Woman teaching class

Discovery Adult Education

Winter–Spring 2024

Discovery Rumi image

April 7–14: Rumi — Poetry, God, and Love

Andrew Harvey, Director of the Institute for Sacred Activism, will speak on what he calls the “the healing, wild and gorgeous world” of the work of 13th century Sufi mystic Jalāl al-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, and Dr. Kathy Bozzuti–Jones will explore how Rumi’s poetry addresses our longing to know and love God.

Andrew Harvey
April 7: The World of Rumi with Andrew Harvey

Andrew Harvey is an internationally acclaimed writer, poet, translator and mystical teacher. He is the author of over 40 books, including Son of ManThe HopeLove is EverythingTurn Me to GoldEngoldenment and Radical Regeneration with Carolyn Baker. He has taught all over the world, given over 20 courses for the Shift Network and is the founder of the Institute for Sacred Activism. 

April 14: Rumi and Poems on Longing for the Beloved with Dr. Kathy Bozzuti-Jones
Kathy Bozzuti Jones

Kathy Bozzuti-Jones, PhD, is Trinity Church Wall Street’s Associate Director for Spiritual Practices, Retreats and Pilgrimage. She is a spiritual director, retreat leader, and faith formation specialist. Her training is in Theological Social Ethics, Christian spiritual direction, and interfaith spiritual counseling and supervision. Kathy is a certified mindfulness meditation teacher and has been an adjunct professor in spirituality and practice at General Theological Seminary and One Spirit Seminary. Kathy enjoys sharing her deep sensibility of God's presence through her involvement in Faith Formation and Education programming.

 

April 21–May 12: A Deep Dive into the Book of Common Prayer

This Eastertide, join us for a deep dive into the Book of Common Prayer. Trinity’s clergy and staff, along with scholar Janet MacMillan, will explore the history of the BCP, its use in our liturgies and communities, and how we might find it a resource for daily spiritual practice.

  • April 21: What is the Book of Common Prayer? with the Rev. Elizabeth Blunt
  • April 28: The Book of Common Prayer in our liturgical life with the Rev. Michael Bird
  • May 5: The History of the Book of Common Prayer with Janet MacMillan
  • May 12: The Book of Common Prayer and our Baptismal Covenant with Ruth Frey

Past Sessions

January 7–14: On Waiting and Longing for God

How do we “find” God when it feels like God is absent? How do we continue to seek God’s voice, even when it feels like our prayers go unanswered? Join the Rev. Dr. Mark Bozzuti-Jones and Dr. Kathy Bozzuti-Jones of Trinity Church Wall Street in cultivating practices — prayer, contemplation, and compassionate listening — that help us hear the “still, small voice of God.”

January 7: On Longing for God with Dr. Kathy Bozzuti-Jones  
Watch the recording
January 14: On Waiting and Longing for Justice with the Rev. Dr. Mark Bozzuti-Jones  
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January 21–February 11: The Ties That Bind — Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Readings of Genesis 

The story of God’s promises to Abraham and his descendants in the book of Genesis is a central narrative for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In this series, join religious leaders and thinkers from all three faith traditions as we encounter Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael, and Isaac in a new light.

January 21: Abraham’s Family in Jewish Readings with Rabbi Darren Levine
Rabbi Darren Levine

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Rabbi Darren Levine is the founder of Tamid: The Downtown Synagogue, which meets at St. Paul’s Chapel, and the author of Positive Judaism: For a Lifetime of Well-Being and Happiness

 

January 28: Abraham’s Family in Islamic Readings with Imam Ammar Abdul Rahman
Imam Ammar Abdul Rahman

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Imam Ammar Abdul Rahman is a distinguished figure in the realm of Islamic education and community leadership, with a wealth of experience spanning over a decade. Imam Ammar is an inspiring educator and community builder. Grounded in a strong foundation of Islamic theology and jurisprudence, Imam Ammar has dedicated his career to imparting the teachings of Islam to the youth. He currently serves as a deputy Imam at Masjid Al-Haram USA in The Bronx. 

February 4: Abraham’s Family in Christian Readings with Dr. Nyasha Junior

 

Dr. Nyasha Junior

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Nyasha Junior is an associate professor in the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto. She is a biblical scholar and holds a Ph.D. in Old Testament from Princeton Theological Seminary. Her teaching and research focus on biblical texts and their reception. 

 

 

February 18–March 17: In God’s Image: The Presence of God in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament

Stained glass image of an angel appearing to Hagar and Ishmael, on top of an Ethiopian Christian painting of the Last Supper

How does God present God’s self in the Bible? Does God have a body? What does God look like? In this series, we will be joined by leading scholars and art historians to consider how God appears to people in both the Old and New Testaments, and the ways that artists in different cultures have envisioned God’s presence.

February 18 & 25: Encountering God’s Presence in the Hebrew Scriptures with Benjamin Sommer
Benjamin Sommer

Watch the February 18 recording
Watch the February 25 recording
Benjamin Sommer is Professor of Bible at the Jewish Theological Seminary and Senior Fellow at the Kogod Center for Contemporary Jewish Thought of the Shalom Hartman Institute. His book, Revelation and Authority: Sinai in Jewish Scripture and Tradition, received the Goldstein-Goren Prize in Jewish thought and was a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award. The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz described Sommer as “a traditionalist but an iconoclast – he shatters idols and prejudices in order to nurture Jewish tradition and its applicability today.”

March 3: Images of Jesus with Dr. Anna Swartwood House 
Dr. Anna Smartwood House

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Anna Swartwood House is an art historian (Ph.D., Princeton *11) whose research focuses on Renaissance cross-culturalism, the art of Venice 1400–1600, artists’ biographies, and the reception of art.  Currently she serves as Associate Professor of art history in the School of Visual Design at the University of South Carolina. Her book A
ntonello da Messina and the History of Art, which was supported by a Samuel H. Kress Fellowship in Art History from the Renaissance Society of America, is forthcoming this year from Routledge.  

Dr. Swartwood House’s essay “The Long History of How Jesus Came to Resemble a White European,” published on www.theconversation.com in 2020, has received over one million views and has been republished in French, Spanish, Japanese, and Indonesian translation.  

March 10: Images of Mary with Dr. Susan Ward
Susan Ward

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Susan Ward is Professor Emerita in the department of Theory/History of Art/Design at the Rhode Island School of Design. She received BA with honors from Connecticut College with a double major in English and Art History and her A.M. and Ph.D. degrees from Brown University. She taught at RISD for over thirty years retiring in June 2022. Her scholarship centers on medieval sculpture and the meaning of medieval art. She was a co-director of the Census of Gothic Sculpture in America, a survey of gothic sculpture in American public collections. Volume III the Museums of New York and Pennsylvania appeared in 2016. She was also a core member of the Working Group on Medieval Sculpture: A Transatlantic Dialogue. She has given papers at many American venues as well as in France, England, Germany and Israel. Her recent articles include, “Visual Environment of Jewish Learning in Twelfth-Century Rouen,” Images: A Journal of Jewish Visual Art and Culture 11/1 (Dec. 2018), a commemorative volume for Margaret Olin and “The South Portal of Le Mans Cathedral as a Processional Objective,” in Art, Architecture, and the Moving Viewer, c. 300-1500 CE: Unfolding Narratives,edited by Gillian B. Elliott and Anne Heath. She is completing a book, Stories in the Door: Archivolt Narrative in the Royal Portal, that considers how stories are told in twelfth-century portal sculpture.

Susan Ward and her husband David have been parishioners at Trinity since 1999. She has been a past congregational council member, including a term as president, and is presently serving on Trinity’s vestry. 

 

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