Our adult Christian Education program offers a variety of classes designed to help you know God, understand the role of the church in the world, train as a disciple and feel yourself grow through fellowship and spiritual enrichment! (Please also check out our Small Groups for further Christian formation opportunities.)

 

Sunday Morning Adult Education Classes

Newcomers are always welcome to join Sunday morning classes as their schedule permits. Classes are held at the church at 9:30 a.m. and precede the 11 a.m. worship service so that attenders can benefit from both experiences. For adults with children, nursery care and children’s Sunday School is also available at 9:30 a.m., so that families can worship together at 11 a.m. Currently the following Sunday morning classes are offered:

 

The Heart of Our Faith

Sundays at 9:15 a.m. for coffee and 9:30 a.m. class, Social Hall, Lower Level

The Heart of Our Faith class, taught by PUMC’s resident theologian, Don Brash, is studying the Fourth Gospel, commonly known as the Gospel of John. After spending several weeks on introductory matters and the Gospel’s introductory chapter, the class is moving on to the meat of the Author’s fascinating coupling of teaching and sign as a literary method for unfolding the heart of our faith.

The class meets in the Social Hall, downstairs near the kitchen, for coffee at 9:15… class starts at 9:30. All are guaranteed a very warm welcome!

 

Contemporary Issues Adult Education Class (9:30 am in the Library)

The Contemporary Issues Adult Sunday School class started a new study of the world’s major religions on Sunday January 6th, using Huston Smith’s The World’s Religions as the guide. This study will last through March. The class meets every Sunday at 9:30 in the Library. Anyone may join the class, and visitors are welcome.

Troubling Issues Forums

Troubling Issue: Nuclear Disaster “What ifs”

After a nuclear disaster, what happens to the clean-up workers, resettled families, and parents of exposed children? For the next Troubling Issues forum on Sunday, April 14, at 4 p.m. in the Sanford Davis Room, Adriana Petryna will speak on The Social Aftermaths of Nuclear Disaster: Reflections on Chernobyl (with Fukushima in Mind). Adriana is a professor in anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. Her book, Life Exposed: Biological Citizens after Chernobyl, is the standard bearer in the anthropology community disaster and environmental crisis. She also wrote When Experiments Travel: Clinical Trials and the Global Search for Human Subjects, both published by Princeton University Press. Rev. Don Brash will facilitate the discussion; everyone is invited.
The period after Chernobyl was marked by a confused state response, lethal radiation doses to clean-up workers, and fragmented research efforts, says Adriana. “The unraveling of the Soviet system left a legacy of incomplete accounting of the full public health and social consequences of the disaster. Accountability to those people affected is a key challenge of our time; it hinges on what kinds of studies, technologies, and funds governments are willing to apply, and over what time frame.” After reflecting on the lessons of both disasters, Adriana will show how a social science of survival can orient our future response.