Beer with the Bishop

I am currently sitting at Barnes & Noble’s. I was just at Theology On Tap at Brewerie. This is a four part series put on by the Erie Diocese aimed toward young adults. I was pleasently surprised. The turn out, while not huge, filled the room that they reserved which leads me to believe was greater than they had envisioned. Being a long time Catholic I have my personal view of my faith and I had a preconceived notion of the churches view of my faith.
The first speaker in the series was the Bishop, Donald Trautman. The topic was “Finding Faith in a Messy World.” Now as could be expected the initial talk was pretty dull and lecturesc. He had a series of notes and followed them pretty closely. There was then a discussion session with the group you happened to be sitting with followed by a Q & A with the Bishop. This last part was very enlightening. The Bishop was much more candid, at easy, and quite personable. After, a short period silence there where many good questions. I came way from the experience with my faith strengthened and found that churches views where quite a bit closer to my personal views than I had initially thought. I now have a renewed faith in the Church as a whole.
There are three parts left in the series:

April 20th Happy Hours: 9 to 5 speaker is Barb Lindstrom about finding faith in your occupation.

April 27th Just War Theory, Pacifism and the War in Iraq speaker is Fr. Robert Susa about “….find a realistic and faithfully Christian response to war in today’s world.”

May 4th You Think You Know, But You Don’t. What does the Catholic Church teach about sex and love? speaker is Dr. Mary Ann Rivera about “… the complexity and the gift of sexuality and relationships for today’s young adults.”

So, if you have any interest at all, I highly suggest you join the group next week. Sit back have a beer and examine your faith.

AJSPS

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