Personal and Spiritual Growth
Adult Education & Enrichment
At First Congregational Church, we recognize that learning doesn't stop as we grow older, and we are committed to providing a variety of educational and faith development opportunities for adult learners. We offer a variety of enriching activities, including book groups, Sunday morning adult classes, Sunday morning forums, Sacred Practices and seasonal studies.
Sunday Mornings at 8:30
Our Sunday morning Adult Education classes focus on deepening our understanding of the Bible, our lives as people of faith, our Christian history and traditions and contemporary scholarship. Classes are generally led by one of our ministers or our ministry intern. Nursery care is available beginning at 8 a.m. Sunday morning classes are held in the Klar Adult Education wing on the upper level of Pilgrim Hall.
Series of Classes About the Occupation of Palestine
Beginning this Sunday morning, May 10, Jerry Stinson will be teaching a 9-week series of classes during the 8:30 Adult Education Hour in the Klar rooms in Pilgrim Hall.
These classes will look in depth at “Occupied Palestine – Despair and Beyond.” Jerry will be sharing experiences and learnings from his two recent trips to Israel and the Occupied Territories.
Sunday, May 10:
Demographics and the History of the Occupation
Sunday, May 17:
The Settlements, Housing Demolitions and Olive Trees
Sunday, May 24:
Checkpoints, The Wall and Refugees
Sunday, May 31:
Human Rights, the IDF and Terrorism
Sunday, June 7:
Gaza
Sunday, June 14:
The U.S. Role in the Conflict
Sunday, June 21:
Good People Making a Difference – Palestinians
Sunday, June 28:
Good People Making a Difference – Israelis
Sunday, July 5:
Possible Pathways to Peace
Sunday Forums at 11:30
On many Sundays after our services we have a forum with speakers (either from within our church family or invited guests) on a wide range of social, political, spiritual and educational matters. The forums vary widely in their focus.
Tuesday Night Theological Book Study
On the second Tuesday of the month, from September through May, the Theological Book Study Group meets from 7 to 8:30 p.m. to discuss recent biblical and theological scholarship and is facilitated by the Rev. Jerry Stinson, Senior Minister. The group meets in the Pownall Room (2nd level of sanctuary building). You may purchase the books for the Theological Study Group from Amazon via this website; a portion of each purchase goes to support the church
May 12, 2009
FINDING THE HISTORICAL JESUS: Rules of Evidence
Bernard Brandon Scott, editor
Amazon: $18.00 – 89 pages
How does one begin the search for the historical Jesus? What are the rules or criteria for sorting through the evidence? These are the most important questions in the quest of the historical Jesus, and their answers are not obvious. In Finding the Historical Jesus, six veterans of the Jesus Seminar help readers negotiate this thicket. Robert Miller develops criteria for differentiating between history and belief. Robert Funk examines the oral character of the Jesus tradition. Stephen Patterson takes readers through the issues involved with the Gospel of Thomas while Robert Fortna looks at the significance of the Gospel of John and Joseph Tyson explores the dating of ancient texts. The volume concludes with a survey of the history of the quest by Lane McGaughy who shows how the criteria have emerged and shifted over the years.
September 8, 2009
WHEN FAITH MEETS REASON
Charles Hedrick, Editor
List: $20.00 – Amazon: $13.60 – 160 pages
What happens to faith when the creeds and confessions can no longer be squared with historical and empirical evidence? Most critical scholars have wrestled with this question. Some have found ways to reconcile their personal religious belief with the scholarship they practice. Others have chosen to reconstruct their view of religious meaning in light of what they have learned. But most have tended not to share those views in a public forum. And that brings up a second question: at what point does the discrepancy between what I know, or think I know, and what I am willing to say publicly become so acute that my personal integrity is at stake? Being honest about what one thinks has always mattered in critical scholarship. In the pages of When Faith Meets Reason, thirteen scholars take up the challenge to speak candidly about how they negotiate the conflicting claims of faith and reason, in hopes that their journeys will inspire others to engage in their own search for meaning.
October 13, 2009
ABOVE US ONLY SKY
By Don Cupitt
List: $19.00 – Amazon: $12.90 – 128 pages
Don Cupitt believes that a new and truly global religious consciousness has been quietly easing itself in around the world. It does not need any visible organization and does not make any non-rational doctrinal claims. It is the religion of life: a secular, purely this-worldly, and radically-democratic affirmation of ordinary life. Where pre-scientific ages saw Heaven, he says, we see only sky. We have given up belief in a supernatural world, and we have felt compelled to break with the received ecclesiastical form of Christianity. But the Christian spirit of critical thinking, of systematic self-criticism and perpetual reform, has spread around the whole world in modern science, technology, critical history, and liberal democracy. In Above Us Only Sky, in 27 brief slogans, he presents a systematic theology of this religion of ordinary life, setting it against its philosophical background, its spirituality, and its relation to other faiths. It is, he says, the legacy and the long-awaited fulfillment of Christianity.
Sacred Practices
This group meets on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month at 7 p.m. in our Sacred Space to learn new spiritual disciplines and practice them together. Disciplines explored in the past include Kundalini Yoga and various meditation techniques and practices. This sessions are led by members of the group, and newcomers are always warmly welcomed.
