The Catechism & Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth

Hello Friends,
Eat, Share, Pray is our weekly dinner and conversations about our faith. This past Wednesday we talked about the Outline of Faith, or Catechism.

What is the Catechism? It is the written instruction of our faith and what we believe, organized in a question and answer format. It provides the teachings of the church regarding of humanity, nature of the God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, what is scripture, etc. In the early church requiring up to two years of preparation prior to baptism. In our Anglican tradition, the catechism ‘is a point of departure for discussion’ of our belief and practice. The Catechism is found on pp 843 – 862 in the Book of Common Prayer and online at http://anglicansonline.org/basics/catechism.html .

Our dinnertime discussion circled around themes of trust, good and evil, hope, God and faith. We talked directly about how these words of instruction are relevant in our life today. In a world where violence is on our corners, where disparity of wealth grows and poverty abounds, where common decency seems in short supply, where is God? What can the Catechism teach us that is relevant anything today?

These are good questions; bad behaviour and evil existed in the world since Cain slew Abel. What are the answers? I suggest we ponder, and pray over what God means to each of us, over our call to action as Christian people and our response as the Christian community in our world. Our answers will vary, and will bring more questions. For myself I believe our Christian hope that harmony and peace will be in the world, I believe my faith in God feeds me like manna in the desert and I pray that we find our answers and strength by following in the ways of Jesus.

Eat, Share, Pray, our dinnertime conversations about faith continue this month:
Oct 12 Who is God is in my life?
Oct 19 Sacraments, let’s talk about them
Oct 26 ‘Traces of the Trade’ will be screened with discussion following.

I want to mention Rev Fred Shuttlesworth, pastor, civil rights leader, citizen, went home to Jesus this Wednesday past. Rev Shuttlesworth fought racial discrimination his whole life; he survived his house dynamited, was beaten senseless trying to integrate high schools, and in the facing the dogs and fire hoses of Birmingham he was in the front lines. Rev Shuttlesworth worked with Dr King and the Southern Christian Leadership conference challenging racism not only in Alabama but also in Cincinnati where he moved in . In remembering Rev Shuttlesworth I also recall his comments against the passage of LGBT equality laws in Cincinnati; that he didn’t equate gay rights with civil rights is personally troubling for me. How complex the human character, he had those views yet he worked with Bayard Rustin , a gay man, and others in founding the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and in the struggling for civil rights. As a seminarian I read about Shuttlesworth and Rustin, their Christian work for civil rights inspired me to preach about God and Social Justice in the same breath. I am a beneficiary of their work fifty plus years ago for which I say ‘Thank you.’ A complex, brave, and faith filled man; God rest your soul, Rev Shuttlesworth, may light perpetual shine upon you.

See you out and about,
-eric