Adult Education
FAITH FORMATION & SPIRITUAL GROWTH
Women's Groups
Men's Groups
Opportunities for All
Sunday Morning Adult Education
Women’s Weekday Opportunities
Women at the Well
Morning Weekly Group and Evening Monthly Group
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Women at the Well welcomes women of all ages and stages to join us! The two groups have a different format, time, and content. The weekly group meets Wednesday mornings from 9:15-10:30am and uses a particular book chosen each semester as a guide for shared conversation, reflections, and prayer. The monthly group meets on the fourth Thursday of each month at 6:00pm (sometimes the third Thursday to avoid holidays) and uses a podcast as the basis for discussion on various topics. Both groups are wonderful opportunities for women to get to know each other as we discuss the intersection of culture and faith and our own spiritual journeys. **Fall Semester of the morning group begins September 11; Fall Semester of the evening group begins Sept. 19**
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If you would like to be added to the email list, let Debbie Kirk know dkirk@hmpc.org.
Men’s Weekday Opportunities
Waking Up with the Word
Waking Up with the Word is a long running bible study for men. Two Tuesdays a month it meets by Zoom and two Tuesdays it meets in-person on the Westminster Hall Patio. The group uses an ancient bible study process called Lectio Divina. We look at the passage that will be preached on the upcoming Sunday. The study revolves around three questions:
What is a word or phrase that stands out to you?
Allow that word or phrase to develop into a memory from your life, a though on the passage or metaphor
What is Christ calling you to through the passage?
No previous bible study experience is needed. It is a great group of guys who are welcoming and wise in their comments. For our in-person meetings coffee and bibles are provided. If you have questions or would like to be added to the email distribution list, please contact Pastor Mac.
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Presbyterian Pint
Men of the church are welcome to join us for fellowship and faith in a friendly environment! We typically meet the third Thursday of every month at 7:00pm at various locations. We discuss relevant questions of theology and culture. All men of any age and stage of life are welcome! Contact Pastor Mac to be added to the distribution list.
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Opportunities for All
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Seeing The Word
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​This monthly small group comes together for bible study and discussion on the third Monday of the month at noon. This group uses the St. John’s Illuminated Bible to discuss a scripture using a visual image.
The Saint John’s Bible is the first completely handwritten and illuminated Bible commissioned by a Benedictine abbey since the invention of the printing press. Beginning in 1970, master calligrapher Donald Jackson expressed in media interviews his lifelong dream of creating an illuminated Bible. Following a Saint John’s University-sponsored calligraphy presentation at the Newberry Library in Chicago in 1995, Jackson discussed a handwritten Bible with Fr. Eric Hollas, former executive director of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. Between 1996 and 1997, Saint John’s explored the feasibility of the Bible project, Jackson created first samples, and theologians developed the illumination schema. The Saint John’s Bible was officially commissioned in 1998 and funding opportunities were launched. The public was introduced to the project in 1999 and production was completed in 2011, with the final word penned in May 2011 and touch-up work completed by December 2011.The Saint John’s Bible is divided into seven volumes and is two feet tall by three feet wide when open. The Bible is made of vellum, with 160 illuminations.
If new people would like to join the group this summer, all are welcome! Please contact Pastor Mac if you’d like to be added to the distribution list.
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THE GATHERING
FALL CLASSES BEGIN SEPTEMBER 8
Sunday Morning Adult Education
9:00/9:30am Sundays
The Nine O'Clock Class
9:00-10:00am | Room 200
September 8, 15, 22 - Facilitated by Susan Bradshaw
This class is especially for those who have commitments preparing for worship at 10:00am, and others who would like a full hour of study, conversation, and worship.
For September 8,15, and 22, we will watch the movie Places in the Heart. We will watch 30 minutes each day and then have discussion. We hope you will join us to discuss this award-winning movie about a widow with two small children that tries to save her small farm with the help of a blind boarder and an itinerant handyman.
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Presbyterian Ponderings
9:30-10:20am | Westminster North
September topic: "HOPE"
Facilitated by Fred Woodward, John Oldenburg,
John James, Gil Graybill
Hope is waiting in faith. It is not merely wishing for something to happen or hoping everything will work out if the stars align. Hope is waiting with anticipation—at times, with impatience—for what you know and believe is coming.
For the four Sundays in September, Presbyterian Ponderings will discuss Hope from both Old and New Testament perspectives. We are using a multimedia lesson plan from the series Follow Me: Biblical Practices for Faithful Living, published by Growing Faith Resources / Presbyterian Publishing.
Later this fall, we will offer sessions based on lectio divina, the Parables of Jesus, and the “flawed messengers” God chooses. We are discussion-based, team-taught, with no advance reading or other prerequisites. Drop in and ponder with us!
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The Seekers
9:30-10:20am | September 8 & 15
Meet in the Library Sept. 8; Meet in Westminster South Sept. 15
"What Does a Church Library Mean?"
Facilitated by Jimmy Hulsey
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Why does a church have a library? I have known people, not at Hudson, who I can still hear asking, "We have the Bible. Isn’t that all we need?’" But, when Christians realize that the Bible and the Christian faith are not a single, literal point of view on God, we have come to the library.
When Christians realize that Scripture requires that the Holy Spirit working with the community of faith in tandem need not merely to quote but to interpret God’s Word, we have come to the library. When Christians realize that the diversity of voices in Scripture and across Christian faith represent angles of vision and not truth in concrete, we have come to the library.
When Christians are tired of burying our dead through conflict with one another and people of other religions; when mutual understanding strikes us as a better way than shouting slogans from behind walls of difference, we have come to the library.
When we as Christians lose any connection to the library of our faith, we are susceptible to those who want to use us for their causes, substituting their mottos and slogans and rallying cries for actual Christian confession of faith.
We need to repent in the library and once again practice faith seeking understanding. When we like the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8 realize that we need someone, a community of someones to help us understand our faith, we have come to the library.
If you have read this far, you may have guessed that our class is about, not only what’s in the library, but what the library symbolizes to us. I invite you to join with me to discover both what’s in our church library and how to make use of it and to rediscover that we are a people open to God with our hearts and minds.
At this time, a number of us are going off to college. Before the wide ranging world of secular education, not to mention diverse religious education, we Presbyterians have never thought our faith a flimsy house of cards. Reason is, among other places and ways, we have also encountered God in the library.