This Week In Common

Enter God's gates with thanksgiving!
Come into God's courts with praise!

You are invited to join the Bethany community for worship and prayers of thanksgiving this Wednesday (November 18) at 11:20am in Nicarry Chapel.

This service will include time for celebration and quiet reflection, focusing on the much beloved 100th Psalm, as we worship in a spirit of gratitude. Kelly Burk, Director of Campus Ministries at Earlham College, will bring the message, and Carrie Fry-Miller will lead worship.

Come, let us make a joyful noise to God, and worship with gladness!

This Wednesday, November 11, David Radcliff, director of New Community Project (http://newcommunityproject.org/), will preach in Bethany Chapel at 11:20am. The title of David's sermon is "It's the End of the World as We Know It (and we feel fine...?)" on Revelation 12:1-6, 13-17. Chris Fretz will lead worship.

Join the Bethany community for worship Wednesday, October 28, as Ruthann Knechel Johansen, President of Bethany Theological Seminary, completes the Fall Faculty Preaching Series, "Fertile Ground," as she preaches on the theme "It Shall Not Return To Me Empty (Isaiah 55:10-13)." Parker Thompson will lead worship.

Progressive members of the Church of the Brethren have found ourselves at a threshold. Whether we will continue standing in the doorway, go through it, or slam the door shut, the time has come to explore our place, and decide next steps.

The second annual Progressive Brethren Summit will take place November 13-15, 2009 (Friday-Sunday) at Elizabethtown Church of the Brethren in Pennsylvania.

Keynote speaker: Gordon Kaufman, Professor of Divinity Emeritus at Harvard Divinity School.

Dont miss engaging workshops, empowering worship, and wonderful fellowship.

The summit is cosponsored by the Church of the Brethren Womaen's Caucus, Voices for an Open Spirit, and Brethren-Mennonite Council for LGBT Interests.

More info, with registrations info and tentative schedule here.

Join the Bethany community for worship Wednesday, September 30, as Amy Gall Ritchie, Director of Student Development, continues the Fall Faculty Preaching Series, "Fertile Ground," as she preaches about "Trust Beyond Ourselves (Exodus 16:1-36)." Lindsey Frye will lead worship.

Discover "Fertile Ground" in Bethany Chapel's 2009 Faculty Preaching Series, in Nicarry Chapel, Wednesdays in September and October, 11:20am-12 noon.

In this dawning of new beginnings, we bring our vision of individual lives into the collective community together for a period of time. We can let God's momentum plant the way into fertility, new birth, and new life. Perhaps it is a time to explore the point of drought or saturation as the seasons of our lives change. We may even ask ourselves how we can create fertile ground to allow growth.

The Fall 2009 Bethany Preaching Series will focus on the ways in which our lives are brought into the seminary community in ways that grow, mature, die and continue on toward harvest through scripture, faith and theology.

This theme is especially appropriate as the word "seminary" is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as "A piece of ground in which plants are sown to be afterwards transplanted." Join us as we explore what it means for Bethany to be a fertile ground for growth and transformation.

Here are the dates, preachers and themes for each chapel service in this series.

September 16, Scott Holland: Beauty & Abundance Without Worry (Matthew 6:25-34)

September 23, Elizabeth Keller: Fallow or Fertile Future (Genesis 38:1-30)

September 30, Amy Gall Ritchie: Trust Beyond Ourselves (Exodus 16:1-36)

October 7, Tara Hornbacker: Theotokos (Luke 1:39-56)

October 14, Russell Haitch: Theme & Scripture TBA

October 28, Ruthann Knechel Johansen: It Shall Not Return To Me Empty (Isaiah 55:10-13)

Join the Bethany community in Nicarry Chapel, Wednesday September 23, 11:20am-12 noon.

Anna Lisa Gross will lead worship and Elizabeth Keller (Director of Admissions) will preach, continuing the Fall 2009 Faculty Preaching Series, "Fertile Ground," with the theme "Fallow or Fertile Future (Genesis 38:1-30)."

All are welcome to attend.

Join the Bethany community in Nicarry Chapel, Wednesday September 16, 11:20am-12 noon.

Tracy Stoddart will lead worship and Scott Holland (Bethany Professor of Theology & Culture) will preach, opening the Fall 2009 Faculty Preaching Series, "Fertile Ground" with the theme "Beauty & Abundance Without Worry" (Matthew 6:25-34).

Scott's sermon is entitled "Consider the Birds: On Beauty's Fearful Symmetry".

The service will move through the celebration of nature's beauty and complexity; to the other side of beauty: the aggression and terror of nature.... the ragged side of nature; and finally into the symmetry that beauty itself has in our lives and our role as we find our place in that rhythm.

All are welcome to attend.

Bethany Common Meal

Bethany Common Meal

Bethany Program Common Meal-Matt Boersma. Meal at 12:10.

Bethany Common Meal

Bethany hosts Joint Common Meal-CPE day

Bethany Common Meal

Bethany Common Meal