The Grace Class

(Education Building-2nd Floor Room 203)

Group contact person:        Cindy White

                                           ccwhite@bellsouth.net

Class description:  Adult

Current study:  Marcus Borg's "Embracing An Adult Faith"

Our focus is to seek to understand God's role in our world, our place in the world, and our responsibilities to God and others. We have an open discussion forum and welcome all questions. The Grace Class is committed to supporting each other in our individual faith journeys, no matter where on those journeys we might be.

The beautiful creed below is representative of many of the concepts that challenge us; the Grace Class is a sanctuary of sorts where we, as individuals, may safely question, struggle with, oppose, believe, or place our faith in these and many other traditional or non-traditional ideas, without fear of judgement or condemnation.

Credo: By David R. Weiss

I believe in God,
The Great Mystery that is the Source of all that is,
I believe that God is beyond our words
And surely beyond our genders,
But that we are still invited to name God as best we can,
With humility and wonder.
I believe in God’s love for all creation, not just humanity.
I believe in God’s yearning,
That justice hold sway in every corner of creation
And in God’s anxious longing
For Sabbath joy to fill the cosmos.

I believe that the deep beauty of Jesus’ life
Is a true revelation of God’s desire to see compassion
At the center of human community.
I believe that Jesus’ healings, parables, and table fellowship
Reveal the truth of God active in our midst.
And I believe that in Jesus’ life
We hear an invitation to echo such compassion
In our own lives.

I believe that Jesus’ death
Reminds us that oppressive power
Will stop at nothing –
Then or now – to silence compassion.
And I believe that resurrection
Names the miracle that takes place –
Then and now – whenever we rededicate
Our lives to compassion
Thereby announcing that even death
Cannot silence the love of God.

I believe that besides Jesus’ life
And besides the biblical text,
Other lives and other texts also bear the truth of God –
And that our lives are richer for listening well
To the movement of God in many places.

I believe that God continues to be present still today
And that the Holy Breath of God blows
Whenever and wherever compassion is born,
Whether in our words, deeds, or rituals.
I believe we have a special responsibility
To gather in community and share rituals,
Both ancient and fresh,
That exercise our imaginations,
Both bodily and spiritually
For the practice of compassion.

I believe that in our lives
We have the capacity to move God,
This loving mystery that dwells at the heart of all that is,
To the point of tears.

And I commit myself,
With my brothers and sisters and the whole of creation,
To living in ways that seek to move God to tears of joy.

Amen.