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DTSTAMP:20260912T050654Z
UID:9-1390932@christchurchpelham.org
DTSTART:20270318T120000Z
DTEND:20270318T125000Z
CLASS:PUBLIC
CREATED:20260911T095724
DESCRIPTION:On Thursdays (as announced) from 8:00 am to 8:45am Father Matt 
 leads a Zoom Bible Study.  Join using this Zoom Link (PW “BOLTON”). 
 Each Bible Study will be recorded and posted to our YourTube Page\, so you
  can catch it later if you miss the live version.\n\nFather Matt leads Bib
 le study as a prayerful\, communal act of close reading. Sessions begin in
  prayer and proceed through the text patiently\, often verse by verse and 
 book by book over many weeks. He asks participants to read aloud\, invites
  questions and observations\, and allows the conversation to shape the rou
 te through the material. Although he prepares background and commentary\, 
 he functions less as a lecturer delivering predetermined conclusions than 
 as a priest-teacher and facilitator. His humor\, curiosity\, and admission
 s such as “I don’t know” help create a setting in which serious inte
 rpretation can remain hospitable.\nHis teaching method is layered. He begi
 ns with what a passage may have meant in its original literary\, political
 \, and religious setting. He draws on history\, archaeology\, geography\, 
 literary structure\, and the social worlds of Israel\, Second Temple Judai
 sm\, and the Roman Empire. Hebrew and Greek terms\, the Septuagint\, manus
 cript questions\, and competing English translations are recurring tools. 
 He compares parallel Gospel accounts and acknowledges tensions\, editorial
  choices\, and uncertainty instead of forcing artificial harmonization. Sc
 holarship serves the life of faith: it clarifies what the text can respons
 ibly bear and protects the group from easy but misleading answers.\nFrom t
 hat historical foundation\, Father Matt traces how later biblical writers 
 and the Church receive a text. He distinguishes an Old Testament passage
 ’s first horizon from its Christological use without treating the earlie
 r meaning as disposable. This produces a deeply Christian reading that als
 o respects the integrity of Jewish Scripture and resists anti-Judaism and 
 supersessionism. Scripture emerges as a network of remembered images—cre
 ation\, exodus\, covenant\, temple\, exile\, kingdom\, cross\, resurrectio
 n\, and new creation—rather than as a collection of isolated proof texts
 .\nTheologically\, Father Matt’s approach is best described as criticall
 y informed\, creedal\, and sacramental Anglican catholicism. He is comfort
 able with historical-critical scholarship and with recognizing the human p
 rocesses by which Scripture was composed and transmitted. At the same time
 \, he teaches from within the Church’s worship and affirms the Incarnati
 on\, the Resurrection\, the Trinity\, Baptism\, and the Eucharist. His Euc
 haristic teaching is notably realistic and strongly connected to the Last 
 Supper\, John 6\, Pauline tradition\, and the Church’s liturgical practi
 ce. Grace is central: God’s kingdom overturns ordinary calculations of m
 erit\, status\, power\, and reward\, calling disciples toward service rath
 er than privilege.\nFather Matt does not avoid difficult material. Violenc
 e\, slavery\, suffering\, judgment\, empire\, anti-Jewish interpretation\,
  and apparent contradiction are addressed directly. His usual movement is 
 from context\, to careful interpretation\, to ethical and pastoral applica
 tion. Prophecy and apocalyptic are read through genre and their ancient im
 perial settings\, not as coded timetables for modern speculation. Across t
 he studies\, his aim is formation rather than mere information: to teach p
 eople how to read Scripture patiently\, intelligently\, reverently\, and t
 ogether. Participants are invited not to master the Bible\, but to be ques
 tioned\, corrected\, consoled\, and transformed by it. The governing postu
 re is faith seeking understanding—confident in the Gospel\, honest about
  uncertainty\, and attentive to how the biblical witness forms a community
  for worship\, justice\, humility\, and Christlike service.\n 
LAST-MODIFIED:20260911T095724
LOCATION:Zoom
SUMMARY:The Rector's Bible Study
URL;VALUE=URI:https://christchurchpelham.org/events/the-rectors-bible-study
 /2027-03-18
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