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February 23-March 30, 2012
2012 Lenten Noonday
Preaching Series
Mondays-Fridays 12:05-12:40 pm
Waffle Shop
Mondays-Fridays 11:00 am-1:30 pm
For almost ninety consecutive years during the
season of Lent, Calvary Episcopal Church has
hosted a noonday preaching series featuring inspiring and diverse speakers. Through the Series, which is free and open to the public, Calvary
provides numerous opportunities for spiritual renewal and growth,
and a deeper relationship with God.
The Series features dynamic
local and national speakers from various denominations and faiths
and takes place Mondays through Fridays from 12:05 to 12:40 p.m.,
beginning the Thursday after Ash Wednesday, and continuing through
the Friday before Palm Sunday.
February 23-24 at 12:05 pm
Thursday & Friday
The Rev. John M. Pitzer, O.P.
Promoter of Vocations and Development for Dominican Friars, Province of St. Martin de Porres, New Orleans, LA
“Love Wins—ALWAYS!” TheRev. Pitzer believes that is theessence of Christianity. Formerlyat St. Peter Roman Catholic Church in downtown Memphis and director of its St. Martin de Porres Shrine and Institute, Fr. Pitzer is now based in New Orleans. He helps “people discern their call to religious life” and oversees developmentfor the eleven-state southern Dominican province. He staunchly believes “there is inclusivity on every page of the Gospel, and we have a tendency to forget that” and continues to espouse St. Martin’s message of social justiceby recognizing “the goodness and dignity of all human persons” and realizing “that whatever our race, religion, gender or sexual orientation, we are all children of God”—called to “love God, love your neighbor and love yourself.”
Listen: February 23
Listen: February 24
FEBRUARY 27 & 28 ~ Monday & Tuesday
Phyllis Tickle
Author and Founding Editor of the Religion Department of Publishers Weekly, Millington, TN
Phyllis Tickle: Writer, editor, teacher, publisher, lecturer, wife, mother of seven, and authority on religion in America who lives north of Memphis on a small farm in Lucy, TN. With an unbridled sense of humor, Mrs. Tickle defines herself as “an evangelical Episcopalian.” She believes that “those who would guide and pastor” today must have “a growing understanding of a created order that is not reductionist, does not understand itself to be composed only of matter or mass and energy, is unsure of what precisely ‘life’ is and is not,” and “understands time as a dimension that can be manipulated.” This “radically new context for embracing and embodying the Christian mysteries” is necessary “if they are to speak for us now the theology of our children’s times.”
Listen: February 27
Listen: February 28
FEBRUARY 29 & MARCH 1 ~ Wednesday & Thursday
The Rt. Rev. Michael B. Curry
Bishop, Diocese of North Carolina, Raleigh, NC
It is said there are a few preachers in the Episcopal Church who are extraordinarily gifted, and Bishop Curry is one of them. At a clergy conference he told the priests and deacons of the Diocese of North Carolina to carry the Gospel book in worship as if there just might be something really important in it. He preaches the Gospel like his life depends on it, blending humor, storytelling, and sound theology with the power of the Holy Spirit. Last year, his initiative for North Carolina was “Come, Let Us Go to Galilee.” According to Matthew, after the Resurrection, Jesus went to Galilee, a land filled with diverse people from all around the known world. “We need to go beyond our various ideologies and go where God dreams for us to be.”
Listen: February 29
Listen: February 29 Evening Event
Listen: March 1
MARCH 2 ~ Friday
The Rev. Dr. Mary Lin Hudson
Professor of Homiletics and Liturgics, Memphis Theological Seminary, Memphis, TN
“Preaching has to be more relevant to the contemporary world in which we live.” Not an unexpected reaction from a professor of Homiletics and Liturgics at Memphis Theological Seminary, but why? Dr. Hudson believes that “preaching has not done enough of the tough work of analyzing the contemporary culture, studying the critical issues that perpetuate a climate of violence and harm, and finding the language to interpret the meaning of faith to a pluralistic and religiously skeptical society.” As a result, “people of faith” find it “easier to work on personal piety or social causes than it is to trust the power of resurrection to transform the way we live together in community.”
Listen: March 2
MARCH 5 & 6 ~ Monday & Tuesday
Dr. Marcus Borg
Canon Theologian, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Portland, OR
“Adult theological re-education at the congregational level is an urgent need within American churches today,” states Dr. Borg. After his long career as a writer and academician, he is now actively and intimately involved as the first Canon Theologian at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Oregon, where his wife Marianne is a priest on staff. He presents public lectures, teaches adult courses, preaches on an occasional basis, and consults with the cathedral staff about parish education programs. Borg says. “It is essential to Christian formation. And from my own experience and from a number of studies, I know that it has been a source of re-vitalization in hundreds of congregations around the country,” plus as a teacher andscholar, “it fits my vocation perfectly.”
Listen: March 5
Listen: March 6
MARCH 7 ~ Wednesday
The Very Rev. Tracey Lind
Dean, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Cleveland, OH
“A long time ago,” Dean Lind states, “I picked up a camera and went looking for God.” What has she found so far? “When I examine life through the eye of a camera, I am forced to step back, slow down, focus, and become deeply attentive to the situation.” Thus, “photography has taught me” to “open myself up to the Spirit so that I may experience God in unexpected people and places.” And as someone schooled in city planning, she believes that “an urban parish is an ideal context for trying and testing new ways of equipping the saints and building disciples for ministry in the world,” where “we call God by many names and come to God by many paths.”
Listen: March 7
MARCH 8 ~ Thursday
The Rev. John Leach
Rector, Holy Apostles Episcopal Church, Collierville, TN
The Rev. John P. Leach, Rector of Holy Apostles Episcopal Church, Collierville, TN, considers his wife the most important spiritual mentor in his life today. She “exercises compassion and love much more readily and quickly than anyone I know.” In terms of the challenges facing people of faith today, the Rev. Leach feels that “people seeking meaning in their lives are more interested in the mystery of God than they are with pre-packaged religion. People whom I encounter want to know if God cares for and loves them when they do not have all the answers, when things are not going well, and when the obvious paradoxes and ironies of life contradict what religion has narrowly defined for them as absolutely true."
Listen: March 8
MARCH 9 ~ Friday
Andrew Zirschky
Lead Consultant, Youth Ministry Architects, Nashville, TN
In today’s digital culture, how do we communicate the Gospel to our youth as social media rapidly changes the ways in which they connect? A doctoral fellow in practical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, Andrew Zirschky is a dynamic speaker and preacher who can powerfully articulate the shape of youth and children’s ministry in the 21st century. Ordained in the Church of the Nazarene, Andrew has been a youth minister for over a decade, is Academic Director of the Center for Youth Ministry Training at Memphis Theological Seminary and worked closely with renowned author Kenda Creasy Dean on her book Almost Christian, about why American teenagers are at once so positive about Christianity and at the same time so apathetic about genuine religious practice.
Listen: March 9
MARCH 12 ~ Monday
The Rev. Dr. Frank Thomas
Senior Pastor, Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church, Memphis, TN
Dr. Frank A. Thomas, Senior Pastor of Memphis’s Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church, believes that the greatest challenge facing people of faith today is “overcoming the consumerism that reduces the American Dream to economic benefit only” and instead realizing that “the essence of being a Christian is compassionate service to people whatever their circumstance or situation in life.” He also feels that “one of the biggest mistakes preachers make is too much bad news” and that they “must discipline themselves to offer authentic hope and more good news than bad to the hearers.” The most exciting book he recommends “to every person that will listen to me” is “Joan Chittister’s Scarred by Struggle: Transformed by Hope. She is honest about the struggles that all of us go through” but offers “real hope.”
Listen: March 12
MARCH 13 & 14 ~ Tuesday & Wednesday
The Rev. Becca Stevens
Founder, Thistle Farms, Nashville, TN
The Rev. Becca Stevens, Episcopal priest and chaplain at Vanderbilt University’s St. Augustine’s Chapel, responded, “I have been reading biographies,” when asked about her reading. “I love the idea that life offered up on the pages of a book reflects all the teachers and influences that helped that person create their unique life.” The Rev. Stevens is also founder of Magdalene House and Thistle Farms, a Nashville-area community and social enterprise that stands with women recovering from violence, prostitution, addiction and life on the streets. “Based on the ethic of love grounded in the Scriptures,” she hopes that while in Memphis, “I can continue encouraging the community to respond with lavish love to the women coming off the streets and out of jail.”
Listen: March 13
Listen: March 14
Listen: March 14 Evening Event
MARCH 15 ~ Thursday
Dr. A. J. Levine
University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
An Orthodox Jew and professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University, Dr. Levine finds “a fear of scholarship” in many people of faith today. For her, a “faith marked by fear and narrowness” instead of “openness to the complexity, mystery and majesty of the divine,” and “a faith that looks only to the Bible and not also to personal experience, to the teachings of various religious communities, and even to science, is a faith that has turned the Bible into an idol.” She grew up in “a predominantly Portuguese Roman Catholic” neighborhood, and her parents explained ways in which “Christianity was very much like Judaism.” Also, as she notes, “the New Testament is a very good source for reconstructing the history of the Jewish people in the first century,” so “the more I study the documents of early Christianity, the better Jew I become,” and better I’m able to “promote informed, respectful Jewish-Christian relations.”
MARCH 16 ~ Friday
The Rev. Sonia Walker
Associate Pastor, First Congregational Church, Memphis, TN
An ordained minister in the Disciples of Christ, she also holds standing in the United Churchof Christ and joined the staff of Memphis’ First Congregational Church after graduation in her “vintage years” from Memphis Theological Seminary. “I felt satisfied, but not complete” is her explanation for pursuing a seminary degree after careers in education, social work and communications as well as extensive volunteer and staff experience with nonprofit organizations. She feels “our challenge is to be on God’s side,” and follow as guideposts her interpretations of the first and second commandments: “love God with everything God gave me, mind, body, treasure, heart and soul; and love my neighbors [God’s bratty children, my brothers and sisters] as myself.”
Listen: March 16
MARCH 19 & 20 ~ Monday & Tuesday
Rabbi Micah Greenstein
Senior Rabbi, Temple Israel, Memphis, TN
“One God means one humanity” is how Senior Rabbi Greenstein of Memphis’ Reform Temple Israel defines one portion of what he terms his two-fold “life sermon.” The “second thread is my Jewish leap of faith that what God cares about most is not that we believe what is right but that we DO what is right.” Therefore, “the greatest challenge facing people of faith today is humility,” of “being aware of realities greater than one’s self, including other paths to God.” Rabbi Greenstein stresses that “we must move the emphasis from claiming that God is on our side to worrying more about being on God’s side of compassion, grace, justice, acceptance, and love,” and utilizing “this lifetime as one big opportunity for holiness.”
Listen: March 19
Listen: March 20
MARCH 21 ~ Wednesday
Professor Yasir Qadhi
Islamic Theologian & Scholar and Instructor, Rhodes College Religious Studies Department, Memphis, TN
Yasir Qadhi was an engineer before deciding to pursue studies in theology. He is now completing a doctorate in theology at Yale University. “Never before has religion been so marginalized as it is in our times,” he states, pointing out that “it is becoming increasingly difficult to be a person of faith in such a secular and, at times, anti-religious world.” He believes the essence of Islam is “a sincere, pure and humble devotion to the Creator of all,” which it shares with Christianity in the “commandments to love God with all one’s soul, and to love others as one loves oneself.” He also finds “the Muslim practice of fasting in Ramadan similar in spirit to Lent” – the purpose “in both faiths to increase one’s humility before God and one’s generosity to others.”
Listen: March 21
MARCH 21 ~ Wednesday Evening Event
Danish Siddiqui
Memphis Islamic Center, Memphis, TN
Danish Siddiqui is life-long Memphian and a product of the Shelby County school system. As a former Memphis Tiger, it’s only fitting that he’s also a big basketball fan. Besides being a fan of the Tigers and Grizzlies, Danish is a boardmember of the Memphis Islamic Center, a blogger for FaithinMemphis.com and tries to be a productive citizen. Recently he, along with a dynamic group of young professionals across the state, established a new non-partisan advocacy organization called the American Center for Outreach to empower Tennesseans to become informed and engaged on local issues that impact their everyday life and to keep Tennessee an inclusive and welcoming state for everyone.
Listen: March 21 Evening Event
MARCH 22 & 23 ~ Thursday & Friday
The Rev. Daniel P. Matthews
Rector Emeritus, Trinity Wall Street, New York, NY
Dan Matthews is one of the Lenten Series’ perennial favorites. His feisty and inspirational stories give great insight into the role of a Christian and leave listeners on the edge of their seats. Since 1972, Matthews’ work has been concentrated in larger, inner city parishes, but he also has been influential in bringing together faith groups and clergy through the Hallmark Television Channel,the Clergy Leadership Project, and the publication of Spirituality and Health. For years the rector of Trinity Wall Street in New York City, Matthews played a major role in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, as an apostle for hope and healing in lower Manhattan as the district sought to rebuild itself.
Listen: March 22
Listen: March 23
MARCH 26 ~ Monday
Fr. Nicholas L. Vieron
Pastor Emeritus, Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, Memphis, TN
Fr. Vieron recalls, “I enjoyed my first sacred service in the Bluff City in your church.” Upon arrival in Memphis, “I attended a wedding at your elegant Calvary sanctuary on Saturday, March 26, 1955—exactly 57 years ago!” About his role in the 1968 Sanitation Workers’ Strike, Fr. Vieron noted that recently a middle-aged, black man told him, “‘My dad was a garbage man. I remember him telling me how you and Rabbi Wax helped them during the strike.’ When I heard those words, tears filled my eyes.” Fr. Vieron continues “to enjoy my Adult Greek Class, now in its 40th year,” with a wide variety of students, who are every one “embraced in the reality that we are all children of one God.”
Listen: March 26
MARCH 27 ~ Tuesday
The Rev. Billy Vaughan
Teacher, Memphis School of Servant Leadership Memphis, TN
Mr. Vaughn often refers to Will Campbell’s eight-word definition of faith: “We’re all bastards but God loves us anyway.” Contemplating recent reading he’s found compelling, he selected "RaisingAbel: The Recovery of Eschatological Imagination by James Allison,which reminds me that God is about breaking down our dividing walls—that our faith is not about love for the righteous and judgment for the unrighteous, but about a Divine love that breaks through such categories and calls us into vibrant and radically merciful community.” Vaughn feels strongly that “the character of any leadership role we play needs to be grounded in our identity as servants.”
Listen: March 27
MARCH 28 ~ Wednesday
The Rev. Rosalyn Nichols
Pastor, Freedom’s Chapel Christian Church Memphis, TN
“At the end of the day,” Dr. Roz Nichols, Pastor of Freedom's Chapel Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), states, “it is my belief that people of faith today face the same challenge the people at Corinth faced in Paul's day”—which is “how to remain faithful to expressing our faith in ways that show our care and concern for all of God's creation, including the earth, sky and seas, the beasts, fowl, fish and creepy crawlers, and the human beings to whom we are all ultimately connected and related.” And additionally, “how does my faith free me up to help free others,” so that together we can achieve “healthy, loving, relationships?”
Listen: March 28
Listen: March 28 Evening Event
MARCH 29 ~ Thursday
The Rev. Linda McFadden
Interim Pastor, Bethesda UCC, Bethesda, MD
The Rev. Linda McFadden says, “I was tremendously excited about the book I recently read, MysticalChristianity: A Psychological Commentary on the Gospel of John by Jungian Analyst John ASanford. Sanford uses...Greek linguistics, biblical commentaries spanning the early church Fathers to the work of 20th century scholars, and the insights of contemporary psychology to lay bare the multiple layers of meaning in this gospel,” and explores how “John’s deep spiritual insights into the life and ministry of Jesus coincide with contemporary understandings of Jungian psychology.” Today, “nothing is valued unless it can be measured and contributes to the bottom line. This has led us to mistrust the subtle wisdom of dreams and prayer and intuition and blinded us to the subtle, the luminous,the ineffable.”
Listen: March 29
MARCH 30 ~ Friday
Friends of the Groom
Theater Company, Terrace Park, OH
“We’re a Christian theater group that tries to bring the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ alive through drama and comedy,” states Tom Long, the group’s director. He explains, “The best theater always shows more than it tells. I hope our work gives people a fresh vision of traditional Christian concepts and the person of Christ.” For him and the other performers, one of their great rewards “are those rare moments on stage when you feel as though the words are coming from somewhere else—as though you were not ‘performing’ so much as being a channel for God’s Spirit speaking through you. In that moment, your own emotion and the emotion of the character become almost indistinguishable.”
"ALL GOD’S CHILDREN GOT TALES"
A creative workshop for children in grades 1-6
Saturday, March 31, from 10:00 a.m. to Noon at St. George's Episcopal Church, 2425 South Germantown Road, Germantown, TN
$10
Create the storm that sinks Jonah – Build a whole house using human bodies – Boo the villains, and cheer the heroes! Come learn by doing, as Friends of the Groom Theater Company offers a taste of Christian theater. We’ll spend our time acting out scenes from the Bible, playing drama games, and learning how to tell stories about God like you’ve never heard them before.