The Adult Forum meets in the Fellowship Hall and offers topics for discussion ranging from ancient history to current events.
At the Adult Forum in November
Adult Forum: 9:15 Sunday mornings in the Fellowship Hall
· November 6: Pill Packing: In support of Maureen Cunningham’s involvement with an annual medical mission to Honduras on January 7–15, 2012 folks attending the Adult Form will be supervised in packing 30,000 vitamins into baggies for individual use while hearing about the mission.
· November 13:“Restorative Justice”: Richard Hoey-Bey, our current reentry partner, is scheduled for release on November 7. On November 13 Richard will make a presentation at the Adult Forum on the subject of “Restorative Justice.” His description follows:
Twenty-one years ago I was directly responsible for a man losing his life.
As I’ve matured, so has my remorse and shame. Making amends is uppermost in my mind and the parameters of Restorative Justice render me this pertinent opportunity.
My perception of self is clear for I am a complex of regret and promise. I have no answers, mostly questions, and a simple desire to be a part of a better tomorrow.
I feel that I have to restore justice with the victim’s family first, though. However, I am nervous about how to approach them. Saying “I’m sorry” seems categorically insulting. In my way of thinking “I’m sorry” is only appropriate when it accompanies the return of what’s been taken, and I can’t return that son to his parents, that brother to his siblings, that father to his children, that man to his community, co-workers, religious family; nor can I restore his lost contributions to humanity.
Restorative Justice, I know, is bigger than my issue for it expands to include community as well as Mother Nature, and I’d relish the opportunity to explore these aspects with St. Matthew’s congregation. Doing so at an Adult Forum will provide me with the useful advice I so desperately need as well as the opportunity to advance the necessity for Restorative Justice with intelligent dialogue.
God willing, I will see you on November 13th.
Peace and blessings, Richard Hoey-Bey
· November 20: Advent Crafting: Children and adults alike are invited to come and create an Advent-themed craft that will help mark the season which begins the following Sunday. Materials and instruction will be provided. This is offered as part of Children’s Ministries’ focus on “Bringing Home the Faith,” providing devotional ways to practice our faith at home as well as at church. All are welcome. *Please note: Parents will bring children to the Choir Room at 9:15 for music, and children will come to the Fellowship Hall at 9:30.
· November 27: Sunday Advent Series “Expanding Muslim Christian Futures” begins: Just over a decade ago, I was speaking at a Methodist church with a Duke colleague who also happened to be a Muslim imam. It was the immediate aftermath of 9/11. We struggled to make sense of its horror, and what might lie ahead for people of faith, whether American or Arab, African or Asian. A member of the audience later sent me a book: More in Common than You Think - The Bridge between Islam and Christianity. That title remains both a goal and a challenge. This year, 2011, we have the first Sunday of Advent and the first day of the Muslim New Year (1 Muharram 1433 AH) occurring on the same day. To mark that commonality, and to explore what lies ahead in our collective future, we are going to dedicate the Advent season education hour at St. Matthew's to Muslim and Christian bridge building.
On the First Sunday of Advent, November 27, we will welcome the Muslim Imam of Duke University, Abdullah Antepli. He will share with us his experiences of the diverse, often disparate voices, within Islam, and between Muslims and Christians, at Duke and elsewhere. Imam Abdullah is Turkish, but he has lived and traveled throughout Asia, and he also studied to be an imam at the Hartford Seminary Foundation in Connecticut.
The Second Sunday of Advent, December 4, we will welcome another Muslim Imam, Professor Ebrahim Moosa, Department of Religion, Duke University. It was Professor Moosa who shared the spotlight with me when we talked to that Methodist gathering after 9/11 over one decade ago. He has had numerous experiences in Muslim-Christian reflection, both as a South African imam during the Apartheid struggle and also as the member of a Christian-Muslim study group co-chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Emir of Qatar.
The Third Sunday of Advent, December 11, I will have just returned from overseas. I will engage a set of issues that concern progressive Muslims in the UK, sharing with St. Matthew's parishioners the experience of a weekend seminar at Sarum College, Salisbury UK dedicated to the theme of Muslim cosmopolitanism.(I will also have had the recent experience of worshiping in the glorious Salisbury Cathedral.)
The Fourth Sunday of Advent , December 18, there will be a collective engagement with Eliza Griswold’s book, The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from The Faultline between Christianity and Islam, the best- selling book by the daughter of the former Presiding Bishop, Frank Griswold, herself a prizewinning poet and well traveled journalist. St. Matthews' parishioners are encouraged to read her book throughout Advent 2011, and we will make direct reference to her arguments and recommendations in this final session of what looks to be another high water mark of spiritual-intellectual engagement at our neighborhood parish church.
--The Reverend Dr. Bruce B. Lawrence