The Holy Trinity Book Club met Saturday morning, July 20th, with Steve Bradford, Bonnie Morrison, and Barbara Lacey in attendance.  Discussion by all was lively and interesting.  Steve was asked about the photo gallery of clergy on the wall, and provided a very informed talk about each person, his place in history, and his relationship to the Orthodox Church.  Perhaps Steve could be interviewed once again on this subject, tape recorded, and a typescript produced.  Or Steve could prepare the manuscript for us himself. It could be a welcome addition to the anniversary celebration of our church expected to take place in two years. Another thought was to extend the talk to include information on parish priests at HTOC in the past.

The bulk of our conversation was initiated by articles shared at the meeting:  “Americans—Undecided About God?”(NYTimes 12.10.11); and two pieces from the website of the Greek Orthodox Church on “The American Religious Landscape and the Orthodox Churches,” and “What is Prayer?” The articles were a take-off point to consider how HTOC is located in the American religious landscape. It was felt that sharing similar short pieces from blogs, texts, newspapers, and magazines was more convenient than buying and reading whole books (less expensive, less time consuming) and might encourage more people to join our thoughtful discussions and provide material covering their own interests.
 
Mention was made of President Obama’s televised personal response to the outcome of the Zimmerman trial, and his call for local communities to think about the barriers of racism and how to bridge them in our neighborhoods.  Recognizing that our church is next-door neighbor to Calvary Baptist, a predominantly black church, we brainstormed about how to address the subject. Some thought has been given to this concern in the past, as was evident at the recent WAIM meeting held at HTOC. We understand the matter would first need to be explored by Fr. Marc; Steve was willing to initiate this discussion with him.

We encourage all those interested in subjects such as these, or who see the need for addressing other such topics, to attend the next meeting.  For further information, please call or write Reader Steve Bradford: 860.456.2659 (home); 860.617.5792 (mobile); wilibrad@aol.com