In connection with the proposed new class blog, Don remarked that more than 30 years ago, his church leaders approached him about ways to deal with church members who would raise issues or make statements in bible class that others found discomfiting. He was asked to lead a class whose principle criterion would be openness…

I had a slight brush with the first chorus from Eliot’s pageant decades ago (my master’s thesis discussed distinctions among data, information, knowledge, and wisdom — you may see the connection if you read the lines below.) I had occasion to look up those distinctions just now, and in so doing found (only some, I…

Don: It’s very clear that in the narrative of the lost sheep, the consequences of isolation from the community are very great., The shepherd’s pursuit of the errant individual to bring him or her back to the fold, back to the community, gives one a sense of how much is at stake; of how great…

Don: In Matthew 18 (the story of the 99 sheep and the one lost sheep) we saw that Jesus is in the business of bringing lost sheep back into community, and it seems safe to assume, therefore, that there is value in so doing. Jesus clearly regards individualism as a state of incompleteness. The idea…

Jay led the meeting. Jay: Having just read M. Scott Peck’s book, The Different Drum: Community-Making and Peace, I thought today we might explore some of the principles and stages of community Peck talks about. Are there any parallels between the assertions in the book, on the one hand, and what God might be doing…

Don: As we all know, Alice’s daughter died on Wednesday. It is perhaps ironical to see, playing out in our own small community (that is, this class), the subjects we have been discussing: Community and individualism. Harry’s comments on the Maureen Dowd article we have been discussing in emails are also relevant to the topic.…