Friends:
Teaching is always an exhilarating experience.
The discussions are particularly interesting.
I just finished the lectures for the course in the
Future of Ecumenism [taught with Dr. Mitzi Budde]
at VTS and I also taught a week’s course for the Richmond
Consortium in January.
The discussions vary of course.
Up north, all the students came from churches with
similar, though not identical, ecclesiologies–all the students
at VTS have bishops for example [Episcopal, Lutheran and Methodist students]
In Richmond, the church organizations [Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran] tended to vary–with more emphasis
on the local church and hardly a bishop to be sighted!! This makes for interesting
analysis.
The students note, however, that functionally many things are similar.
[The students often have grown up in another Christian Tradition than their
present one, so the experiences vary considerably].
Of course this is one of the marks of contemporary American Christianity–boundaries
have become more fluid in practice–if not always theologically.
As always, we have a lot to learn in discussion with one another.
For me, this is enriching.
Peace,
John