BANGOR – Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman, professor of liturgy at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, will speak March 30 at Congregation Beth El’s Shabbat service about issues facing religion as more and more Americans seek spirituality.

Hoffman will discuss Synagogue 2000 and how historians call this era the third spiritual awakening.

Hoffman’s visit is part of HUC-JIR’s outreach program and its 125th anniversary. He is traveling across the nation, among scores of scholars, rabbis, cantors, students and staff affiliated with the school.

Rabbi Laurence Milder, Beth El’s spiritual leader, who graduated from HUC-JIR and was a student of Hoffman’s, says Hoffman is “one of the country’s leading scholars of Jewish liturgy.”

During the American Baby Boom of the 1950s and ’60s, Hoffman said, Jewish education was very child-centered, but today baby boomers are making new claims on religion, asking that religious education address challenges of adulthood.

Many churches and synagogues are moving away from religion modeled on corporate structures that separated board members from clergy – “the clergy prays and the board pays” model. More often lay members and clergy are forming teams to provide spiritual leadership to communities. “Church and synagogue members no longer see themselves as consumers of religion as a product. In the post-modern congregation, members make a commitment to the community and the change in congregational structure enables individuals to return the gifts and blessings they have to the community at large.”

Milder’s congregation is an example. “A very large proportion of people at Beth El did not grow up in a synagogue or they weren’t Jewish. We are a new congregation and many of our members’ religious identity is very much focused on their sense of Jewish spirituality, values and ethics. Those are the things that speak to them.”

Hoffman was ordained in 1969 and received his doctorate from HUC-JIR in 1973, where he also taught. He has written or edited 21 books, including “Israel: A Spiritual Travel Guide” and “What is a Jew?” the most widely read introduction to Judaism.

The synagogue is at 183 French St. For more information, call 745-4578.