News: Adult Study

Our Environmental Justice Center's Director, Joy Bergey, wrote the following guest post for the Morris Arboretum's ...

Our pledge campaign for the 2018-2019 budget year has just wrapped up. Why does your giving matter? This video offers some insights! You can also see interviews in the Stewardship Videos section in which a few folks talk about how they think about giving. Do their reasons match up with your own? You can find all of our stewardship videos ...

This letter by Pastor Linda Noonan was run by the Chestnut Hill Local. Here is the link to the original publication.
Public schools should be everyone’s priority
Whether we have children in the public schools or not, every Philadelphian should be concerned about the state of our education system. The quality of education we provide for our ...

by Colette Pichon Battle
It’s hard to listen to the news each day without hearing another story of extreme weather.
Hurricane Harvey caught our attention in August when it hit Houston, one of this nation’s largest cities. Then Hurricane Irma hit the Caribbean and Florida hard, followed by Hurricane Maria’s devastation of Puerto Rico and the ...

September 20, 2017
Dear Members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly,
As faith-based organizations and leaders across Pennsylvania, we urge you to oppose any budget deal that would trade away clean air and water and unfairly tax lower income and working families.
We are compelled by our various religious traditions to protect the most ...

Here is the link to Sr. Pastor Rev. Linda Noonan's Op-ed piece in NPR's Newsworks

Thoughts from Sr. Pastor Rev. Linda Noonan on "Why I Marched"

We're seeing in these days the stubborn persistence of white supremacy. We're also seeing the resilience of hope, as thousands upon thousands of people have mobilized in the streets, again and again, to call out racism and hatred.
Marches and actions are necessary--but so is the slower, longer term project of asking hard questions about our ...

Here's the third video in our Epiphany series. These are images of "hope in Community" https://youtu.be/5lEtqUqoMKI

Here's the second video in our Epiphany series. These are images of "hope in action."

https://youtu.be/mIRBv1yDyaI
 

This is the first video in our Epiphany series. Watch for more each week! https://youtu.be/Ia1NM6wYW8s

During the season of Advent, our Adult Study will turn eclectic. On the four Sundays of 11/27, 12/4, 12/11, and 12/18, the unifying theme will be: You. We will be focused on the nourishment of our souls. The days are getting shorter, the darkness arrives earlier, and the world feels heavy. You are invited to bring a song, a poem, a brief ...

Beginning on October 2, we will engage a study that looks at the intersections of science and religion--considering them as conversation partners rather than antagonists. The heart of this study is a curriculum developed by Living the Questions which includes video segments featuring a number of theologians and progressive thinkers along with ...

On September 18, we will begin a two-week exploration of some of the ways in which jazz music can both express and enrich spiritual practice. We will briefly discuss the history of jazz, and will spend each of these two weeks with a single song--learning the background story, immersing ourselves in the music, and talking about ways we might ...

Adult Study is on hiatus for the summer. It will return on Sunday, September 18, 2016.

A letter from our Senior Pastor to our LGBTQI folk (and everyone else),
In the wake of the hatred and gun violence in Orlando that has left fifty dead and countless injured and traumatized, and in the wake of the division and spiritual violence in our own United Methodist Church following the General Conference at which full inclusion and ...

Thinking and Talking About Racism:
Why It Matters and Why It’s Okay to Stumble Through It.
Adult Study – Sundays at 9:30 am from April 3 – May 8. Childcare provided.
“Race is about the American story, and about each of our own stories. Overcoming racism is more than an issue or a cause – it is also a story, which can be part of each of our ...

Do you ever feel uncertain? Empty? Lost? Have you ever experienced failure? Have you considered that these may be...gifts? Adult Study has begun a series that allows us to consider how such experiences may actually invite us to probe, question, and awaken to new discoveries. We are using a video series entitled "Gifts of the Dark Wood" as our ...

On February 21, we will consider the question of letting go--in particular, letting go of old baggage so we can walk more freely and confidently as people of faith. UCC pastor and author Eric Elnes has identified what he calls twelve convergence points that can lay common ground between Christians seeking to move beyond simplistic labels and ...

We are preparing to start a three-week study on Brene Brown's book, Rising Strong. The study will meet on 1/31, 2/7, and 2/14.
Our stories of struggle can be big ones, Brown writes, like the loss of a job or the end of a relationship; or they can be smaller ones, like a conflict with a friend or colleague. Regardless of magnitude or ...

Advent Relfections 2015
WEEK ONE
Sunday, November 29 – Hope
1.  Light one advent candle.
2.  Let the gift of hope blaze through discouragement, doubt, and disgruntledness.
3.  “Drawing Near: A Blessing for Advent” by Jan Richardson
It is difficult to see it from here, I know, but trust me when
I say this blessing is inscribed on the ...

Articles
The Quest for Transgender Equality – New York Times
Tiny Tornado – the journey of a child and a family

The Future of Faith from a Trans-Man’s Perspective


Video Clips
Congressman Mike Honda’s Transgender Granddaughter Makes Him Proud
Transgender Teen Opens Up About Struggles and Journey
Raising Ryland: Parenting a ...

An Adult Study - Sundays, May 31 – June 21 at 9:30 am
Transgender issues are making the headlines. Celebrities are raising the issue in popular culture in a way we’ve never seen before, while countless ordinary folk live as transgender individuals often facing challenges, struggles, joys, and even violence that headlines often obscure or ...

Living the Questions. Adult Study will resume Living the Questions on April 12. Living the Questions is a series that draws on the work of prominent theologians and thoughtful pastors to provide a look at Christian faith that goes beyond dogma. It starts from the assumption that faith is a journey rather than a destination, and that asking ...