Faith Ecumenical Institute, which launched its first series of classes in September 2014, recently “graduated” its first class of students from its religious studies curriculum (submitted photo).
FEI offers an innovative 12-week, Sunday afternoon, college-level course for adult laypersons, some with little more than Sunday School education, but compensating with a wealth of maturity and experience. Spiritual considerations and religious questions are endemic to the human condition, so the interest is naturally there, “needing only patient stimulation and direction provided by empathetic instructors,” points out Dr. Arlo Nau, president of Faith Ecumenical Institute.
FEI classes are intentionally kept small and personal, with no more than 20 student/participants per course. The subject matter is current and relevant.
Classes are taught in the renovated chapel of Faith Lutheran Church, 801 E. Camelback Road. Ample parking is available. The tuition is $100 per semester course. Some scholarship help is offered. The schedule is accommodating, usually weekend afternoons for an hour and a half or a Thursday evening. Age, education and denominational affiliation are unrestricted.
The three new courses this spring semester will look at “post-modern” religion in the form of Process Theology on Thursday evenings, beginning Jan. 8, taught by the Rev. Al Gephart, retired Presbyterian Pastor with Master’s Degrees in Theology and Music.
Two Sunday afternoon courses at 2 and 4 p.m., respectively, will study “Faith Traditions of Social Justice,” led by Dr. Tamera Zivic, head of WHEAT in Phoenix, and “St. Paul, The First Christian Theologian,” taught by Dr. Arlo Nau, FEI president.
For more information or to receive a registration form, call 602-264-0015 or e-mail info@faithecumenical.org.
