Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World
by Katharine Hayhoe

Starting January 8th – February 19th (Mondays at noon)
All are welcome to join in on our weekly group discussion.

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Meeting ID: 817 2513 7097
Passcode: 549771

Facilitated by Richard Loeppert (email Richard with any questions)

Katharine Hayhoe, who has been called one of the most effective communicators on climate change, knows how to navigate all sides of the conversation about our changing planet. In Saving Us, Hayhoe argues that when it comes to changing hearts and minds and overcoming our own fears and indifference, facts are only one part of the equation. We need to find shared values in order to connect our unique identities to collective understanding and action. This is "not another doomsday narrative" about a planet on fire. It is a multilayered look at science, faith, and human psychology. Saving Us leaves us with the tools to open a dialogue with acquaintances, colleagues, friends, family and youth about how we all can play a role in pushing forward for change. --- An excellent book for discussion.

Tentative Schedule

• January 8: Section 1 (Chapters 1-3), The Problem and the Solution
• January 15: Martin Luther King Day - no meeting
• January 22: Section 2 (Chapters 4-7), Why Facts Matter and Why They Are Not Enough
• January 29: Section 3 (Chapters 8-11), The Threat Multiplier
• February 5: Section 4 (Chapters 12-15), We Can Fix It
• February 12: Section 4 (Chapters 16-17) and Section 5 (Chapters 18-19), You Can Make a Difference
• February 19: Section 5 (Chapters 20-22), You Can Make a Difference

Searching for Sunday by Rachel Held Evans

Starting October 16th – December 11th.

All are welcome to join in on our weekly group discussion.

Click here to join zoom meeting.

Meeting ID: 817 2513 7097
Passcode: 549771

Facilitated by Michelle Riley (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Michelle with any questions)

Like millions of her millennial peers, Rachel Held Evans didn’t want to go to church anymore. The hypocrisy, the politics, the gargantuan building budgets, the scandals--to her, it was beginning to feel like church culture was too far removed from Jesus. Yet, despite her cynicism and misgivings, something kept drawing Evans back to church.

Evans found herself wanting to better understand the church and find her place within it, so she set out on a new adventure. Within the pages of Searching for Sunday, Evans catalogs her journey as she loves, leaves, and finds the church once again.

Evans tells the story of her faith through the lens of seven sacraments of the Catholic church--baptism, confession, holy orders, communion, confirmation, the anointing of the sick, and marriage--to teach us the essential truths about what she’s learned along the way, including:

• Faith isn’t just meant to be believed, it’s meant to be lived and shared in community.
• Christianity isn’t a kingdom for the worthy--it’s a kingdom for the hungry, the broken, and the imperfect.
• The countless and beautiful ways that God shows up in the ordinary parts of our daily lives.

Searching for Sunday will help you unpack the messiness of community, teaching us that by overcoming our cynicism, we can all find hope, grace, love, and, somewhere in between, church.

Oct. 16

• Prologue
  Section 1: Baptism (ch 1-6)

Oct. 23rd

• Section 2: Confession (ch 7-12)

Oct. 30

• Section 3: Holy Orders (ch 13-16)

Nov. 6

• Section 4: Communion (ch 17-22)

Nov. 13

• Section 5: Confirmation (ch 23-28)

Nov 27

• Thanksgiving week off

Dec. 4

• Section 6: Anointing of the Sick (ch 29-33)

Dec. 11

• Section 7: Marriage (ch 34-37)

Implicit Bias: What We Don’t Think We Think

Via Zoom (Noon time) study – Monday, Starting September 11th– September 25th.

All are welcome to join in on our weekly group discussion.

Click here to join zoom meeting.
Meeting ID: 817 2513

The Monday “Noon” Book Study group welcomes all to a three-week study (September 11th, 18th, and 25th) learning about implicit bias as it relates to diversity, equity work, and humanness. The GCORR (General Commission on Religion & Race) material being used to guide us through this study defines Implicit Bias as “Unconscious thinking that evaluates one group and its members relative to another group even when that thinking does not align with our stated beliefs, values, or commitments.” This course contains learning engagements organized into three overarching areas for each week’s focus: Recognizing Implicit Bias, Questioning Implicit Bias, and Transforming Implicit Bias.

Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with course questions.