Religious Education Ministry

Sept. 2, 9, 16 & 23, 2009
Wednesday evenings, 6:30–8:30pm

and repeated on:

Sept. 3, 10, 17 & 24, 2009
Thursday Mornings, 9:00–11:00am

Explore the foundational building blocks of life in Christ. For planning purposes, please RSVP by calling the Church of Ascension Office at 480–837–1066.

Oct. 1 & 8, 2009
Thursday mornings, 9:00–11:00 a.m.

These sessions will look at the spiritual foundations of Islam… the dogma of Islam, the law of Islam (The five pillars), and Muslim–Christian relations. We will explore these areas to see what we have in common, the differences that have to be resolved, and how we can live in an increasingly diverse world. We will also look at the dangers of radical fundamentalism in Islam.

October 14 & 21 2009
Wednesdays 9:00 am in the parish hall

The Matthew Community Mission Statement is as follows: To follow in the footsteps of Christ with the feet of social justice and charitable action: to identify appropriate activities and causes, communicate these to the parish and organize parish responses to these needs.

Beginning on October 14th, The Matthew Community (formally known as Peace and Justice Group) will host a two week series on areas of social concerns here in Arizona. We will look at two organizations — Adobe Mountain Facility (Adopt–a–Cottage) for incarcerated youth under 18, and Sunshine Acres Children’s Home, for children in crisis. Representatives from these two organizations will be on hand to give a history of their organization, how it has developed, and how we may be called to respond to them.

The first session will be on Wednesday, October 14 at 9:00 a.m. in the parish hall. A representative from Sunshine Acres Children’s Home will be on hand with a presentation on their wonderful work with children in crisis in Mesa, Arizona. Afterwards there will be a question and answer period, and refreshments.

On Wednesday, October 21, we will hear from a representative from the Adobe Mountain Facility and their adopt–a–cottage program for incarcerated youth under the age of 18, with a question and answer period, and refreshments. All are welcome to attend these sessions. If you have any questions, please contact Leann at the parish office at 480–837–1066.

Nov. 12, 2009 (Ascension Catholic Church)
Nov. 19, 2009 (Fountain Hills Presbyterian Church)
Dec. 03, 2009 (The Fountain’s United Methodist Church)
Thursday mornings, 9:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m.

A Study of the Gospel of Luke and the ways in which a prosperous and seemingly progressive community in the first century dealt with questions of inclusion, leadership, the division between rich and poor, prayer and ministry. How does the Gospel of Luke help the contemporary to deal with the same struggles?

Aug. 28, Sept. 25, Oct. 23 and Nov. 20, 2009
Jan. 22, Feb. 26, Mar. 26 and Apr. 23 2010

The Book Club meets on the 4th Friday of the month at 8:45 a.m. in the Conference Room.

The purpose of this program is for participants to read a few novels during the course of the year and spend a morning sharing the insights each has regarding the novel in conjunction with our common faith. In the first session we had on October 1, 2004, we looked at what makes a writing “Catholic” and developed a rubric for our reflections on the individual novels. Novels are selected from suggestions from the group.

Check with the parish office to see if there are copies available on the selections below. We try to acquire used books for the sessions.

Aug. 28, 2009 — The Soloist  Steve Lopez
A lost dream, an unlikely friendship, and the redemptive power of music between a Los Angeles Times columnist, and a homeless man on a street corner playing hauntingly beautiful Beethoven on a batter violin.

Sept. 25, 2009 — Molokai  Alan Brennert
The grim struggle of a Hawaiian woman who contracts leprosy as a child in Honolulu during the 1890s and is deported to the island of Moloka’i, where she grows to adulthood at the quarantined settlement of Kalaupapa. A touching, lovely account of a woman’s journey as she rises above the limitations of a devastating illness.

Oct. 23, 2009 — The Shack  William P. Young
In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant The Shack wrestles with the timeless question, Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain? The answers will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did the main character.

Nov. 20, 2009 - (Third Friday) — The God of Animals  Aryn Kyle
A haunting coming–of–age novel is the kind of book that you want to share with everyone you know. Twelve–year–old Alice Winston is growing up fast on her father’s run–down horse ranch—coping with the death of a classmate and the absence of her older sister (who ran off with a rodeo cowboy), trying to understand her depressed and bedridden mother, and attempting to earn the love and admiration of her reticent, weary father.

***NO BOOK CLUB IN DECEMBER — MERRY CHRISTMAS!***

Jan. 22, 2010 — Tipperary  Frank Delaney
In this gloriously absorbing and utterly satisfying novel, a man’s passion for the woman he loves is twinned with his country’s emergence as a nation. With storytelling as sweeping and dramatic as the land itself, myth, fact, and fiction are all woven together with the power of the great nineteenth–century novelists.

Feb. 26, 2010 — The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society  Ann Shafer & Annie Burrows
Epistolary novel with quirky, loveable characters who cite the works of Shakespeare, Austen, and the Brontës, the author subtly weaves those writers’ themes into her own narrative. However, it is the tragic stories of life under Nazi occupation that animate the novel and give it its urgency; furthermore, the novel explores the darker side of human nature without becoming maudlin.

Mar. 26, 2010 — Open Season  CJ Box
Joe Pickett, a Wyoming game warden, is stubbornly ready to risk everything when his own personal sense of morality is at stake. But Joe is also a guy who sometimes gets things wrong, and this characteristic of messing up adds a dimension of humanity to the book. When a well–known poacher, with whom he has humiliatingly tangled, suddenly turns up dead in his own backyard, Joe finds himself at the top of a downward path that, first, will lead to more bodies and then will put his entire family into peril.

Apr. 23, 2010 — Rite of Passage  Wm Golding
In the cabin of an ancient, stinking warship bound for Australia, a man writes a journal to entertain his godfather back in England. With wit and disdain he records mounting tensions on board, as an obsequious clergyman attracts the animosity of the tyrannical captain and surly crew. First book in the trilogy: To the Ends of the Earth.

Sunday Nov. 29, Monday Nov. 30 & Tuesday Dec. 1
6:30 p.m. nighly at Ascension Church

Sunday, Nov. 29 – what it is we do when we gather around the altar.
Monday, Nov., 30 – how can we understand the Mass better…Pray it better…How is the Mass connected to the rest of our week? How can we live the Mass?
Tuesday, Dec. 1 – a sharing of some scripture passages that changed my vision of God… Passages that changed my thinking, in a very good way.

The first session: Jan. 14, 2010 (Ascension Parish Hall)
The second session: Jan. 21, 2010 (Fountain Hills Presbyterian Church)
The final session: Jan. 28, 2010 (The Fountain’s United Methodist Church)
Thursday mornings, 9:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m. All are welcome to attend. No reservations are required. Refreshments will be served.

January 5 – March 16, 2010
Tuesday mornings at 8:45 a.m. in the parish hall

Little Rock Scripture Study lights the way to understanding the message of the Bible, developing a more personal relationship with God, and a deeper relationship with others in your faith community.
Starting January 5th, 2010, we will begin a new Little Rock Scripture Study entitled, Parables of the Kingdom, Part One and Part Two. Some of the most memorable teachings of Jesus were delivered as parables and are found in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. This study explores those parables. The study starts at 8:45am in the parish hall and will run through March 16th. Study sets are available for a small donation at the first session. All are welcome to attend these most informative sessions.