Adult Forum

On Sundays at 10 a.m., our parish gathers for discussion and teaching on topics that matter to us as Christians. Usually our talks are energetic and fulfilling, with lots of great ideas in the air. Come by for a good cup of coffee, stay for a great class and a rousing discussion! All classes meet in-person in the Parish Hall, ending in time for the 11 a.m. Mass. Contact Mother Nora Johnson if you have questions or would like to hear more.

Building Our Shared Ministry

This fall the Adult Forum will begin with a joyful celebration of the multiple forms of ministry practiced here at Saint Mark's. You may have met people who were serving coffee, or rejoiced in our music program, or experienced the prayerful work of altar servers at Mass. But have you gotten to hear about how they view the work they do? Do you know how to join any of these dedicated groups of servers? Do you have a deep sense of the importance of lay ministry in our parish and in the Anglo-Catholic tradition? This is your chance to find out more, share your own experiences and insights, and get to know the parish, again or for the first time. This series is brought to you by the Adult Forum in collaboration with the Stewardship Committee, who will present to welcome you at Coffee Hour after both the 9 a.m. and the 11 a.m. Masses throughout the season, and to help you connect to the rich life of this parish.

September 7 - Homecoming Sunday 
Join the parish in our Ministry Fair, a celebration of all the ways you can reach out, sign on, pitch in, and help build up the good work that God has begun in this place. Tables will be set up and representatives will be waiting to greet you and answer questions you might have about joining in ministry with us.

September 14 - Fellowship in the Parish: Fellowship Groups Initiative
Join clergy and members to talk about a special fellowship initiative that we're offering this season. You'll have a chance to get to know others in a deeper way over shared food and conversation in the Fellowship Groups. You'll also hear at this session about our parish's thriving 20's/30's ministry and the various forms of hospitality that we extend all year.

September 21 - Outreach Ministries at Saint Mark's
Come learn about the Oxford Movement and its special focus on outreach as expressed in the Saturday Soup Bowl and other outreach ministries in our parish. What does the work of feeding the hungry have to do with worshipping God "in the beauty of holiness?"

September 28 - Children’s Formation
In this session we will learn more about the various ministries for children at Saint Mark's. This is a great place for parents and prospective parents to come ask questions, and also an opportunity for others in the parish to learn about the wonderful work done here and our exciting plans for this year.

October 5 - Liturgical Ministries
Every Sunday, and every day, actually, you can see lay people serving at the altar and reading from the scriptures here at Saint Mark's. Would you like to know more about what these volunteers do and hear about the theological underpinnings of their participation? This is a great chance to learn about liturgical service and also about the crucial and beautiful forms of service that the altar guild and others undertake behind the scenes.

October 12 - Music at Saint Mark's
Hear all about our Parish Choir, our Choristers, and the Saint Mark’s Singers. Staff from the music program will be present to talk about what they do, how you might get involved, and how our music program is expanding and developing this year.

October 19 - Welcome at Saint Mark’s
Have you ever wanted to be an usher, or to work to make newcomers to the parish feel better included? You can learn about the Ushers Guild and the Newcomer Committee at Saint Mark's in this session.

October 26 - Stewardship Sunday, no forum

Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness

The Adult Forum during Lent

This Lent, the clergy of Saint Mark’s will offer a series on how we worship during the Sunday Forum.  Sessions will explore worship from many perspectives, from the role of beauty to the physical actions we undertake in receiving the Eucharist. We will look at worship as sanctification and as sacrifice.  We will pay careful attention to the Anglican tradition of worship that nurtures us here at Saint Mark’s. Sessions will be free-standing—you don’t need to come to one to understand the next—but linked by the sense that we have a deep need to celebrate the fundamental joy of worshiping God in this time of change and uncertainty.   

“Worship, in all its grades and kinds, is the response of the creature to the Eternal: nor need we limit this definition to the human sphere. There is a sense in which we may think of the whole life of the Universe, seen and unseen, conscious and unconscious, as an act of worship, glorifying its Origin, Sustainer, and End”. - Evelyn Underhill, Worship

March 9: Worship and Beauty
Mother Johnson will offer this look at the way beauty might work in our lives.  Are there moral aspects to beauty?  Does beauty teach us something in the context of worship that is useful in our lives more broadly?  

March 16: Worship: The Eucharist
Father Cobb will lead a conversation placing our participation in the Eucharist within the three-fold pattern of prayer- Daily Office, Private Prayer, and Eucharist.  The session will include reflections on habits and prayers that leave us ready to receive the Sacrament with a fuller sense of preparation and intention.  

March 23: Worship as Sacrifice
According to Evelyn Underhill, “the most significant development in human religion has been the movement of the idea of sacrifice from propitiation to love.”  With Mother Dure we will look closely at what she means. 

March 30: Worship: The Sanctification of Life
How does our regular practice of worship change our lives?  How does worship help us to live holy lives?  Mother Johnson will explore the notion of “sanctification” and its relationship to the practices we follow in corporate prayer. 

April 6: Worship: The Anglican Tradition
The final session will look at the ways in which the particular habits and customs of Saint Mark’s reflect the larger history and traditions of the Anglo-Catholic movement as a particular stream within the larger Anglican Tradition.  Father Cobb will explore some of the theological and cultural shifts that have shaped the traditions of which we are a part.

January at the Forum: The poems of R. S. Thomas 

R. S. Thomas (1913-2000) was a Welsh poet and Anglican priest. His austerely beautiful writing captures something distinctly modern about faith, even as it evokes the presence of God in unlikely and unpromising landscapes. We have been enjoying his poems about Christmas and the Epiphany, and will continue to look at his works through the month of January.

January 12: R. S. Thomas on prayer
Thomas often speaks bluntly about prayer, and about the discouraging sense of God's absence. But his poems often manifest a paradoxical sense of the divine presence. This session will focus on the poems "Kneeling," and "In a Country Church" among others.

January 19: R. S. Thomas on ministry
Thomas seems in some ways to have been an unlikely priest, and his poems sometimes sound almost disparaging about his rural congregation. Join this session for a look at the striking way Thomas imagines the role of the priest and of the church more broadly.

January 26, R. S. Thomas on the environment
Many of Thomas's poems talk about the (broken) relationship between science, technology, and God's earth. We'll look at a series of poems that are candid about environmental decay even as they allow us to see God in action in the physical world.