I am on retreat this week, but in the meantime, two notes:
Graphs about Religion
I want to strongly, STRONGLY recommend the website of Ryan Burge called Graphs about Religion. When I cited that statistic a month ago that the majority of the people leaving institutional religion are those without a college degree, it was information from his work. Or consider this recent article about Mass attendance plummeting.
Trinity Lutheran VBS
The Parish Office was recently contacted about advertising the Vacation Bible School happening up the street at Trinity Lutheran. I did not have to think very long before agreeing that this was definitely something we would be willing to advertise in the bulletin and on campus. I want to make clear my reasons:
Of all the non-Catholic denominations, we have the most in common doctrinally and ecclesiologically with the Orthodox, then with the Traditional Anglicans, then with the LCMS (Lutheran Church Missouri Synod). Yes, we and the LCMS disagree on some very important matters, like the authority of the Pope/bishops, the sacramental nature of the priesthood, and the sacrificial nature of the Mass; but in a world of increasingly aggressive secularization, we need as many Christian allies as possible and what unites us with the LCMS is far greater than what divides us. When we can find opportunities to collaborate with other Christians (and especially these three groups), we ought to take them, so that we can work towards that unity which Jesus prays would mark all of his believers. And, honestly, when it comes to teaching young children about the Bible, I think the LCMS is going to do a pretty stellar job that I feel comfortable entrusting any of our parish children to.
Given that our parish is not offering a VBS this year, if you are interested in registering for Trinity’s VBS, you can find information on their website at https://www.trinitybellingham.org/vbs/. The dates are July 24 – 28, 9:00 am to noon.
Fr. Moore 