AN ONLINE EMBER DAY* EDUCATIONAL EVENT FOR ALL WHO PREACH: PASTORS, DEACONS, & LAY WORSHIP LEADERS.
Ember Days help us to rekindle a passion for gospel by dedicating periodic days of study and refreshment. As we approach a year like no other, the Gospel of Mark accompanies us in ways that challenge, unsettle, and encourage us in our preaching and worship life.
Dr. Richard Swanson, a professor of Religion at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, SD, along with Pam Faro of Story Crossings, will lead us in a morning of biblical engagement with the gospel of Mark. For questions, please contact Pastor Melissa Stoller at Melissa.stoller@elca.org
RSVP BY MONDAY, DECEMBER 14
$7 REGISTRATION FEE
Dr. Richard Swanson teaches courses that explore biblical interpretation, interpretive theory, and the ways people live and hope. Because he is convinced that change is the only reliable constant, he spends his time studying how change provokes new readings of biblical texts. His current research focuses on the interaction between religion and culture and on the interpretive implications of ancient and modern performances of biblical narratives.Dr. Swanson is also the director of the Provoking the Gospel Storytelling Project and a member of the Network of Biblical Storytellers. More of his work can be found at https://provokingthegospel.wordpress.com/
* Unfamiliar with the tradition of Ember Days? Philip H. Pfatteicher sheds light on these observances in Journey into the Heart of God: Living the Liturgical Year:
"The turning of the four season of the natural world has been incorporated into the church's calendar. These are the Ember Days, the name derived from the German Quatember, a corruption of quattuor tempore, "the four times." ... Recognizing an increasing estrangement from the agricultural setting of the Church's calendar, [the Church] replaced the Ember Days with prayer for various needs set by regional conferences of Bishops... but eventually replaced by quarterly lectures and examinations in the catechism." (p.67)