Jane Click, longtime GSP pianist, will lead the group in singing "contemporary, inclusive and ecumenical" chants composed by Kristopher Lindquist.

Sunday, December 7 at 9:00 am

Bloom Education Center

The Winter Solstice has held a powerful place in the rhythm of the year's calendar for centuries. Join us for a multimedia presentation that will invite us to consider:

• How do we view darkness? How does God view darkness?
• Why is the axial tilt important?
• When is winter? How does winter affect us?
• How do we determine a solstice?
• What does a goat have to do with the December solstice? What does fire have to do with the December solstice?
• How do the sun's movements affect how we site our structures?
• What does the god Saturn have to do with the winter solstice? What does Christ's Nativity have to do with the winter solstice?
• Other than that Galileo unpleasantness, what is the Church's interest in astronomy? Are Christians sun worshipers?

2 Sundays, December 14 & 21 at 9:00 am  

Bloom Education Center

Join us for this special Advent series as we contemplate the Incarnation through poetry, prayers and art. We will draw especially from A Widening Light: Poems of the Incarnation, edited by Lucy Shaw.

Sunday, January 4 at 9:00 am  

in the Bloom Education Center

Does the Bible ever seem like a bunch of Greek to you? One Sunday a month we provide an opportunity to discuss the Bible readings for that day in more depth in a small group setting. Come join us for a thoughtful but always lively conversation about understanding scripture.

Sunday, January 11 at 9:00 am  

in the Bloom Education Center

"For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me."  Matthew 25:35-36

Episcopal Relief & Development (ERD) works with Church partners and other local organizations to save lives and transform communities worldwide. ERD helps rebuild after disasters and empower people to create lasting solutions that fight poverty, hunger and disease. Working in close to 40 countries, their programs impact the lives of approximately 3 million people around the world. Join us for an informative session about the work of this important ministry of the Episcopal Church.

Presented by Deacon Linda Hale. Deacon Hale moved to Tucson from the Diocese of Spokane about a year ago and currently serves at Christ the King Episcopal Church. She has worked with ERD for many years.

Friday, December 12, 11:30 am
in the Bloom Education Center

A marvelous tale of an adventurous life of great historical import. She has been called the female Lawrence of Arabia, which, while not inaccurate, fails to give Gertrude Bell her due. She was at one time the most powerful woman in the British Empire: a nation builder, the driving force behind the creation of modern-day Iraq.  

Born in 1868 into a world of privilege, Bell turned her back on Victorian society, choosing to read history at Oxford and going on to become an archaeologist, spy, Arabist, linguist, author (of Persian Pictures,The Desert and the Sown, and many other collections), poet, photographer, and legendary mountaineer (she took off her skirt and climbed the Alps in her underclothes). 

She traveled the globe several times, but her passion was the desert, where she traveled with only her guns and her servants. Her vast knowledge of the region made her indispensable to the Cairo Intelligence Office of the British government during World War I. She advised the Viceroy of India; then, as an army major, she traveled to the front lines in Mesopotamia. There, she supported the creation of an autonomous Arab nation for Iraq, promoting and manipulating the election of King Faisal to the throne and helping to draw the borders of the fledgling state. Gertrude Bell, vividly told and impeccably researched by Georgina Howell, is a richly compelling portrait of a woman who transcended the restrictions of her class and times, and in so doing, created a remarkable and enduring legacy.

GSP Reader's Group meets on the second Friday of each month at 11:30 am.