Index Page - Holy Manners Study # 27
The Extraordinary in the Ordinary - 2 Studies by Richard Holloway

  Course Outline and Links to the 10 Session Pages 
Part 1 - Between the Monster and the Saint - reflections on the human condition - by Richard Holloway
Links to purchase this book: Amazon (us) Amazon(ca) Chapters(ca)
"It is a world that can make us bitter, hateful, rabid, destroyers of joy. It is a world that can draw forth tenderness from us, as we lean towards one another over broken gates. It is a world of monsters and saints, a mutilated world, but it is the only one we have been given. We should let it shock us not into hatred or anxiety, but into unconditional love." ... p170 
1
19 Sep
Introductions. A summary introduction to the book by Wayne. A 24 min video interview of the author by Scottish TV.
2
26 Sep
Section 1 - X-Force. Including Chapter 1 - Monster and Chapter 2 - Pity
3
3 Oct
Section 2 - Market Place. Including Chapter 3 - Soul and Chapter 4 - Suffering
10 Oct Thanksgiving. No class.
4
17 Oct
Section 3 - Playtime. Including Chapter 5 - Comedy and Chapter 6 - Saint
Part 2 - Godless Morality - keeping religion out of ethics- by Richard Holloway
Links to purchase this book: Amazon(us) Amazon(ca) Chapters(ca)
"The difficulty lies in the fact that history has taught us that many claims made on behalf of God have been subsequently rejected for moral reasons, so the fact that an injunction comes with a divine label attached is no guarantee of divine origin." p8
5
24 Oct
Chapter 1 - Ethical Jazz
6
31 Oct
(Halloween) Chapter 2 - Unhappy Bedfellows
7
7 Nov
Chapter 3 - Was the Trojan Horse Gay?
8
14 Nov
Chapter 4 - What is Your Poison?
9
21 Nov
Chapter 5 - Life Wars
10
28 Nov
Chapter 6 - The Reproductive Supermarket

Note on Documents and Videos. If in clicking documents linked in these web pages, you cannot open them, it may be because you do not have Microsoft Office installed at the computer you are at. There are two FREE alternatives. First, Microsoft themselves offer auxiliary programs called "readers" for their various programs like PowerPoint and Word. LINK. Second, a complete Office Suite is available that can read and write Microsoft documents. The Open Office Project is now in about 80 languages and an excellent program set. LINK.
Holy Manners The background on the phrase and why we have adopted it. The guidelines for our studies.
Click to visit the St. David's Adult Ed Forum  Internet Discussion Group at Yahoo - the St. David's Forum. The archive is public and readable. Participation is by invitation. Click HERE if you would like to join. You will then be able to post your own responses to the list and will be emailed the notices and contributions of the others. Click left to visit the archives of the site (read only). There are presently 88 persons.
Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge. ... Proverbs 23:12 (NIV)
Group Facilitator. Wayne Holst              EMAIL WAYNE

I spent most of my life thinking like a church professional, rather than as a regular congregational member. My training as a pastor always had me asking myself 'how can I apply this discovery, insight, new information to a regular church setting?'

Often, clergy have been hesitant to share the discoveries they have made through a 'critical' approach to the Bible with their parishoners because they wonder how laypeople might accept it. I have found that many thinking laity are professionals in their own fields of endeavour and understand a critical approach very readily. What they seek are ways of relating faith to daily living.

I am grateful for the journey I have been taking through ordained ministry to teaching at the university and serving as a fellow layperson at St.David's United Church. Here we find that questioning and honest expression of our faith and doubt is readily accepted and supported.
Group Facilitator. Jock McTavish           EMAIL JOCK

I am a student and a poet, a democrat and a techocrat, an eclectic eccentric. I grew up in a loving Baptist community, so in my heart I'm still a Bible loving evangelical. As I grew in learning I found a new home in the United Church whose tolerance embraces the broadest range of Christian understanding. I most enjoy the illumination of our ancient traditions by modern scholarship. For they show in clear novel ways that the perspectives of the Special Ones were seldom the understandings of those that followed. They show all knowledge to be in relationship .

There seems a lack of understanding in our secular world for religious practices. The reasons why I still gladly - even necessarily - attend church are difficult to voice to those unfamiliar with church, or those injured by church. Elliott got it right. We find our way back to the place we started from. But with new understanding.