Adult Formation
Exploring Your Faith
We at Saint Andrew's are committed to deepening our faith through lifelong learning. We offer Adult Formation Programs for groups both on campus and off and we offer resources and materials for individual study and learning. We also advertise and support formation opportunities being offered by other groups here in Madison. Be sure to check this page on a regular basis for updates, announcements and resources!
Scroll Down to read about:
The Sunday Forum
The Tuesday Morning Women's Bible Study
Wednesday Morning Dawn Patrol Bible Study
Wednesday Night Book Group
The Sunday Forum Presents
The Sunday Forum meets from 9:30 – 10:15, in the parish Hall, on Sunday mornings. We gather for coffee and conversation, waiting for the kids and parents who are Singing with Mr. Stancer at Grace Notes to come downstairs. Then, after an opening prayer, we dive into the topic for the day.
This fall’s Sunday Forum Schedule features a two part conversation designed to help us talk about, and share our faith with the people we love: children, grandchildren, parents, siblings, neighbors, coworkers… Sharing our faith, telling our story, reinforces our own sense of identity as children of God, and it opens doors in other people to explore and share their own story. In the process relationships are deepened, bridges are built, and we find ourselves standing on common ground! The first part of the conversation will focus on a prayer that helps us to see and recognize God at work in our lives and in the lives of others. The second part of the conversation focuses on our ability to tell the story of our own spiritual journey. There is more about each of the conversations in links below!
The Sunday Forum this fall will also include presentations by the Outreach Committee, highlighting the ministries we support through our monthly Outreach InGatherings, and opportunities for us to become involved in the life of the community in which we live and move and have our being.
17 Annual Meeting
24 Advent Wreath Workshop
December
1 Sharing Our Faith
8 Sharing Our Faith
15 Christmas Cookie Sale (Outreach Presentation)
22 No Forum This Sunday - The kids will be rehearsing the Christmas Pageant
29 No Forum This Sunday
This fall’s Sunday Forum Schedule features a two part conversation designed to help us talk about, and share our faith with the people we love: children, grandchildren, parents, siblings, neighbors, coworkers… Sharing our faith, telling our story, reinforces our own sense of identity as children of God, and it opens doors in other people to explore and share their own story. In the process relationships are deepened, bridges are built, and we find ourselves standing on common ground! The first part of the conversation will focus on a prayer that helps us to see and recognize God at work in our lives and in the lives of others. The second part of the conversation focuses on our ability to tell the story of our own spiritual journey. There is more about each of the conversations in links below!
The Sunday Forum this fall will also include presentations by the Outreach Committee, highlighting the ministries we support through our monthly Outreach InGatherings, and opportunities for us to become involved in the life of the community in which we live and move and have our being.
17 Annual Meeting
24 Advent Wreath Workshop
December
1 Sharing Our Faith
8 Sharing Our Faith
15 Christmas Cookie Sale (Outreach Presentation)
22 No Forum This Sunday - The kids will be rehearsing the Christmas Pageant
29 No Forum This Sunday
A Contemplative Prayer Offering for Advent
It’s Advent. The days are shorter. The leaves are off the trees. It’s cold outside. Time to slow down. Slow down and wrap up in a warm sweater by the fire… But how do we slow down when all around us everything and everyone seems to be picking up steam, moving faster and faster? The Christmas trees and ornaments have been up in the stores since before Halloween, there is Christmas music blaring from every speaker, and everywhere we turn someone is pointing out something we have failed to do as we all hurtle towards Christmas Day… Sometimes it’s hard not to feel like the Grinch, with those two timpani mallets banging on our temples, and complaining about all of the noise, noise, noise, noise! Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just find a little quiet? It may seem impossible, but there is a way.
Come to St Andrew’s on Tuesday night, December 3rd, 10th, and 17th, at 7:00 pm, where we will be carving out a little space for some much needed peace and quiet.
Each evening we will gather for an introduction to a form of, or approach to, contemplative prayer. We will spend fifteen to twenty minutes learning about the form of prayer we are about to experience. Then we will spend about a half an hour actually practicing, or experiencing that form of prayer. We will then break for a debrief and conversation about the experience.
Come to one session. Come to all three. Build your repertoire of prayer practices. But above all come to find some quiet space where you can stop and listen for the one who loves you beyond all measure, the one who is calling you to slow down and be, the one whose coming we await as the world goes spinning madly by.
The Tuesday Morning Women's Bible Study
Women's Bible Study will resume this fall. Stay tuned for more details.
The Women's Bible Study begins each program year in September with a potluck brunch in the parish hall. We start at 9:30 a.m. and go until 11:00 a.m. Child care will be provided. We will gather to share a meal and catch up on the summer's activities.
Our weekly gatherings begin with the scheduled text, and we attempt to apply its lessons to our lives. There is no "homework" and no need to attend every week.
Feel free to invite friends and neighbors. Over the years we have been enriched by participants who are outside of St. Andrew's and often outside of the Episcopal tradition.
For further information, contact Ritchie Rheaume (608-249-7763) or (krheaume@charter.net)
The Wednesday Morning Dawn Patrol Bible Study Group
Dubbed "Dawn Patrol" by John Alexander who first called us together some 25 years ago. About ten of us (from Saint Andrew's and other places) meet for Bible study from 6:30 to 7:30 am every Wednesday.
We meet in the bar off of the lobby of the InnTowner Motel at the corner of University and Highland. Coffee is available on arrival; breakfast available from the buffet or menu. We begin with a brief prayer said in unison. Then Our study is self-led and discussion is lively, benefiting from a variety of translations and diverse perspectives.
We take turns reading a small portion (usually much less than a chapter, or in the case of the Psalms, only one) and then talk about it. Typically our group includes people who might be considered "liberal" and others perhaps more "conservative"--leading to interesting but always respectful discussion.
While there is a core that has been coming for many years, some lovers of the dawn, or not so much lovers, are welcomed and always appreciated.
Please try us; You need make no special preparation. Just bring a Bible, and if you have an unusual one, all the better: comparisons of translations have led to some of our most interesting discussions and learning.
Though only men are currently participating, in the past women have joined us and are welcome.
Contacts:
Barry Greenberg at 831-3857 or ebgreenb@gmail.com<mailto:ebgreenb@gmail.com>
Tim Size at 231-1721 or timsize@rwhc.com<mailto:timsize@rwhc.com>