The second term of the School of Christian Living begins this Tuesday, October 27th, with classes on Paul’s Theology (led by David Lloyd) and Conflict as a Spiritual Practice (led by Jeanne Marcus). The Paul class will be for six weeks – through December 8th, with no class on November 24th. The Conflict as a Spiritual Practice class will run for five weeks – through December 1st, also with no class on November 24th. As usual, classes start at 7:45 pm, and all participants are invited to come at 7:00 to eat a small dinner together before class.

Here are the descriptions of the two classes:

Dear Christian brothers and sisters at ____________; Yours in Christ Jesus, Paul

Led by David Lloyd

Is St. Paul a bogeyman for your faith? Too sexist, too fixated on sin and salvation, too much emphasis on the risen Christ? Let’s give him a fresh look and explore his theology through excerpts of his letters to the Christian congregations he established. We’ll look at his life and times, and see if he has anything to say to us in the 21st century.

Conflict as a Spiritual Practice

Led by Jeanne Marcus, NVC trainer and member of the Healing Group at Seekers Church

Inevitably, we will each find ourselves in conflict with others in our lives. Sometimes the experience of conflict is so painful that we try to avoid it, or make it go away as quickly as possible — even at the cost of giving up on what we really want. And some of us may have some sense that being in conflict is to have failed at compassion. Yet conflict simply means to have differences with someone else about what we want to happen. This is bound to happen between people who are fully alive, creative, and active, but who are also unique in how they experience life and in what they desire.

This class approaches our response to conflict as an important Spiritual Practice. We’ll look at how to transform our understanding of conflict from a problem to be solved to an opening for deep understanding, acceptance and transformation, of ourselves and our connections to others.