Spencer Pfleiderer is the President and CEO of Central Care Mission of Orlando. Born and raised in Tiro, Ohio, Spencer was ordained in the Christian Missionary Alliance in 1987.

A wrangle is an opportunity for Nu Class members to question and/or discuss subject matter from previous classes. On this occasion it was based on poetry remembered. All were welcome to participate.

Led by Nu Class member and former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Charley Wells

Presented by Christopher Bernier,Ed.D,Associate Superintendent for School Choice for Orange County Public Schools (OCPS)

As a cabinet member of the 9^th largest school district in the U.S., Dr. Bernier helps to support 207,000 students (reflecting 194 countries, 170 languages and over 51% are eligible for free/reduced lunch) and 24,000 staff members. Specifically, Christopher Bernier leads the Office of School Choice where he is responsible for all choice options including Alternative Education, Charter Schools, Orange County Virtual School, K-12 Magnet Programs, School Age Services, Student Enrollment, Teen Parent Program and Home Education.

Since 1987, Christopher Bernier has served OCPS exclusively, beginning as a teacher and entering leadership positions in 1995 that have included Assistant Principal, Principal (High School, Middle School, and Virtual School), Director of Professional Development and now currently serves as the Associate Superintendent of School Choice.His undergraduate degree in History was received from Le Moyne College, master’s degree in Educational Leadership from Nova Southeastern and a doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of Central Florida. Dr. Bernier is also a current fellow in the KIPP Leadership Design Program, a commissioner on the Charter Schools Appeals Commission for the Florida Department of Education, and member of the Florida Ninth Judicial Advisory Board. ASAA SCHOLARSHIP

Christopher currently resides in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. When not working, he can be found with his two children and enjoying the outdoors. He has hiked the Appalachian Trail extensively. In 2016, he completed the 215 mile John Muir Trail and successfully summited the Grand Teton in 2017.

A discussion of the search for a new senior pastor for First Church. This will be held in the Gathering Area and all are welcome.

For further details click here

“The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve” by Professor Stephen Greenblatt Part 2

“The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve” by Professor Stephen Greenblatt Part 1

Review by Peter Conrad of The Guardian 3 Sep 2017 

Greenblatt – a professor of humanities at Harvard, academically celebrated as the biographer of Shakespeare and the founder of the new defunct fashion in literary criticism known as the new historicism – here picks apart the most invidious and onerous of myths. Genesis devised a story that told us where we are, why we are here, and established rules for our conduct. Human history in the Christian west has been a long battle to come to terms with that tale, whose inflictions include a drastic ban on acquiring knowledge and a baleful sexual morality, with the pain of childbirth and inevitable death imposed by God as penalties for disobedience. Greenblatt follows Adam and Eve out of the garden and shows how they were loaded with an extra burden of guilt by St Augustine, who invented the vile notion of original sin to make us all take the blame for an impromptu erection that embarrassed him in the public baths. Greenblatt welcomes the redemption of Adam and Eve by Renaissance artists such as Michelangelo or Dürer, who saw them as ideal physical specimens, not the harassed victims of a repressive God. Finally, a little relieved, he has Darwin kill them off.