Adult Formation

What is Formation?

Formation is our primary vehicle for growing in the knowledge and love of God. Formation classes meet every Sunday at 9:15 a.m. upstairs for a time of discussion, reflection on scripture. and prayer. Formation is led by a priest or other qualified instructor, and is broken up into a number of series throughout the year.

Along with our Sunday morning offerings, St. Mark’s hosts a number of other formation groups throughout the week.

Fall Sunday Series: Cranky Beautiful Faith
(September 22-November 17, 2024, 9 sessions)

Cranky, Beautiful Faith: For Irregular (and Regular) People by Nadia Bolz-Weber 

Nadia Bolz-Weber weaves personal narrative, hilarious rants and powerful spiritual insight as she relates her unusual journey of faith, offering a fresh and uncompromising look at the transformative power of grace. As one of today's most provocative Christian leaders, she blends sardonic irreverence and brilliant theology to offer a portrait of faith that is edgy, outrageous and, above all, real. Smart-mouthed and heavily tattooed, Nadia Bolz-Weber didn't consider herself ‘religious leader material’ and didn't expect to find her vocation leading a funeral in a smoky, downtown comedy club. But surrounded by recovering alcoholics, depressives, and comedians, she realized these were her people and maybe she was meant to be their pastor. Bringing together the bracing and beautiful, this revised updated edition reminds us that we need the grace of a loving, forgiving God now more than ever.

Advent Sunday Series
(November 24-December 22, 2024)

Watching and Waiting with Poets and Saints

Anglicans often turn to poetry and art to reflect upon who and how this wondrous God of ours reveals Godself to us. In this short Advent series, we will sit with and prayerfully ponder poems and paintings to open a little space to receive the love that God is constantly showering upon us. Emphasis will be placed on connecting what we see/hear/experience in the artworks to the joyful work of daily discipleship and living a life that is truly life: awake, alert, en-joyed, available and responsive to those in need. Please note, this series will take place in the regularly scheduled Adult Formation slot (Sundays 9:15–10:15 a.m. in the Bates Room). 

Winter Sunday Series
(January 12-April 6, 2025, 12 Sessions)

Spirituality and Christian Belief:
Life Affirming Christianity for Inquiring People by Kieth Ward

This book delves into Christian faith as a form of spirituality. It defends the most standard Christian belief— there is one creator God, God is Trinity, Jesus is the Incarnation of God and the redeemer of the world, Jesus died and lives with God and will be seen by all in glory. The purpose of human life is to be liberated from greed, hatred, and ignorance to promote truth, beauty, and goodness, and to share with all in eternal life. 

How do these beliefs fit with evolutionary science and with the moral gains of the Enlightenment with regard to human freedom and fulfillment? It firmly rejects any doctrine that is opposed to the unlimited love and joy of the Supreme Spirit, or that conduces to human anxiety, fear, or self-loathing. It is wholly positive about the creative potentialities of human life. It is, in short, a spirituality—a way of personal excellence and well-being—and not the teaching of an authoritarian, hierarchical institution that tells you what you have to believe to avoid a fate worse than death. 

Wednesday Nights in Lent
(March 12-April 9, 2025)

Faces of Holy Week

5:30 p.m. Stations of the Cross (Cathedral)

6:00 p.m. Potluck Supper (Bates Room)

6:30–7:45 p.m. Formation (Bates Room—see below for description)

7:45–8:00 p.m. Sung Compline (Chapel of the Resurrection)

Wednesdays during Lent we will gather to pray the Stations of the Cross, share table fellowship, engage in conversation around Jim Farwell’s book This Is the Night and end with Sung Compline in the Chapel of the Resurrection. Join us for this time of preparation for Holy Week and Easter.

This Is the Night: Suffering, Salvation, and the Liturgies of Holy Week by James W. Farwell

This Is the Night is a work of "liturgical theology," understood as a theology inspired or informed by the liturgies of Christian Holy Week. In the context of modernity in crisis, it is an attempt to think with the principal liturgies of the "Paschal Triduum"—Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Great Vigil of Easter—about human suffering. Topics will include the arc and sweep of Holy Week, discussions of the set liturgies for Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Vigil. Readings will be supplemented by sermons from renowned Episcopal preachers.

Spring Sunday Series
(May 4-June 15, 2025, 6 Sessions)

The Mystery of Christ … and Why We Don't Get It by Robert Farrar Capon 

Widely recognized as a creative, insightful writer, Robert Farrar Capon offers still more of his uniquely provocative fare in The Mystery of Christ . . . and Why We Don't Get It. This engaging book probes the meaning of salvation — peace, forgiveness, grace, reconciliation — spoken of in the New Testament as a "mystery."

Reminding his readers, sometimes in startling ways, that salvation is a gift rather than a transaction, Capon uses a variety of dialogues to drive home the truth that "there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Along the way he explores guilt, forgiveness, love, anger, romance, grief, spiritual contentment, the Incarnation, reincarnation, resurrection, and more — and manages to make salvation something fresh and new in the process.

CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER GROUPS

Wednesdays at 9 a.m. and 7 p.m., upstairs in the Colton Library

Join Fr. Tyler, Mtr. Holly, and Michelle Doherty LCSW, for a time of contemplative prayer. Newcomers & beginners are welcome, and instruction in silent prayer is given at each session. Contemplation is a receptive method of Christian silent prayer which deepens our relationship with God, the Indwelling Presence … a prayer in which we can experience God’s presence within us, closer than breathing, closer than thinking, closer than consciousness itself.

Contacts: Fr. Tyler: tyler@stmarksutah.org, Mtr. Holly: holly@stmarksutah.org, Michelle Doherty: michelledoherty01@gmail.com

THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION THROUGH SHORT FICTION

Wednesdays at 10:00 a.m. on Zoom

Join Canon Judy Atherton and Father Tyler Doherty on Zoom for a fun hour of discussion and theological reflection using short fiction as our launching pad. We’ll discuss a piece of fiction each week and reflect theologically on how the story can illuminate aspects of our relationship with God, ourselves, each other, and creation.

Contact: Canon Judy Atherton: atherton540@gmail.com

BIBLE STUDY: BIBLE & BAGELS

Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m. in the Parlor

Come nurture your faith by dwelling with the living Word revealed in scripture in this time of warm fellowship. We meet in the Parlor over bagels, juice, and coffee. Bring your Bibles! Having explored, reflected, and wondered our way through the Gospels of Matthew and Mark this past year, the group will be studying the book of Genesis this fall. The group requires no previous knowledge of scripture and includes dashes of informative commentary, thought-provoking study questions and experiential group activities that encourage a deeper understanding of scripture.

Contact: Carolyn Ershler: cershler@icloud.com

PSINGING The Psalms

This small group meets in the Cathedral at 2:00 p.m. on Fridays to chant the psalms. Beginners are most welcome and the ability to sight read music is not required. Chanting the psalms is prayer, not performance — so come make a joyful noise!

Contact: Anne-Marie Eastman, althea7h@gmail.com

Newcomers

If you are new to St. Mark’s, the Episcopal Church, or Christianity more broadly—welcome! These formation offerings for newcomers are designed to get you oriented in this strange new land. Feel free also to get in touch with Cathedral clergy; we are happy to answer questions, learn more about you, and accompany you on your spiritual path. Click below for more information.