Ecclesiolae
People keep asking me if I'm starting a church, or they say, "I hear you're starting a church." My typical, tongue-in-cheek-but-honest, answer is something like, "Jesus started the church, we're just expressing our part of it." Perhaps it's more like the term ecclesiolae in ecclesia used in the Pietest movements of the 17th and 18th centuries, the idea of the "small church within the big church". We already are the Church...we are believers in Christ following the way...but at this point of the journey we choose to travel together and fulfill His call on our lives together. Who knows if our time together will be long or short, quick-paced or slow-going, a motley band or throng of people--but for now we are together.

Right now our little group--our ecclesiolae--is looking at the history of the Scriptures. We're finishing up the Hebrew Scriptures, the Tanak, and are going to begin looking at the Christian Scriptures. Tonight we're meeting at St. Patrick's. The evening service from the Book of Common Prayer will begin at 6:30 pm sharp and will be led by our resident Friar in training, Terry. Study will begin around 7:00 pm.

Files for tonight: Scribal Transmission and Errors of the New Testament
Files from the Hebrew Scriptures: Old Testament Textual History
posted by Jimmy at 11:38 AM | |