On November 30, the Adult Bible Study will start the six-week Advent Series titled “Advent of the Savior.” This is a six-week Bible Study edited by Cindy Bunch. For those of you who have been around Edmonds Presbyterian for a few years, yes, we did this same study five years ago. The study will run until epiphany, with the last day of the Sunday study being January 4 and for the Tuesday study, they will wrap up on January 6.After that, we will begin a fifteen-week study based on hymns of the church, using excerpts from the book “Songs for Renewal” by Janet Lindeblad Janzen with Richard J. Foster.
|
On October 24, members of various churches throughout Edmonds and beyond met to worship and address how to respond to the threat of “Christian Nationalism.” The Bishops of the United Methodist Church and the ELCA Lutheran church spoke about their concerns with the rise of this movement that calls itself Christian nationalism but appears neither Christian nor patriotic. Members the United in Faith Coalition will meet every first Wednesday of the month at the Edmonds Methodist church to discuss responses, but one of the first things that arose from this meeting is this list of ways that people can help out, whether they are from small churches or large or not even from a church.
Food Bank Drives – urgent collections 1. Edmonds Food Bank: 828 Caspers St. Lower level of Edmonds UMC https://edmondsfoodbank.org/
425-745-1635 https://www.lynnwoodfoodbank.org/ 3. Search food banks in your area: https://www.hungerfreewa.org/foodbanks Other Community Needs 4. Edmonds Toy Shop – At EUMC - Saturday Dec. 12 – 1500 children served https://edmondsfoodbank.org/toy-shop/ 5. Lynnwood Christmas Toy Shop (through their Food Bank) at Trinity Lutheran Church, Lynnwood Immigrant support and protection 6. WAISN Rapid Response Virtual Training; 11/5/25 at 6pm register tinyurl.com/novrapidresponse Next training is December 10. Registration link provided later. 7. WA Immigrant Services Network - WAISN: Accompaniment training – see WAISN Facebook page
Registration required for Zoom link - tinyurl.com/Accompaniment-Nov2025 8. Tacoma Detention Center: La Resistencia https://laresistencianw.org/ go to Facebook page for regular updates on detainees, actions regarding Hunger Strike, reports on deportation flights from King County airport, monthly Saturday in-person protests – watch FB page for date in November. Resource groups at United in Faith: A Call to Action ACLU of Washington: https://www.aclu-wa.org/ Edmonds Food Bank: https://edmondsfoodbank.org/ Faith Action Network: https://fanwa.org/ Housing Hope: https://www.housinghope.org/ League of Women Voters: https://www.lwvwa.org/ Refugee & Immigrant Services Northwest: https://risnw.org/ Snohomish County Indivisible: https://www.snocoindivisible.org/ Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network (WAISN) : https://waisn.org/ The Adult Bible Study of C.S. Lewis' "Reflections on the Psalms", will continue through Sunday June 22, with the Tuesday Bible Study ending the Tuesday before that. For the summer, we will have informal post sermon discussions with Pastor Rob, but regular Bible Study will resume on September 7, where we will begin studying the book of James. The material for that study will be available in August.
The Adult Bible Study is continuing to work its way through "Reflections on the Psalms" by C.S. Lewis. The class has been well attended, and good discussions are flowing. Some of us have come to realize that someone who died more than 60 years ago can have some valid insights that can help us to understand the Psalms in our modern era. Even if you have not been attending the class, you can join us in the middle of the discussion. Each chapter takes on different topics. In May we will be covering the chapters entitled "The Fair Beauty of the Lord," "Sweeter than Honey," "Connivance" and "Nature."
On March 30, we start a study of Reflections on the Psalms, by C.S. Lewis that should take us through most of June. In this book, Lewis breaks out themes he sees in the Psalms, and addresses some of the common concerns that people have about the Psalms such as “What do we do with the cursing Psalms?” when the writer of the Psalm curses his enemy and wishes terrible things would happen to them; “Why does God want us to praise him?”; “Can we really relate to poetry written for a very agrarian culture?”; and “Is it appropriate to apply a New Testament understanding to Old Testament scripture?” Lewis can be challenging to understand as he is writing as a professor of English Literature at Oxford, but his insights and thoughts can help us look at the Psalms differently and find new meaning and understanding in familiar scriptures.
Adult Education classes are on Sundays (Except Easter) after worship at 11:30 am in person or by Zoom, or on Tuesdays at 10:00 by Zoom. Come join use and learn more about the Psalms and more about this very popular Christian author who makes it clear that he is not a theologian or a Biblical scholar. Eileen Otti, Elder in charge of Education and Outreach Adult Bible Study Starts Advent Study on December 1
The Adult Bible Study Group will be wrapping up its study of 2 Corinthians on November 17 and 19. The following Sunday will be a break from study, and Bible Study will reconvene on December 1, the first Sunday of Advent with Walter Brueggemann’s “Names for the Messiah.” This study will last through the four Sundays of Advent (or the Tuesdays after, if you are with the Tuesday morning Bible Study). This study focuses on the names of the Messiah spelled out in Isaiah 9:6, a passage made famous in Handel’s Messiah: Wonderful Counselor (Handel put a comma between these two, but there is none), Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. We will study each of these names of the Messiah separately during the Sundays of Advent. Once Advent is finished, we will start a study of the catechisms, creeds and confessions recognized by the Presbyterian Church (USA) in the new year. Bible Study is available through Zoom on either Sunday or Tuesday. The Sunday group is both in person and by Zoom and the Tuesday study is by Zoom. If you are interested in attending either class, reach out to the office for the Zoom information or talk to Eileen O or Pastor Rob. The 2 Corinthians Bible Study is off to a successful start, with several weeks completed and a plan to run to the beginning of Advent. We have added the ability to attend the Sunday study by Zoom and are excited to have people who live a distance away join us in Bible study on either Sunday or Tuesday. If you are interested in attending either class by Zoom, reach out to the church office and they can give you the appropriate links and contact information.
Pastor Rob and the Christian Education team are already at work pondering the next classes and look forward to an Advent study as well as a study of some of the Confessions. The Sunday morning Bible Study continues to be a larger group, averaging seven or more people with a changing group of attendees, while the Tuesday morning study is smaller with a very reliable core group using additional materials for the study. If you have something specific you would like to see covered in adult Bible study, please reach out to Sue, Eileen or pastor Rob. We will be happy to consider your suggestions as we prepare our study for the rest of the year. On September 8, the after-worship adult Bible Study will begin studying Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians and the Tuesday online study group will start the following Tuesday. If you are unable to attend the Sunday worship in person, you are welcome to attend the Zoom study on Tuesday. Here is the Zoom link: https://zoom.us/join, or call 425-776-4334 if you have any questions about how to join that class. We encourage anyone who is interested to join that class, even if you do not live anywhere near the physical church building.
Pastor Rob specifically wanted to address Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians this fall. The letter is more personal than other letters from Paul. In it, Paul tells about some of the challenges he has faced in his ministry and this makes it a good follow up to our study of Acts last year, but there are additional issues that make this a good study for Fall 2024. In Eugene Peterson’s introduction to 2 Corinthians in The Message, he states: The provocation for Paul’s second letter to the Christians in Corinth was an attack on his leadership. In his first letter, though he wrote most kindly and sympathetically, he didn’t mince words. He wrote with the confident authority of a pastor who understands the ways God’s salvation works and the kind of community that comes into being as a result. At least some of what he wrote to them was hard to hear and hard to take. So they bucked his authority—accused him of inconsistences, impugned his motives, questioned his credentials. They didn’t argue with what he had written; they simply denied his right to tell them what to do. . . . Because leadership is necessarily an exercise of authority, it easily shifts into an exercise of power. But the minute it does that, it begins to inflict damage on both the leader and lhe led. Paul, studying Jesus, had learned a kind of leadership in which he managed to stay out of the way so that the others could deal with God without having to go through him. All who are called to exercise leadership in whatever capacity –parent or coach, pastor or president, teacher or manager—can be grateful to Paul for this letter, and to the Corinthians for provoking it. As we approach election season, it seems a good idea to review what we can learn about leadership from this important letter, both the leadership that Paul exhibits and the leadership of the Corinthian church. We may all want to consider what it means to be a leader as we make our selections in November. On June 23, we concluded our study of the Book of Acts using the study from Scot McKnight. The Tuesday Bible study wrapped their study up on June 18. This study took the whole school year and worked all the way through the Book of Acts. Many EPC members participated in this study and learned a lot about the early Christian Church and discussed how what they did and learned in the early church is still applicable in our lives today. We look forward to starting a study of Second Corinthians on September 8. In the meantime, we will be having a sermon discussion group discussing Pastor Rob’s sermon series on the Book of Hebrews. If you have ideas or thoughts about future Bible study topics, reach out to Eileen O or pastor Rob.
Summer and Fall Adult Education
The Adult Bible Study which is studying the Book of Acts should wind up by late June. For the summer, the adult education offering will be a discussion of Hebrews related to the passages preached that day. The Adult Bible Study will resume after Labor Day with a study of Second Corinthians. Second Corinthians provides a good backdrop for thought and discussion leading up to the November elections. The study should end before Advent. There will be a slight divergence of source material for the study with the Zoom Bible study being able to ask and follow more guided questions than the larger in person study that takes place every Sunday after worship. Summer in Edmonds As summer approaches, it is a good time to appreciate the City of Edmonds and all it has to offer. This summer there will be multiple activities put on by the City. Hopefully, you will have the opportunity to check out what Edmonds has to offer. Check the City of Edmonds website for particulars, but this summer, Edmonds plans a lot of activities that you may want to consider, including: Saturday Summer Market Edmonds Summer Wine Walks Edmonds Arts Festival Pride Celebration at Civic Center Playfields Puget Sound Bird Fest 4th of July Parade Edmonds in Bloom Garden Tour Concerts in the Park Taste of Edmonds Classic Car Show |
Archives
December 2025
The CallerA monthly newsletter of upcoming events, celebrations, and news of the church community. Categories
All
|
RSS Feed