Scranton Cohort

Cohort on Hiatus

2007-01-23T10:17:00.000-05:00

Because our monthly cohort gatherings have had waning attendance, we think it best to put the monthly conversations on hold and come up with a new plan. If there is anyone in the Scranton area interested in these conversations please be in touch with your ideas.

Cohort Meeting -- Tonight! Nov 7

2006-11-07T13:00:00.000-05:00

The cohort will be meeting for our regular monthly conversation tonight at 8:00 at Northern Light. Unfortunately I won't be able to make it because we have family in town, but I hope others of you will still gather to share thoughts, ideas, and updates on our various efforts. No specific reading or topic this week -- just come and check in.

Cohort Conversation: Tues., Oct. 3 -- Fresh Approaches to Scripture in the Emerging Church

2006-09-25T10:42:00.000-05:00

Our cohort conversation is coming up in just over a week, so I thought I'd post a topic for us. At the end of our last conversation we decided to talk about "fresh approaches to scripture in the emerging church." Here is a pamphlet about reading scripture that I thought might be helpful to get us started: Simon Perry, What is So Holy About Scripture? (this link will take you to a page where you can download a PDF of the pamphlet--it is formatted to be printed on front and back, collated, and folded like a pamphlet so it is hard to read online--best to print). I'll look for some more online materials and if I find any I'll post them here. Looking forward to our conversation.

Emerging Church Learning Party

2006-09-19T14:51:00.000-05:00

Praxis - Learning Party
Originally uploaded by dydimustk.

Thanks to Thomas Knoll for the photo; he helped Karen Ward, Lacey Brown, and Bob Fisher lead the Learning Party this past Saturday at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Wilkes-Barre, PA.

More photos of the event are on Thomas's Flickr account, or head over to a local emerging community, Peacemeal, to see a few others.

If you were a part of the event, or are in the area and interested in the emerging church, make sure you join the Cohort on the first Tuesday of each month at Northern Light Espresso Bar on Spruce Street in downtown Scranton.

Cohort Conversation: Tues., Sept 5: What is the Emerging Church?

2006-09-01T12:40:00.000-05:00

Our Emergent Cohort will be meeting this Tuesday at Northern Light at 8:00. We will focus our conversation around the topic, "What is the Emerging Church?"

I've linked here some online articles that will help us get into the topic. If you have time please read these and come with your own thoughts, ideas, and experiences.

George Lings, "What is 'Emerging Church'?"

Doug Pagitt, "Unraveling Emergent"

Karen Ward, "Post-missionaries, or 'walking amongst cats'"

Steve Taylor, "A to Z of the Emerging Church"

Kester Brewin, "The Body of Christ could use some sleep (or what the Church can learn from iTunes)"

We look forward to the conversation and hope to see you there!

Coming September 16: Emerging Church Learning Party: Resources for Outreach, Worship, and Spiritual Formation in Today's Culture

2006-08-03T09:36:00.000-05:00

Our budding cohort has a great opportunity to explore the emerging church together through an upcoming event in Wilkes-Barre.

Karen Ward, abbess of Church of the Apostles, Seattle, and a key figure in the Emerging Church conversation in the US and the UK, will be leading a "learning party" at St. Stephens Episcopal Church. Here's a description of the event:

Date
Sep 16, 2006

Time
10:00 am - 5:00 pm

Location
St. Stephens Episcopal Church
35 South Franklin St.
Wilkes-Barre, PA 18701
United States

A new movement being called the 'emerging church' is making a major impact on the landscape of North American Christianity and around the world. FIND OUT what it's about and DISCOVER its significance for re-shaping church and MISSION in today's culture.

EXPLORE how traditional mainline congregations can GET INVOLVED in and be enriched by insights from the emerging church movement.

This mission event will be helpful for those from mainline congregations (Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, UCC...) and also from traditional evangelical congregations.

Come to REIMAGINE CHURCH, and EXPERIENCE new ways to integrate ARTS, NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES, and ANCIENT CHRISTIAN PRACTICES into worship and community mission for today's contexts.

Consider BRINGING A TEAM of 2-3 or more from your congregation with you to help fuel missional momentum when you get back home.

You will be ACCOMPANIED by native, postmodern guides, from Church of the Apostles (Seattle)--a leading edge, mainline (Episcopal/Lutheran), emerging congregation. Also giving a talk is Philadelphia based emergent leader Robert Fisher, from SE Penn Synod of the ELCA.

In the context of an experiential Kingdom PARTY, discover the new ways to RE-SHAPE CHURCH for the contours of mission in today's culture,

The Learning Pary includes LUNCH and ends with a 5 pm emerging WORSHIP service with Church of the Apostles.

Early Registration (through Sept. 4) is $25
Regular Registration (Sept. 5-15) is $30

You may REGISTER ONLINE here: http://learningparty.mollyguard.com

Or you may register by sending a check to:

The Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem
c/o Barbara Lewis
Diocesan House
333 Wyandotte St.
Bethlehem, PA 18015

This event is sponsored by Church of the Apostles, Praxis Center in partnership with Peacemeal and the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem PA

Change of Venue

2006-08-02T09:26:00.001-05:00

Due to the fact that Northern Light's air conditioning is broken and we have record breaking heat outside, we've decided to move our Cohort Conversation to Borders tonight. We'll meet at the same time, 8:00, in the Borders Cafe. See ya there.

Cohort Conversation: Wednesday, August 2

2006-07-31T17:56:00.000-05:00

Just a reminder that our next cohort conversation will be this Wednesday night, August 2, at 8:00 at Northern Light. We're planning to meet downstairs so that we are visible as people come in. Hope to see some new people from the area who are interested in exploring the emergent conversation.

Emerging Women's East Coast Gathering

2006-07-20T13:15:00.000-05:00

I wanted to point people's attention to the info on this recent comment. If you are interested in hearing a collection of women's voices within the emerging church conversation, check out the Emerging Women blog. Here's the lowdown on the upcoming East Coast Gathering from Elizabeth and Sherri:

Emerging Women's East Coast Gathering

Sandcastle Oceanfront Resort

"A Seat At the Table"

sherace@aol.com

mizliz00725@hotmail.com

Next Cohort -- Wenesday, August 2

2006-06-24T12:30:00.000-05:00

Had a great conversation with Scott Hall at the last cohort gathering (which was our first cohort gathering!). It was good to find out about some Parker Hill folks who are thinking and conversing about emergent topics. I'm excited to be a part of a growing friendship of Christians in which people coming out of traditionally conservative and traditionally liberal backgrounds can get together and discover a shared passion to seek the kingdom in new ways that cross (in every sense of that word) those old boundaries. These cohort conversations will be a great opportunity to exchange ideas about new models of church life for the Scranton area. We also touched on the possibility of partnering in shared mission to the poor and marginalized in the community.

Our next conversation will be at Northern Light on Wednesday, August 2. We'll probably try to stay downstairs and be more visible if it's not too crowded. Otherwise, we'll take to the loft. Hope to see you then.

First Cohort Meeting

2006-06-06T10:30:00.000-05:00

We will be having our first official meeting of the Scranton Emergent Cohort on Wednesday, June 14 at 8:00 at Northern Light (look for us up in the loft). We invite anyone who is interested in talking about new expressions of church to come join us. If you want some background on the emerging church conversation you can read this article I wrote for Christian Century magazine. Also you may want to check out the Emergent Village website, especially the description of what a "cohort" is. Also, see our "Getting Started" post below if you want to know more about us. Our hope is to make this a monthly conversation. Hope you'll join us.

Stations - Friday, April 7 [community dinner and alt worship]

2006-03-26T16:17:00.000-05:00

On Friday, April 7 Peacemeal, an emerging missional community in Scranton, will be offering a free community dinner and alt worship at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in downtown Scranton (on Wyoming Avenue between St. Peter's Cathedral and the Steamtown Mall).

St. Luke's has graciously allowed us to turn their parish hall into a food & worship space for the evening. We are inviting everyone in the community to come join us. The dinner will run from 5:30 to 6:30 with worship from 7:00-8:30. You may come to one or both parts of the evening. Our intent with the dinner is to combine the traditional church supper (where we gather family and friends for fellowship and conversation) with a meal for the homeless of Scranton. We are seeking to live into our name and explore ways of being/hosting/creating Peacemeal.

This will be the Friday before Holy Week, so in preparation for walking with Jesus in his final days, we will be experiencing "stations of the cross" within a creative, alternative liturgy. Our goal is to to explore what some are calling "ancient-future" worship--blending the best traditions of the past with music, media, and ambience that speak to postmodern culture. We hope you will come, bring a friend, and experience Christ's gift to us in a fresh and compelling way.

If you are interested in volunteering to help with the meal or the worship gathering please contact Scott (badersayes2@scranton.edu) or Josh (iamjoshfrank@gmail.com).

|peacemeal, stations of the cross, alternative worship|

Now Listed on Emergent

2006-03-16T09:20:00.000-05:00

We're thrilled to announce that we have been added to the Emergent-US list of cohorts! Our addition was announced through Emergent Village's mass e-mail update called Emergent/C. The word is getting out, and I am excited about more people getting connected in the Scranton/NEPA area. Please keep checking in (or better yet, add our syndication/RSS/XML/Atom feed to your feed reader and be updated automatically whenever we post!) as we are making plans for our first conversation. We are planning to have one during this season of Lent, most likely at Cafe Aroma on Mulberry in Scranton, right across the street from the University of Scranton.

Also on the list of new cohorts, I was pleased to find that there is one now listed in the Lehigh Valley! I have added them to our list of Regional Cohorts in the sidebar. They are working on their first gathering for conversation, and are hoping to plan it around Brian McLaren's free talk at Moravian Seminary on April 21, 2006. Jillian and I have signed up to go to the morning/early afternoon lecture as has Scott or Demery (one of them has to be with the kids). I'm hoping that now we'll also be able to meet the people putting together the LeHigh Valley cohort.

Technorati Tags: cohort, emergent, emerging church, Brian McLaren, Moravian Seminary, scranton, NEPA, Lehigh Valley

Getting Started

2006-03-04T11:06:00.000-05:00

Inspired by conversations between just a few people in the Scranton area, we are excited to announce the formation of an Emergent Cohort for the Northeast Pennsylvania area!

What is a Cohort? It is a local/regional learning community concerned with the state of the Church in today's world and is interested in gathering people together from various backgrounds to explore and discuss emerging forms of the Church. From the Emergent website:

While being a place of connection and support, an Emergent learning community (cohort) is primarily a place of communal exploration, theological and professional reflection, honest connection, and strategic collaboration. These learning communities are geared toward post-critical, constructive conversation, rather than deconstructive rants about the current state of the Church.

Why Emergent? Emergent is a grassroots, national, collective effort to bring into contact people who are interested in exploring, belonging, and communicating with one another while sharing resources, all in an effort to participate in furthering God's Kingdom in our present world. From the Emergent website:

Emergent is a growing generative friendship among missional Christian leaders seeking to love our world in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

Our dream is to join in the activity of God in the world wherever we are able, so that God’s dreams for our world come true. In the process, the world can be healed and changed, and so can we.

In English, the word “emergent” is normally an adjective meaning coming into view, arising from, occurring unexpectedly, requiring immediate action (hence its relation to “emergency”), characterized by evolutionary emergence, or crossing a boundary (as between water and air). All of these meanings resonate with the spirit and vision of emergent. In other languages, names for regional networks will be chosen with similarly evocative meanings.

Announcements of our first conversation will be made soon. In the meantime, subscribe to our RSS/Atom/XML feed to stay informed of updates. Contact us, leave comments, and let the discussion in the Scranton area begin!

Technorati Tags: emergent, emerging church, cohort, scranton, nepa