Bible Study

Western Spirituality Group News

For more on Unitarian Universalism and Christianity, please see our new collection of web pages on UU Christianity, by James Hamilton.

April 2002

The fourth and final installment of Rabbi Monty Eliasov's class on understanding the Psalms and other texts of the Hebrew Bible, originally scheduled for March 17th, has been rescheduled for Sunday, April 7th, from 7pm to 8:30pm at the church. All interested are invited to attend. A small contribution is requested.

The purpose of the course has been to assist the student of the Psalms to unlock many if not all of those pesky terms that, more often than not, set up serious roadblocks to owning the Psalms as a vehicle for personal prayer, prayerfulness, inspiration, or reflection. In this fourth session, we will explore some relationships between "snippets" of the Psalms and one of the most beautiful forms of Christian worship-the four-part hymns using shape notes called "Sacred Harp." This form of sacred song began in England in the late 1600s and has continued in the Southern US to the present. As the Rabbi is not a trained musician, our focus will, as usual, be on the theology of the Psalms as a background for listening to and appreciating this sacred music.

Please bring your own copy (or copies) of the Bible (in English) with you to class. Any edition will be fine and, in fact, having variant translations in front of us will greatly help to support the course's purpose.

Rabbi Monty Eliasov teaches and ministers to the Heart of Texas Havurah, a Reconstructionist Jewish congregation in Austin, and has been Sunday morning guest speaker at Live Oak a number of times.

February 2002

NEW ADULT RE SERIES BEGINNING …

If you enjoyed Rabbi Monty Eliasov's December sermon, "Psalms, Praises, and Prayers," then you'll want to attend our four-session adult RE class led by Rabbi Monty. If you missed his sermon, then here's your chance to catch up! Rabbi Monty will lead discussion about the meaning of the Psalms and how to work our way over the obstacles and intricacies of scriptural language so that we may discover these classic passages' inspiration and enjoy their poetry. We will meet during the Western Spirituality Group's scheduled discussion time on Sunday evenings, February 3rd, February 17th, March 3rd, and March 17th, from 7 pm to 8:30 pm. A small contribution is requested for each class meeting. Monty Eliasov is rabbi for the Heart of Texas Havurah, a Reconstructionist Jewish congregation in Austin. He has spoken and led us in song several times at Live Oak.

For more information, contact James Hamilton at jacobus8@juno.com or 257-2912.

September 2001

WESTERN SPIRITUALITY DISCUSSION GROUP

The group will not meet on the first Sunday of September (Labor Day weekend), but we will meet at 7 p.m., Sunday, September 16th (3rd Sunday), at the church. When we meet we read, listen to, and discuss sermons, scriptures, and spiritual and theological writings from the liberal Christian tradition (and its Jewish roots) that lies at the historical core of the Unitarian and Universalist movements. We have approached the Bible as a diverse collection of ancient Jewish and Christian writings, seeking spiritual meaning with open and critical minds and an eye to historical and cultural contexts. We also seek spiritual wisdom from the medieval Christian mystics and "heretics," from contemporary "creation spirituality" and liberal theology, and from historical Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist expressions of Christianity and Judaism. There is no formal membership and anyone who shares our interests is invited to join us in (as medieval mystic Meister Eckhart put it) "flapping [our] gums about God."

August 2001

FLAPPING OUR GUMS ABOUT GOD

14th-century Christian mystic Meister Eckhart asked why people were "flapping your gums about God" instead of experiencing and integrating the Divine Presence into their lives. Nevertheless, our Western Spirituality Discussion Group flaps away on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month at 7 p.m. at the church. We flap from the ancient Jewish and Christian scriptures to the medieval sermons of Eckhart to modern and postmodern theologians such as Paul Tillich and Matthew Fox. Our August meetings will be on the 5th and the 19th. BYOB (Bible and/or beverage).

June 2001

Our Bible & Spirituality Discussion Group will meet at 7 p.m. on Sunday, June 3, and Sunday, June 17, at the church. On June 3rd, we will begin discussion of Matthew Fox's book, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the World. This book summarizes much of Fox's thought as expressed in his earlier major works, Original Blessing and The Coming of the Cosmic Christ.

Tentatively, for June 17th, we will read the Book of Numbers and review any other passages of interest from the Torah (1st 5 Hebrew scriptures). We will also continue reading the Acts of the Apostles and review any passages of interest from the Gospels.

The discussion group is open to anyone who is sincerely interested in Jewish and Christian scripture and spirituality, whatever your own spiritual path may be.