Recordings of previous forums are now available on our YouTube channel.
As an alternative to attending the meeting on Zoom, you may phone in by dialing 253-215-8782, Meeting ID 889 7318 2418 Passcode 507066
October 6: Talking Circles: Sumptuary Laws
Sumptuary laws were ancient laws designed to restrict excessive personal expenditures in the interest of preventing extravagance and luxury, usually on religious or moral grounds. Such laws have proved difficult or impossible to enforce over the long term. Phil Waite will lead a discussion about how we who are blessed with huge houses, multiple cars, and belongings need to be part of caring for those who go without.
October 13: Mark Charles
Native American author, Reformed Church pastor, and activist Mark Charles (Navajo/Dine) will be joining us virtually to respond to questions about his book with Soong-Chan Rah, Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery. This is a fantastic opportunity to have an Indigenous and learned voice answer our questions about the Doctrine of Discovery as we in the ELCA work through our Truth and Healing Movement. This will be a Q&A session about the book, but if you have not read the book you are still welcome to attend and hear what Mark has to say.
October 20: The Call Committee will outline the process that was used to identify our Candidate of Choice and will answer appropriate questions about the candidate. Return on this same afternoon for a meet and greet with the pastoral Candidate of Choice at 3 pm. This is the candidate’s opportunity to introduce himself and get to know us in a social gathering.
October 27: Meeting Dietrich Bonhoeffer--Then and Now
Join us as Donald Heinz leads us in the first of a 3-week adult forum class on Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Week 1: Bonhoeffer, Pastor and Theologian
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was the most famous German Lutheran of the mid-20th century, whose legacy was also implanted in American theology. He was one of the founders of the “Pastors’ Emergency League,” which arose to challenge Hitler’s pretentions to be the all-encompassing leader and guide (der Führer) of the German people. He spoke out insisting that the German church has only one absolute leader—Jesus Christ. Eventually Bonhoeffer became the head of a newly formed “Underground Seminary,” which the anti-Nazi “Confessing Church” developed to train pastors in the midst of a national emergency. He became a prolific writer, and we will look at two of his most famous books in week 2. Gradually he became involved in the plot to bring Hitler down. His ties to the July 20, 1944, conspiracy to assassinate Hitler and overthrow the Nazi regime eventually led to his martyrdom. Just one month before the end of World War Two in Germany, he was hanged by the Gestapo—on April 9, 1945, a date even now commemorated yearly as a saint’s day by American Lutherans as well as German Christianity.
(If you should become interested in the life of Bonhoeffer during this class you might consider watching the television documentary “Bonhoeffer Agent of Grace.” Should you ever visit Westminster Abbey in London, look up above the entrance door to see commanding sculptures of four Christian martyrs. One of them is Bonhoeffer.)
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