Auburn Media in partnership with Brick Presbyterian Church, First Presbyterian Church in the City of New York and Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church

Church attendance and membership are falling fast. More and more people claim to be “spiritual but not religious.” Religion and the state have never been more at odds. What is the future of faith?  Each session of this special film and speaker series will explore this question through a film excerpt, lecture and discussion.

February 7: Film and Conversation with Irshad Manji (OFFSITE at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church). Author, filmmaker and speaker Irshad Manji speaks about her Muslim faith and efforts throughout the world to promote Muslim reform and moral courage. Irshad will share a selection from her film Faith Without Fear and discuss her new book, Allah, Liberty and Love.

Is premarital sex a sin? When, and in what contexts, is sexual desire appropriate? With whom can I legitimately have sex? Are same-sex relations permissible? In an era where the phrases, “the Bible says” and “God says” are so often exploited, Bible scholar Jennifer Wright Knust’s book, Unprotected Texts, addresses what the Bible actually does-or does not-say about monogamy, polygamy, homosexuality, gender roles, and sex.

This past fall, participants in our Friday Lunch ’n Learn program watched selected interviews from Bill Moyers’s Faith and Reason series and then discussed the issues raised in the interviews. This Friday lunch series has been so powerful and nourishing, we had to bring a few sessions to Sunday mornings! Join us as we watch fantastic interviews from Bill Moyers’s Faith and Reason series on PBS followed by a discussion. On January 22, we’ll watch the interview with Mary Gordon and on January 29 the interview with David Grossman.

To learn more about “Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason” or to watch the interviews online, please go to www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason.

“With the buzz around the book and then the film version of THE DA VINCI CODE reaching a fever pitch and The PASSION OF THE CHRIST ranked among the 10 highest-grossing movies ever, what is it about religion that’s got America hooked? It’s an old debate between absolutes, the contrasting viewpoints of belief and disbelief that stirs the passions….What could be more salient to the discussion of faith and reason in a time of polarized passions than to ask our creative minds from the world of literature for guidance through the absolutes and ambiguities of our age? In negotiating our way into the gray world between faith and reason, we need all the help we can get.” —Bill Moyers

In 2006, Bill Moyers talked with some of the voices at the PEN World Voices Festival about their struggles with faith and reason. While much has transpired in the public conversation about faith and reason in the last five years, the writers Mr. Moyers talked to then continue to write and wrestle with these issues. During this lunchtime series, participants will watch one of Bill Moyer’s interviews with a selected writer and then discuss the issues of faith and reason raised in the interview. Please bring your own lunch. The group meets in the library for these adventurous discussions.

January 20: Richard Rodriguez writes about the intersection of his personal life with America’s most vexing cultural and political issues. The son of Mexican immigrants, Rodriguez described his struggles to assimilate into American society in Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez, an autobiography that remains controversial today for its criticism of bilingual education and affirmative action. Rodriguez is also the author of Days of Obligation: An Argument with My Mexican Father and Brown: The Last Discovery of America, a series of essays on art, culture and racial politics. Rodriguez is a contributing editor to Harper’s magazine and commentator on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS.

UPCOMING SESSIONS
February 10: Margaret Atwood
March 16: Will Power

Led by the Rev. Barbara E. Senecal-Davis
in conjunction with Fellows from Faith Acts Group*

Led by the Rev. Senecal-Davis and this year’s NYC Faiths Act Fellows,* the Interfaith Social Justice Book Group will begin by reading Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. From two of our most fiercely moral voices, Half the Sky is a passionate call to action against the oppression of women and girls in the developing world. Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn guide us on an eye-opening odyssey through Africa and Asia to meet the extraordinary women struggling there, among them a Cambodian teenager sold into sex slavery and an Ethiopian woman who suffered devastating injuries in childbirth. Drawing on their combined reporting experience, Kristof and WuDunn depict our world with anger, sadness, clarity, and, ultimately, hope.

Over the course of 4 sessions, individuals from a wide variety of faith backgrounds will come together to reflect on the book and share how their own religious traditions shape their reading of the text as well as their commitment to social justice.

Please contact The Rev. Barbara E. Senecal-Davis for information. The group is very limited in size and participation is at the discretion of the leadership. *For more information about Faiths Act, please visit www.faithsact.org.

This is a six-week course on the six essential pillars of faith in Islam—belief in God, His angels, His books, His messengers, the Day of Judgment and Divine Destiny—as explained in the Qur’an. Each class session will be devoted to an examination of one of the pillars of the Qur’anic theology. Students will learn what it means to believe in each pillar, why such a belief is necessary, the benefit of having such a belief and how maintaining such a belief is relevant to being a believer in the Qur’anic sense. The content of this course will consist of readings from several verses from the Qur’an, occasionally excerpts from Qur’anic commentary, and class discussions. Recommended Text: The Meaning of the Holy Qur’an (Amana Publications), translated by Abdullah Yusuf Ali—available online at Amazon.com as well as in major bookstores such as the Strand and Barnes & Noble.

Khalil Abdur-Rashid serves as Imam and Executive Director of Iqra Mosque in Brooklyn, New York and as Columbia University’s Muslim Religious Life Advisor.  Imam Khalil received his BSW degree in social work from Georgia State University; completed a specialization program in Islamic Law at the Dar al-Mustafa Institute in Yemen; and earned an MA in Islamic law at Marmara University and a doctorate in Islamic law from the Mirani Seminary, both in Turkey.  He is currently a PhD student at Columbia University, specializing in Islamic Law and Bioethics; and teaches at NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service.

On Sunday, January 15 at 9:45 a.m., please join David Eicher, Hymnal Editor with the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation, for a discussion on the New Presbyterian Hymnal Project, an undertaking that will result in Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal (2013). The new hymnal intends to make available a wealth of hymns and spiritual songs that have arisen since the 1990 hymnal, to acquaint worshipers with resources from Christian communities around the world and to review the great heritage of congregational songs that have been passed on to us from past generations. David will discuss the process used by the Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Song for selecting hymns, the reasons for a new hymnal now, the challenges of publishing a modern hymnal in an electronic age, how the new hymnal will be organized and the influence praise music, global music and contemporary hymns have had on the selection.

The stories of Jesus’ birth are some of the best known stories in the Christian tradition and the foundation of one of the world’s most celebrated holidays.  Recognizing the emotion and sentimental power of Jesus’ beginnings, the authors give these stories serious interpretive consideration, shedding new ideas on the familiar and celebrated start of Jesus’ life.

Each week of this study will focus on one of the three major parts of the book:

December   4  Parable, Overture and Context
December 11   Genealogy, Conception and Birth
December 18  Light, Fulfillment and Joy

In 2006, Bill Moyers talked with some of the voices at the PEN World Voices Festival about how they struggle with issues of faith and reason. While much has transpired in the public conversation about faith and reason in the last five years, the writers Mr. Moyers talked to then continue to write and wrestle with these issues.

Last month, participants in this series watched Bill Moyers interview the author David Grossman.  Participants will watch one of Bill Moyer’s interview with Mary Gordon, author of Final Payments (1978) and most recently The Love of My Youth (April 2011), then discuss the issues of faith and reason raised in the interview.  To learn more about “Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason” or to watch the interviews online, please go to www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason.

Please bring your own lunch. The group meets in the library from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.

Have you ever wondered why the hangings on the pulpit change colors? When you are asked during baptism to remember your own baptism do you have questions about the meaning of the sacrament? Two of the most important aspects of our worship life are the seasons of the church year and our sacraments. This on-going series is designed especially for church school teachers, parents, new members, and to any interested in the meaning of these vital parts of our community life.  This session will examine the Lectionary scriptures for the season of Advent.  Don’t know what the Lectionary is?  Come and find out!

November 6       A Jewish Perspective
Dr. Amy Kalmanofsky
November 13      A Christian Perspective
Charlene Sinclair
November 20    A Muslim Perspective
Hussein Rashid

The story of the Hagar and Ishmael in Genesis is a common story of three Abrahamic faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. How do these different traditions interpret and experience this story of family tension and being cast out into the wilderness? Join us as we listen to voices from these three traditions discuss various understandings of this powerful part of the tradition.

You are invited to the Great Hall to view Daylight in Our Hearts, an art exhibit commemorating lives, featuring gilded paintings by Karen Fitzgerald and photographs by Amelia Scheffs-Bevington. The Daylight in Our Hearts art exhibit is open to the public Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:00-4:00 p.m. through October 20.

The Eighth Annual Spa Day For The Soul, sponsored by the First Presbyterian Church, will be held in the Alexander Chapel.  The half-day retreat begins at 10:00 a.m.  Doors will open for registration at 9:30 a.m. with coffee and cinnamon rolls.  Lunch will be served at the Salmagundi Club.

“In Search of Your Creativity” is the theme of this year’s  half-day retreat.  The Rev. Barbara Davis, Minister of Christian Education, will be joined by musician Aaron Ryuko Shragge, who plays the dragon mouth trumpet and Shakuhachi (Japanese flute), and artist Caterina Bertolotto in leading us through various stages of the soul’s search for creative expression.  The half-day retreat will include an opportunity to experience watercolors, pen and pencil drawing and poetry.

To register, please send a $39 check payable to First Presbyterian Church and marked Spa Day for the Soul 2011 in the memo.  Send your check to: Spa Day 2011, ATTN: Alice Wade, First Presbyterian Church, 12 West 12th Street, New York, NY 10011.  The low price of $39 includes morning coffee with pastries, program materials, and lunch.

This special day of experiencing your creativity  is limited to thirty-five people, so please make your reservation early!  If you have any questions, please contact the Rev. Davis at (212) 675-6150 or bdavis@fpcnyc.org; or Katherine Gotshall English, producer of Spa Day for the Soul, at (212) 529-8512 or kathcoach@earthlink.net.

Marie Sibilla founded Spa Day for the Soul in 2004.
This day is dedicated to her.

October 23             The Rev. Barbara E. Davis
October 30             Imam Khalil Abdur-Rashid

A basic understanding of the Koran, the holy scriptures of Islam, can be beneficial in helping us understand our Muslim brothers and sisters.  Where did the Koran come from? Who wrote it? How is it organized, and what is its message? These are a few of the questions addressed in this study. Sessions will include the origins of the Koran, its form, and how Muslims use the Koran, as well as some of the themes (family matters, gender, Jihad, the afterlife) and content of the Koran, highlighting specific verses, or sura, so that participants can begin to read for themselves some of what the Koran contains.

October 16 – Washed in Grace: The Sacrament of Baptism
November 13 – Beginning the Church Year: The Season of Advent

Have you ever wondered why the hangings on the pulpit change colors? When you are asked during baptism to remember your own baptism do you have questions about the meaning of the sacrament? Two of the most important aspects of our worship life are the seasons of the church year and our sacraments. This on-going series is designed especially for church school teachers, parents, new members, and to any interested in the meaning of these vital parts of our community life.