On the first Sunday of each month, St Stephen's collects donations for At Jacob's Well, one of St Stephen's See also the Education Schedule for details on times and locations, and current study topics; and check our blog for announcements of special classes.
- Sunday School
- Adult Education
- Study Materials provided by the Director of Adult Education
- Catechism
- Seasonal and Continuing Eduation
Sunday School
St Stephen’s offers an interactive Sunday School program during the 9:15 AM service for children of all ages. Children first join their parents in church, then leave at the Sermon hymn for church school. Nursery care is also provided during the 9:15 AM service.
The program, under the direction of Charlotte Hawtin, uses St. George’s curriculum. The children study the Bible’s New and Old Testaments. The program also includes plays, puppets, crafts and games. A monthly children’s church service is held the first Sunday of the month and is conducted by the children. Older students study the Catechism and have bible study each Sunday geared to the lectionary.
Adult Education
‘We shall lerne to know, how great treasures and ryche gyftes we have receyued by the Sonne of God Jesus Christ to the atteinying of the perfect and everlasting lyfe.’
Thomas Cranmer, A Short Instruction into Christian Religion, 1548
Adult Education at St Stephen’s assigns great value to discussion of Scripture, liturgics, sacramental theology and Church history. Through lectures, seminars and Bible study, Christian spirituality can be maintained for an individual’s faith and also within the larger modern culture. We strive to demonstrate the mercy, forgiveness, and love of God in Christ through belief in and obedience to the Gospel.
Attention is paid to many sources of witness from early church historians, patristic writers, Medieval Scholastics and modern paraphrasts. Bible study is primarily discussion but draws upon commentators and expositors to clarify points of language, history and Trinitarian belief. Recent lecture series have explored synthesis and exegesis of Christian spirituality with careful attention given to natural and revealed religion in the theology of C. S. Lewis. Another series on the subject of the Book of Common Prayer outlined Anglican Church history until the time of Thomas Cranmer, various linguistic and theological amendments to the 1544-1549 editions and still further revisions by PECUSA. The series was overseen by Holy Trinity Seminary. Another recent Lenten study reviewed topics, themes and historical events in OT writings. Based on A. P. Stanley’s History of the Jewish Church, the lectureship examined cultural formation, spiritual growth and corporate Israel’s preëminence as disclosed in the Tanach. Some consideration was given to the NT record, but without recourse to systematic theology.
Various Bible study groups meet two to three times a week, and seminar discussions take place each Sunday throughout the Liturgical year.
Church School focuses on the liturgical value of the appointed readings for any Sunday, as well as Biblical history and biographies of noteworthy figures from Scripture.
Study Materials
Brock Johnson, the Director of Adult Education, has provided the following study materials for your consideration. If you have an questions, feel free to stop by one of the adult education classes.
Catechism
A yearly Catechism class is offered for children or adults seeking Confirmation. Instruction is given to individuals at the place and time of their choosing. References are made to the 1928 Authorised Book of Common Prayer and the KJV.
Seasonal and Continuing Education
Lenten Series
Every year St Stephen’s presents a Lenten Series of lectures on some topic of theology or comparative religion. The series is presented on Wednesdays at 6:45 PM (right after Evening Prayer), accompanied by a hearty soup and the best bread in Baltimore.
The 2010 Lenten study reviewed the “Doctrine of the Right Time”, a survey of 1st-century occupied Palestine, and the clash of Roman and Jewish legal systems fulminated by Christ’s presentation of Himself. Basic paradigms of Hebrew prophecy, already initiated, once realized were later energized for a new order created within entrenched cultural settings. Discussion was given over to the acceptance and advancement of limited rights of citizenship in the Empire, sorely needed for the early Church’s fearless coping with ostracism.
Check the education schedule for information on next year’s topic.
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