Elaine Pagels Lecture
INFORMATION UPDATES AND REMINDERS
Starting April 1st the general public will be invited to share the day with us on a first reserved - first served basis.
Background Information
To arrange this event several Friends formed a Working Group under the Standing Committee of Worship and Care of PYM. Grants have been received from both the Chace and Bequests Funds of PYM and the Quaker Universalist Fellowship to enable this event to occur.
This event will take place in the two-hundred year old Arch Street Meetinghouse in Philadelphia which is able to seat an audience of nine-hundred. It is a "ticketed" event since the lecturer wishes that all those attending read the short Gospels of Thomas and Mary (copies of these will be sent out with each ticket ). Tickets will be $10.00 for this special day of the lecture, question answering and afternoon breakout discussion groups.
The first 180 requests for luncheon at $10.00 each will be honored ("maximum for serving at one sitting). Other lunching options are pre-ordered and prepaid $11.00 box luncheons (from a local supplier and delivered) or, brown-bagging both of which are able to be eaten on site or go to one of the many nearby eateries.
The Lecture Working Group under PYM's Standing Committee on Worship and Care will need to have the name of each ticket holder to enable it to mail both the ticket and the copy of the two gospels to reach attenders before the lecture. There will be parking available at Arch Street for the first-arriving 100 cars each one carrying four ticket holders.
Background and Support for the Pagels' Lecture
[Because of the popularity of our speaker and the limitations of our facilities, and because this talk is of such importance to the Quaker community it was decided that Friends — and those closely associated with them through membership, attendance or connection with Friends schools — should have preference for tickets until March 1st 2005.]
Since the 1979 publication of Elaine Pagels' book. The Gnostic Gospels, Friends have been interested and fascinated with the similarity of the early Friends' discovery and practice of what they defined as Primitive Christianity. Others have obtained enlightenment on this topic by attending Pagels' lectures or hearing her on radio or TV. The result is that many have desired to have the author, a foremost Gnostic scholar who is a professor of religion at Princeton University, speak before a Quaker audience on her findings based on the 1945 discovery of the Gnostic writings. It was felt that her message would help Friends better understand the uniqueness of the message of George Fox and other early Quakers. To arrange this event several Friends formed a Working Group under the Standing Committee of Worship and Care of PYM. Grant money has been received from both the Chace and Bequests Funds of PYM and the Quaker Universalist Fellowship to enable this "happening". Those working on this project are extremely grateful for this support.
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To give a "taste" of her understandings, we offer these two quotes from her writings. In her Beyond Belief, she says:
"But since Christians often adopt Irenaeus' view* of controversy, Many still insist that only their church, . . . —actually remains faithful to Jesus' teaching. Furthermore, since Christian tradition teaches that Jesus fully revealed God two thousand years ago, innovators from Francis of Assissi to Martin Luther, from George Fox to John Wesley to contemporary feminist and liberation theologians, often have disguised innovation—even from themselves—by claiming that they are not introducing anything new but only clarifying what Jesus actually meant all along."
This approach to the teachings of Jesus has been both refreshing and stimulating to a number of Friends, who have had difficulty with some of the pronouncements of the "Christian" church which sometimes seems as if it is promoting the mythology of Christ.
The second quote is from her Adam, Eve and the Serpent, as she explains, when talking about Valentinus' understanding of going beyond the elementary steps of faith, baptism and moral reform to spiritual illumination:
Other gnostics claimed to know the secret teachings of Jesus himself—teaching only hinted at, they said in the New Testament gospels but revealed more fully in such secret writings as the Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Mary Magdalene and The Dialogue of the Saviour.
Such writings, suppressed and lost for nearly sixteen hundred years, remained, until recently, virtually unknown. . . . What the discovery certainly does offer, however, is extraordinary insights into the early Christian movement. For the first time, we can read firsthand works later condemned and destroyed by the bishops as heretical. Now for the first time the "heretics" can speak to us in their own words. For church leaders of the second century . . . had attacked the gnostic Christians, condemned their teachings , and attempted to drive them out of the churches.
And from The Gnostic Gospels:
Gnostic accounts often mention how the recipients respond to Christ's presence with intense emotions — terror, awe, distress, and joy. Yet those gnostic writers do not dismiss visions as fantasies or hallucinations. They respect — even revere — such experiences, through which spiritual intuition discloses insight into the nature of reality.
For further information about Elaine Pagels or her spiritual journey see her interview on Religion and Ethics on 10/10/2003 to be seen on
www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week706/profile.html
Elaine Pagels' Lecture to Friends May 21st, 2005 — Days Schedule
8:00 am Parking Lot opens - 1st come, 1st served for those car with 4 "ticketed" attenders
(Other options and directions on our website)
Pre-Reserved slots ONLY for:
• cars with handicap tags & driver + 3
• vans with 7 or more
8:30 am Registration, show ticket collect name tag, under your letter - name tag necessary to enter West Room - only entrance via the Monthly Meeting Room
Light refreshments in the East Room, for those with time
9:15 am Lecture starts and is ended with 15 minutes of questions from the floor
10:30 am Ten minute break!
Opportunity to submit written questions on cards, color coded by the topics brought up in the morning's lecture
10:45 am Re-gather - quickly - for an hour of answers to the written questions!
11:45 am End of lecture session
12:00 noon FGC QuakerBookstore open for business
Lunch, with designated ticket
• buffet in the East Room
• box and brown-baggers on second floor: drinks will be available
• elsewhere but be back by 1:pm!
Afternoon Program
This will consist of opportunities to further explore the Quaker implications of the information presented - and how the nuances of it will or can effect our thinking in the 21st century.
There will be two time slots in the afternoon to have breakout groups with experienced and knowledgeable Quaker leaders. Friends will have an opportunity to write down desired discussion topics, and sign up for them during the lunch hour. This will permit the Lecture Working Group to allocate the room size needed for each group. Each of the selected topics will be offered in each of the two time slots, thus permitting everyone to explore two aspects of the day's talk.
1:15 pm Session 1
2:15 pm End of session 1 & change to the next topic and its location
2:30 pm Session 2
3:30 pm Close of session 2
3:50 pm Everyone has to be out of the building!
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