August 1, 2010 Frank Gilbert speaking on the book, "The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach The New Survival Skills Our Children Need - and What We Can Do About It" by Tony Wagner.
August 8, 2010 Nancy Peed will present a program on the organization and history of the United Methodist Church.
August 15, 2010 The history and current mission of Historically Black Colleges, presented by a representative of the Bethune Cookman University.
August 22, 2010 Bob Brantley will host a presentation of Bill Moyers interview with Robert Wright, author of The Evolution of God, (Back Bay Books; Reprint edition, May 3, 2010). Robert Wright is a contributing editor of "The New Republic," a Slate.com columnist, and a visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the cofounder of www.bloggingheads.tv, runs the web-based video project www.meaningoflife.tv, and lives in Princeton, NJ, with his wife and two daughters.
Moyers-Wright Interview video
August 29, 2010 TBA
September 5, 2010 A wrangle on Labor Day weekend
September 12, 2010
Myra Wells and Drew Gribble will be giving an audiovisual presentation on the past, present, and future aspects of 'the conflict' in Northern Ireland following their recent return from Belfast.
TBA - Dr. Harry Coverston, progressive Christianity
Dr. Harry Coverston is an Instructor of Humanities, Religion and Philosophy of Law in the UCF Department of Philosophy with interests in Education and the Humanities, LBGT justice issues, Stages of moral/faith development (Kohlberg, Gilligan, Rest, Fowler, Beck, Wilber); Latin American Humanities; Liberation theology; Capital punishment attitudes and religious correlates; Ethics and Torture and Genocide; Religion in America; Religion in the 21st Century; Juergen Habermas/Frankfurt School; Holocaust studies.
His extentive educational background includes:
Ph.D. in Religion, Law and Society from Florida State University (2000)
J.D. in Law from University of Florida (1981) M.Div. in Religion and Society from Church Divinity School of Pacific (Graduate Theological Union) (1995)
B.A. in History, Sec. Educ. from University of Florida (1976)
September 19, 2010Glimpses of Heaven:True Stories of Hope and Peace at the End of Life's Journey Trudy Harris, RN, is the author of "Glimpses of Heaven." The book guides us through true stories of hope and peace at the end of life's journey. With heightened senses and awareness, these patients often begin to see and hear with spiritual eyes and ears. Tender, heartbreaking, and eye-opening, Glimpses of Heaven will help you gain a new appreciation for the peace and comfort that arrive as dying patients move toward the hope of life after death.She, was a hospice nurse and president of Jacksonville's Hospice Foundation for Caring. Taking on additional roles in marketing, public relations, fundraising, and development, Harris raised more than $45 million in capital contributions for HFC. She is now retired and living with her husband in Jacksonville, Florida.
September 26, 2010 Gene and Emily Ann Zimmerman will enchant us with more of their wonderful stories.
Previously Completed 2010 Class Presenters and Subjects
July 25, 2010
Randy Stephens is the Intermim Executive Director of The Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Community Center of Central Florida, located at: 946 N. Mills Avenue in Orlando. The Center, has been in operation for over 30 years. GLBT individuals, as well as family and friends, in Central Florida have stood up to both institutional and individual injustice and discrimination by volunteering their time, money and talents at The Center. The Center has been an organizing force within the GLBT community serving as a source for information, education, advocacy and support. The Center has worked to foster the personal development and quality of life of the community it serves, as well as to increase understanding and acceptance within the greater Central Florida area. Today we offer a variety of support and social programs. We offer AA, NA, CODA, HIV+ and transgender support groups, CMA, counseling for individuals and couples at a reduced cost, and various social groups. The Center serves more than 15,000 individuals a year through it's doors and over 8,000 a month online.
July 18, 2010 -
Jacqueline H. Dowd (on left) is a lawyer and the founder and managing attorney of Legal "Advocacy at Work" a registered Florida non-profit corporation that provides legal services to homeless. She is is a poverty lawyer, homeless advocate in Orlando and an ACLU Cooperating Attorney. She was instrumental in the 2008 Federal Court case that struck down the Orlando Homeless Feeding Ban.
July 11, 2010 -
Dr, Stephen Hartsfield, is the Director of Church Relations for the Florida United Methodist Children's Home, located in Enterprise, Florida. He is involved with the financial support of the Children's Home, part of which is the development of strong relationships between the Home, its vital work with children, and local United Methodist congregations.
July 4, 2010 -
Bob Brantley will moderate a short discussion associated with ideas presented by streaming video of Bill Moyers interview of the writer, Salman Rushdie. Bill Moyer interviews Rushdie about his work, opinions and perspectives regarding the role of religious views in forming public policy. Although he is an atheist, Rushdie writes empathetically about his religious characters. He talks about: Muslim fundamentalism; the role of human imagination in religion, morality and whether religion is necessary to preserve it; the importance of freedom of expression; the need for education and tolerance for new scholarship within Islam; future prospects for skeptical believers in Islam; the effect of his growing up in India on his later beliefs; and how the exercise of religions satisfies needs within human beings.
June 27, 2010
Charles Stopford will consider what can be known about the Apostle Paul from his Epistles, differentiating between his authentic letters and those written by others and attributed to Paul by later writers. As part of the presentation we will look at the glosses (specious interpretation) by which the later writers of Ephesians, Colossians and Pastoral Epistles have changed Paul's position of such subjects as slavery, the patriarchal system and women's place in church activities.
June 20, 2010
Eleanor Crawford will be presenting the highlights of the the 2010 Florida Annual conference of the United Methodist Church held this June 10-12 at the Lakeland Center, Lakeland. Following the council of Bishops' Initiative - "Transforming the World, the Annual Conference theme is "Eradicating Extreme Poverty." For details connect to the Annual conference web page: http://www.flumc2.org/page.asp?PKValue=1660.
June 13, 2010 -
Lora and Larry Gilbert will be giving a presentation on the book -Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time, by Greg Mortenson ( Penguin Books January 30, 2007). Greg Mortenson is the founder and director of the Central Asia Institute www.ikat.org and the founder of Pennies For Peace (www.penniesforpeace.org).. He is the author of the 1909 book Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
FULL BILL MOYER - GREG MORTENSON INTERVIEW
June 6, 2010 - Writing Your Life Story, Part 2
Patricia Charpentier will MC the reading of family stories written by members of the Nu Class. These are people who participated in Patricia's Spring Writing Class and have completed at least one short story on their life's experiences.
May 30, 2010 - A NU Class wrangle lead by John Richard
May 23, 2010
Kent Horsley will lead a discussion of John Shelby Spong's latest book titledEternal Life: A New Vision: Beyond Religion, Beyond Theism, Beyond Heaven and Hell (Published by HarperOne September 7, 2010).
May 16, 2010
Greg Dawson (an "Orlando Sentinel" Columnist) will speak on the book he has written about his mother, titled Hiding in the Spotlight: A Musical Prodigy's Story of Survival (published by Pegasus, June 27, 2009, available in hardcover and for the Kindle at Amazon.com). The book is a biographical story of his mother, Zhanna's, experience as a Jewish child who escape the Nazi death march to Dorbitsky Yar and uses her rare musical gift to help her survive.
Greg writes "The Last Resort," a consumer advocacy column for the" Orlando Sentinel."
May 2, 9, 2010
Bob Brantley and Dr. Larry Webb will be teaching on the topic "Big History." The first week, led by Bob Brantley, will emphasize the scientific and historic perspective. The second week Dr. Webb will emphasize the religious and theological implications of adopting the Big History perspective.
Big History adopts an interdisciplinary, scientific view of prehistory (back to the Big Bang), complete with all the baggage that would be offensive to those who want to interpret bible stories as accurate factual accounts of events in the finite world. Therefore, the two lessons explore the potential for controversy between some religious concepts of God's work in the world and a description of the recent scholarship in universal history (now called Big History).
Some short clip videos will be used to illustrate the status of current scientific scholarship. We will identify some of the scholarly timelines and milestones in the pre-history of the universe, and explore how God may have been a part of those events. We will identify how our image of God is often shaped by our knowledge of events in the course of universal history, including: the Big bang, sequential patterns in star and galaxy formation, planetary birth and growth, impacts and creation of the moon, plate tectonics, continental drift, ice ages, some effects of water on the planet, volcanism and asteroid impacts, mass extinctions, and the rise of mammals, to include various species of homo erectus.
April 25, 2010 - John Richard will show a video of a presentation given by John Dominic Crossan on the book co-authored with Marcus Borg, The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus' Final Days in Jerusalem (HarperOne (March 1, 2006).
April 18, 2010 - Charlie Stuart will be our guest, speaking on his "Making Faith Matter" Initiative. Charlie and his wife, Barbara established the MAKING FAITH MATTER Initiative.
Its purpose is to encourage and engage people of faith in higher levels of service to the "least of these." Charlie Stuart is a native son of Orlando.
Raised in the Baptist church. He has lived his adult life serving as Deacon, adult Bible study leader (20+ years), pastor search committee, and many other leadership roles.
He graduated from the University of Florida in 1973 with a B.S. in Business Administration (Marketing). Stuart worked as President of several companies during the 1970s and 1980s, including George Stuart, Inc. and Eagle Office Supply, Inc. He has since worked as a consultant, speaker, author, and adjunct professor at the Hamilton Holt School of Rollins College.
April 11, 2010 - The United Methodist Women will have a Native American presentation on Sunday April 11 during the 9:30 AM Sunday school hour. We would like to invite all of the Sunday school classes to join us in the third floor gathering area 9:30 to 10:30. We will be led by Sandy Paul, "Whiteowl" and Dian Barreraf, "Dreaming Dove", and are very hopeful that Dock Green Silver Hawk will be joining them. They will have artifacts and other displays for us to view. This should be a very memorable and interesting program. -- In April the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church recognizes Native American Ministries, and one of the United Methodist Women mission studies this year is Giving Our Hearts Away, Native American Survival.
April 4, 2010 -
Dr. Gene Zimmerman will present the Easter message.
March 28, 2010 - A combined presentation with Kent Horsley and Frank Gilbert. Kent will speak on the book Losing Moses on the Freeway: The 10 Commandments in America, by Chris Hedges. Frank will speak on When Atheism Becomes Religion: America's New Fundamentalists, by Chris Hedges.
Chris Hedges was a foreign correspondent for nearly two decades for The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor and National Public Radio. He was a member of the team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for The New York Times coverage of global terrorism, and he received the 2002 Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism. Hedges is the author of the bestseller American Fascists and National Book Critics Circle finalist for War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. He is a Senior Fellow at The Nation Institute and a Lannan Literary Fellow and has taught at Columbia University, New York University and Princeton University.
March 21, 2010 -
Lora Gilbert will present a program on Education and Nutrition. Lora Gilbert, MS, RD, FADA, SNS, is the School Foodservice Director, Orange County Public Schools.
March, 14, 2010 -
John Richard, Gene Zimmerman and Charles Stopford will faciltate a review of the material content of our Theology Weekend.
March 6-7, 2010
NU Class Theology Weekend: Bishop W.Timothy Whitaker, Presenter. Bishop Whitaker will be speaking on Saturday on the theme of the Gospel and the Trinity. There will be two sessions on the 2nd floor of the M&E Building, beginning Saturday at 4:30 p.m. On Sunday, March 7, there will be a combined Sunday School hour with the Bishop at 9:30 a.m. in the Sanctuary. He will share with us the United Methodist Bishops’ initiative on "God’s Renewed Creation: A Call to Hope and Action."
February 28, 2010
Charles Stopford will give the class a preview of the NU Class March 2010 Theology Weekend, and the presenter, Resident Bishop of the Florida Annual Conference, Timothy Whitaker. Charles will cover biographical information and summary of a number of positions the Bishop has taken on issues such as Immigration, Homosexuality, Abortion, Wesleyan Spirituality and end-of-life. He will also comment on the Bishop's weekend theme, "The Gospel and the Trinity."
February 14, 21, 2010 Bob Brantley will present a two part series on Abraham: "A Three Faith Perspective."
February 7, 2010 Patricia Carpentier will present a program related to her literary profession: "Writing Your Life Story." Her background in creative writing and teaching is included in the following autobiographical summary.
"When I was in my twenties, my mother handed me a copy of our family tree that dated back to 1648 when my ancestors came from France to settle in an area known as “Acadie,” now Nova Scotia. “That’s nice,” I replied and put the papers away in a drawer.
In a move some twenty years later, I came across the yellowed sheets held together by a rusty staple. Looking at the names and tracing the path down to my own name, I now longed to know more about the people whose births, marriages and deaths were listed before me. Unfortunately, by that time, all those who held pieces of our family story were long gone. I missed my opportunity. My ancestors’ stories died with them.
Since then I’ve devoted much time and effort to helping others avoid the mistake I made, assisting them in preserving their stories for themselves and their families.
Through both ghostwriting memoirs on behalf of others and teaching, I have assisted many people in creating a written legacy for generations to come. I hold an M.A. in creative writing from the University of Central Florida and a B.A. in journalism from Louisiana State University and have worked as a memoirist, writing coach, editor, writing instructor, journalist and photographer."
January 31, 2010
Frank Gilbert will present a program on "The Three Stages of Educational Learning."
January 24, 2010
Kent Horsley et al will present a review of the "January Adventure" held at The Methodist Center, Epworth by the Sea.
January 17, 2010
John Richard will offer a biblical perspective of "The Three Pauls" - Conservative, Reactionary and Radical? John's sources will draw from the book The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon (Harper One, March 3, 2009), jointly authored by John domminick Crossan and Marcus Borg, augmented by their more recent lectures.
January 3, 10, 2010
Gene Zimmerman with present a two part reflection on James W. Fowler's book "The Stages of Faith: The Psychologyof Human Development." This is an excellent book written with the work of Piaget and Kohlberg in the background. Piaget did studies on how people learn and Kohlberg on how personal morality is established.. Fowler traces the stages of faith development from childhood onward toward a mature personal faith. That will be part one. The second session will be Gene's own understanding of a mature, personal Christian faith.
To forward class related information/news to the email list please send to nuclass@cepull.org
Email List Publisher - Ed Cepull 407/859-0468 or ed@cepull.org
Web Site Editor - Charles Stopford cstopford@cfl.rr.com
Dr. Harry Coverston is an Instructor of Humanities, Religion and Philosophy of Law in the UCF Department of Philosophy with interests in Education and the Humanities, LBGT justice issues, Stages of moral/faith development (Kohlberg, Gilligan, Rest, Fowler, Beck, Wilber); Latin American Humanities; Liberation theology; Capital punishment attitudes and religious correlates; Ethics and Torture and Genocide; Religion in America; Religion in the 21st Century; Juergen Habermas/Frankfurt School; Holocaust studies. 
Charlie Stuart will be our guest, speaking on his "Making Faith Matter" Initiative. Charlie and his wife, Barbara established the MAKING FAITH MATTER Initiative.
Its purpose is to encourage and engage people of faith in higher levels of service to the "least of these." Charlie Stuart is a native son of Orlando.
