Sunday Morning Classes

During the school year, we gather at 11:30 in the library for adult faith formation. We enjoy discussions on current issues, books, and scripture.

November Class: Dying Well

October Class: How We Learn to be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith.

October 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29, 2023.
Join in the discussion of this insightful book from Bishop Marion Budde. About the book: "The decisive moments in life are those pivot points when we’re called on to push past our fears and act with strength. With How We Learn to Be Brave, Budde teaches us to respond with clarity and grace even in the toughest times. Being brave is not a singular occurrence; it’s a journey that we can choose to undertake every day."
Purchase your copy on Amazon.

Mariann Edgar Budde serves as spiritual leader for 86 Episcopal congregations and ten Episcopal schools in the District of Columbia and four Maryland counties. The first woman elected to this position, she also serves as the chair and president of the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation, which oversees the ministries of the Washington National Cathedral and Cathedral schools.

A passionate believer in the gospel of Jesus and the Episcopal Church’s particular witness, Bishop Budde is committed to the spiritual and numerical growth of congregations and developing new expressions of Christian community. She believes that Jesus calls all who follow him to strive for justice and peace, and to respect the dignity of every human being.

In November we will engage the topic of “Dying Well”.

Recent Past Classes

Exploring Divine Love Through Paint

Our August series was a wonderful way to experience God through a fresh perspective. If you missed this series, we will be doing more with Angela during Advent, so join us then!
 
Our ideas of God can help us to become the most loving persons we can be; people's ideas about God can also be very destructive.  During this four week series we will be using the method of Art Theology to paint our ideas of God in order to better understand what we mean when we say God is Love.  We will also use this method to better understand how people of other faith traditions can help us to deepen our understanding of divine love.  

This is not just for those who are artists and/or love art, this method is for anyone who wants to think differently about God and spirituality.  
 
Angela Hummel is a parishioner at Saint John’s Cathedral in Denver, Colorado.  Angela has an MFA, an MA in Theology, and is earning her Doctorate at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver where she is creating an Art Theology curriculum.  This year Angela has received a grant from The Episcopal Church in order to begin to share her art theology method. 

Dr. Katharine Hayhoe’s Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World. Hayhoe is Chief Scientist for The Nature Conservancy and a Paul Whitfield Horn Distinguished Professor and the Political Science Endowed Chair in Public Policy and Public Law in the Department of Political Science at Texas Tech University. In Saving Us, Hayhoe argues that when it comes to changing hearts and minds, facts are only one part of the equation. We need to find shared values in order to connect our unique identities to collective action.

Howard Thurman’s best-known book Jesus and the Disinherited. Howard Thurman was one of the most influential African-American thinkers/leaders of the 20th century (1899—1981). His 1935 meeting with Gandhi converted Thurman to the principles of non-violent resistance, by which Thurman then taught a whole generation of Civil Rights leaders, especially Martin Luther King.

Inhabiting Eden by Patricia Tull. Tull is an ordained Presbyterian minister, frequently preaches, leads retreats, and lectures nationally, exploring Scripture in light of environmental issues. She is a GreenFaith Fellow, Climate Reality presenter, and general editor of a new series called Essentials of Biblical Studies for Oxford University Press. She is a friend of Rev. Anne and Don, and Rev. Anne helped edit her book manuscript!

2023’s Lenten book study discussed Richard Rohr's book, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life. Rohr seeks to help readers understand the tasks of the two halves of life and to show them that those who have fallen, failed, or "gone down" are the only ones who understand "up."

Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi. Amy-Jill Levine uses her scholarship on first-century Jewish history to hear Jesus as a Jewish teacher speaking to a Jewish audience. How would those people have heard the words of this Jewish storyteller? How might his parables have provoked listeners to follow him? And how can these same stories, 2000 years later, challenge us to look deep into our own lives?