Lifelong Learning
At Newport, we love learning! If you do, too, please join us for our weekly adult classes at 11:30 a.m. on Sundays, after coffee hour.
We’re not afraid to address tough subjects, including Navigating Disagreements, Exploring Truth and Reconciliation, Repairing Historic Harms to Black and Indigenous Christians, Identity and Interfaith Relationships, Evangelism vs. Evangelicalism, St. Patrick, and Ignatian Spiritual Exercises. We welcome your voice and perspective to these enlightening and challenging discussions!
April 2026:
After Easter, we’ll be doing a book study on “For Such a Time as This: An Emergency Devotional” by Hanna Reichel. We’ll walk through tangible steps of how to make process a chaotic world and its violence, and what our faith has to say about how we can respond. Join us for meaningful conversation and exploration as we do our best to be Christ’s light in the world.
Recent classes (for reference)
March 2026:
In our own backyard: civil rights, immigration, and faith
During March our Lifelong Learning classes will focus on the current ICE raids in the Eastside. We will talk to immigrant rights organizations, explore the history of ICE and it’s current practices, and hear first-hand accounts of the impact of ICE raids. And, like Pandora, we’re going to dig down through the mess and look for hope. Where is God in these raids? How do we connect with all people, especially those who disagree with us? How do we make that human connection, which is a God connection, and help end these catastrophic attacks on our neighbors?
Here's a brief list of topics.
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22 Bible verses later: the blessings of immigrants
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Understanding ICE past and present
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How faith communities are responding on the Eastside
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How are ICE raids effecting youth, immigrant or not, on the Eastside?
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Looking for hope. Creating a plan of ongoing assistance and welcome.
February 2026:
One Parish One Prisoner (OPOP)
2/1 Re-entry and Resurrection Austin Rehbein
2/8 Addiction and Connection Betty and Damon Meyer
2/15 Stones to Re-entry Bill and Kim Iverson
2/22 Wrap Up on OPOP Series Pastor Kelly
January 2026
End of Life Planning, led by Pastor Kelly
Some reference materials (8 page .docx):
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End of Life Planning Resources
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Decision-making Worksheet
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Terms
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Recommended documents to have in place
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Common hymns and scriptures for funerals
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Memorial Planning Worksheet
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Funeral Outline
As always, if you have questions or would like more information, you are welcome to reach out to Pastor Kelly.
Some reference books:
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, by Atul Gawande.
The Good Funeral: Death, Grief, and the Community of Care, by Thomas G.
Long and Thomas Lynch.
Final Gifts: Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs, and Communications of the Dying Paperback, by Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley.
Making Faithful Decisions at the End of Life, by Nancy J. Duff.
Grief: Contemporary Theory and the Practice of Ministry, by Melissa M. Kelley.
On Death and Dying: What the Dying Have to Teach Doctors, Nurses, Clergy and Their Own Families, by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross.