Learning & Involvement

Adult Education

The Adult Education Committee seeks to provide an encouraging and supportive learning environment for members and friends of the Plymouth community.

Sunday morning Adult Education forums are at
9 a.m. in the Jackman Room or the Theater
(see individual listings for location). Programs at other times are so noted.

Adult Education forums
will resume in the fall.

Past programs this Winter/Spring

January 6 in the Theater

Hymns from Heaven
and Points Below

Philip Brunelle

There are many kinds of hymns: beloved, bizarre, funny, bad – and Philip Brunelle, Plymouth’s beloved organist and choirmaster, knows them all! Come and hear Philip talk about what makes a good hymn and join in singing a wide variety of hymns from wonderful to outrageous.

Philip Brunelle Philip is celebrating his 39th year as Organist-Choirmaster at Plymouth and is only the third musician to be in that position since 1900. He’s also Founder and Artistic Director of VocalEssence and formerly was Music Director of the Minnesota Opera. Philip is known nationally for his leadership in the fields of choral and church music and serves on the boards of Chorus America and the International Federation of Choral Music. He’s also the Program Chairman for the upcoming national convention of the American Guild of Organists, to be held in the Twin Cities this June.

January 13 in Jackman

Caring for our Kids:
Foster Care in Hennepin County

Becky Richardson

What happens to a child who’s temporarily removed from the custody of their parents due to abuse or neglect? What are the goals of foster care? What are the challenges? How has it changed? Join Becky Richardson as she shares what she’s learned while training people to serve as foster parents in Hennepin County. She’ll be joined by Plymouth members and foster parents Karl Jones and Rebecca Miller.

For the last 28 years, Becky Richardson has trained new and already-licensed foster parents for service in Hennepin County. She also trains new child protection workers for the state of Minnesota. In her free time, she volunteers as a guardian-ad-litum in Ramsey County, reporting to juvenile court about the best interests of the children for whom she’s a guardian.

January 20 in Jackman

Listening

Dr. Manny Steil

Dr. Lyman K. (Manny) Steil, CSP, CPAE, is internationally known as “The Ambassador of Listening” and a “Speaker Worth Listening To.” He’s CEO and Chairman of Communication Development, Inc.; CEO and Chairman of the International Listening Leadership Institute; Founding Partner of The Masters Alliance; founding Director of The Amara Institute; former Director of Debate, Macalester College; and Manny Steil Chairman of the Speech Communication Division, Department of Rhetoric, University of Minnesota.

For more than 44 years as a leading professional educator, speaker, trainer, consultant, author and businessman who’s trained in speech, psychology, listening, leadership and organizational communication, he’s helped professionals in 19 countries listen better and achieve more.

In addition, he was founder and first President of the International Listening Association; author and co-author of five books; creator of the first Effective Listening Video Program; and architect of the renowned Sperry Listening Program. He’s earned the CSP (Certified Speaking Professional) designation and has been inducted into both the National Speaker’s Association and Minnesota “Speaker’s Hall of Fame” and the International Listening Association’s “Listening Hall of Fame.” Dr. Steil and Dr. Richard Bommelje’s award-winning book, Listening Leaders: The 10 Golden Rules to Listen, Lead and Succeed, is presently serving Listening Leaders in 29 countries. Dr. Steil is committed to helping everyone enhance their listening and personal and professional performance, productivity, profitability and pleasure.

January 27 in the Theater

Meaningful Magic

Christopher Childs

Creative visualization is practiced in today’s American society by a mix of athletes, cancer patients, New Agers, designers, software engineers and many others. Whether one’s interested in the metaphysical basis or the psychological rationale, creative visualization is a technique that’s worked for millions of people in different walks of life who have applied it to everything from health to design to the graceful completion of individual Olympic events.

Because its greatest public exposure has come in recent decades, creative visualization is often regarded as a new or New Age phenomenon. There is, however, a rather old form of it known as “pictorial prayer” – any prayer that includes, whether deliberately or incidentally, an inner picture of a desired outcome.

Christopher Childs Childs was trained in a form of creative visualization that puts an emphasis on grounding the technique in an accurate rendering of existing circumstances, rather than just imagining a lovely picture of the desired result. This approach cultivates a “structural tension” or creative stress – the energy that resides in a tension between an honest awareness of what we’ve got now and a clear picture of what we want to bring into the world that doesn’t now exist. It’s the basis for the manifestation of any worthy vision – one that when correctly understood always involves engaging the human spirit, as Native Americans have long done in the practice of the vision quest.

February 3 in the Theater

Torture Is Un-American

Andrea & Paula Northwood

Based on the Center for Victims of Torture’s experience with torture survivors and understanding the systems in which they’ve been abused, CVT believes it’s important that discussions about the U.S. use of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment not be shaped by speculation but rather through an understanding of how torture is actually used in the world. Andrea (pictured) and Paula will lead a discussion on the current American attitudes and policies regarding torture, implications for the mental and spiritual health of our country and how you can make a difference. Andrea Northwood has been a psychologist on staff at CVT for more than 12 years and is their current Director of Client Services. Paula Northwood is Plymouth’s Minister for Religious Education and Family Life.

February 10 in Jackman

Jihad vs. McWorld?

Nabeel Ashraf

Ours are the times in which Samuel Huntington’s “Clash of Civilizations” theory is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Threatened by both internal Nabeel Ashraf and external destabilizing elements, the state of affairs in the Islamic world today is extremely volatile and demands our attention. But what does an average Muslim believe? Does the majority in the Islamic world support militancy? If not, then why is Islamic militancy on the rise? Is democracy the answer to problems in the Islamic world? Is democracy compatible with Islam?

Nabeel Ashraf was born and raised in Pakistan and grew up as a Muslim. He graduated from Luther Seminary with an M.A. in Islamic Studies. He’s currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Divinity at Luther Seminary and anticipates ordination in the United Church of Christ. He frequently speaks at various churches, forums and business organizations.

February 17 in Jackman

The New American Imperative

David Gaither

David Gaither is Executive Director of the Institute for New Americans and a former Minnesota State Senator and Chief of Staff to Governor Tim Pawlenty. He also has more than 20 years of diverse business experience. He’ll discuss how immigration patterns in Minnesota have changed and the importance of new immigrants to a vibrant economy and culture in the state.

The Institute for New Americans helps refugee and immigrant communities share equitably in and contribute to the educational, economic and social growth of the community. INA also operates the Lincoln Adult Education Center in Minneapolis.

February 24 in Jackman

Ojibwe Life in the
Minnesota Landscape

Bruce White

Author and ethno-historian Bruce White holds a doctorate in anthropology from the University of Minnesota. He researches and writes for Indian tribes and government agencies. His newest book, We Are At Home: Pictures of the Ojibwe People, published by the Minnesota Historical Society, provided the resource base for a feature exhibit at the Minnesota History Center in 2007 called “Camera Ojibwe.” The book is a fascinating history of the Ojibwe people at home in the Minnesota landscape from the mid-1800s through 1950, vividly illustrated with more than 200 photographs.

Bruce White This rich record of Native history and culture was made possible through a quirk of history: white settlement of Minnesota coincided with the development of photographic processes that allowed itinerant and studio photographers to capture images of local people and scenes, including those of the Ojibwe, who had called Minnesota home for centuries.

Bruce White will share his knowledge of Minnesota’s native people as part of our Adult Education focus on the state’s history in Minnesota’s sesquicentennial year.

March 2 in Jackman

Creating Minnesota

Annette Atkins

In her new book, Creating Minnesota: A History from the Inside Out, Annette Atkins constructs a story of the state’s past that takes the reader to some likely places – the Constitutional convention in Minneapolis in 1857 and the Pillsbury flour mills, Hubert Humphrey’s campaign headquarters – and to some unlikely ones, too – the family of the mixed-blood interpreter at Fort Snelling, the dispersion of oranges from Brazil into Christmas stockings in St. Paul, marathon dancing, furniture in Staples and walleye quesadillas.

Atkins, a Plymouth member and long-time faculty member at Saint John’s University and the College of Saint Benedict, will tell some of these stories and show how they invite us into the complexity and richness of the state’s past. That Minnesota is only distantly related to the one you might have learned about in the 4th grade.

March 9 in the Theater

Finding Your True North:
The Spirituality of
Authentic Leaders

Bill George

Bill George is a Professor at Harvard Business School and former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Medtronic, Inc.

Bill George A member of Plymouth, Bill has been traveling throughout the U.S., talking about his new book, True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership. He’s come to feel strongly that we’re in a leadership crisis and need a new generation of leaders to bring us out of it. In this presentation, he’ll go deeper into the source of our leadership – or our True North – and explore the spirituality of authentic leaders. This lecture is based on the verses from the Gospel of Matthew in the fifth chapter: Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in Heaven.

Bill was the chief executive officer of Medtronic from 1991 to 2001 and Chairman of the Board from 1996 to 2002. During that time, Medtronic grew from a market capitalization of $1.1 billion to $60 billion. He’s currently serving as a director of ExxonMobil, Goldman Sachs and Novartis, as well as The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the World Economic Forum USA. He’s been a professor at IMD International and Ecole Polythchnique, both in Lausanne, Switzerland, and has taught at the Yale School of Management. Bill is also author of the best seller, Authentic Leadership.

March 16 in the Theater

NOTE: The speaker originally scheduled for this date, Franz Gayl, had to cancel due to an unexpected conflict. We hope to reschedule him at a later date.

Future Water

Scott Harder

The Mississippi River and underground aquifers provide drinking water for the three million residents of the Twin Cities metro area. As climate change begins to affect the Upper Midwest in the coming decades, how will we provide drinking water to ourselves and the additional people expected to join us? How much will our sources shrink and how would we treat and deliver water in a possibly “carbon-constrained” world? Will others eye our lakes and rivers with envy, and dollars?

Scott Harder is President of Environmental Financial Group, Inc., a Minneapolis-based international consultancy focused on water and climate change. He’s working with the Metropolitan Council on the metro area's first regional water supply plan and is also heavily involved in the drought gripping the southeast U.S. He’s currently Moderator of Plymouth Church.

March 30 in the Theater

Carl Linneaus:
The Father of Botany

Tom Anderson

This three-act show was written by Tom Anderson in honor of the 300th birthday of the “Father of Botany,” Carl Linneaus. Nils Linneaus, the father of Carl, tells us of the germination of his son’s passion for flowers. We learn that a child’s passions don’t always align with those of their parents.

In Act Two, Per Kalm, one of Linneaus’s beloved graduate students, addresses the life of an adventurer/plant collector and the impact the professor has made on his life. In the final act, Carl Linneaus himself swaggers onto the stage to share insight on his great many deeds.

For nearly 30 years, Tom Anderson was a professional naturalist and Director of the Lee and Rose Warner Nature Center near Marine on St. Croix. The nature center is associated with the Science Museum of Minnesota.

For almost 15 years, he penned an award-winning column entitled “Reading Sign” for the Chisago County Press. He’s the author of two books: Learning Nature By a Country Road and Black Bear … Seasons of the Wild. (Voyageur Press). He’s a published poet and was a columnist for Midwest Fly Fishing magazine and Science Museum of Minnesota periodical, Encounters. His upcoming book, Things That Bite, will be released this spring.

He’s proud of his Swedish heritage and a keen fan of Carl Linneaus, the father of botany.

His primary inspiration in all his writing is the natural world and how we are or should be intimately connected to it. He lives on the Anoka Sand plain, southwest of North Branch in Isanti County, with his wife, Nancy Conger. He lives and continues to write in the farmhouse on the land that his Swedish great-great-grandparents built in the late 19th century.

April 6

Cuba Connect

In recent years, members of Plymouth have forged meaningful friendships with members of two congregations in Cuba. Groups from the church, led by Jeff Sartain, traveled to Cuba in 2005 and 2008. Plymouth has also hosted a guest from Cuba here in Minneapolis. Jeff (pictured) and other travelers will share their experiences and information about our Cuban friends and their lives, hopes and struggles.

April 13 in the Theater

Is that a tribune or a bulls-eye?
The Role of the Arts Critic

Rohan Preston

A review of dance, music or theater serves many masters. A reader might want a consumer guide: should she hire a baby-sitter, buy pizza and plunk down $50 to see a performance? An actor or dancer wants usable advice on how to improve his art: are people able to read my gestures, my blocking, my delivery? A casual reader, who may not go to see the show at all, wants to be delivered, vicariously, into the experience, and preferably in a witty way. And an editor wants it on deadline. A tall order for 12 inches of news copy, but thoughtful writer and critic Rohan Preston will speak about it all.

A writer, librettist, photographer and critic, Rohan Preston was born in rural Jamaica in the 1960s. He emigrated to New York in 1979 at age 12, graduating from Yale 10 years later with a degree in English. He authored the poetry collection, Dreams in Soy Sauce, and co-edited the anthology, Soulfires: Young Black Men on Love and Violence. Since March 1998, he’s served as the lead theater critic at the Star Tribune, where he covers plays, musicals, some dance and a little opera in one of the most fertile performing arts ecologies in the nation. In 2007, he won a silver award in the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award competition for “The Return,” a pilgrimage story about his trip to West Africa. He also served on the 2007 jury for the Pulitzer Prize for drama. He lives with his wife, poet and English professor Angela Shannon, and their two daughters in Minneapolis.

April 20 in the Theater

The War on Public Education

James P. Lenfestey

There’s a war on public education which is fueled by myths and driven by ignorance and ideology, both religious and secular. So what’s the true, data-driven state of public education in Minnesota? What’s excellent about it? What are the “top 10” challenges? And what are seven effective solutions? You’ll be surprised by the stories the data tell and where it should lead us.

Jim Lenfestey is a writer and poet in Minneapolis. After a career in academia, advertising and journalism, on the editorial board of the Minneapolis Star Tribune where he covered K-12 education and the environment, he’s published four collections of poetry, a collection of essays and authored, with artistic director Jon Cranney, Coyote Discovered America, which premiered the 25th season of the Minneapolis Children’s Theater. His four-part series on K-12 education, “What Matters to Us: Public Education,” won a national magazine award in 2007. Jim and Jon are both Plymouth members.

April 27 in Jackman

The Visual Arts:
An Avenue to the Sacred

Kristin Makholm

Members of Plymouth are well aware of the wonderful art works we have on the walls of our many corridors and rooms and in the courtyard. But many wonder how they came to be here, who chose them and for what reasons. Join Plymouth Accessions Committee and Board of Fine Arts member Kristin Makholm in exploring how the collections have developed, the history and meaning of some of the works on view and the strategies and concerns that prompt the accessions committee to collect new works of art.

Kristin Makholm is Director of Galleries and Exhibitions at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She holds a Ph.D. in art history from the University of Minnesota. Prior to her position at MCAD, she worked at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, St. Louis Art Museum, and was most recently curator of prints and drawings at the Milwaukee Art Museum. She’s been a member of Plymouth since 2003.

May 4 in the Theater

Celebrate Mother’s Day
with a Bundt Cake

Susanna Short

How does an ordinary person make a sophisticated, crowd-pleasing cake in a snap? With the Bundt pan, of course! For Susanna Short, cooking and baking are not merely acts of feeding our bodies:

“When I plan a meal, it’s an opportunity to explore the history and culture from which that cuisine emerged. There’s also no greater form of therapy than the preparing and sharing of food. It says, in a world where people hunger for true human connections, ‘Someone thought of me. Someone cares.’ I believe baking is for everyone, and while it can certainly be an art, it’s human interaction and expression at its most basic level.”

Susanna Short It was her interest in Midwestern fare, and in the notion of cooking for community, that led to her focus on the glories of the Bundt cake and her eventual authorship of Bundt Cake Bliss: Delicious Desserts from Midwest Kitchens. Susanna offers humorous and tender reflections about the power of Bundt in building community.

If you’d like, bring a Bundt cake to share! We’ll provide coffee and tea.

Susanna Short has a long-standing passion for cooking and baking. During her earlier careers as a social worker, teacher, museum professional and full-time mom, she often turned to the kitchen in her free time, where she whipped-up recipes from faraway cultures and experimented with new twists on the comfort food of her youth.

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