FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

CONTACT: Diane Reed             212-602-0813 or Donna Presnell 212-602-9672

        Trinity Church-St. PaulÕs Chapel

 

 

Trinity Church presents a Live Internet Telecast

Exploring Christian Communities That Are Coming Alive!

 

Here Comes Everybody!: Christian Communities That Work

May 25, 2006 at 8:00 p.m.

trinitywallstreet.org

 

NEW YORK, April 3, 2006—Trinity Church-St. PaulÕs parish in Manhattan will present a live online telecast on Ascension Day, Thursday, May 25, 2006 exploring the increasing interest within Christianity to build inclusive and progressive faith-based communities.  Here Comes Everybody!: Christian Communities That Work is for lay and clergy leaders who want to learn how to re-build their faith community through the renewal of basic practices of hospitality, discernment of the churchÕs calling, personal testimony, observing the Sabbath, and constructive, open conversation.

 

Some might find it surprising that Òemergent churchesÓ are forming because people feel called to form communities without a creed, doctrine, biblical orthodoxy, or even the structure of a denomination. They simply feel called to share a spiritual journey in a dynamic Christian community. This program will show how they are doing it.

 

This telecast will bring together three prominent advocates for reimagined discipleship including Diana Butler Bass, a senior researcher at Virginia Theological Seminary and director of the Project on Congregations of Intentional Practice; the Very Reverend Alan Jones, dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco; and Brian D. McLaren, founder of Cedar Ridge Community Church, an innovative, nondenominational church in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. area. 

 

Here Comes Everybody!: Christian Communities That Work will be telecast live at www.Trinitywallstreet.org from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. (EST) and will include an in-depth interview with each guest, and a panel discussion with telephone and email Q&A from viewers.

 

Following the live telecast, the program will be available for viewing online and by ordering DVDs through www.TrinityWallStreet.org.

 

Panelists

Diana Butler Bass is a senior research fellow and director of the Project on Congregations of Intentional Practice at Virginia Theological Seminary.  In her work she reports that there are thousands of Protestant congregations in this country that are no longer viable.  She has studied fifty congregations across six different denominations and discovered that Òthe more emphasis a congregation gives to the values of home and personal religious practices, the higher the congregationÕs vitality and the more likely it is to be growing in membership.Ó

 

The Very Rev. Alan Jones, Dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, has expressed concerns about rethinking and reimagining Christianity.  He believes history has a purpose (Communion with God and with each other) and that in a sense, ÒChristianity hasnÕt happened yet.Ó  Jones calls us to unity: to have the great conversation at the heart of faith that has been obscured by the extremes—Òon the one hand, those who embrace ÔinclusionÕ with no sense of reasonable discernmentÓ and, on the other, the punitive conservatives whose hard theology masks a mean spirit.Ó

 

Brian D. McLaren has been sited in Time magazine as one of American's twenty-five most influential evangelicals and the ÒTranslator for the Vaguely Churched.Ó  In 1982, he helped form Cedar Ridge Community Church, an innovative, nondenominational church in the Baltimore-Washington region. During his twenty-four years at Cedar Ridge, the church earned a reputation as a leader among Òemerging missional congregations.Ó 

 

About Trinity Church-St. PaulÕs Chapel

The Parish of Trinity Church, established in 1697, has a diverse congregation drawn from the New York region and offers 18 worship services during the week as well as daily interdenominational prayers for peace at St. PaulÕs Chapel. The church and the chapel in Lower Manhattan attract over 1.8 million visitors annually.

 

The parishÕs outreach programs in lower Manhattan include John Heuss House, a 24-hour drop-in center; St. MargaretÕs House, government-supported housing for the elderly and disabled; full childcare services for children six months to five years in the financial district through Trinity Preschool and Nursery; a transitional menÕs shelter at St. PaulÕs Chapel; and an exhibit at St. PaulÕs Chapel, ÒUnwavering Spirit:  Hope & Healing at Ground ZeroÓ that focuses on its unique ministry to 9/11 workers during the recovery efforts at the former World Trade Center site. The parish has a strong musical tradition, with a family choir, a professional choir with CD recording contracts, and a popular twice-weekly concert series.  

 

In addition, it supports the Episcopal Church locally and the worldwide Anglican Communion through grants made by the Trinity Grants program, supporting social transformation in metropolitan New York, spiritual formation and development in the Episcopal Church, Anglican churches in the Global South, and the development of telecommunications throughout the Anglican Communion.

                                                                       

TrinityÕs web site, www.TrinityWallStreet.org, is a premier resource throughout the Anglican Communion for faith formation, with weekly online telecasts of concerts, liturgy, and special events.

 

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For more information on Trinity Church-St. PaulÕs Chapel, go to www.TrinityWallStreet.org.