By Bea vonTobel

The Orcas branch of the Lutheran Church will begin a new book study group this Thursday, Jan. 3 at 5:15 p.m. at the airport conference room.

Everyone is invited to come and discuss Marcus Borg’s latest book, Speaking Christian”. The Orcas branch has, in the past, held discussions on several of Borg’s other volumes, and this one is especially timely considering dwindling church membership across the country and across the several denominations. Perhaps it has to do with the words we use to describe what we believe and practice.

This book notes on the cover that Christian words have lost their meaning and power, and then describes how that meaning and power can be restored.

For those of us who have read at least the first couple chapters, this is proving to be a powerful re-introduction to words we thought we really knew the meaning of, even if we though others may have defined the words differently.

Come to join us and get into some powerful discussions led by Pastor Anne Hall, minister for all three branches of the Lutheran Church in the San Juans. There is no exclusion in the words; everyone iswelcome.