Adult Formation | Trinity Foundation for Christianity and Culture
                            (TFCC)  2007–2008

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Overview
Meets Mondays at 6:30 pm
September 17 to October 29, 2007 (Module One)
and March 29 to May 12, 2008 (Module Four)

 

The Trinity Foundation for Christianity and Culture (TFCC) is an educational, international, ecumenical institution that seeks to foster community harmony through education with a difference - by teaching Christians about their own faith, and that of their neighbors, so that they can live in a diverse society without fear and without compromising their faith - while respecting difference.

There are many existing interfaith organizations whose goal is to promote dialogue and understanding between different religions. There are also many existing Christian educational courses seeking to teach Christians the fundamental principles underlying other world religions. 

What makes TFCC different is that its educational program, the Awareness Course™ seeks to impart this understanding from a Christian perspective and within the context of a modern, changing, and diverse society. It helps Christians develop an informed response to the religious and cultural diversity around them by being centered in their faith and secure in their identity.

TFCC was founded and developed by Bishop Michael Marshall (Assistant Bishop of London and Rector of Holy Trinity, Sloane Square) and The Reverend Nadim Nassar (the only Syrian priest in the Anglican Church).  TFCC was inaugurated by the Archbishop of Canterbury on September 14, 2003.

TFCC is a worldwide network comprising churches and educational institutions that span multiple Christian denominations. The network today includes representatives of the Episcopal Church of the U.S.A., the Anglican Church of Canada, the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches, the Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and the Congregational and Armenian Protestant Churches.

TFCC’s regional reach currently extends to North America (Washington D.C., New York, Maryland, South Carolina, Louisiana, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Antigua), Europe (U.K., Germany, and Spain), the Middle East (Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria), and Australia.

TFCC’s ordained and lay consultants from the United Kingdom and these other regions met together in London in September 2004 for the first time to plan the way forward. In December 2004, the Middle Eastern Consultants held a Regional Conference in Beirut; the North American Conference took place in Charleston, S.C., in May 2005.  The most recent International Consultants Conference was held in Aleppo, Syria in June, 2007.

 

St. Paul’s has a special relationship with TFCC as Fr. Sloane is Chairman of the Board of TFCC America and Linda Wilkinson is the North American Coordinator.

TFCC Seminar:  “Authentic Christianity in the 21st Century”

St. Paul’s is hosting two identical 3-hour seminars introducing the principles of TFCC and its formation program, the Awareness Course, presented by the Rev. Nadim Nassar on Friday, September 7, 2007  2:30 pm - 5:30 pm OR Saturday, September 8, 2007  10:00 am – 1:00 pm.  This seminar is open to all parishes in the Washington diocese and other interested individuals.  It provides an opportunity to hear about this exciting program from one of its dynamic creators and to catch some of his enthusiasm for its important mission.  Please email Linda Wilkinson at ljwilkinson@cox.net to register or for more information.

TFCC Awareness Course™

In 2007–2008, St. Paul’s will be presenting Module One of the Awareness Course on seven Monday evenings, September 17 through October 29, 2007 in the Guild Room and Module Four on seven Monday evenings, March 29 through May 12, 2008.  Sign up on the first night of the class.

Weekly program schedule:
Mass at 6:00 pm
Program at 6:30 pm
Compline at 8:00 pm

The class is not "academic" – you do not need to write essays or do homework, you do not need to have read the Bible from cover to cover, and you do not need to have any academic qualifications – but you can expect to be challenged!  Presented by Ann Korky, Ed Loucks, Peter Laugesen, and Linda Wilkinson. Contact Linda at ljwilkinson@cox.net  or 703-266-8721.

Module One: “Citizens of Two Kingdoms: Life in the Global Village”
This module will be presented on seven Monday evenings in the Guild Room beginning on September 17.  It explores how Christians should respond to the challenges and opportunities of living in culturally and religiously diverse societies. 

Sept 17 Session 1: Conflict of Cultures in the Third Millennium 
How should Christians respond to the challenges and opportunities of living in a culturally and religiously diverse society?
 

Sept 24  Session 2: Living in a Global Village 
The relationship between globalization and the hardening of religious and cultural identities.
 

Oct 1      Session 3: The Resurgence of Religion 
The various factors which have led to the resurgence of religious fundamentalism in Europe, the USA and the Middle East in order to understand better the situations in which Christians communities find themselves today.
 

Oct 8      Session 4: Tolerance, Dialogue or Embracing Diversity
The need to make space for difference and diversity in our plural society and how tolerance alone is inadequate to the task.
 

Oct 15    Session 5: Fear, Faith and Change
How the affirmation that the Christian revelation is embodied in a Person affects the way we read and interpret the Bible. How we can avoid the extremes of hard-line          fundamentalism and liberal compromise by understanding faith as a process.

Oct 22    Session 6: The Culture of God and the Cultures of the World 
Understanding better how the relationships within the Trinity model for us the divine culture of self-giving love. How the culture of the Trinity challenges contemporary culture and indicates how it can be transformed into an hospitable space for all to meet.
 

Oct 29    Session 7: Citizens of Two Kingdoms  Considering how Christians can engage with society and begin to transform it. Christians need to be secure in their personal knowledge of God to share space with others in a multi-cultural society.

Module Two: “Sharing God? Judaism, Islam and Christianity”  
This module is about monotheism, the rise and development of the idea of the One God. Monotheism is concerned with exploring the three Abrahamic faiths from a Christian perspective, looking at the similarities, the differences, and the challenges we face together. Christianity has a unique perspective on God that does not exist in Islam and Judaism.  It is very important for us as Christians, if we want to understand other faiths and live together and respect each other’s beliefs, to know where we stand at the basic idea of the One God that all three faiths share.

The course takes us on a journey of exploration, going back as far as the ancient Egyptians and the ancient Middle Eastern cultures, to see how they struggled with and explored the idea of God and how they developed their thinking and beliefs about that subject. Then we move on to look at the culture of the Old Testament and the rise of Judaism and the development of YHWH and the One God and examines how this idea was taken by Islam and the faith of the absolute oneness and the absolute unity of God. In Christianity, we see the concept of the Trinity in the center of understanding God’s reality. The course is an introduction to the similarities and differences in these three religions, discussing how to relate, as Christians, to the other Abrahamic faiths.

Module Three: “Luke’s Legacy: The Spirit in Action”  
The third module in the Awareness Course studies the writings of a unique writer of the New Testament – Doctor Luke. Luke was the only non-Jewish writer in the New Testament; he was a Gentile, a physician, a scientific person and an artist. We will look at his unique perspective on the person of Christ - His life, His cross and His resurrection. Luke accompanied Paul in part of his journeys; he met Peter, and wrote the Gospel which was aimed at the Gentiles.  He also wrote the Acts of the Apostles, the account of how the Apostles of Christ proclaimed the good news from Palestine to the world.

The module is important because it addresses the fundamental issue of proclaiming the Gospel in a multi-cultural, multi-faith society in early Christianity.  Because Luke wrote to the Gentiles, and he wrote to a diverse society, he can speak to us in our situation today. This module raises the challenge of reading and understanding the scriptures, taking into consideration their context and relating them to our own.  It opens up the possibility of studying the scriptures in a different way, digging into the culture of the Gospel and connecting it to the culture of today.

Module Four: "The Jesus File: Rebel, Radical, Revolutionary—
or just another 'nice man'?" 
St. Paul’s will be presenting Module Four in the Guild Room on seven Monday evenings, March 29 through May 12, 2008.  The Christian faith is built around a person rather than a book. Who is this person who changed the face of history and keeps challenging our cultures and existence even today? Jesus Christ, who still captivates the imagination of modern writers like Dan Brown, the writer of The Da Vinci Code, and film-makers such as Mel Gibson, the Director and Producer of The Passion Of The Christ, remains a controversial figure in our global village. This course explores the life and teachings of Jesus in a way you would never expect or imagine!

For more information about TFCC, contact Linda Wilkinson at ljwilkinson@cox.net or 703-266-8721.