Climbing Trees

Our brilliant mind this week is Betsy Preston, elder, deacon, and Presbyterian extraordinaire! On Sunday, October 27, Betsy is leading our Adult Formation time with Beyond Horror and Shame: Legacies of the Holocaust for Faith Communities and the Future, following her participation this past summer in a Congregational Leaders Workshop at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Our brilliant mind this week is author and scholar Dr. Philip Wingeier-Rayo, Professor of Missiology, World Christianity and Methodist Studies at Wesley Theological Seminary. Learn more about Philip and his work at https://www.wesleyseminary.edu/profiles/dr-philip-wingeier-rayo/.

Our brilliant mind this week is author and mindfulness educator Susan Kaiser Greenland. The founder of Inner Kids, a mindfulness and activity-based educational model for children, her most recent book is called Real-World Enlightenment: Discovering Ordinary Magic in Everyday Life. And—spoiler alert!—she and Jacob share a special connection. Learn more about Susan and her work at https://susankaisergreenland.com/.

Our guest this week is the Rev. Amelia Richardson Dress, author of The Hopeful Family: Raising Resilient Children in Uncertain Times, Minister for Community Faith Formation and soon-to-be lead pastor at First Congregational United Church of Christ in Longmont, CO, and 2023 speaker at Westminster's own Family Retreat! Learn more about Amelia and her work at https://www.ameliadress.com/. Picture Book Theology: http://www.picturebooktheology.com/ Around the Table: https://www.presbyterianmission.org/aroundthetable/

Our guest this week is the Rev. John Molina-Moore, General Presbyter of the the National Capital Presbytery. Stay up to date on the work of the presbytery on Facebook and Instagram @NationalCapitalPresbytery and at https://thepresbytery.org/thursday-mail/.

Our guest today is Joelle Brummitt-Yale, Certified Christian Educator and director of children's and youth ministries at Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. You can sign up for the Presbyterian Outlook's free newsletter at https://pres-outlook.org/newsletters/.

Our guest this week is Dr. Ryan Bonfiglio, Associate Professor in the Practice of Old Testament at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, and Executive Director of The Candler Foundry, an amazing space that seeks to bridge the gap between the church and academy by making seminary-level learning accessible and engaging for the broader public. Learn more and contact Ryan at https://candlerfoundry.emory.edu/ and https://www.theoed.com/.

Periplum is a limited-run podcast series where we explore the world of Christian Formation in the church, and then plot together where we are all headed. Music by BoDleasons via Pixabay.

Our brilliant mind this week is our very own Rev. Patrick Hunnicutt, Associate Pastor here at Westminster Presbyterian Church. Patrick discusses what has shaped him as "Patrick the person, the Christian, and the pastor": his childhood growing up near the passionate, loyal city of Philadelphia and in a home in which the church and servanthood were central; following in his father's footsteps to Duke University and the ecumenical, diverse environment he encountered at McCormick Seminary; and the energizing work he does with people here at WPC and in the National Capital Presbytery. Patrick also previews his Adult Formation class, "Toward a Theology of Mission," where we will begin to explore together how we might live out our faith in the world.

Our brilliant mind this week is the Rev. Dr. Emily Peck, Professor of Christian Formation and Young Adult Ministry, Co-Director of the Certificate in Children and Youth Ministry and Advocacy, and Co-Director of the Wesley Innovation Hub at Wesley Theological Seminary. She and Jacob discuss the broad implications of Christian Formation: how we are formed not only in what we know but in who we *are* and in what we *do*, and the role of grace and community and change in the formation process. She traces her spiritual and academic journey, and how she was formed to care deeply about both the world and the church. She also relates how a certain fairy tale inspires her to honor our own childhoods and the children who are entrusted with us.

Our brilliant mind this week is Westminster's own Christine Hershey, Director of Seniors Ministries. Christine shares the contrast in learning styles of her East Coast and West Coast academic experiences, and the challenges and joys of attending a liberal, intellectual seminary coming from a evangelical, charismatic Christian background. She and Jacob explore her time in clinical pastoral experiences - in churches, hospitals, and hospices - where she learned both about herself and to hold people's stories while listening and being present. She also previews her Adult Formation class on "Aging with Grace and Grit."

Our brilliant mind this week is international scholar, professor, and pastor Dr. Mario Hood, associate pastor at Church on the Living Edge in Orlando, Florida. A good friend of Jacob's from seminary, Mario didn't grown up as a Christian - or as a person who expected to get a doctoral degree - but he ended up at a Christian college where his spiritual and academic journey began. He shares with us the philosophy of "paracletic leadership" - or sprit-filled, relational leadership - and his belief that theology done well is very practical. This understanding, especially as it relates to doing ministry with Gen Z and the next generation, has been influenced by his professors, by the people he does ministry with, and by his students today. You can follow Dr. Hood @mariohood on Twitter and Instagram, or at https://linktr.ee/mariohood.

Our brilliant mind this week is Dr. Paul Cho, professor at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. He shares how an interest in the relationship between language and reality - how language gives you access to different realities, and how it can shape your experience of reality - has shaped his life, from being a second-grade Korean immigrant to the US and through his academic and professional career. He previews his upcoming class on Job, shares the profound impact his mother has had on his love of text and love of the Bible, and relates how his students' questions remind him that scholarship - and the life of faith - is best done in community and conversation.

Our brilliant mind this week is Rev. Dr. Josiah Young, Professor at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. Growing up in the United Methodist Church in Brooklyn, his journey to seminary first took a detour through the world of dance! He relates how seeing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s funeral service on television influenced him to attend Morehouse College, and the very rich experience it was to be at a campus with leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, and how that drive to serve his community led to attending Union Seminary. He shares how his parents made his home life a haven, and how we should cherish the resources and the voices that help us all become more humane and loving persons.

Our brilliant mind this week is the Rev. Dr. Alice Bellis. Born and raised in conservative 1950s North Carolina, Alice shares how her experiences in college and graduate school - from Mount Holyoke and Duke to Howard and Catholic universities in DC - were major cultural adjustments that ended up being providentially and spiritually formative. She and Jacob talk about the challenges and richness of pastoring a congregation while doing academic work, and the advisors and scholars that shaped her in the past and today. Rev. Dr. Bellis is an ordained Presbyterian minister, author, and Professor of Hebrew Bible at Howard University School of Divinity. Join or watch her Sunday morning Adult Formation class at Westminster at https://wpc-alex.org/adult.

Our brilliant mind this week is Ellen Hamilton, author of A Scottish Migration to Alexandria, which chronicles the histories of Scotland and Alexandria through the story of William Gregory’s 1807 migration to our city. Ellen shares how Westminster’s gift of a world trip to her grandparents may have been the reason she spent a large part of her childhood in Germany. She and Jacob discuss the creative process that went into the writing of her book, which began as a documentary film; and how being from a family of writers and her training in graphic arts contributed to the project and her love of making it. Ellen is owner of Yellow Dot Designs, publisher of Faith and Race: One Church's Response to the Civil Rights Movement, and granddaughter of Westminster’s second pastor, the Rev. Dr. Cliff Johnson. You can see art and video from her book project at https://scottishmigration-film.com/. Her Sunday morning class can be attended or heard at https://wpc-alex.org/adult/. 

Our brilliant mind this week is Rev. Scott Planting, Westminster's current Sunday Morning Adult Formation host, former President of the Maine Seacoast Mission and honorably retired Presbyterian pastor. Scott shares with us how a summer job serving rural churches in Maine turned into 35 years of parish ministry, and the impact the director of that first program had on his life. He relates the struggles facing those communities in Maine, but also how the women of the churches that he served showed him how to "be there:" how to care for one another as a skill and a habit. Watch Rev. Planting's Adult Formation class, "Hope in a Time of Crisis," at https://youtu.be/1k_Ryne_pAo.

Our brilliant mind this week is Rabbi Jack Moline. Though his journey to Alexandria runs through Chicago, Los Angeles, Jerusalem, and New York City, Jack shares how the great privilege of serving a single community for a long time allowed him to become deeply involved in the lives of his flock: the happy moments, the challenging moments, and everything in between. He shares how it's the people that have been willing to engage in dialogue--people never heard of, from all walks of faith or none at all, those with whom he disagreed--who have most influenced and deepened his commitment to interfaith conversation. Now retired, Jack Moline served as the Rabbi of Agudas Achim Congregation in Alexandria for thirty years and is the former president of the Interfaith Alliance. He and Westminster Pastor Larry Hayward have led several Interfaith Trips to Israel together.

Our brilliant mind this week is pastor (and fellow podcaster!) Rev. Dr. Charlene Han Powell. She and Jacob talk about their formative days together at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian in NYC, the joys and challenges of going back to school (again), and the contrasts between congregations and ministry in New York, California, and Virginia. Charlene shares how her great-grandfather's experience as one of the first ordained Presbyterian ministers in Korea inspires her to embrace riskiness in ministry, and how Barbara Brown Taylor showed her how to strive for a ministry that can focus on one person at a time. Rev. Han Powell is the Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, CA and the co-host of the podcast This Is Crucial.

Our brilliant mind this week is pastor and author, the Rev. Dr. Stacy Smith. Stacy shares how, growing up in the Presbyterian church in Dallas, the encouragement of an adult to be the "loud, bossy show-off that I was just naturally" gave her the confidence to use her her skills in service to others. She and Jacob chat about their days at Union Seminary and discuss the challenges of identity that can accompany parish ministry. Stacy shares how her work outside the church-- from her first job out of college at the InterFaith Conference in DC to her work in healthcare advocacy--has actually been a benefit to her ministry and to her comfort in being herself. Rev. Smith is currently the Temporary Pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church of Auburn, New York and is the author, with Rev. Ashley-Anne Masters, of Bless Her Heart: Life as a Young Clergy Woman.

Our brilliant mind this week is the Rev. Dr. John Barclay Burns, Presbyterian pastor and professor at George Mason University. Filled with anecdotes, Dr. Burns shares with us about the church being the center of his family's social life growing up in Glasgow and how his parents and grandparents instilled a sense of duty and responsibility toward the church; how his professors and ministers in Scotland championed an "intellectual ministry" that influenced his approach to being a pastor and a professor in Scotland, Canada, and the United States; and his gratitude for congregants that have showed him infinite kindness. Dr. Burns also previews his October Adult Formation series on "How Jesus Became Christ." More information about the Sunday morning Adult Formation classes can be found at wpc-alex.org/adult.

Our brilliant mind this week is Ranger Chaney Dale, Acting Park Manager at the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park in Church Creek, MD. He shares how he followed in his brother's footsteps to begin working for the Maryland Park Service as a 17-year-old, and how other mentors in the Park Service encouraged him in his career. He also previews his September 24 Adult Formation class on Harriet Tubman and her importance to the Underground Railroad movement. More information about the Sunday morning Adult Formation classes can be found at wpc-alex.org/adult.

Our brilliant mind today is Westminster member and author Melynda Wilcox. She shares how a teacher helped her find her love of writing; how Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns fueled her passion for exploring our history more deeply; and how seeing a certain independent career woman on television as a child shaped her professional life. Melynda is the author of Faith and Race: One Church’s Response to the Civil Rights Movement, which chronicles Westminster's history related to race and is available in print or as a free audiobook at wpc-alex.org/faith-and-race. More information about the Sunday morning Adult Formation classes can be found at wpc-alex.org/adult.

Climbing Trees - the podcast where we explore the brilliant minds that have inspired brilliant minds. Hosted by the Reverend Jacob Bolton, Associate Pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Alexandria, Virginia.