2026 St. David's Adult Formation Spring and Summer Classes and Events
Easter Formation Series
May 10
10 A.M., Crail C
Dr. Anna E. Beaudry: Celebrating High Holy Seasons through the Gospel of Luke
Our church tradition has a lot to say about fasting, whether it’s the 40 days of Lent, the season of Advent before Christmas, or writings of ancient mystics on the mortification of the flesh. In many ways, fasting is easy to do well; you abstain from something and receive grace when you fail. But despite lengthy and prominent seasons of joy, we don't talk much about what it means to feast well.
As we complete the High Holy Season of Easter, Dr. Anna E. Beaudry will explore stories and parables of feasting from the Gospel of Luke, investigating what it looks like to "taste and see that the Lord is good," learning how to radically rest, renew, and revel in the joy of the Lord.
Scriptural Foundations
Wednesdays, May 6-27
6:15 p.m., Crail C
Dr. Brent Landau: General Epistles and Revelation
Dr. Landau will be teaching this Scriptural Foundations course that explores the authorship, theology, and interpretation of the books of James 1 and 2; Peter 1, 2, and 3; John; Jude; and Revelation in the New Testament.
Brent Landau is a lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his Th.D and M.Div from Harvard University, and a B.A. in Religious Studies from the University of Iowa. Prior to coming to the University of Texas in 2013, he was Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Oklahoma; he has also held visiting positions at Boston University and Harvard Divinity School.
Books and Authors Series
Sundays, May 17, and june 7, 14, and 28
10 a.m., Bethell Hall
We invite you to participate in our conversations with these authors where we will be exploring currently relevant topics we can incorporate into our everyday interactions with our diverse community.
May 17
Dr. Luke Winslow: "Oligarchy in America: Power, Justice, and the Rule of the Few"
To an American, oligarchy is something that happens somewhere else. In “Oligarchy in America,” Luke Winslow reveals oligarchy’s deep intellectual roots and alarming growth in America. The book provides conceptual tools the lack of which have prevented Americans from recognizing oligarchy at home.
Winslow argues that generic labels like “billionaires” for a class of ultra-rich masks the pervasive structures that entrench their power. He introduces instead the concept of “democratic oligarchy”—an institutional arrangement in which the ultra-rich form a class consciously creating and leveraging state power to accumulate wealth.
June 7
Tyler Davis and Linda Jann Lewis: “God of the Whirlwind: Horror, Memory, & Story in Black Waco”
“God of the Whirlwind” demonstrates the power of storytelling traditions to carry memories and shape ways of living by assembling stories from members of the Black Waco community – stories that have been passed on and that have sustained life in Central Texas. In a region deeply shaped by racial injustice and the horrors of lynching, one such story tells of a destructive tornado as the justice of God.
June 14
Hilary Yancey: “Forgiving God: A Story of Faith”
Three months into her pregnancy with her first child, Hilary Yancey received a phone call that changed everything. As she learned the diagnosis – cleft lip and palate, a missing right eye, possible breathing complications – Hilary began to pray in earnest. Even in the midst of these findings, she prayed that God would heal her son. God could do a miracle unlike anything she had seen. Only when Hilary held her baby, Jack, in her arms for the first time did she realize God had given her something drastically different than what she had demanded.
Hilary struggled to talk to God as she sat for six weeks beside Jack's crib in the NICU. She consented to surgeries and learned to care for a breathing tube and gastric button.
June 28
Jason S. Green: "Too Precious to Lose: A Memoir of Family, Community, and Possibility"
Jason G. Green was raised on fellowship — literally. Fellowship Lane served as a spiritual metaphor throughout his coming of age. A precocious preacher’s kid, Green felt a call to the ministry but ultimately devoted himself to public service. After working on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, the young attorney spent four and a half years serving in the White House as special assistant to President Obama.
However, Green’s government career was cut short by a devastating call. It seemed his beloved 95-year-old grandmother was on her deathbed. At her side, he listened in disbelief while she detailed her life story dating back to her 1918 birth in Quince Orchard, a town that once stood where they now sat, erased by the vestiges of time.
Login To Leave Comment