St. Bart’s, a large and resourceful parish with over 170 years of history and some 4,000 members. The key word of St. Bart’s mission is “welcoming:”

"Our members and visitors come from the whole New York metropolitan area, from other parts of the country and as tourists and pilgrims from around the world. We practice what St. Benedict taught his monks and their households: “All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ” (Rule of Benedict 53:1)."

The Rev. Mary E. Haddad, Senior Associate Rector, coordinates Christian Formation programs and she is passionate about what she is doing: for her this is not just a ministry, this is the core of parish ministry. Her approach to education is transformational rather than informational. The transformation of one’s life in Christ is rooted in her diverse personal experience: she used to sell cars in Detroit, worked on converting “pagans” to Christ in Beverly Hills, CA, and then she followed her call to ordained ministry (read her biography here).According to her, the transformation of life is something that starts in our baptism, in our death and resurrection with Christ (Rom. 6). Renewal, resurrection, and newness of life – these are some of the metaphors that she uses to describe her vision of Christian formation, of shaping of the new persons, transformed in Christ.

Perhaps, that’s why the name of what is often called the inquirer’s class is somewhat unusual, “A New Thing.” This eight session course, usually attended by 30-50 individuals, and combined with a light meal, is offered 2-3 times a year. The objective of the seminar is to learn "a new thing” on Scripture, Church, the Trinity, creation. “Question the old faith. Believe different.” Mary’s lecture is followed by small group discussions. It’s not only the new parishioners of St. Bart’s but even the seasoned ones that are invited to the seminar, and all manage to learn a new thing, to gain a fresh insight into something as familiar as Scripture, prayer, or the Eucharist.

To prepare her talks, Mary uses a lot of materials, including her seminary notes, but she decided not to use any of the ready-to-use curricula since she believes that every community is individual and every lecture, seminar, program, should be prepared with the particular audience in mind, and should respond to the issues, problems, grieves and joys of the particular community.

Among other programs offered at St Bart’s are Practicing Faith at St. Bart’s (a four-week introduction into the life of St. Bart's), a course on discerning gifts for lay ministry, Centering Prayer, Education for Ministry (EFM), Cursillo, Centering Prayer and much more. Find out details. A special part of educational ministries at St. Bart’s is the Center for Religious Inquiry that offers courses on world religious traditions and sponsors music programs.

Certainly, very few churches have the resources of St. Bart’s, however, I believe, everyone has something to learn from Mary Haddad’s experience. Here are two items that I picked up:

• Christian education with a focus on the transformation of life in Christ may be serious but not boring.
• Formulation of programs in the context of one’s community, and of course, great passion about Christian Formation. It’s about the joy of Resurrection, after all.

Finally, I learned that the latest “new thing” at St. Bart’s was the introduction of clergy blogs. And while Mary Haddad believes that it’s too early to draw conclusions, she says that not only does she get online reactions to her postings, but new people approach her in the church to discuss her postings (which, by the way, tend to be brief). If you would like to read her postings, or if you would like to contact her, the blog is here, and her email is haddad@stbarts.org.

Photos are courtesy of St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church, New York