Mother of God Orthodox Church holds an Adult Bible Study class on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays at 7:00pm in the Church. The class will be led by George Parsenios. The proposed Bible Study will include two sessions - one Fall, one Spring -and each session will last six weeks, meeting one day per week. The goal of the Bible Study is to study several of Paul's letters in a clear and accessible fashion. The Scriptures have been called the relics of the Saints. Like all relics, the Scriptures are the remaining fragments of people who lived, breathed and struggled in the Christian life. Our study will put flesh and bones and clothing on these ancient relics in order to understand better the Saint who wrote them, as well the people to whom they were written. Put another way, we will read the letters as real documents reflecting the trials and concerns of real people, in order better to understand our own trials and concerns.

The Fall study session, will explore several of St. Paul's letters under the theme "Between Two Worlds." Paul's letters are written to recent Christian converts who are struggling to live their new life in their old environment. In his First Letter to the Corinthians, for instance, Paul tells his followers that they are members of the Body of Christ. They wake up every day, however, to find that they are still members of the Body Politic of 1st century Corinth. Many of them are confused about where to draw the line between being the limbs of Christ and being citizens of Corinth. Can they remain married to non-Christian spouses? Can they take their fellow Christians to court? Can they eat meat at civic celebrations in pagan temples? Paul's answers are carefully nuanced, and the letter contains definitive teaching about how to live the Christian life in a non-Christian environment. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul deals with confusion on another level. The Galatians have become Christians, but have been told by preachers other than Paul that their Christianity will only be complete when they follow Jewish dietary laws and other Jewish religious practices. Paul argues elaborately that they do not need to become Jews in order to be full Christians. He completes his teaching on the relation between Christianity and Judaism in his Letter to the Romans, which is a more carefully constructed argument than that contained in Galatians. We will study both letters in order to understand how the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is also the Father of Jesus and the God of Christians.

In addition to 1 Corinthians, Galatians and Romans, we will cover three other letters not yet chosen. Each session will address most or all of one Pauline letter, and will include two steps. First, we will take a time machine back into the original circumstances of each of Paul's communities. This will help us to understand precisely what these converts were facing. "Travel in time" will often involve referring to various other ancient documents and historical realities, but always in a way that will be accessible and non-technical. This effort will paint a portrait of the communities behind the letters, so that Paul's teaching in the letters becomes more alive to us. Then, the second step is to return the time machine to the present in order to reflect on Paul's teaching in our own lives.

The second session will cover only one New Testament book, the Letter to the Hebrews. The Epistle readings for each Sunday in Lent are taken from Hebrews. We will clarify the overall purpose of Hebrews, therefore, and then spend time explaining how this larger framework is reflected in each of the Sunday Epistle readings. Hebrews elaborately details the theological purpose of Christ's saving work - labeling the Lord as "The Captain of our salvation" - and always unites its theological reflection with extensive pastoral advice and admonition. We will, therefore, read Hebrews in such a way that we intimately connect Christ's life and death to our lives.