Friday Study Group
A Reconciling Ministry
Please join us!
General Information
This group gathers weekly on Friday mornings at 10 a.m. year round for in-depth study and discussion. Currently we are meeting via Zoom. We address topics relating to theological writings, scripture, spiritual practices, science, church and religious history, and current issues, such as racial justice, LGBTQ equality, and environmental policies, affecting Christianity today.
An important goal of the group is to seek to understand different perspectives on important issues that relate to spiritual, social, historical, and/or ethical questions.
This book isn’t only for Christians but for all faith traditions, and even those with no faith at all. When we see a civic promotion of fear, hate, and violence for the trajectory of our politics, we need a civic faith of love, healing, and hope to defeat it. And that must involve all of us–religious or not. Learning to practice a politics of neighbor love will be central to the future of democracy in America. And more than ever, the words of Jesus ring, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
We the Friday Study Group of Trinity United Methodist Church in Tallahassee affirm and adopt the following statement from the Reconciling Ministries Network:
We celebrate God’s gift of diversity and value the wholeness made possible in community equally shared and shepherded by all. We welcome and affirm people of every gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation, who are also of every age, race, ethnicity, physical and mental ability, level of education, and family structure, and of every economic, immigration, marital, and social status, and so much more. We acknowledge that we live in a world of profound social, economic, and political inequities. As followers of Jesus, we commit ourselves to the pursuit of justice and pledge to stand in solidarity with all who are marginalized and oppressed.
Statement on Social Justice
We, as members of the church’s Friday Study Group, which has been meeting steadily for many years, have been studying and discussing the Sermon on the Mount, as presented in the Gospel of Matthew. We are struck by Jesus’s forceful emphasis on inclusion of the meek, the hungry, the neglected, the poor in spirit, the lonely, and those denied recognition and just treatment by society, in his vision of the Kingdom of God…. [Please see our Statement on Social Justice].
Steps to a More Inclusive Outlook
This figure is based on readings from (among others) Native: Identity, Belonging, and Rediscovering God, by Kaitlin Curtice, God is Red by Vine Deloria, Jr., How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi, So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo; Courageous Faith: How to Rise and Resist in a Time of Fear by Emily C. Heath; I and Thou by Martin Buber, as well as contributions to discussion by Friday Study Class and Betty Phifer Advanced Study Class members, many of whom have taken part in the Capital Area Justice Ministry in Tallahassee.
Content added and photo adapted by Pam Crosby. Photo taken by Ferran Perez and used with permission from https://www.pexels.com/photo/high-angle-photo-of-white-spiral-staircase-3427031
Contact Us for More Info!
For more information, send an email to Pam Crosby, FSG member.