After the traditional summer break, Adult Christian Education, Sunday School, resumes at Holy Nativity for the fall term on September 11, the Sunday after Labor Day. Mary Stuart Poole Library, 9:15 to 10:15 a.m., between services. 

Feeling anciently and somewhat traditionally that Sunday morning should be exclusively for worship and study, I do regret that other, organizational meetings compete with the Christian Education Hour; but that seems to happen as a practical modern necessity because of secular priorities. To the extent it challenges Sunday morning priorities, each person must choose.

This fall, Adult Sunday School will have two features: Liturgy and Lectionary. 

In 1997, General Convention of The Episcopal Church authorized publication of supplemental liturgical materials as Enriching Our Worship. With new bright red copies of EOW, we will look especially at the new Eucharistic materials that are available for use on Sunday morning. Not only the Eucharistic Prayers, but also new forms of Confession and Post-Communion Prayer. Some of the new material is intended to have theological implications, and we will explore and discover.

For our Lectionary studies, we will have all new Study Bibles, replacing the unhelpful and sometimes distracting melange of regular Bibles that have been on the shelf in a dozen different translations. A competent Study Bible is loaded with scholarly notes, maps, and other material that is helpful and useful for serious study. These should enrich our Bible study and discussions. 

Selecting a Study Bible is a work in itself. First, one must choose among English translations, of which there are many. My preference, and the preference of Episcopalians in general, both for study and for liturgical use, and also of Sewanee for EfM, is the New Revised Standard Version. It is generally neutral denominationally, does not have the doctrinal influence and agenda of some other translations, including the popular New International Version (NIV). The NRSV is my choice for study. 

Next, one must select among publishers, each of which offers somewhat different scholarship. On line reviews help greatly with this. And also, Sewanee’s preference for EfM is the New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. That’s one of my preferences also. 

My other main preference is The New Interpreter’s Study Bible New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha. 

We will have half of one and half of the other. They are both readably scholarly and quite rich for Bible work.

TW+