Fall Classes
2009 - 2010

Teacher Training

This free course is designed to introduce people to the principal elements of “functional education”–the method of teaching used for youth ages 12 and up, and many Christian Education courses for adults. Based on the work of Charles Penniman, this method seeks to enable individuals to comprehend their lives with a Christian Comprehension, understand what it means to belong, and the commitment required to live one’s faith.

Dates & Time: TBA
Location: TBA
Leaders: TBA

Liturgical Dance Workshop

Rosie Brooks, long-time head of the St. Mark’s Dance Studio, offers dance for everyone – Saturday afternoons 1:45 – 3:45 starting September 19th. Classes will culminate at both services, Sunday November 1.

Fee: $25

Unstuck Workshop

Each year, as many as twenty million Americans are diagnosed with clinical depression. Tens of millions more have low energy, or feel unhappy and dissatisfied with their lives, “stuck” in their jobs or relationships. And each year American doctors write more than 200 million prescriptions for anti-depressant drugs for these people. Dr. James Gordon, a Harvard Medical School educated psychiatrist who founded and directs The Center for Mind Body Medicine in Washington, DC, has been helping people find their way out of the darkness of depression and the distress of confusion for the past forty years. He has worked with everyone from high-powered Washington politicians to Hurricane Katrina victims, from overstressed doctors, lawyers, and stay-at-home moms to orphans from war-ravaged Kosovo and. Gaza. Each one of the people with whom Dr. Gordon works, is unique, but all suffer from some level of disorder, and all are looking for a way to get “unstuck.” Dr. Gordon believes that depression and anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder are not the end points of diseases over which we have no control. They’re all signs that our lives are out of balance, that we’re stuck. They are wake-up calls and the start of a journey that can help us become whole and happy, one that can change and transform our lives. His unstuck approach offers a wise, easy-touse, comprehensive, meditative guide to the seven stage journey and practical instruction in self care - meditation, guided imagery, nutrition and movement among them- that will aid with exerting control over our own lives and find hope. and happiness.

Dates & Time: October 3, 10:00 AM. – 4:00 PM.
Location: Parish Hall
Leader: Dr. James Gordon
Cost: $45

Roll Away the Stone: An Exploration of Purpose and Power in a Fragmented World

How do we fully engage with the world as it is, in a way that manifests the faith which calls us? How do we move beyond cynicism or resignation to embrace a sustainable life of compassion and hope and vision for change? How do we awaken and act on our individual and corporate call to serve and be served, to joyfully and mercifully make peace and justice real for the whole human family? While promising no solutions, this class will offer a weekly laboratory for exposure and exploration, an incubator of callings and an opportunity to reflect on how we can participate in tikkun olam–“the healing of the world.”

Dates & Time: October 13 – November 10, Tuesday’s, 7:30 – 9:30; weekend at St. Mark’s November 6 – 8
Location: Adams Room
Leaders: Kitty Donnelly, Karen Getman, Emily Guthrie, Fred Taylor
Cost: $90 (includes book and weekend meals)

Beyond the Frame

If we think of St. Mark’s as a constellation of many vibrant undertakings, some within the arts and some directed towards the larger community, we see a wonderfully rich pattern of life. This year, we are connecting Beyond The Frame to several of St. Mark’s activities to cross-fertilize ideas and find joy in new ways of applying our creativity.

In the spirit of Race and Reconciliation and connecting with our DC neighborhoods, BTF will kick off the new season with a visit to the Anacostia Community Museum. The current show, “Jubilee”, celebrates similarities and differences of our customs and holidays.

Dates & Time: Saturday September 12, 11:00 AM. – 2:30 PM.
Leaders: David Evelyn and Penny Farley

Highlighting the Lenten season, BTF is exploring bringing to St. Mark’s the poetry and prose of Hilda Stern Cohen, a young woman whose religious faith helped her to survive the horrors of the Holocaust, through songs and stories based on Hilda Cohen’s works performed by Baltimore artist Gail Rosen. This event will include a visit to the Holocaust Museum.

Leaders: Keith Krueger, Susan Thompson-Hoffman and Rick Hayes.

In honor of St. Mark’s connections with Honduras, BTF will Wake Up The Earth with a visit to the Museum of Latin American Art, a rich resource of poetry and literary readings, movies, lectures and changing exhibits by artists from the region.

Leaders: Tucker Harris and Kitty Donnelly