Option One:

Introduction to Yoga: Finding a deeper connection
Gina Shelton: facilitator

Embodied yoga provides practitioners with a better awareness of their own wonderful spirit, encouraging them to be fully present in every aspect of their lives. As a form of "body prayer", yoga can help lead to a deeper relationship with God and in turn, the happiness and strength that results from viewing the world, and the self, with greater compassion.

The five week class will cover the following topics:

• Yoga as a spiritual practice
• Breathing - understanding breathe as life itself and learning to deepen it
• Embodiment: living in your heart-mind-body, not just your brain
• Thought patterns: creating change through yoga
• Living "yoga" in all areas of life

Each class will consist of:

• 15 minute introduction and explanation of principles and practice
• 30 minutes of wall/chair/standing yoga
• 5-15 minute of meditation

The practice each week will focus on a different part of the body: heart opening, hip opening, leg stretching/balance, side waist opening etc. No mat or workout clothes will be required but pants and stretchy clothes are preferred. The meditation will be done seated on a chair or on the floor (on a pillow or blanket). All ages are welcome.

Option Two:

A Dialogue with Scripture
The Clergy: facilitators

The scriptures are living documents. The issue in reading and studying scripture is to allow the word to speak to you rather than asking what the text means. Although it is essential that we read scripture in its historical and cultural context; that is never the last word. Rather the challenge is allow the word to take root in our hearts and to grow there and to seek to conform our lives more and more in response to sacred text. As narrative, these stories invite us in so that we might see our stories as part of the unfolding story of God and God's journey with God's people. When we truly dialogue with scripture - argue with it, question it, ponder it and play with it - we grow as disciples of Christ for as John suggested in his gospel, Jesus himself is that living word. As we read John 1:1-3, the images wash over us and inspire us; confound us and confuse us. We turn to various translations and find a rich banquet of word and language. But above all, we ask of the passage: Lord, may your word be a lantern to my feet and a guide to your presence.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made." (Revised Standard Version)

"When all things began, the Word already was. The Word dwelt with God, and what God was, the Word was. The Word, then, was with God at the beginning, and through him all things came to be; no single thing was created without him." (New English Bible)

"At the beginning God expressed himself. That personal expression, that word, was with God and was God, and he existed with God from the beginning. All creation took place through him, and none took place without him." (Phillips Bible)