a·ga·pé   agápē
n.

1. Christianity Love as revealed in Jesus, seen as spiritual and selfless and a model for humanity.

2. Christianity In the early Christian Church, the love feast accompanied by Eucharistic celebration.

C. S. Lewis, in his book The Four Loves, lists AGAPÉ as describing the highest level of love known to humanity—a selfless love, a love that was passionately committed to the well-being of the other.

Visit Us Everywhere!

 

Celebrating an Agapé New Year!

Thank you to all who made our retreat on poverty a powerful success!
Stay tuned for follow–up and opportunities in the new year...

...check out this site as we move forward in the name of Jesus for the poor: www.economichumanrights.org

This will be a great new year of faith active in love for Agapé.
Worship will continue on Mondays and Thursdays the week of January 4!

Classes begin January 11 at Case Western Reserve and January 16 at Cleveland State.

Connect to Agapé at any level! Worship, share a fee meal, talk about God and justice, work for justice and community organizing in Cleveland...come with questions and come as you are! I seek to create a safe place for conversation and spiritual exploration of God, classes, and campus life...please be welcome...I want to support your cause!

Try out one or all of these opportunities to connect with AGAPÉ:

Notes From Across the Street

The Face of Poverty: An Agape Campus Community Journey of Faith

“People living on incomes just above the poverty line grew by 10 percent between 2000 and 2008. Theirs is now a community of nearly a quarter of a million people (in the US). The U.S. Census Bureau will announce today that 13 percent of residents in the Cleveland-Akron metro area were poor in 2008, a rate virtually unchanged from 2007. But the number of people with a new fear of poverty is growing in city and suburb…The federal government set the poverty line at $17,330 for a family of three in 2008. If the family earned less than that, the government defined them as poor. About 13 percent of America was poor last year, 13.4 percent of Ohio and 13.1 percent of Northeast Ohio.”   (By Robert L. Smith, The Plain Dealer  September 29, 2009)

Can we grasp the cry of the poor among us?  What does the face of the poor look like in Cleveland?  Beyond the statistics lay the stories of hunger, unemployment, addiction, sickness, and despair.   Agape students are asking deeper questions and wonder when the greater church will put sex back into the privacy of the bedroom and recognize the call of Biblical proportion with over 2000 verses of accountability to the poor.  This student movement of God’s love will spend time in retreat, listening to those who work in Cleveland to advocate for the poor.  They will walk the streets and encounter justice work in our community  With students representing both Case Western Reserve and Cleveland State, this will be a time of listening to how God will use Agape in the coming year to organize and serve in the name of Christ by being a living sacramental presence to those who hunger and thirst in mind, body, and spirit.

This will take place from 12:00pm Thursday, December 17 until 12pm Friday, December 18.   Pray for those who will journey with the faces of poverty.

Mondays 12:10 - 12:50 pm "Sanctuary"

A time of music, peace, and creative prayer
Location: Inside Trinity Cathedral, right across from the CSU Main Classroom building.

Tuesdays 12 pm "Hi Noon!"

A time for lunch coffee and conversation on faith, culture, politics, and becoming the change you want to see in the world.
Location: CSU Main Classroom building, near a "food source."

Wednesdays 8 - 8:45 am "Early Word"

A time of intellectual exploration on topics of justice and community utilizing the writings of great leaders and scripture comparison.
Location: At Café Ah-Roma - across from CSU Main Classroom building

Thursdays 12 - 1 pm "Agapé @ CASE"

Come join us at The Coffee House at University Circle - 11300 Juniper Road on the Campus of Case Western Reserve - near the Alumni House. We will discuss faith, society, and campus life through the teachings of Jesus and writings of others. Contact Pastor Joe for details.

Thursdays 6 pm "Emergence Evening Worship"

A time of celebration in creative worship

Thursdays 7 pm "Agapé Meal"

Free healthy food

Thursdays 7:45 pm "OMG: On a mission from God"

If you are interested, please stay after the meal; this is a time to explore how we can do justice, community organize, serve the poor. (aided by local leaders, media aides, other, etc.)
Location: "Emergence" will take place in Trinity Cathedral and the meal & "OMG" will be in the Chapter Room there, across from CSU Main Classroom building.

Peace,
Pastor Joe