Canon Dr. Peter Sills - Syria

Dear Folks -

For several years I have had the hope that the Ordinary Life Class
could find a way to express our appreciation and affection to and for
St. Paul's. We have found it.

A few years ago the renowned St. Paul's choir was invited to be the
choir in residence for a week at the magnificent cathedral in Ely,
England. From that visit there developed a relationship with the Vice-
Dean of the Cathedral, Canon Peter Sills. He came to St. Paul's and
did a series of lectures on the Rule of Benedict. Both Peter and
material he offered were very well received.

Two years ago the choir returned to Ely. I went with them and while
there asked Peter if he were willing to return to St. Paul's for
another lectureship. He said he was open to the idea. On returning to
Houston I asked the leadership of Ordinary Life if our gathering could
gift St. Paul's by paying for the expenses involved in such a visit.
The class agreed and for two years the plans have slowly been
developing.

Peter will be, among other things, introducing this series in Ordinary
Life this week. I have also asked him to show some pictures of the
magnificent cathedral in Ely. (To give you an idea of its size, it
took 16 years to paint the ceiling!) You can learn more by visiting

http://www.elycathedral.org/

Peter will also this Sunday talk a bit about his recent trip to Syria.

Please come Sunday to meet and hear Peter. Also, plan to attend as
many of his lectures during the week as possible. I can confidently
promise you that this investment of your time will be well worth it.

Much love,

Bill Kerley

Click here to Download audio 20091101.mp3

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Inside The Circle

Dear Folks -

This week in Ordinary Life the talk I gave is based on the parable of Jesus about a man who had two sons. He asked them both to go and work in his vineyard. One said he would not go but later changed his mind and went. The other said he would go but didn't.

This is a disarming little tale - as most of the parables are. Rather then contributing to divisiveness, as the parable has most often been interpreted, it is about the matters of true authority and identity. Both of these sons brought shame and honor to their father. But, in spite of that, both remained his sons. I use my interpretation of this parable to say that we are all "Inside the Circle."

By the way, thanks again to Susanna Hooper and Richard Wingfield, we are posting the overhead aspect of my talk on the Ordinary Life website and Susanna is working on a way to put this together so that what is on the website duplicates what is done in class.

The full text I used for the talk is below. As usual, there is both a printable and an audio version posted.

Much love,

Bill Kerley

(There is no audio available for this Sunday.  The audio file is not opening.)

 

Click here to Download text 20091025.pdf

Click here to Download 10:25:09_-_Inside_the_Circle Keynote presentation slides.pdf

 

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