Forum: Sundays @9AM
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Our Forums are open to everyone: occasional visitors, curious newcomers, or long-timers. Anyone who wants to connect with others, explore Christian thought and practice and the way they intersect with our lives in the world is welcome to join us. We meet on various Sundays from late September into June, exploring topics from Scripture and theology to faith’s intersection with issues of social justice, the faith-science dialogue, and religious expression in service to others. Experts leading the forums include local professors and directors of local non-profits along with our own “resident theologian,” Pastor Dan.
Forums run Sundays from 9 –10 AM in hybrid format: in-person in the Conference Room, with an option to attend via Zoom.
Follow this Zoom link to attend:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89173017795?pwd=ZkdtcXlxYXFPYWFwSVZTaE9kUEdFdz09
Or dial in: 1 253 215 8782 Meeting ID: 891 7301 7795 and Passcode: 063447
STUDY GROUPS
SEATTLE SEEKERS:
Eager to explore life’s big questions? Searching for a sense of belonging?
Join the SEATTLE SEEKERS on the first Saturday of each month in the QALC Conference Room for meaningful discussion and connection. A light breakfast is provided, 10–10:30 AM; discussion 10:30-11:30 AM. All are welcome.
Link HERE for the most current information, and to sign up with the group.
YOUNG ADULTS BIBLE FELLOWSHIP:
We invite young adults and students to join Pastor Dan in the Conference Room for our new ministry, the Young Adults Bible Fellowship. We welcome any who are interested in deepening their faith in an atmosphere open to questioning and challenge. There’s time for fellowship, too! A light supper is provided at 6 PM, followed by an hour of Bible study. This group meets Wednesday evenings; contact the church office for the current schedule. SPU students Chelsey S. and Yllium U., who work here on Sunday mornings, help coordinate and advertise our YABF ministry.
GOING GREEN: IS IT TOO LATE?
A four-part Forum series
APRIL 7: Genesis and Ecological Consciousness
Dr. Beatrice Lawrence
The book of Genesis, especially chapters 1 and 2, reveals a great deal about biblical perspectives on cosmogony, ecology, and human interaction with the natural environment. The flood narrative contributes to the biblical views on our role in environmental phenomena, where we have power, where we have responsibility, and where we can fail. In this session, we will explore these texts to gain a better understanding of the biblical approach to many of the climate crises facing us today.
Beatrice Lawrence is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Seattle University, where she also teaches courses in Jewish Studies. Though her research interests are diverse (many centered on the history of Jewish biblical interpretation), she is currently working on projects surrounding mental illness and the Hebrew Bible. She lives in Seattle with her two daughters and rescue pup.
APRIL 14: Update on the Earth
Dr. Kristie Ebi
Dr. Kristie Ebi, UW Professor of Public Health and author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change latest report, returns to give us an “update on the Earth.” Has any progress been made against the climate crisis, and what can we be doing individually and collectively to play our part in reversing this terrifying trend?
Dr. Kristie L. Ebi is a professor of global health and environmental and occupational health sciences at the University of Washington and has been conducting research and practice on the health risks of climate change for over twenty years. Her research focuses on the impacts of and adaptation to climate variability. She focuses on understanding sources of vulnerability, estimating current and future health risks of climate change, and designing adaptation policies to reduce the risks of climate change in multi-stressor environments. She has supported countries in Central America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific in assessing their vulnerability in collaboration with WHO, UNDP, USAID, and others. Dr. Ebi’s scientific training includes an M.S. in toxicology and a Ph.D. and a Masters of Public Health in epidemiology. She has edited four books on aspects of climate change and has more than 180 publications.
APRIL 21: The Effects of Climate Change on Marine Biology
Magdalena Phillips
QALC member Magdalena Phillips’ recent studies at Duke University created a concern for the consequences of warming sea water on marine ecology. She will share some of her findings (and warnings) with us.
APRIL 28: Climate Change: What Can We Do About It?
Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power and Light
Feeling cynical or hopeless? This forum, led by a representative of Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power and Light explores practical ways we can do something about climate change individually and as a congregation.
APRIL 28, (1PM): Climate Change: Solutions that Faith Communities can Offer
Dr. Heidi Roop
Dr. Roop will present a public forum based on the ideas in her Climate Action Handbook. A free copy will be awarded to one lucky audience member.
Dr. Heidi Roop is the Director of the University of Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership and an Assistant Professor of Climate Science and Extension Specialist at the University of Minnesota. Her research and Extension programs combine cutting-edge climate science and effective science communication to increase the use and integration of climate change information in decision-making at a range of scales—from city and state to national and international levels. She is an affiliate assistant professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Washington, and serves as an expert advisor to organizations and agencies as they seek to build resilience to climate change.
| 05/12 | Finding New Language for God | Pastor Dan Peterson, QALC |
| 05/19 | Update from Church of Steadfast Love | Pastor Kristy Daniels, COSL |
| 06/02 | Holden Village: Fundamental Questions | Joel Matter, QALC |
| 06/09 | Holden Village: Whither Howe Sound, and Why Rio Tinto? | Joel Matter, QALC |
| 06/16 | Exploring African American Spirituals | Kyle Haugen, QALC |
| 06/23 | Forum Suggestions for 2024/25 | Open Discussion, QALC |
Did You Miss a Forum?
We generally do not record our forums. A few forums were recorded in previous years. Go to our YouTube Channel and find the Forums & Classes Playlist for those recordings, including “Update on the Earth,” “Singing the Faith” and “Demons Darkness, and the Devil.” Some of our forum sessions were also aired on the podcast “God for Grownups.”
Previously in the 2023-24 Line-Up:
Artificial Intelligence & Faith—Our First Forum Series
How do people of faith navigate the burgeoning world of AI? Is it a threat, or something we might approach with hope, or both? Join us for this exciting three-part series as we explore AI & Faith.
9/10 Artificial Intelligence and Human Hope
Dr. Michael Paulus opens our series by discussing his latest book, Artificial Intelligence and the Apocalyptic Imagination: Artificial Agency and Human Hope which explores historical and theological resources that may help us imagine and create a better world with AI.
Dr. Paulus is dean of the library, assistant provost for educational technology, and associate professor of information studies at Seattle Pacific University. He is the co-editor of AI, Faith, and the Future: An Interdisciplinary Approach (Pickwick Publications, 2022).
9/17 AI is in the Details: Faith and Technology, a Practical Guide
GeekWire co-founder and friend of QALC Todd Bishop provides a hands-on look at what’s possible in the emerging era of generative artificial intelligence, and explains the pitfalls, with an eye toward how these new tools can be used in our practice of faith.
9/24 Justification by Digital Grace:
Will AI Make the Sacraments, Communal Confession, and Your Pastor Unnecessary?
How do we receive or know God’s love? Can a sinner experience God’s grace or truly know the power of acceptance through a non-human mediator, or is authentic human interaction a necessary precondition for such an experience? Join Pastor Dan for this forum as we discuss the role AI may or may not play in what Martin Luther and his successors identified as the central experience of Christian faith.
10/15 A Brief History of Christian Socialism
What do St. Basil the Great (Father of the Church), Keir Hardie (founder of the UK Labour Party), and Martin Luther King, Jr. have in common? All are important figures in the theological and political tradition of Christian socialism. In this forum, we will explore the history of this tradition and consider the lessons that Christian socialists of the past can teach us about faith and politics today.
Dr. Matt Bellinger is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Seattle Pacific University. He studies the history and rhetoric of 20th and 21st century religious socialists.
10/22 Fascism, Christian Nationalism, and the Death of God
In this forum, Dr. Jeff Robbins returns to put death of God talk to the test with respect to the gods of fascism and Christian nationalism that need to be killed. Might the demise of God, understood in terms of what author Mary-Jane Rubenstein calls “the Great White Guy in the Sky,” offer a practical way for Christians to confront the threat of theocracy and fundamentalism to democracy and freedom?
Jeffrey W. Robbins is Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Lebanon Valley College, where he teaches in the Honors and the Social Justice and Civic Engagement programs and serves as the Faculty Mentor for theAllwein Scholars Program. He is the author or editor of nine books, including most recently Radical Theology: A Vision for Change (Indiana University Press, 2016), and co-author of An Insurrectionist Manifesto: Four New Gospels for a Radical Politics (Columbia University Press, 2016), which was named as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title in 2016. He was identified in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion as “one of the best commentators on religion and postmodernism.”
11/05 & 11/12 Scripture, Tradition, & The Subordination of Women
The voices and experiences of women have been subordinated for much of the Christian tradition. With the beginning of the second wave of feminism (i.e. the women’s movement of the 1960s and ’70s), feminist theologians and biblical scholars began to critique the justification for that subordination within scripture and tradition. In these sessions Dr. Lynn Hofstad will lead an exploration of biblical passages that explicitly validate the subordination and exclusion of women, as well as traditional biblical interpretations and doctrine that have been used to reinforce biblical justifications.
Dr. Lynn Hofstad holds a Ph.D. in Systematic and Philosophical Theology from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA. She is an independent scholar whose scholarly interests focus on feminist theology, eco-theology, the doctrine of the atonement, and Lutheran theology.
11/19 Conflict in Gaza: Historical Context
This talk aims to provide historical context for the current war in Israel/Palestine. What motivated the recent attack by Hamas, and what motives are driving the Israeli government’s retaliation? Why have the victims in this war been mostly civilians? Ultimately, what is at stake for Israelis and for Palestinians in this war? Historical context can provide insight and empathetic understanding in response to these key questions.
Alissa Walter is an Associate Professor of History at Seattle Pacific University where her research and classes focus on modern Middle Eastern history. Her latest book project, which is currently under review, is a history of daily life in Baghdad in recent decades: Contested City: How Ordinary Iraqis Navigated Life in Baghdad from Saddam Hussein to the American Occupation. Alissa earned her PhD in Middle Eastern history from Georgetown University. Other articles by her can be found at https://spu.academia.edu/AlissaWalter
11/26 Conflict in Gaza: Media Narratives and Misinformation
The fast-paced news cycle coupled with demands from social media to “pick a side” have confused audiences trying to follow the events in Israel and Gaza. This talk aims to provide context behind popular circulating narratives and tools for detecting misinformation.
Sara Shaban is an assistant professor of journalism and communication at Seattle Pacific University. Shaban is a critical/cultural researcher focused on the intersections between media, social movements, and geopolitics in the Middle East. In 2022, she published her first book,Iranian Feminism and Transnational Ethics in Media Discourse, a copy of which will be raffled at the forum.
12/17 Update on Twegashe School / CORE Tanzania
Michael and Jeannette Banobi
After Michael and Jeannette Banobi, QALC members, visited Michael’s village in Tanzania in 2015 and found that the village school wasn’t adequate to provide success for its students, they formed a non-profit to build a new school. Twegashe Primary School is now providing a high-quality, participatory education with classes taught in English to give children a better chance of success in secondary
school.
In April 2022 they began construction on Phase 2 of the school, with five more classrooms, a library, administration block, and additional teacher housing. This new phase will allow Twegashe School to expand through grade 7 (the last year of primary school in Tanzania) and to add a pre-K class so our students will be ready to learn when they start kindergarten. (QALC member Marc Oplinger designed the buildings for both Phase 1 and 2 and traveled to Bushasha to oversee some of the construction.) Because of Covid and travel restrictions, we had to cancel last year’s scheduled presentation. In the meantime, the school has made even more progress toward their mission and the Banobis will share that good news
Women of the Reformation
1/21 Bishop Shelley Bryan-Wee
2/04 and 2/11 Dr. Lynn Hofstad
Discussions about the Protestant Reformation often highlight the role of important male figures– Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, etc. However, the tenets of the Reformation brought changes for women. These sessions will explore the roles of women in the early Protestant Church, as well as highlight the important contributions of specific women, such as Katie Luther (Katharina von Bora) and Katharina Schutz.
This three-part Forum series begins Sunday, January 21 with a presentation from Bishop Shelley Bryan-Wee. Two Sunday Forums on February 4 and 11 will be led by Dr. Lynn Hofstad.
Bishop Shelley Bryan Wee has served as an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America since 1993. She is a graduate of Pacific Lutheran University and obtained a Master of Divinity degree from Luther Northwestern Theological Seminary (now Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN). She served multiple parishes in Eastern Washington and Montana before becoming Assistant to the Bishop in the Northwest Washington Synod. She was elected as Bishop in 2019.
Dr. Lynn Hofstad holds a Ph.D. in Systematic and Philosophical Theology from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA. She is an independent scholar whose scholarly interests focus on feminist theology, eco-theology, the doctrine of the atonement, and Lutheran theology.
Pastor Dan Interviewed on Metamorphosis Podcast
Metamorphosis is the podcast of Trinity UMC of Piedmont, MO. (“sharing the unchanging gospel of Christ with a changing culture, providing training, and loving others.”) Host/writer Eric Sentell interviews our own Pastor Dan to talk about faith, doubt, death, grieving, the after-life, violence, the question “Why follow Jesus?” and other very grown-up topics. Eric writes, “Dan effortlessly weaves together philosophy, theology, and experience as he models humility, openness, and courageous Christianity.” Find the conversation at this link
“God for Grownups” Podcast Episode:
Is Violence Ever Acceptable?
— with Dr. Beatrice Lawrence
Pastor Dan Peterson and Dr. Beatrice Lawrence discuss and compare Christian and Jewish perspectives on violence, in light of the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol. You can listen here.
Note: Some of our forum sessions including “Demons Darkness, and the Devil” are also aired on the podcast “God for Grownups”
