St. Francis' Episcopal Church

Serving Eureka, Wildwood, and Surrounding Communities

Adult Education

 

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St. Francis' encourages all of it's members to continue to grow in the knowledge of Christ.  Some of the opportunities for Adults are:
  • Sunday Morning Adult Education - 11:30 to 12:15 - usually taught by either Mthr. Barbarito or Prof. Michael Booker who teaches Philosophy at Jefferson College.  Occasionally guest speakers present special topics.  Topics for Feb to May 2008 include:

    • February 3  Love in the Bible  As we look forward to Valentine’s Day, we’ll be examining the romantic stories of courtship and marriage found in the Bible, stories of Ruth, Adam, Samson, David and other.  There are a few surprises along the way as we consider what those stories have to say about the institution of marriage.

    • February 10  Evolution Weekend:  God created the universe, and took a very long time to do it. We’ll talk about the Episcopal Church’s and others’ position on God and science.  

    • February 17 The Comfortable Psalms

    • February 24  The Uncomfortable Psalms

    •  Every Sunday we recite one of the Psalms as a congregation.  Who wrote the Psalms?  What was their function?  How were they originally performed?  What does selah mean?  For Adult Forum, we’ll look at the Psalms on two Sundays, first looking at the uplifting Psalms and then looking at the not-so-uplifting Psalms.

    • March 2  Forgiveness:  Forgiveness is good for the soul, but very hard work.  In fact, it seems to be good for the body as well.  We’ll talk about forgiveness—why it’s so hard and why it’s worth it.

    •  March 9 Crucifixion Narratives (Garden & Trial) As a part of our Lenten series, we’ll examine the Gospel account of the end of Jesus’ life.  What happened in the Garden of Gethsemane, and how many times was Jesus put on trial?  Did the Jews or the Romans cause Jesus’ death?

    •  March 16  Crucifixion Narratives (Crucifixion): There are four versions of the death of Jesus.  We will look at the similarities and the differences from the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

    • March 30 Resurrection Narratives  According to the Gospels, Jesus appeared to his followers many times and in many ways after his death.  Locked rooms, fish for breakfast, and mysterious strangers…we’ll look at the resurrection narratives.

    •  April 6 St. Julian of Norwich  Who is this 14th century woman whom Mother Melanie talks about all the time.  Learn about her seemingly modern theology. 

    •  April 13 Genesis Series (Garden of Eden)  Digging into the story of Adam and Eve.  Was it really all Eve’s fault? 

    •  April 20 Genesis Series (The Flood)  Every Sunday School-er knows the story of Noah and his ark.  From a grown-up perspective, the Flood story seems complicated for a host of reasons.  Did God commit genocide?  Could waters really have covered the whole earth?  Was the biblical Flood actually a local event in Iraq or Turkey?

    •  April 27 Genesis Series (Patriarchs & Matriarchs)  The exciting, intriguing, and sometimes spicy stories of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, and their progeny.

    • May 4  Exodus Story  The defining story of the Jewish people is the Exodus out of Egypt.  While Charlton Heston is not available to play the role of Moses, we will be looking at the story of Moses and his journey to the Promised Land.

    •  May 11 The Santorini Volcano and the Bible   Did Moses’ Exodus coincide with the most massive volcanic explosion in human history?  Were the twelve plagues the result of a natural environmental collapse?  It’s interesting to compare the biblical narrative of the Exodus with what we know about the eruption of Thera in 1650 BC.

    •  May 18 Writing of the King James Version of the Bible  This beautiful and beloved translation was a work of art in its time and is much beloved today.  Who wrote it?  With its archaic language, does it have any value to us today?

  • The Thursday morning group meets at the Solid Rock Kaffee in Eureka.  The group meets at 10 a.m. over coffee or whatever.  The format is to "check in" by offering up a concern and by sharing where each  saw God this week, then continues with a discussion of a book of the bible.  If you'd like to receive a weekly email with the reading and discussion questions, contact Pastor Barbarito at (mbarbarito@aol.com)