St Leonard’s is a Living and Questioning Community.
This means we don’t simply accept things, but expose them to challenge and investigation. In turn, this means we take seriously the ideas of study and reflection. All too often Christianity is seen as a sort of package-deal paid for by a blank intellectual cheque, with people expected to sign up for everything and agree with everything – which thinking people simply cannot do! Unless our faith is able to respond to anything and everything that a sceptical age can throw at it, it really doesn’t deserve to survive. We respect and encourage people’s questions, not in the patronising sense that we think we know the answers to all of them but in the sense that they keep us alive and open to new possibilities.

Because we see study and reflection as a key part of the Christian journey, they need to be ongoing. Many churches run Bible study groups, and there are several of these in St Leonard’s, with details of times and venues available from the parish office. In addition there are more open courses of varying lengths, operating throughout most of the year.

During 2008-2009 we worked our way through the 21-week Living the Questions course, and this was followed in the summer by a three-week course looking at some of the ideas of the inspirational Bishop John Spong. The 2009-2010 will have as its core a 12-session study of the historical Jesus and the Kingdom of God, entitled First Light. Its authors and narrators are the eminent New Testament scholars John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg, who will be familiar to members of the Living the Questions groups. Filmed entirely on location in Galilee and Jerusalem, the programmes are visually stunning, and packed full of historical and theological information. They explore the background to the Jesus story, asking such questions as: Why did he happen when he did? What were the links between Jesus and John the Baptist? What were the priorities of Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom? How was the status quo of Roman imperial theology subverted by this obscure Galilean whose message continues to indict empire today? These are some of the topics that will be considered – but they will also act as jumping-off points for any number of other ones.

The first six sessions were well-attended and resulted in lots of good discussion. They will resume in the week beginning 4 January 2010 and will be completed by the beginning of Lent. After Easter there will be plenty of time for a couple of mini-courses, titles to be decided later. It’s an ambitious programme, but the only way in which we can become a Learning Church is to put in the necessary efforts, as opposed to simply paying lip service to the idea.