Our Life Together: The Routine.
Film School: 7th - 10th grades, Sunday, 10am - 10:50am.
Watching 20 minutes a week of contemporary films and other media, we learn to sort through what we watch and what we hear, listening for what God has to say to us. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. - Romans 12:2
Catechumenate: 11th - 12th grades, Sunday, 10am - 10:50am.
A two year journey that creatively moves through the Catechism of the Episcopal Church emphasizing what you believe and why? As well as what we do and why? An actual Pilgrimage to England is offered in the summer as an integral part of the class.
Se*lah: 7-12th grades, Sundays, 5pm - 7:15pm
A holy pause in the grand orchestra of life. A place to take a break. A place to catch our breath. A place to remember who we are, who God is and what this life is really all about. A place to return to God before we return to our weeks. Se*lah is an oasis along the Way.
Here at Se*lah we gather as a community of youth and adults for worship exploring our place in the world as Followers of the Way. By recognizing what iis holy in the details of our everyday lives we go further in our relationships with each other and with ou Maker and Redeemer. Creatively we stop and notice; we stop and listen; we stop and rest in the hoiliness that pervades our lives, remembering the God who not only still sings in this world but the God who sings to me.
The evening’s structure is loosely based on an Order for Evening Worship found in the Book of Common Prayer and our liturgy evolves seasonally. Our gathering in some ways often resembles the gatherings of the first Christians and the first churches. We begin with prayers calling us to stop and take this holy pause and then continue to break bread together with supper. And then through the Scriptures and through art, music, images, exercises and even games we search for the God who speaks to us.
Weekly we then respond to God through conversation with each other in smaller groups. Here we also reflect on our weeks and pray for each other. We re-gather as a group for benediction where we bless each other before being sent forth out into the world.
Summer Sabbath:
Summer is a time of rest. School's out. It's time to play, It's time when life shifts gears. Everything feels lighter. So summers are the time when we re-learn how to rest, how to play, how to hang out, how to serve, how to grow, how to enjoy life. Leaving aside all the stresses of the school year and practicing the all too often forgotten commandment of Sabbath. So in the summer we set out to "sanctify" (make holy) all the playing, swimming, riding, hammering, sweating, resting, relaxing, reading, wathcing and listening that makes up our summers. We have roaming house parties, lunch after church, see movies and have summer studies. We take pilgrimages near and far, to the mountains of Tennessee and to the holy places of Great Britain.
