Adult Education

Childcare Provided
We provide childcare during all Sunday morning and mid-week classes on the ground floor. You’re welcome to attend any class on a drop-in basis!

Sunday Mornings

9:00 AM

Standing Under the Scriptures
With the Rev. Ted Lewis — Library
Looking for an intellectual challenge as well as a spiritual one? Check out our Standing Under the Scriptures class with Fr. Ted. We don’t stand under the Scriptures dogmatically. Instead we ask, "If we stand under them, what follows?" (In fact, exciting things follow!)

In elucidating what we stand under — we draw on the original Greek and Hebrew texts along with the findings of biblical scholarship. Come to the Library at 9:00am on Sunday mornings prepared for mental and spiritual exercise.

-> Go HERE for an archive of Fr. Ted's weekly class notices.


10:00 AM

Rector’s Forum
With Fr. Ed Kelaher — Memorial Hall
Get to know our new Rector and his vision for All Saints!

Simply Christian in a Complex World
Led by Wallace Ragan & David Bickel (10 weeks)
Tom Wright, formerly Anglican bishop of Durham, distinguished New Testament scholar, and prolific Christian author aims in his book Simply Christian (with accompanying course materials) to provide a solid, contemporary, but non-scholarly account of the crucial elements of the Christian Faith shared by all believers. His approach is positive rather than polemical or denominational, “simple” but by no means simplistic; the reflections of a widely learned and deeply committed Christian thinker, who is also a compassionate pastor and fellow pilgrim along life’s oft confusing paths. This course is ideal both for enquirers and new believers looking for a friendly, thoughtful, and authoritative exposition of basic Christian truths, as well as for more experienced Christians interested in a fresh approach to “the Faith once delivered.”

This course is intended to provoke thoughtful discussion, based on short videos in which Bp. Wright briefly enumerates and discusses the salient points of each chapter from his book. There’s a Participant’s Guide with helpful notes and possible discussion questions.

Wallace Ragan is Foreign Languages Chair and holder of the Hurlbut Chair in Classics at St. Albans School, where he teaches Latin, Greek, and Dante's Divine Comedy. His holds degrees in History, Classics, and seminary training in Theology. At Trinity Divinity School (Deerfield, IL) his studies included Scripture, Semitic languages and Church History. Prior to becoming an Anglican, his experience included Baptist and Presbyterian churches. An All Saints member since 2006, Wallace has taught adult education courses in Christian Doctrine, Holy Scripture, and the great sola's of the Reformation.

A long-time church member, David Bickel (pictured here with his wife is a retired lawyer who holds a Masters in Theology from Wesley Theological Seminary and is a PhD candidate in Church History at Catholic Univ. He teaches European History as an adjunct professor at Mount St. Mary's Univ. in Emmitsburg, MD, and has led many adult classes over the years at here at All Saints.

Jesus Every Day of the Week:
The Kingdom of God is not a Matter of Talk but of Power
Led by Cary Umhau (6 Weeks)
Chances are since you find yourself in church you've at least made a mental assent to Jesus' claims to be "the way, the truth and the life," or you are open to that possibility. Yet most of us don't live in the connectedness to Him or the power from Him that are available. What did Jesus talk about? What did He do? And how does that impact us? Each week we'll explore a name of Jesus as a way of getting at his relevance to the challenges we face each day as we try to navigate the landscapes of our lives and to live well. Class includes time for private and community reflection.

Cary Umhau, formerly on staff at All Saints as Director of Discipleship, is a writer, speaker, teacher and entrepreneur. She is developing a soon-to-be-launched enterprise called SPACIOUS, envisioned as a playful revolution to help people bust out of the straitjackets, cubicles and little boxes we all find ourselves in from time to time. SPACIOUS is a movement of people who are into equal parts recess, celebrating, dancing, breaking down stale paradigms, and asking great questions. We look for ways to engage each other with wonder and expectancy, assuming each new person we meet will show us a new aspect of God's image. Cary is a wife, mother and new grandmother, and she's lived in Chevy Chase for 26 years. You can learn more about Cary at www.caryumhau.com.

In Defense of Christianity: The Apologia of CS Lewis
Led by Charlie Rothwell (8 weeks)
One of the greatest Christian apologists of any age, perhaps the greatest, was C.S. Lewis. Not your normal Oxford/Cambridge don, C.S. Lewis wrote to all in a voice so clear, so accessible and so true that it resonated a longed for but missing chord in the enlightened secular pursuits of modern man. This course will cover his life and the essential concepts he provides readers of his writings in fiction, formal Christian apologia, social commentary, science fiction, children’s stories and academic works.

Works briefly commented on will include: Pilgrims Regress, Reflections on the Psalms, Surprised by Joy, Abolition of Man, Till We Have Faces, Four Loves, A Grief Observed, The Space Trilogy, the Narnia Chronicles, Allegory of Love, Preface to Paradise Lost, Discarded Image, Great Divorce, Screwtape Letters and of course Mere Christianity. The intent of the class is to encourage the re/reading of those C.S. Lewis works which now would be most helpful in guiding listeners with their own pilgrimage through life.

Charlie Rothwell (pictured with his wife Sandi) is Director of U.S. Vital Statistics at the CDC. He has taught this and other courses on medieval history and writings on the Church at All Saints.

The Great Age of Faith
Led by Phyllis Ince (10 weeks, Nov. 20—Jan. 29)
The year was AD 1000. Medieval man heaved a sigh of relief. The world had not ended after all. The Dark Ages forgotten, three centuries of whirlwind energy lay ahead. Agriculture improved. Commerce quickened. Towns grew. Universities were founded. Crusades preached. Abbots counseled kings. And, in France alone, more than 80 cathedrals in the new Gothic style flung their glorious pointed arches heavenward. This was the Great Age of Faith.

This was Christendom. This was Ecclesia. As in no other time, The Church Universal dominated men’s lives from birth to the grave. Unbelief in God, His angels, His saints and His church was utterly unknown. How else could man or woman hope for heaven In a world, so it seemed, battered by the wiles of Satan and his demons? This course will examine the importance of the Great Age of Faith. Why did saints and sinners alike risk life and limb to go on Crusade? Why was “faith vs. reason” the one question of the Age? Why was the Gothic cathedral everyman’s Bible, his idea of heaven on earth? Christendom was a unified society. From it our modern world would grow. C.V.

Phyllis Ince (pictured with her husband, Jim) graduated (Phi Beta Kappa) from the Univ. of Iowa and also studied at the Universities Of Maryland, Chicago and Cambridge. She lectured on medieval architecture at Georgetown and was a Docent and lecturer at the Washington Cathedral. Professionally, she developed, led and lectured on history study tours to medieval sites in the British Isles, Ireland, France and Spain. At All Saints, Phyllis co-led (with David Bickel) pilgrimage tours to Rome and England. She is the author of Divine Light: The Stained Glass of All Saints Church and has taught numerous religious history courses at All Saints.

Living from the Inside Out
Led by Dean Overman (starts in December)
This course will focus on means of participating in the limitless love of the triune God by finding (in Scripture, community, worship and the Eucharist) a Way to a transforming friendship that produces personal growth and character development.

We’ll look at relevant scriptures and include a review of the lives of some great Christians in an attempt to recapture an understanding of the powerful form of living that spread rapidly in the 1st c, with a relentless drumbeat of love. We’ll discuss historical Christian practices of transforming the mind to learn to increase our capacity “to love one another as I have loved you.”

We are imperfect people in an imperfect world, but our ability to love each other produces joy and is enhanced by allowing ourselves to be embraced by the complete love of the triune God. We will explore various means of practicing the presence of Christ and methods of increasing our power for personal growth, character development, and inner transformation. We will examine recent findings in neuroscience and explore how Scripture can re-mould our minds and integrate our personalities. These findings support Augustine’s conclusion, “You have made us for Yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”

We’ll discuss how certain methods of reflection on Scripture, including memorization of Scripture and the ancient practice of Lectio Divina can cause positive physical re-structuring of our brains. The course will present nine verified leadership characteristics and an ancient modified Benedictine method of planning a personal rule of life. The efficacy of these characteristics and the rule have their base in Christological Scripture and are supported by contemporary scientific/sociological studies.

Dean L. Overman is a former senior partner of the international law firm of Winston & Strawn, LLP. He was a Templeton scholar at Oxford University in the fields of information theory, physics, and religion. He also studied theology at Princeton Theological Seminary and was a visiting scholar at Harvard University. He is the author of A Case Against Accident and Self-Organization, A Case for the Existence of God, and A Case for the Divinity of Jesus.

Mid-Week

Men’s Bible Study
7:00am Tuesdays — Library
8:00pm Wednesdays — Library

Women's Bible Study
11:00am & 7:00pm Wednesdays — Library

Mother's Group Bible Study
9:30-11:30am Wednesdays — Youth Room
Childcare provided. Email Sarah Boone with your childcare needs. Go HERE for more info.

Saturdays

Women’s Possibilities of Prayer
1st Saturday of each month @ 10am (September-May) — Parlor

Questions?  More details?
Email Elise Carlson, or call (301) 654-2488.