Sunday Morning Education Hour has some great offerings for adults to grow, stretch, deepen and ground their faith and practice. Adults of every age and stage are welcome – young adults to senior citizens. Some courses are three or four weeks and some last for several months. We try to address these broad themes: Bible Study, Big Questions, Equipping the Saints, Life and Nurture, Mission, Spirituality, and The Twenty-First Century.
Adult classes are being held in person in the church building (and online). Please wear a mask if you are attending in person.
EARTHDAY Presentation: Think Locally Act Globally! – taught by William Burris
April 24 — Room 258
For those who have not seen it or those who have and wish to see it again this is Mr. Burris’s quintessential review of the history of the environmental movement that turns the old environmental adage “think globally act locally” on its head.
This is a hybrid class which will take place both in-person and on Zoom. Click here to join the meeting on Sundays at 9:30 a.m.
Meeting ID: 879 8987 6424
Passcode: 169462
An Environmental Assessment of War? – taught by William Burris
May 1 through May 22 — Room 258
People are dying in Ukraine. This humanitarian crisis is compounded by the environmental impacts of this conflict which extend far beyond Ukraine with a global reach. Mr. Burris has prepared a series of presentations that discuss the environmental impacts of war and national defense policies.
May 1: Sacred Ground, Scarred Ground: The Environmental Impact of War on Land.
It should come as no surprise that the most contaminated place on earth, Lake Karachay in Russia, results from military weapons development, in this case atomic and nuclear weapons development. Lake Karachay is an extreme example of many locations where the earth has been scarred by war. Yet the horrific and tragic toll of life make battlefields and their associated cemeteries some of the most sacred places on earth. The juxtaposition of the sacred and profane are epitomized by the poppy strewn Great War battlefields of northern France where the honored dead lie in the thousands amongst in fields where, over a century later, unexploded ordnance is still being found.
May 8: No Blood for Oil and No Oil for Blood. Defense, Energy, and the Environment
The policy response of the United States and its European Ally’s to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine is dominated by considerations of energy supply. The dependance of the global economic systems on fossil fuels and the environmental degradation associated with them has fueled debate and discussion for decades, as has the numerous issues surrounding energy independence and defense. The conflict in the Ukraine has brought these connections to the floor of congress and dinner table debates. Could it be that this conflict will, in the short term, increase consumption of fossil fuels and exacerbate climate change?
May 15: Guns or Butter? The hidden environmental cost of the Military Industrial Complex
Need help sleeping? Nothing induces sleep better than trying to read federal budget documents, except maybe dropping the volumes from a couple of feet onto you head. Buried in those documents, hidden in plain sight, are the costs of our military legacy of environmental damage. Do you want munitions and military personnel and training and all that goes along with a strong defense? Or do you want to spend a huge amount of money cleaning up the environmental messes resulting from said strong. If you said “yes,” then congratulations you got both!
May 22: The Return of the 1980s, an Environmental Ghost Story
A slew of environmental anxiety washed over the nation during the 1980s. Climate change, then referred to as global warming, was first breaking into the public conscience. Chernobyl foreshadowed the larger fear of nuclear war and its resulting winter. Oil spills and pandemics and… and..
… and now with war in the Ukraine it all seems hauntingly familiar.
This is a hybrid class which will take place both in-person and on Zoom. Click here to join the meeting on Sundays at 9:30 a.m.
Meeting ID: 879 8987 6424
Passcode: 169462
William K Burris is an environmental and engineering geologist who currently serves as an Environmental Restoration Program Manager for the United States Air Force. He has over thirty years of experience as environmental regulator, consultant, policy specialist and manager.
The Bible in Depth: The Prophets– facilitated by Doyle Nichols
This lively conversational study is reading through the literature of the Old Testament. All are invited to jump right in!
This is a hybrid class which will take place both in-person and on Zoom. Register here to receive the Zoom link.
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