are both interested and willing to come out on a Saturday morning.

As regular members know, I maintain a page of reference material at http://www.swhi.net/~steveg/StNick/, including a “Suggested Reading List.” I hope it is understood that this is not simply a list of books we have read or may all read together as a group in coming months; some of them, at least, will appeal to a few members but not others, and some (I hope) to members of the St. Nicholas community who are not joining our Saturday morning group at all. All of them are (I believe) potentially of interest anyway. Additions to the list are always welcome.

Also on the main page, I have posted some extra reference materials as to some of the topics we’ve covered. Check back now and then for items related to books we have read or are going to read.

– Steve G

Crossing The Thames

Posted on October 27, 2010 by ginny

That’s the informal slang for those who are changing their church affiliation from Roman Catholic to attending an Anglican/Episcopal church. Those headed in the opposite direction are said to be “crossing the Rubicon,” which refers to a famous boundary river in the ancient Roman empire.

It’s not surprising that Episcopal churches benefit from departing Catholics. Articles on departing Catholics in NCR and Commonweal interview Episcopal priests from different parts of the country who estimate that upwards of 50% or more of their new members are ex-RC. That certainly matches with our informal observation at St Paul’s Cathedral, where lots of the congregants are ex-Roman. We’ve even met a couple of former priests.

Via The Friends of Jake: Churches attack gays, and the Roman Catholic exodus

As Father Steve is fond of reminding us, all three of the priests at St Nicholas were originally ordained in the Roman Catholic Church and left for the Episcopal church, each for compelling personal reasons. And all three attended the same Catholic seminary, too. About half of our members originally started out as Catholics, which pegs us as a fairly average sample.

A Different Kind Enthusiasm Gap

Posted on October 24, 2010 by ginny

It’s sad to see this story, but there is hope. A good friend of the webmistress is a very committed Catholic who made sure, on a recent visit by train to the Chicago area, to attend mass at Old St Patrick’s as soon as she arrived at Union Station. Attending Mass, to her and many Catholics, is as necessary as air, water, food, and shelter. She got what she needed then, but she wasn’t staying long enough to attend church with me at St Nicholas. Many of our parishioners are former Catholics, who are getting what they need, too. I wonder what she would have made of the experience?

Chicago-area Catholics mostly approve of the pope, their cardinal and their parish priest, but they don’t like being told how to conduct their sex lives and they find the Sunday mass deadly dull, best-selling author and former Chicago Sun-Times columnist Andrew Greeley writes in his latest and final book.

Via Greeley book: Catholics lack enthusiasm for mass :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Books

and also via The Lead