Adult Education

Adult Education at St. Stephen’s is a welcoming forum for thoughtful spiritual exploration. Programs are in spring and fall seasons, usually meeting on Sundays at 9:00am in the Upper Meeting Room (with refreshments and fellowship beginning at 8:45). Additional offerings are sometimes scheduled on weekdays or weeknights to accommodate a wider range of interests and availability. All are welcome to attend—parishioners and the broader community alike. For information or program suggestions, please contact Dan Beaupré, An Duclos, Theresa Gleason, or Diane Nancekivell.

When available, Zoom access is provided at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87490029176 with the passcode AdultEd

Sunday, September 20, 9 am

HOW TO KNOW A PERSON

Discussion led by Diane Nancekivell

OUR FALL PROGRAMS BEGIN with a splash as Diane Nancekivell weaves us through the stimulating book, HOW TO KNOW A PERSON, The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen. The author, David Brooks, said, “I’m hoping this book will help you adopt a different posture toward other people, a different way of being present with people, a different way of having bigger conversations. Living this way can yield the deepest pleasures.”

With all that in mind, we’ll share our reactions to the book in small groups and come up with notions of how we intend to deepen our interactions with one another. (A few copies of the book are still available at the Vermont Book Shop.)

Sunday, September 27, 9 am, Meeting Room

LEAVE THE LEAVES:

Fall Gardening for Pollinators

by Emily May of the Xerces Society

MANY INSECTS ARE ESSENTIAL to our ecology and our lives. What can we do to protect them? What does gardening for wildlife look like during the dark and bitter days of winter? We are excited to present Emily May, a Pollinator Biologist with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.

Emily will guide us through ways to build resilience in our lawns and gardens. She challenges our notion of aesthetics by presenting a much more colorful, diverse, and sustainable practice for caring for God’s green earth right in our own back yards.

Sunday, October 4, 9 am, Meeting Room

EARTH OUR ORIGINAL MONASTERY

Facilitated by Theresa Gleason and Sharon Tierra

THERESA AND SHARON Theresa will guide us in a one session study of Christine Painter’s book, Earth, Our Original Monastery: Cultivating Wonder & Gratitude through Intimacy with Nature. We’ll explore how we often find our sense of sanctuary and renewal in nature. Come share your own experiences of God in nature while dipping your toes into a contemplative practice which helps us see all of creation as woven together in holiness.

Reading the book is optional, five donated copies are available on the table in the back of church for you to browse through, borrow or take with you to keep.

‍ ‍“Let me seek, then, the gift of silence, and poverty, and solitude, where everything I touch is turned to prayer, the wind in the trees is my prayer, for God is in all.” —Thomas Merton

Adult Education’s Fall ‘26 Calendar

Sunday, Sept 20, 9 am: HOW TO KNOW A PERSON, with Diane Nancekivell, 9 am, Meeting Room

Sunday, Sept 27, 9 am: LEAVE THE LEAVES, by Emily May, Biologist with Xerces Society, MR

Sunday, Oct 4, 9 am: THE EXPERIENCE OF THE SACRED IN NATURE, by Theresa Gleason & Sharon Tierra, MR

Sunday, Oct 18, 12 noon: THE REQUIEM, with Robert Ludwig, the Nave

Sunday, Oct 25, 12 noon: THE REQUIEM, with Robert Ludwig, the Nave

Sunday, Nov 1, 9 am: MINDFULNESS AND MEDITATION RELEVANT TO THE CHRISTIAN FAITH, offered by Mark Orten, Dean & Chaplain, Middlebury College, MR ‍

Sunday, Nov 8, 12 noon: PRAYER AND MEDITATION IN THE JEWISH FAITH, presented by Rabbi Danielle Stillman, the Nave

Sunday, Nov 15, 9 am: PRAYER AND REMEMBRANCE IN THE ISLAMIC FAITH, presented by Muslim Chaplain Zahra Moeini Meybodi, MR

Sunday, Dec 6, 9 am: PARADISE NOW, by Jay Parini, Parish Hall

Sunday, Dec 13, 9 am: PARADISE NOW, by Jay Parini, Parish Hall

Sunday, Dec 20, 9 am: PARADISE NOW, by Jay Parini, Parish Hall