Frazer offering class for those afraid to ask questions at church

FROM WSFA.com: MONTGOMERY, AL –

Frazer United Methodist Church will be offering a class that gives people a place to ask questions they feel uncomfortable asking in church.

The Alpha Course, an international phenomenon that began in England and has swept the United States, allows participants to explore the big questions of life in a relaxed environment. Frazer United Methodist Church will offer the Alpha Course, beginning September 12, for 10 weeks on Monday nights.

Alpha is an introduction to Christianity designed for those who have no prior knowledge of the Bible. Participants explore the meaning of life, the purpose of existence, and the basic claims of Christian faith.

“Sometimes people aren’t comfortable asking questions or discussing their doubts in a formal church setting,” says Frazer Teaching Pastor Patrick Quinn. “The goal of Alpha is to provide a relaxed, non-judgmental, non-critical environment where no question is off-limits and everyone is assumed to be starting from zero in terms of knowledge

The Leaning Tower of Norwalk

The bell tower of the landmark Norwalk United Methodist Church is leaning into the building, but the congregation hopes to raise money to save it.
By David Gurliacci 

It isn’t often that a church becomes inspired by a city redevelopment agency, but Tisha Jermin, pastor of the Norwalk United Methodist Church on West Avenue used just that word—”inspired”—to describe what happened.

Pastor Tisha Jermin accepting a historic plaque for Norwalk UMC in Norwalk, CT

“Our tower is falling,” she said, although it’s not in danger of collapsing anytime soon. The structural support inside the tower keeps it sturdy enough to prevent it from crashing into the church, but anyone looking up from Mott Avenue can see a pronounced tilt to the city’s own leaning tower.

“We were trying to make the decision about whether to take it down or repair it,” Jermin said.

Enter the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency. When the Wall Street Historic District was created, the RDA helped identify grants that a nonprofit organization such as the church might apply for in order to preserve its property.

The redevelopment agency also helped the church with an engineering study of the structure to see whether it could be repaired. The engineers found it can be fixed.

“The fact that someone cared enough about the building inspired us to keep it,” Jermin said. “We plan to fix it. How it’s going to get done, we don’t know.”

Financing the project remains a problem, she said in an interview after a ceremony in which the church received the first plaque to be put up for the Wall Street Historic District. The church has only about 175 members, with 75 to 80 regularly worshipping on Sunday, and much of the congregation is elderly, she said. But she has hope.

“Through the redeveopment authority we found a number of grants,” Jermin said. Those are matching grants, she said, so the church will still need to find money for the project. “We plan to stay here for a long time, and do great things for