Sundays, 9:40-10:40 am
February 4: Summary of the topics of the Season of Reconciliation
February 11 and 18: Dealing Faithfully With Dementia
The thought of having to deal with dementia bewilders and frightens many of us. Dementia challenges our usual ways of thinking about how God relates to us and how we relate to God, and tests the faith, hope, and love of all of us.
- February 11: We will explore how a neglected day in the Easter Season, Holy Saturday, can give us a scriptural “space” to think about the experience of dementia.
- February 18: We will reflect on scriptural approaches to personhood in relation to people with dementia, and how dementia can help all of us to learn what it means to say that our lives are hidden with Christ in God (Col 3:3).
In both sessions we will consider some ways to give encouragement in Christ to those who suffer from dementia, and those who care for them. Leading this class will be the Rev. Dr. Suzanne McDonald, Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at Western Theological Seminary, who has been reflecting on theological and pastoral issues raised by dementia for many years. She teaches a course on “Ministry, Aging, and Dementia” at WTS and has also presented on dementia at numerous churches, the Hope Academy for Senior Professionals and Calvin Academy for Lifelong Learning.
February 25 & March 4: Well-Being
We will focus on two facets of well-being by calling attention to: “I AM a living being!” Presenter: Earl Laman.
- February 25: Born to Become- Mysteriously we know we are- alive? “have our being”? We’ll gaze at phenomenal features of “be-coming” through experiences and realities emanating from therapeutic relationships.
- March 4: Born to Belong- we are not isolated and independent beings. Thus, we’ll view the promise and complications of “be-longing”, once again via experiences and realities arising from therapeutic journey.