Summer is Almost Over, Looking for Something to Do this Fall?

Prime Timers is a St. Martin's Adult Christian Education (A.C.E.) group for people in the Prime of Life, ages 50-64. We meet upstairs in the Payne Education Center, rooms 207-209 from 10:15am to 10:50. We are at the end of a one year course from the United Council of Churches and our current quarter is titled Images of Christ in Us. Beginning September 7 Prime Timers moves to the Parlor for class. The chairs are really comfortable there, the coffee and donuts are fresh, and you are invited!

St. Martin's Adult Christian Education groups invite you to join us!

August concludes our Fourth Quarter, a series of readings entitled Images of Christ. Our readings this month are from the Book of James. Next weeks reading is at the bottom of this page if you want a head start!

Prime Timers always hears our members good news at the start of class and today Lynne gave thanks for our guest speaker and the Olympics! Sandy told us that this was four years to the day that she received a new kidney.

Why is Church attendance in Europe so Abysmal?

Ben Welmaker introduced our special guest speaker today, Sara Patterson, a lawyer at Thompson & Knight LLP whose Master's Thesis investigated why there is so much better participation in churches in this country as contrasted with Europe. After all, most of our church liturgy comes from European tradition. Sara begins by mentioning the traditional explanation for the decline:  modernization, the Enlightenment in the 18th century, the Reformation begun by Martin Luther and others. All these can be seen as a natural progression toward less reliance on the church and more on the state and the individual.

Maybe, Sara says, there is more to the story! Traditionally the church is involved, as Paul Tillich says, with ultimate concerns, while the state deals with parameters of behavior. When social issues overlap the two, then you have a conflict. The Roman Emperor Constantine converted not only himself to Christianity but the entire Roman Empire, blending religion and the state into one entity. Before this Roman religion was a hodge podge of gods and idol worship, now there was "Christendom" and it's effect lasted fifteen hundred years! Now you had the concept of the divine King:  if you went to war, you must have the blessing of God! Its very hard to reverse something that persists for a millennium and a half!

There is a Papal court, for instance, and the church is effectively another arm of the state. Now when you get upset about what your government is doing you might also view the church as complicit, maybe part of the problem!

Present day Spain's church participation is one of the lowest in Europe. Spain is a Catholic country, and while they officially tolerate other religions, they must register with the state. While most people say they believe in God, they reserve the church itself for weddings and funerals, events rather than weekly participation.

In Germany each of the territories had a ruler who picked the religion he wanted. In present day Germany many social services and welfare programs are outsourced to the church, along with the ability to levy taxes.

France is ninety percent Catholic, but participation is an abysmal thirty percent. Once again other religions need to be registered with the state, and some are labeled "sects" with lower standing.

England, with the state sponsored Church of England, is the most secular country in Europe! As Episcopalians its certainly disturbing to see this happening to the Anglican communion at its place of origin.

Then why is the United States such an exception? We all are concerned about declining church participation and how it seems like the press and government are trying to "stamp out religion" under the banner of separation of church and state.  The English philosopher John Locke is credited with influencing our Founding Fathers with his notions of the Social Contract, that the state derives its authority from the people, and the idea of separation of powers.

Sara believes that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." is at the very heart of why our churches are vibrant, adaptable and enjoy high participation. Praise the Lord that our churches are not co-opted by the Government! From 1776 to 1980 church attendance increased every year! So while it may seem that government goes overboard enforcing the Church-State separation, it gives the church the freedom to adapt to changing times and fulfill its traditional role as our moral compass and spiritual guide, unencumbered with secular state entanglements.

Ben concluded class with a short prayer.

The Lesson for Sunday, August 31th is "Prayerful Community"

Key Verse:  James 5:13

Focus of the Lesson: People's attitudes toward life shape the way they respond with joy or concern to circumstances and events. How can we achieve a positive attitude that leads to powerful and effective living? James teaches that our lifestyle is to be shaped by an attitude of prayer.

The reading is James 5:13-18 This text is from the New International Version. (NIV)

Background Scripture:  James 5

   ¹³Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. ¹⁴Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. ¹⁶Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

   ¹⁷Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. ¹⁸Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

NIV