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Jul 21, 2011

Online Bible Study Features 'Seminarian of the Week'

[Episcopal News Service] Seminarians from across the country have been taking turns leading The Episcopal Church’s online weekly Bible study discussion.

 

Based on the upcoming Sunday lectionary readings, the online weekly Bible study is available here: www.episcopalchurch.org/biblestudy   Participation is invited and welcomed in the online discussion. The discussion is conducted in both English and Spanish.

 

The innovative project kicked off in June, with Stephen P. Hagerty as the first Seminarian of the Week. The seminary registrar at General Theological Seminary in New York City, Hagerty has encouraged students to participate in this program and “to engage in the Bible in any way that works!” He observed, “The online weekly Bible study is just such an outlet. You can choose to engage privately or to reach out to others across the country who wrestle, wonder, or wail at some part of the Bible that confronts them each day or each week.”

 

The Rev. Clarence E. Butler, Ph.D., interim dean of Student and Community Life at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA, has also encouraged students to participate in leading the online Bible study, saying to them: “Here, it seems to me, is an excellent opportunity to practice your homiletic skills.”

 

“Reflecting on scripture is akin to observing the weather in Vermont,” joked Jakki Flanagan, a postulant (candidate for ordination) in the Diocese of Vermont and second-year seminarian at Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, CA. “Wait five minutes and it will change. While impressions regarding a particular passage may not change in five minutes, given some space, they often change over time. Just as with the weather, what we experience often depends on where we are, our geography, the landscape we find ourselves within, and the direction we are facing. As I search the sky for some indication of the weather, so too, I search myself for some inkling of where the scripture may lead me at this time.”

 

Flanagan will host the Episcopal Church’s online Bible study for the week of July 25-31, which will focus on the Revised Common Lectionary readings for Sunday, July 31. The gospel reading for that week will be Matthew 14:13-21, “Feeding the Five Thousand,” the miracle of the loaves and fishes.

 

To read her thoughts and insights, not only on the gospel reading, but on the Old Testament, psalm, and epistle readings as well, and to share your own views, visit the RCL Weekly Bible Study on the Episcopal Church website, Facebook, or Twitter. 

 

RCL Weekly Bible Study: www.episcopalchurch.org/biblestudy
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/RCL-Bible-Study/
Twitter: Follow @RCLBibleStudy