How would you like for someone else to cook breakfast for you every Sunday morning followed by engaging conversation with like-minded friends? Join us for our 2022 Summer Sunday series beginning June 5 at 9:00 am in Finaltor Hall. We have an exciting line-up of cooks and great speakers for our Summer Sunday Series.
Breakfast will begin at 9:00 am followed by a presentation and conversation on topics ranging from queer theology to book banning. With our stomachs and minds full, we will then join together for our 11:00 am worship experience as we open our hearts to God's spirit stirring within us and around us.
June 5th: Queer Theology 101 – Pastor Ian McPerson, our Interim Minister of Missions and Young Adults will offer a presentation on queer identity and reflect on what it means to do "God-talk" from a queer perspective. Breakfast will be Pancakes, sausage, and fruit. There will be something for all. Cooked and served by the building and grounds committee
June 12: Economic Justice – This session will explore innovative, faith-rooted responses to economic injustice. Alternative economic models are emerging among churches seeking to provide debt relief, counter predatory lending practices, and address issues of housing and food insecurity. Join us for this exciting discussion as we discern how Pullen’s ministries might be part of this crucial justice movement. Breakfast will be a grits bar, muffins, and fruit served by the Pullen Staff.
June 19: The Original Juneteenth: Celebration of Life-
An exploration of the moments following immediate freedom, in America, for African Americans and its relevance to the season following the protest for racial justice in 2020 and the future of freedom for all people. Breakfast will be served by a local black-owned business, Virginia and Co.
June 26: The Lasting Legacy of Pauli Murray- Rev. Hershey Mallette-Stephens, dean of the Chapel and spiritual life at St. Augustine's University, will talk about the lasting legacy of Pauli Murray as their "feast day" approaches. Pauli Murray was a civil rights activist, lawyer, poet, and priest raised in Durham, NC. Breakfast will be served by the Education Council.
July 3 – Not meeting
July 10: Womanist Theology – Womanist Wisdom: The Rev. Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan, Ph.D.—Consultant, Scholar, Preacher, Author, and Performer—Founder and CEO for Dr. Cheryl Enterprises, LLC will lead a session that provides a thumbnail sketch of womanist theology and praxis, grounded in the thought of Alice Walker. Birthed in the 1980s as a discipline, the thought and activism of Africana women are long-standing and diverse, reflected in Walker's novel, The Color Purple. Using selected scripture as case studies in conversation with Walker's novel, our session includes applying the intersectional, interdisciplinary, intergenerational lens of womanist thought that engages the realities of gender, race, class, sexual orientation, age, and ability, all of which affect the experience of relationality. Breakfast will be bagels and fruit served by the young adults.
July 17: Pushing back on Book Banning – Set aside some time in your day to read John 19:38-42. Meditate on the following: Imagine the world as the “body of Jesus.” Picture all the ways the world is broken and dead in spirit and soul. Now imagine how, like Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, you might bring into the world a mixture of “myrh and aloes”—acts of compassion and care. End your meditation with one intention of how you will care for the “body of Jesus” – those in our world who are crucified daily from poverty and oppression and injustice. Breakfast will be Menu – Cereal and Fruit Bar served by the Children's Committee.
July 24: A Journalist’s Perspective on the Religious Landscape in America-! Yonat Shimron will be speaking A Journalist's Perspective on the Religious Landscape in America. Yonat joined Religion News Service in April 2011 and became managing editor in 2013. She was the religion reporter for the News and Observer in Raleigh, NC from 1996-2011. During that time, she won numerous awards. Shimron is a past president of the Religion Newsletters Association.