Teaching and Proclaiming Faith in a Changing Society
The Wisconsin Conference has been invited by our
newest ecumenical partners in the Evangelische Kirche im Rhineland (The Evangelical Church in the Rhineland-EKiR) to share in a seminar on confession of Faith in today’s world. The seminar will include about 15 German pastors and will be held
right here in Wisconsin at Pilgrim Center on October 2-5, 2012.
Wisconsin Conference Seminar with Partners from Germany
October 2-5, 2012
Pilgrim Center, Ripon, WI
These words call Christians to express the core of the faith in liturgy. Through biblical texts, creeds, or statements of faith, or in musical settings, the community confesses what it believes and seeks to embody. In a postmodern world characterized by deconstruction, the confession of faith is questioned by many. People say they are “spiritual but not religious”, often meaning that they have an inner experience of the holy but don’t want to confine that experience to a doctrine or a set of statements.
How is the Confession of Faith to function in an increasingly secular world? How can the Church give shape to the faith that is the foundation for its mission? How is the faith to be taught and people formed for praise and service?
The Wisconsin Conference has a rare privilege. We have been invited by our newest ecumenical partners in the Evangelische Kirche im Rhineland (The Evangelical Church in the Rhineland-EKiR) to share in a seminar on Confession of Faith in today’s world. The seminar will include about 15 German pastors and will be held right here in Wisconsin at Pilgrim Center on October 2-5, 2012. This seminar is part of an EKiR clergy continuing education program that will bring our German colleagues to Wisconsin for a lively exchange. The hope of the event is that those of us in the UCC will have at least an additional 15 participants, and we welcome all who wish to participate.
Presenters:
- Professor Lee Barrett, the Mary B. and Henry P. Stager Chair in Theology and Professor of Systematic Theology at Lancaster Theological Seminary and author of a recent new edition and commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism, “The Heidelberg Catechism: A New Translation for the 21st Century”, Translator, (Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 2007. He will speak on Confession of Faith as a foundation of public social witness.
- Rev. John Thomas John is the former General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ and currently Special Assistant to the President of the Chicago Theological Seminary where he also teaches pastoral practice and polity. He will speak on the statements that shape the United Church of Christ.
- Rev. Joanne Thomson of our Wisconsin Conference staff will speak of the cultural context in which the Christian Church offers its witness today.
- Rev. Bryan Sirchio will provide worship leadership and speak on the “Emerging Church”
- Pf. Christine Busch is the Landeskirchenrätin of the Evangelische Kirche im Rheinland and a long-time member of their committee on partnership with the UCC. She preached at our Annual Meeting in 2011. Her subject will be the use of text in the work of the congregation.
- Pf. Max Koranyi is Chairman of the EUK-UCC Working Group of the Landessynode.
- Dr. Kent Ulery is Associate Conference Minister of the Wisconsin Conference and the author of “No Longer at Ease: Seven Churches and the Empire” (A study of Revelation 1-3). He will be one of our worship leaders.