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Coming Up in
Adult EducationChrist the King's Sunday morning adult education classes feature presentations by parishioners and guest experts in fields such as theology, literature, Scripture, and church history. These sessions take place each Sunday from 9:45am - 10:45am in the West Wing of the Parish Center. Please contact jon.stotts@ctk-nashville.org for details. -
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During December, we were introduced to the canon of the contemporary Irish writer Claire Keegan whose novella titled Small Things Like These served as the foundation for our Advent studies.
For the month of June, we resume our exploration of Keegan’s writings by reading the novella Foster in which the author embeds a re-imaging of the Lucan narrative of the prodigal son.
Set in rural Ireland in 1981, the novella unfolds from the perspective of a young, unnamed girl whose parents “foster” her to an aunt and uncle for the summer before she returns to school; however, during the days of her fosterage, she learns different lessons in familial love.
The lecture series will be delivered on June 4, 11, 18, and 25, by Victor Judge, the assistant dean for academic affairs and lecturer in literature and religion at Vanderbilt University Divinity School.
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past adult ed sessions
Nearly every Sunday in the liturgical year, we hear an excerpt from one of the letters of St. Paul. What makes this particular apostle such a towering figure in the history of the Christian faith?
In this series, parishioner and catechist Justin Brinkley will explore St. Paul's:historical context
vocational calling
pastoral adventures
pet peeves
legacy in the canonical Scriptures and the tradition of the Church.
We invite all interested in better understanding and appreciating nearly half of the New Testament books to join us!Session Four - Paul for Today's Church and World
Session Three - Paul the (Pastoral) Prophet
Session Two - Paul the Pastor
Session One - Paul the Person
Download Slides (PDF) Download Handout (PDF)
You can also listen to these sessions as a podcast!April Synod Update
In the summer of 2021, Pope Francis kicked off a global process called a synod, an ancient Greek word meaning "journey together". Christ the King responded to Pope Francis’s call by offering numerous listening sessions where we welcomed everyone in our community to share their experiences of what the Catholic Church has been for them and what they hope it might become.
In August 2022, we gathered to reflect on our own parish findings, and we discussed what the diocese discovered from synod sessions all over middle Tennessee. Each bishops' conference submitted its own synod synthesis to Rome, and Rome used these global findings to produce a working document meant to guide the next phase of the synod process.
So, over the past several months, lay people, bishops, and priests from all over North America reflected on the global synod results, asking what stood out, what was missing, and what might happen next on the journey of synodality. A summary of these conversations was published this week as the "North American Final Document for the Continental Stage of the 2021-2024 Synod."
On Sunday, April 30, CTK parishioners gathered in the school library for a brief presentation of this new document's key findings. This was an opportunity to take stock of what our parish has been up to over the past year in light of our own synodal journey and to dream up any new initiatives that might enhance the spirit of communion, participation, and mission in this parish. Watch below! -
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Streams in the Desert:
Learning from the Desert Fathers and MothersPresented by Dr. Jon Stotts,
CTK Director of Adult Faith Formation"A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him, saying, 'You are mad; you are not like us.” -St. Anthony the Great
As Christianity began to spread across the Roman empire in the 4th century, thousands of men and women fled to the deserts of Egypt, Syria, and Palestine to seek God in simplicity and silence. The wisdom of these seekers was captured in "The Sayings of the Desert Fathers," an anonymous collection of stories and aphorisms that paint a delightfully human picture of early Christian attempts to become holy. As our Lenten journey toward Easter begins, what can we ordinary Catholics learn from the successes -- and failures -- of these remarkable women and men who renounced everything to follow Christ?
2/26 – Who are the Desert Fathers and Mothers?
3/12 – Dead Or Alive? Empire, Church, and the Desert
3/19 – A Ballad of Love and Hate: God, Neighbor, and Self in Desert Spirituality
3/26 – Fighting with Demons: Thoughts and Desires in the Spiritual Life
4/2 – Becoming Like Fire: What It Means to Be Saved
Session 5: Becoming Like Fire: What It Means to Be Saved
Session 4: Fighting with Demons: Thoughts and Desires in the Spiritual Life
Session 3: A Ballad of Love and Hate: God, Neighbor, and Self in Desert Spirituality
Rowan Williams - Where God Happens - Life, Death, and Neighbor
Session 3 Powerpoint Slides (PDF)
Session 2: Dead Or Alive? Empire, Church, and the Desert
Peter Brown, "Church and Empire," The Rise of Western Christendom (2013) (PDF)
Session 2 Powerpoint Slides (PDF)
Session 1: Who are the Desert Fathers and Mothers?Sayings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers Handout (PDF)
"The Wisdom of the Desert" by Thomas Merton Handout (PDF)
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Contemplating Transformation with Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower
We will spend February in contemplative community dropping into the first of Octavia E. Butler’s Earthseed series, Parable of the Sower, to encounter a prophetic Sophianic wisdom that can support us and our descendants in this epoch changing millennium. Butler offered this knowing in the early 1990s, at the end of the millennium that birthed most of whom are alive on earth today. Our discussions will center the expertise of Octavia E. Butler scholar and author, adrienne maree brown, and music written by Toshi Reagan for her Parable of the Sower Opera on themes of change, community care, and radical inclusivity through traumatic times.
Facilitating the journey is Sonia Fernández LeBlanc, M.Ed, a contemplative futurist who studies the secular as sacred, leading communities in conversations and practices of becoming the elders that our rapidly changing society needs and deserves. All of us alive on earth today are what she calls the “bridge generations” who will hold space for and support our living and future descendants at the end of an era we neither ushered forth nor will be able to rectify. Octavia E. Butler, through her Parables, will be the true guide.Content warning: This text depicts intense and traumatic experiences.
Session 1 - Foundations - Please read Chapters 1-13 for this session as we will be in conversation around inner transformation; juxtaposing Lauren Olamina with Jesus, her country and community with our current society, and Earthseed with Christianity.
We will lean on Cynthia Bourgeault’s 2018 article on the Wisdom Tradition for The Center for Action and Contemplation to ground our discussion: https://cac.org/daily-meditations/the-wisdom-tradition-2018-01-28/
Session 2 - Creating - Please finish reading the book (Chapters 15-Epilogue) for this session as we will be in conversation around emergence, creating community, sustaining relationships based on the journey of Lauren and a micro community that develops alongside her in apocalyptic macro conditions.
We will lean on adrienne maree brown’s speech at the 2013 Allied Media Conference to ground our discussion in emergence: https://adriennemareebrown.net/2013/06/21/emergence-speech-from-opening-for-allied-media-conference-2013/
Session 3 - Imagining - For this session we will practice Lectio Divina on the Bible’s Parable of the Sower on which the religion within the novel, Earthseed: Books of the Living, is based. We will imagine our own micro and macro transformational emergence as we listen to some of Parable of the Sower Opera by Toshi Reagan.
There will be even more resources shared at this session to continue the connectives that Parable offers as well as guides to read the second book in the series, Parable of the Talents, on your own.
About… Sonia is a 6th generation Nashvillian whose family has been deeply rooted in our Catholic community since the mid 1850s. She attended Overbrook and St. Henry and is a 4th generation graduate of St. Cecilia Academy. Sonia has been a teacher for over 20 years and taught at St. Edward School, tutored at Overbrook, and produced plays and coached Forensics at St, Cecilia. She founded Nashville Sudbury School, a self directed democratic school and has been leading contemplative learning communities for adults since 2020. She is delighted to share with the Christ the King Community her secular as sacred practices which rekindle an ancient understanding of Jesus to support our imaginings of a unified thriving future for the generations to come. -
Nourished by Sacred Scripture:
How to Read the Bible Well
Presented by Justin Brinkley
The Church has always held that the Bible is greater than the sum of its parts. We throw around terms like “inspired” and “authoritative” to speak about the scriptures, but what exactly do we mean?
In this series, CTK parishioner Justin Brinkley will explore why the scriptures are important in the authority and life of the Church, helping us to read them through the lens of the incarnate, crucified, and risen Christ as individuals and as a community. Anyone with an interest in the Bible is welcome to participate!9:45am-10:45am
Sunday, January 15, 22, & 29
West Wing of the Parish Center -
The Gravity of the Understated
Presented by Victor Judge
9:45am-10:45am
December 4 (CKS Library), Dec. 11 (West Wing) and Dec. 18 (West Wing)In the novella Small Things Like These by contemporary Irish literary artist Claire Keegan, the national scandal of the Magdalene laundries is narrated in understated prose so stark and quiet that we as readers are rendered breathless. During the Advent Season of 1985 in the town of New Ross, the protagonist, Bill Furlong, makes a discovery while delivering coal to the Good Shepherd Convent. The revelations that ensue become the catalyst by which Bill confronts his past and the silences of a town controlled by the Church. Awarded the 2022 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, Small Things Like These is a moral study in resistance to complicity. The lecturer for the series is Victor Judge, the assistant dean for academic affairs and lecturer in literature and religion at Vanderbilt University Divinity School.
Audio recording available upon request.
Audio recording available upon request. -
Building a Bridge:
What can we learn from James Martin about the Catholic Church and the LGBTQ+ Community?Sunday, November 6, 13, & 20
9:45-10:45am in the West WingAccording to the synod report published by the Diocese of Nashville earlier this year, Catholics in this diocese demonstrate “a clear struggle regarding the issues surrounding the LGBTQ+ community,” a struggle shared by Catholics all over the world.
To help us examine the complicated relationship between the Catholic Church and the LGBTQ+ community, CTK’s Sunday morning adult education is offering a series in November focusing on Jesuit priest James Martin’s book Building a Bridge, published in 2017 with an Imprimi potest. Martin argues that the role and inclusion of LGBTQ+ Catholics in the Church must be examined with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. What can we learn from this book about our parish, our diocese, and the global church?
Limited copies of Building a Bridge are available on a first come, first served basis. Contact Jon Stotts.
Digital and hard copy excerpts from the book will be provided for participants. For the second week, we'll read pp. 29-75. -
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What Was Vatican II?
A Basic Introduction to the Second Vatican Council9:45-10:45am in the West Wing
10/9, 10/16, 10/23, & 10/30
On October 11, Pope Francis celebrated Mass in St. Peter's Basilica to mark the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council.
No one expected Vatican II to make any major changes. Yet it became the most significant religious event in the 20th century, with much of its vision still unrealized.
What made the Council necessary? How did the landmark decisions of the Council come about? What do we have to learn from Vatican II today? Join Dr. Jon Stotts, CTK director of adult faith formation, on Sunday mornings in October in the West Wing for a presentation on these questions and more. All are welcome! -
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Holy Labor and the Right to (Dignified) Work
Presented by Aimee Shelide Mayer
9:45am, Sunday, September 11 & 18
West Wing of the Parish Hall
Work is made for humankind and not humankind for work. Since the Industrial Revolution, our Church has reiterated that "work expresses human dignity and increases it" (Pope John Paul II, Laborm Exercens 9). But a stagnant minimum wage and Right to Work laws in Tennessee hurt workers and devalue human dignity.
In honor of Labor Day, this series will use Catholic Social Teaching as a foundation for exploring a new "Nashville Living Wage" campaign, federal pro-worker legislation including the PRO-Act and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, and a problematic "Right to Work" constitutional amendment on our November ballot. While intentionally featuring the voice of working people, Aimee Shelide Mayer, Nashville Representative of the Catholic Labor Network, will guide these discussions.
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