Adult Education

Sundays in March | 9:15 – 10:15 am | Lounge & via Zoom
Childcare will be provided.

March 1 | Penny Clark: The Supreme Court, Lower Courts, and the Challenges in the Current Administration

The relationship between the Supreme Court and Lower Courts, particularly the relationship between the judicial and administrative branches of government. Bradley Hills member Penny Clark is a retired attorney whose 44-year career included arguing employee benefits cases before the United States Supreme Court. She served as a law clerk to Associate Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. of the United States Supreme Court from 1974 to 1975 – one of the first dozen women to clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court

March 8 | How might our dreams help us grow spiritually?

Rev. Geoff Nelson, author of “Dreaming in church” will present a conversation about our dreams, how they might help us understand ourselves and help us become ever more faithful in our life with Christ. Geoff will be open to discuss Biblical dreams, psychological insights about dreams, and a variety of other dream related concerns that might arise from the class. Join us and learn more about your dreams and your faith. Rev. Geoff Nelson, Doctor of Ministry, is a retired Presbyterian pastor, from Whittier, California. He is also a trained spiritual director, labyrinth facilitator and received his D. Min. degree for running dream groups in churches. His book, “Dreaming in Church” is available through Amazon and the publisher, Wipf & Stock.

March 15 | Courtney Shea: What good are polls to the country? Can we trust them?

Drawing on 20 years of experience in survey research, Courtney Shea will discuss the role of public opinion polling in society. She will describe recent changes in how polls are conducted, along with their strengths and weaknesses. Courtney will address the causes of polling errors in recent elections and provide a behind-the-scenes look at how major news organizations use polling to explain vote results on election night. Courtney Shea is the Vice President of Methods and Innovation at Pew Research Center and has been a member of Bradley Hills since 2022. She is responsible for the design of Pew’s surveys, data science projects, and methodological research and development. She has also served as an Election Night Analyst for NBC News since 2008. Prior to joining Pew, she
designed surveys for ABC News/Washington Post, U.S. Department of Labor, Centers for Disease Control, and the U.S. Air Force.

March 22 | David Renwick – An Explosive Mix 1: Warring Cultures & Culture Wars in Jesus’ Time

A Fast-paced Historical Survey of 350BC-AD100. With the remarkable military campaigns of Alexander the Great (356-323BC), Greek culture (as with American culture today throughout the world) spread across the Ancient Near East transforming local cultures. By the 1st century BC, another great power was on the rise: Rome, whose republic collapsed just before the birth of Jesus (lessons for us today?), and whose expanding empire under the first emperor, Augustus, crushed all opposition, but created peace throughout the Mediterranean world. While military resistance to such
power was futile, both cultural attraction and resistance were in active tension with both Greece and Rome in Judea in the 1st centuries BC and AD – the time of Jesus.

March 29 (Palm Sunday) | David Renwick – An Explosive Mix 2: Political Religious Groups of Jesus’ Time

In the time of Jesus, the descendants of Abraham were by no means a cohesive single group. Many were living in various places within the ancient world (following their 6th century deportation to Babylon); and even within the Holy Land they had splintered into various groups. These groups, each had different theological and political perspectives that, notably, included differences with regard to defiance or compromise with foreigners from Greece and Rome, as well with regard to views of the significance of their own Temple in Jerusalem. All of this would come to a head in AD 66 with the outbreak of a full blown revolt against Rome, ending in the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple. But who, if any, within Judaism would survive the storm? Judeans? Galileans? Priests? Scribes? Sadducees? Apocalyptic Groups? The Dead Sea Community at Qumran? Pharisees? The followers of a messianic claimant, Jesus, who seemed to have been at odds with pretty much every group of any standing? David Renwick , Pastor Emeritus, National Presbyterian Church, Theologian in Residence, Vienna Presbyterian Church. Dr. Renwick retired in 2022, having served for eleven years as Senior Pastor of The National Presbyterian Church, Washington, DC. David currently serves as chair of the board of Friends of Forman Christian College, in Lahore, Pakistan and is a visiting professor at Forman (summer of 2025, and upcoming, 2026), teaching Biblical Theology in the Masters program.

Click to Join by Zoom

Meeting ID: 872 5427 9672 | Passcode: 505554