Pilgrim The Commandments: A Course for the Christian Journey

Pilgrim is a teaching and discipleship resource that helps inquirers and new Christians explore what it means to travel through life with Christ.
A Christian course for the twenty-first century, Pilgrim offers an approach of participation, not persuasion. Following the practice of the ancient disciplines of biblical reflection and prayer with quotes from the Christian tradition throughout the ages, Pilgrim assumes little or no knowledge of the Christian faith. Individuals or small groups on the journey of discipleship in the Episcopal tradition can use Pilgrim at any point.

There are many different aspects to helping people learn about the Christian faith. We have taken as our starting point Jesus’ summary of the commandments. We are called to offer our lives to God through loving God with all our mind, soul, strength, and heart, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Learning about Christian faith and growing in Christian faith is about more than what we believe. It’s also about the ways in which we pray and develop our relationship with God, about the way we live our lives and about living in God’s vision for the Church and for the world.

Course 3. The Commandments: Following Jesus is about the way we behave as well as what we believe. So how should Christians behave and how should we live? This part of Pilgrim explores that question through one of the core texts of the Christian faith: the Commandments. We look in Session 1 at the two commandments Jesus uses to summarize the whole of the Old Testament law: the call to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. In Sessions 2–6, we explore the Ten Commandments themselves.

Sharon Ely Pearson a retired Christian educator, editor, and author with 35-plus years of experience in Christian formation on the local, judicatory, and church-wide level. Known for her knowledge of published curricula across the church, she has written or edited numerous books. She is a graduate of Virginia Theological Seminary and a lifelong Episcopalian. She lives in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Paula Gooderis a freelance writer and lecturer in biblical studies, a Reader in the Church of England, and a lay member of the General Synod. She is also a Trustee of SPCK and the Saltley Trust and an honorary Canon Theologian at Birmingham and Guildford Cathedrals. She is the author of A Way Through the Wilderness and the bestselling Lent course Lentwise, and co-author of the Pilgrim course and Love Life, Live Advent.

Stephen Cottrell is the Bishop of Reading in the Church of England. He has written or contributed to Reflections for Daily Prayer, the Emmaus discipleship course, Traveling Well, and Praying Through Life.