“How many of you have pets — dogs, cats or other creatures?” Bishop John Chane asked the congregation at Monday’s 9:15 a.m. morning worship service. His sermon title was “Lessons of Joy and Unconditional Love,” and the Scripture text was Genesis 2:18-19, Adam naming the animals in the Garden of Eden.
Many people who are retired say they are busier after retirement than they were while they were working. The Right Rev. John Bryson Chane, eighth Episcopal bishop of Washington, D.C., must be one of them.
Chane will serve as chaplain in residence at Chautauqua Institution for Week Eight. He will preach at the 10:45 a.m. Sunday morning worship service and talk about his faith journey at the 5 p.m. Vespers in the Hall of Philosophy. He will preach at the 9:15 a.m. morning worship service from Monday to Friday.
The Right Rev. Eugene Sutton started his Monday afternoon lecture with the facts: Christian churches throughout the United States are losing membership.
“With fewer and fewer notable exceptions, people — especially young people, the next greatest generation — are staying away from our churches,” said Sutton, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland.
Sutton opened Week Two’s Interfaith Lectures, themed “Religion and Spirituality” by discussing what churches ought to be doing to stay relevant to young people in the 21st century. He had four recommendations.
As a young man, the Right Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton was so fed up with religion that he thought the world might be safer without it.
Sutton has since regained faith in the church, but he is aware that many young people never do. Sutton, the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, will explain in today’s 2 p.m Interfaith Lecture in the Hall of Philosophy how he plans to bring those young people back and why they chose to leave in the first place.
“Was Jesus a radical?” Bishop John Bryson Chane asked the Hall of Philosophy audience during the 2 p.m. Interfaith Lecture.
On Wednesday, Chane continued Week Eight’s theme of “Radicalism: Burden or Blessing?” with a lecture titled “Radicalism… A Passion for The Possible in the 21st Century.” The title comes from the title of a book written by William Sloane Coffin, a Christian theologian, Chane said. In his lecture, Chane discussed the meaning of the word “radical,” whether Jesus was a radical, and whether the Christian church of today is or is not a radical church.
Chane was consecrated the eighth Bishop of Washington and was CEO of the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation. He is also an active participant and proponent of interfaith dialogue and a graduate of Yale Divinity School. Before attending Yale, Chane was a student at Boston University where he was a member of the Students for a Democratic Society.
The Chautauquan Daily 