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EDUCATION FOR MINISTRY

Reading and Reflection Guide

Volume D, 2020–2021f

Living into the
Journey with God

Copyright © 2020 by The University of the South,
335 Tennessee Avenue, Sewanee, TN 37383

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission
of the publisher.

Unless otherwise noted, the Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard
Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in
the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Used by permission:

“On Being Theologically Literate” from Modern Believing 38 © 1997 by Liverpool
University Press.

“God as Trinity: An Approach through Prayer” from We Believe in God by Stephen
Sykes © 2006 by The Archbishop’s Council and is reproduced by permission of
Church House Publishing copyright © churchofengland.org.

Kaleidoscope Institute materials reprinted under license #202006EFM.

Church Publishing
19 East 34th Street
New York, NY 10016
www.churchpublishing.org

Cover design by Laurie Klein Westhafer
Typeset by Beth Oberholtzer

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A record of this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN-13: 978-1-64065-313-9 (paperback)
ISBN-13: 978-1-64065-314-6 (ebook)

Contents

vi Acknowledgments
vii About the Authors
viii Overview of the Year: Reading Assignments for Volume D, 2020–2021
xii About Online Resources

PART I: THE GUIDE

2 Week One: Orientation and Organization

Unit One: Spiritual Autobiography and Listening

Unit Two: Theological Reflection as a Life Skill

18 Week Two: Theosis: Living into the Journey with God
34 Week Three
40 Week Four
44 Week Five
47 Week Six
51 Week Seven

56 Week Eight: Theological Reflection on the Journey
68 Week Nine
72 Week Ten
76 Week Eleven
79 Week Twelve
83 Week Thirteen

First Interlude: The Sabbath

90 Week Fourteen
92 Week Fifteen

Unit Three: Developing a Sustaining Spirituality

96 Week Sixteen: Spirituality as Itinerary for the Journey
110 Week Seventeen
114 Week Eighteen
118 Week Nineteen
121 Week Twenty
125 Week Twenty-one

READING AND REFLECTION GUIDE, VOLUME D

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iii

CONTENTs

Unit Four: Integrating Belief, Behavior, and Doctrine

130 Week Twenty-two: Living into Wholeness
140 Week Twenty-three
144 Week Twenty-four
148 Week Twenty-five
151 Week Twenty-six
154 Week Twenty-seven

Second Interlude: Hospitable Planet

158 Week Twenty-eight
159 Week Twenty-nine

Unit Five: Vocation

Divine-Human Communion

162 Week Thirty: Discerning Vocation: Living into the

173 Week Thirty-one
177 Week Thirty-two
179 Week Thirty-three
182 Week Thirty-four
184 Week Thirty-five
187 Week Thirty-six: Closing the Year

PART II: RESOURCES

Supplemental Readings in the Christian Tradition

The Priestly Creation Story

On Being Theologically Literate

192 Week Three, Reading Assignment for Year Four

201 Week Five, Reading Assignment for Year One

219 Week Thirteen, Reading Assignment for Year Four

231 Week Twenty, Reading Assignment for Year One

God as Trinity

Micah

Resources for Listening and Spiritual Autobiography

236 Spiritual Autobiographies: Some Guidelines
238 Listening Skills
242 The Art of Framing Questions

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CONTENTs

Resources for Reflecting Theologically

246 Primary Aspects of Theological Reflection
248 Theological Reflection in EfM
249 The Basic Structure of EfM Theological Reflection in Four Movements
250 Theological Reflection Process Chart
251 Four Phases of Movement in Theological Reflection
252 Framework for Theological Reflections
256 Theological Reflection in a Group
259 Theological Reflection in Motion

Examples of Theological Reflection
The Action Source
264 Theological Reflection Beginning with a Personal Experience
272 Theological Reflection Beginning with a Dilemma
277 Theological Reflection Beginning with a Wide-angle Lens
The Tradition Source
280 Theological Reflection Beginning with the Christian Tradition (Scripture)
285 Theological Reflection Beginning with the Christian Tradition
286 Theological Reflection Beginning with a Wide-angle Lens
289 Theological Reflection Beginning with a Mind Map
291 Theological Reflection Beginning with a Provocative Word
The Culture Source
292 Theological Reflection Beginning with a Social Concern
297 Theological Reflection Beginning with the Culture Source
298 Theological Reflection Beginning with a Wide-angle Lens
301 Theological Reflection Beginning with a Provocative Word
302 Theological Reflection Beginning with a Movie, Video, or

The Position Source
304 Theological Reflection Beginning with a Personal Position
308 Theological Reflection Beginning with Multiple Personal Positions

Television Episode

Resources for Community Life

Issues in the Life of a Seminar Group

312 Group Life: The Seminar
315
319 Activities that Nurture Group Life
320 The Feeling Wheel
Tools from the Kaleidoscope Institute
321 The Cycle of Gospel Living
323 Mutual Invitation
324 Respectful Communications Guidelines

READING AND REFLECTION GUIDE, VOLUME D

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Acknowledgments

A revision by definition is not sui generis. Although this series of Reading
and Reflection Guides may look different from previous editions of EfM
materials, although it may be organized differently, it is nonetheless built
on a framework that has evolved over the nearly forty years of Education
for Ministry. Those who have some years of acquaintance with the program
will recognize what the new format owes to components developed for its
predecessors, among them parallel guides, common lessons, and the many
variations of EfM’s central discipline of theological reflection.

The developers of those foundational components are by now nearly
legion and include not only founder Charles Winters and succeeding leaders
like John de Beer and Edward de Bary but also the many EfM coordinators
and trainers whose work with mentors all over the globe and over time has
shaped the program.

The principal author of Reading and Reflection Guide, Volume D: Living

into the Journey with God, the last in the cycle of four guides, is Rick Brewer,
who has a long history of writing and curriculum design in EfM. Other
contributors to this volume include Angela Hock Brewer and Karen M.
Meridith. In addition, several of the essays and resources included in this
Guide, some adapted, others left as originally published in the previous edi-
tion, have long been a part of the EfM program, designed and written by
a number of contributors over the years. We are grateful for their work and
know that we can look to the future of EfM only because we stand on the
shoulders of giants.

Karen M. Meridith, series editor
Executive Director of Education for Ministry
Sewanee, Tennessee
March, 2020

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About the Authors

Richard E. Brewer (Rick) is a retired Episcopal priest who served in parochial
ministry and in adult Christian formation for forty years. A graduate of the
University of the South and The General Theological Seminary, he has lived
in Oklahoma most of his life and served as priest and educator in Tulsa and
Stillwater Episcopal churches. Additionally, he developed and directed the
Deacon Formation Program for the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma.

Rick first learned about EfM in 1975 from Dr. Charles Winters, the origi-

nator and first director of the program. He has been an EfM trainer since
1978, and a diocesan coordinator, a mentor, and interim assistant director
for the EfM program. He conceived and edited the Common Lesson series
for the first revision of the EfM materials. He coauthored the Parallel Guides
and numerous common lessons with the Reverend John de Beer.

Angela Hock Brewer considers herself a lifelong Episcopalian, although she
spent her first twelve years in the Roman Catholic Church. A graduate of
the University of Oklahoma, she has served as the Oklahoma Diocesan
Chair for Lay Ministry and on the Diocese of Northwest Texas Commission
on Ministry for Lay Ministry. Angela is a graduate of Education for Ministry
and has served the program for many years as an EfM mentor and trainer.
In addition to their work together on the EfM Reading and Reflection
Guides, Rick and Angela co-wrote Practically Christian: A Guide to Practical
Christian Prayer, Action, and Reflection. They co-directed Opportunities for Adult
Christian Education and Spirituality (OACES), Inc., which developed a variety
of adult Christian formation learning guides and a comprehensive ministry
formation program for the Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska.

Karen M. Meridith is the Executive Director of Education for Ministry and
Associate Director of the Beecken Center at the School of Theology of the
University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. She was called to her posi-
tion in 2010 with the charge to re-envision and redesign the Education for
Ministry curriculum. Karen is the managing editor for the four-volume EfM
Reading and Reflection Guide series, a contributing writer, and responsible
for selecting the textbooks used in the curriculum. A graduate of the Univer-
sity of South Carolina and Episcopal Divinity School, she is also a gradu-
ate of Education for Ministry and has served as a mentor in the Dioceses
of Southern Virginia and Tennessee. Karen is an experienced educator and
administrator, and has developed curricula and programming for Christian
formation at local, diocesan, and national levels of the Episcopal Church.

READING AND REFLECTION GUIDE, VOLUME D

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Overview of the Year: Reading Assignments
for Volume D, 2020–2021

1. Common readings at the beginning of each unit are read by all years.

2. Assignments for years one and two marked with an asterisk are readings
in the Bible. Chapters in the survey texts are numbered. When both
are assigned, it is suggested that the Bible be read before the survey text
chapters. Supplemental essays for individual years are in Part II of the
Reading and Reflection Guide.

3. Readings in the interludes and in each of the texts for Years One and

Four are indicated by name of the author(s).

WEEK

UNIT

YEAR ONE
COLLINS, YEE

YEAR TWO
COLLINS, POWELL

YEAR THREE
MACCULLOCH

YEAR FOUR
FORD, MCINTOSH,
SEDGWICK, PEACE

Introductory
Meeting

Orientation and
Organization

Orientation and
Organization

Orientation and
Organization

Orientation and
Organization

Unit One
spiritual
Autobiography
and Listening

Common Reading:
Theosis

Common Reading:
Theosis

Common Reading:
Theosis

Common Reading:
Theosis

Acknowledgements, Ballard essay:
Introduction
1 Greece and Rome

On Being
Theologically Literate,
RRG Pt II, 192–200
Ford:
1 Introduction

Ford:
2 Theology and
religious studies

Ford:
3 Thinking of God

Collins:
Preface
Introduction
1 The Near
Eastern Context
2 The Nature of
Pentateuchal
Narrative

Yee:
Preface,
Introduction

Collins:
What Are Biblical
Values?
1 Frames of
Reference
2 A Right to Life?

Collins:
3 The Bible and
Gender
4 Marriage and
Family
5 The Bible and
the Environment
6 slavery and
Liberation

2 Israel

* Genesis 1–11
Collins:
3 The Primeval
History
The Priestly
Creation story
RRG Pt II, 201–218

3 A Crucified

Collins:
7 Violence and Zeal Messiah
8 social Justice in
the Hebrew Bible
9 social Justice in
the shadow of the
Apocalypse
The Authority of
the Bible

Notes

1

2

3

4

5

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