Friends:

Teaching is always an exhilarating experience.

The discussions are particularly interesting.
I just finished the lectures for the course in the
Future of Ecumenism [taught with Dr. Mitzi Budde]
at VTS and I also taught a week's course for the Richmond
Consortium in January.

The discussions vary of course.

Up north, all the students came from churches with
similar, though not identical, ecclesiologies--all the students
at VTS have bishops for example [Episcopal, Lutheran and Methodist students]

In Richmond, the church organizations [Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran] tended to vary--with more emphasis
on the local church and hardly a bishop to be sighted!! This makes for interesting
analysis.

The students note, however, that functionally many things are similar.
[The students often have grown up in another Christian Tradition than their
present one, so the experiences vary considerably].

Of course this is one of the marks of contemporary American Christianity--boundaries
have become more fluid in practice--if not always theologically.

As always, we have a lot to learn in discussion with one another.
For me, this is enriching.

Peace,
John