The Sunday Forum

10:10 a.m. in the fellowship hall (and livestreamed)
No registration is needed.

September 15
A new program year
A parish update by the rector and other parish leaders

September 22 and 29
Becoming Pilgrims

September 22: In late July, St. Stephen’s Choir and the choir of River Road Church went on pilgrimage to England. Brent te Velde, Diana, Chou, and Cate Anthony will describe how music offered in sacred sites enlivens our experience of God.
September 29: Craig Kocher, dean of religious and spiritual life at the University of Richmond, has led students on pilgrimages to many places in the world, including the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain. One of the students who traveled on the Camino with him was UR sophomore Svea Erickson, who will join Craig in the forum. Parishioner Kim Schmidt and staff member Anna Jones took a racial justice pilgrimage a little over a year ago, visiting sites in Atlanta, Montgomery, and Selma where key events in the Civil Rights movement occurred.

October 6, 13, 27, November 3 (October 20: Love in Action, the annual giving launch)
God’s American Purpose
Since the founding of North American colonies by European nations, and especially since American independence, God’s presence among us has been vivid. We are a land of multiple faiths and lively religious expressions. Yet out of our diversity we have the call of a common national identity grounded in faith. When we have united in this way, we have prospered.

Even amid civil war, Abraham Lincoln affirmed that “the Almighty has his purposes.” Lincoln meant that war must not erase the conviction that God has blessed our nation and calls us forward. In times of political and social fracture, we must seek ways to come together as a people under God.

During these four Sundays, the forum will address the relation between faith in God and American public life. We will discover that religious life transcends both institutional identity and partisan politics. God’s call to us arises in every aspect of our lives. This series will be a journey through God’s presence to us.

October 6: Bill Sachs will speak of faith in America as pilgrimage. Using Martin Marty’s book, Pilgrims in Their Own Land, Bill will emphasize that we are all pilgrims. Our lives overflow with quests for more and better as we are led by faith. Religion is more than belief; it is a way of life.
October 13: Using Jon Meacham’s book The Soul of America, Bill will describe the way religion frames American life. More than rules or structures, religion functions best as our source of vision, of possibility. We are a “city set upon a hill,” called to be an example of life at its best for all. Remarkable visions of shared hope have surfaced when we have been at our best, as this forum will describe.
October 27: Bill will be joined by Robert Wilson-Black for a conversation about faith amid national conflict. We will use Parker Palmer’s book, recently reissued, Healing the Heart of Democracy. Rob is a graduate of the University of Richmond with a PhD from the University of Chicago under adviser Martin Marty. His book The End of College led to his delivering the Orr Lecture at Dartmouth and receiving an honorary doctorate from Franklin College. He is a trustee of the University of Lynchburg, outgoing Parents Clerk at Sidwell Friends School, and an elected member of the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C. Having served for a decade as CEO of Sojourners, he recently stepped down as CEO of John Lewis’ Faith & Politics Institute to cofound the National Museum of American Religion.
November 3: Two days before national elections, our five clergy will address the forum as a panel. Recalling the book, Common Faith, by John Dewey, we will consider how common purpose might arise from difference and even amid division. We are a people of common prayer, to which all are welcome. We believe that “God’s American Purpose” begins with common prayer, here at St. Stephen’s and beyond.

November 10
The Week of Compassion
As a kick-off for the Week of Compassion, we’ll host a panel composed of some of our mission partners, our missionaries in Argentina, Monica Vega and Heidi Schmidt; ReWork Richmond CEO and parishioner Deb Lawrence; and Mike Maruca, head of Anna Julia Cooper School.

November 17 and 24, December 8 and 15
Racial Healing as Spiritual Formation
(No forum on December 1; we will hold the all-ages Advent Fair that morning.)

November 17: “Restoring Sacred Ground: The Story of Ham Cemetery”
Professional archaeologist Tim Roberts will tell us about Ham Cemetery, an historic African American cemetery located just down the road in the corner of Bandy Field.
November 24: “The Liberation of Lumpkin Jail”
Bestselling author Kristen Green will share the story of Mary Lumpkin and the liberation of Lumpkin Jail. This story, told in Green’s recent book The Devil’s Half Acre, is a remarkable example of perseverance and transformation that culminates with the birth of Virginia Union University on the former site of the South’s most notorious slave jail.
December 8: “Racial Healing as Spiritual Formation”
Part three of this series on racial healing will bring Dr. Catherine Meeks to St. Stephen’s Church. Dr. Meeks is the esteemed founder and retired director of the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing in the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta. In that capacity and as a sought-after speaker, workshop leader and author of six books, Dr. Meeks has long been at the forefront of racial healing efforts in the Episcopal Church and beyond. She previously worked as a professor of socio-cultural studies at Wesleyan College and holds a PhD from Emory University. She will speak in the forum and will be our guest preacher at the morning services and the reflector at the Celtic service.
December 15: “Racial Healing, Inclusion, and Welcome in Liturgy”
To close this series, St. Stephen’s program staff will reflect on the ways the principles of racial healing, inclusion, and welcome are upheld in our liturgy. How can and do we use art, music, and worship to fully embrace diversity within the St. Stephen’s community as well as to reflect the expansive diversity of the Episcopal Church and the global Anglican Communion?

The forum will not meet on December 22 or 29. It will resume in January 2025.