Sunday mornings at 9:00 a.m. St. Peter's Episcopal Church offers many classes for children and youth:

 Children and Youth Christian Education Classes

(K - 2nd Grade)  Come Join the Circle - This is a hands-on class exploring the stories of the Old Testament.  Combining music, storytelling, games and crafts, this class welcomes young learners into the heart of the Bible's greatest stories.  Children and leaders leave energized and looking forward to the next week's session.

 

(3rd - 5th grades)  Living the Good News / Middler

& (6th - 12th grades)  Living the Good News / Senior

Living the Good News is a lectionary based curriculum that uses open discussion, art, music, games and Bible study to explore the daily readings.  Youth discover how the readings are applicable to their daily lives.  Those attending will have a new appreciation of the worship service as they will have already discussed the gospel for the day and can compare their thoughts to those being presented in the sermon.  

 

 

(Please note, the ages specified for each class are suggestions based on the level at which the curriculum will be presented.  We may also juggle age groups each season based on age distribution and number of students per class.  Currently we are exploring the possibility of adding a pre-school age class which will be held in the nursery.)

Adult Christian Education – Spring 2012

 

With the addition of a third service on Sunday mornings, we’re expanding our Christian Ed offerings.  One Adult Christian Ed class will be offered at 8:45 am, and two classes will be

offered at 9:45 am.

 

8:45 am – Lost Christianities  (Library)

 

This class will explore the wide variety of Christian beliefs that existed in the second and third century, from shortly after the death of Jesus until the Church settled on which books would be included in the canon.  Only with the development of a canon of scripture did it become clear which beliefs would be considered orthodox and which beliefs would be deemed heretical.  Using the DVD series Lost Christianities: Christian Scriptures and the Battles Over Authentication with Bart Ehrman, we will examine the Christianities that were later deemed heretical and their books that did not become part of our canon.  Examples of topics include the diversity of early Christianity, early gnostic Christianity, the Coptic Gospel of Thomas, the Infancy Gospels, the Gospel of Peter, the Secret Gospel of Mark, the Epistle of Barnabas, the rise of early Christian orthodoxy, the formation of the New Testament canon, and early Christian creeds.

 

9:45 am – Adult Forum  (Library)

 

Hell in the Christian Imagination, with Donna Bowman – February 5^th, 12^th, 19^th, and 26^th

In this four-week class, we’ll explore the history of our understanding of hell and what it means to us today.  These are the topics we’ll cover:  Hell and the Hebrew Bible, Jesus and Hell, Hell in Christian History, and What About Hell Today? 

 

The Apostles’ Creed in Film, with Chuck Bane – March 11^th, 18^th, and 25^th, and April 1^st, 15^th, and 22^nd

This class will explore the identity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit through films that express key elements found in the Apostles’ Creed.

 

Everything I Know About Church I Learned from The Vicar of Dibley, with Teri Daily – April 29^th and May 6^th, 13^th, and 20^th

Beginning April 29^th, we’ll spend four weeks watching episodes of the BBC series The Vicar of Dibley, asking ourselves these two questions:  1) What does the parish in the English village of Dibley have to tell us about life in the Church?,  and 2) Where do we see ourselves in these episodes?

 

9:45 am –Sacred Places/Sacred Spaces (Chapel)

 

From the beginning of human history, people have set apart certain places and spaces as “sacred” or “holy”—places where the boundary between heaven and earth seems porous or thin.  This class will explore such places and spaces, from Machu Picchu to the pyramids at Teotihuacan, from Canterbury to Mont St. Michel, from the Acropolis to Stonehenge.  What about these places have kept people streaming to them for years (maybe even centuries or millennia) in search of spiritual understanding and experience?  Facilitator:  Liz Larson