Upcoming Sessions
Fall 2025/Spring 2026 Spiritual Enrichment Sessions
September 7, 2025
The Ethics of AI with Dawn Kristy
When fire came into the world, nothing was ever the same. It brought warmth, community, and healing, but also demanded wisdom. Christ, too, changed everything. So does Artificial Intelligence. In this special session, award-winning author and advisor Dawn Kristy, JD, will help us explore what AI is, how it affects truth and trust, and how we can respond with courage and discernment. Like fire, AI is a tool—powerful, transformative, and accessible to all. Together, we’ll learn how to walk in the light, not fear the flame.
September 14, 2025
Poetry of Yeats
Alan Bayert will lead us on a journey with the great Irish poet.
September 21, 2025
The Improvisational Mind with Rev. Antoine McKay
Improv Comedy is more than being funny, it is a different way of approaching and interpreting the world. Antoine McKay is a screen actor, improv instructor, and pastor, and will speak about the Improv Approach during SE, and offer some Improv games for fun after service. Join us!
September 28, 2025
Community Update: Winnetka Village Council Speaker
WCC will get an update from Kirk Albinson, new member of the Winnetka Village Council.
October 5, 2025
Mitchell Brown, part 1; The Formation of the Old Testament, 400 BCE
Mitchell Brown looks at Judaism as a many-stranded rope; the priestly, prophetic, and nationalistic strands. The Old Testament is a record of these competing traditions. The New Testament also reflects this history. Brown specializes in takign the fascinating formation of the Gospels from these intermingled strands out of academia and into church forums.
October 12, 2025
Mitchell Brown part 2; The Dead Sea Scrolls
Mitchell Brown looks at Judaism as a many-stranded rope; the priestly, prophetic, and nationalistic strands. The Old Testament is a record of these competing traditions. The New Testament also reflects this history. Brown specializes in takign the fascinating formation of the Gospels from these intermingled strands out of academia and into church forums.
October 19, 2025
Mitchell Brown part 3; The Birth of Christianity ~100 CE
Mitchell Brown looks at Judaism as a many-stranded rope; the priestly, prophetic, and nationalistic strands. The Old Testament is a record of these competing traditions. The New Testament also reflects this history. Brown specializes in takign the fascinating formation of the Gospels from these intermingled strands out of academia and into church forums.
October 26, 2025
Community Organizing 101 with John Gaudette
How do we build power to make the change we want to see? Get a taste of communtiy organizing from Pastor Jessica's mentor, John Gaudette. Gaudette is the former State Organizing Director for Citizen Action / Illinois, leading the organizing to pass the Affordable Care Act, and has led campaigns for IL PIRG, IL Environmental Council, and Save the Children Action Network, among others.
November 2, 2025
Having Hard Conversations: Tim Shriver, The Dignity Index
Can our words bridge the divide in these turbulent times? Tim Shriver, Chairman of Special Olympics International and co-founder of UNITE, explores his organization’s groundbreaking tool, The Dignity Index. Learn practical strategies to lower the temperature of the heated rhetoric dividing today’s social and political landscape. The Dignity Index, a scale that measures how we communicate when we disagree, will inspire you to measure your own speech and strive for greater empathy — a step we can all appreciate.
November 9, 2025
The Poetry of Amanda Gorman
Greg Frezados will bring us some of this contemporary poets impressive anthology of work.
November 16, 2025
Reconciliation and Forgiveness: Realities, Resistance, and Rewards with Dr. Judith Levi
Prof. Levi discusses the nature and inherent challenges of reconciliation and forgiveness, including how identity issues affect reconciliation readiness, how reconciliation and forgiveness are both similar and different—and how to reap their profound rewards. The themes of her presentation, drawing in more than 20 years of involvement in German-Jewish dialogue and reconciliation, are essential to the well-being of every individual, every group, and every society wishing to transcend past harms and contemporary conflicts.
November 23, 2025
The Reluctant Convert (CS Lewis 75 min)
The Most Reluctant Convert features award-winning actor Max McLean as an elder CS Lewis who looks back on his remarkable journey from hard-boiled atheist to the most renowned Christian writer of the past century.This biopic follows the creator of The Chronicles of Narnia from the tragic death of his mother in childhood, through his strained relationship with his father, to the nightmare of the trenches of World War I to Oxford University, where friends like J.R.R. Tolkien challenge his unbelief. Experience C.S. Lewis’ profound journey from vigorous debunker of Christianity to become, as he said, “the most reluctant convert in all England.”
November 30, 2025
The Reluctant Convert (CS Lewis 75 min)
The Most Reluctant Convert features award-winning actor Max McLean as an elder CS Lewis who looks back on his remarkable journey from hard-boiled atheist to the most renowned Christian writer of the past century.This biopic follows the creator of The Chronicles of Narnia from the tragic death of his mother in childhood, through his strained relationship with his father, to the nightmare of the trenches of World War I to Oxford University, where friends like J.R.R. Tolkien challenge his unbelief. Experience C.S. Lewis’ profound journey from vigorous debunker of Christianity to become, as he said, “the most reluctant convert in all England.”
December 7, 2025
Ramaa Krishnan “The Yoga of Self-Love”
Ramaa Krishnan will share key insights from The Yoga of Self-Love, weaving together personal storytelling, spiritual wisdom, and psychological tools to explore the path of healing, authenticity, and inner transformation. Rooted in universal truths, her talk will invite participants to reflect on self-love as a sacred and essential practice for wholehearted living.
December 14, 2025
The Biblical Christmas Stories: Matthew 2
Respected biblical scholar Raymond Bown in his short book "An Adult Christ At Christmas" suggests that the infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke represent a developed Christology of the early church proclaimed through a reflection on Jesus’ origin and illustrate the entire gospel story in miniature. The infancy narratives serve as a bridge between God’s saving work in Israel and the good news in Christ.
December 21, 2025
The Biblical Christmas Stories: Luke 2
Respected biblical scholar Raymond Bown in his short book "An Adult Christ At Christmas" suggests that the infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke represent a developed Christology of the early church proclaimed through a reflection on Jesus’ origin and illustrate the entire gospel story in miniature. The infancy narratives serve as a bridge between God’s saving work in Israel and the good news in Christ.
January 4, 2026
Having Hard Conversations: Tim Shriver, The Dignity Index
Can our words bridge the divide in these turbulent times? Tim Shriver, Chairman of Special Olympics International and co-founder of UNITE, explores his organization’s groundbreaking tool, The Dignity Index. Learn practical strategies to lower the temperature of the heated rhetoric dividing today’s social and political landscape. The Dignity Index, a scale that measures how we communicate when we disagree, will inspire you to measure your own speech and strive for greater empathy — a step we can all appreciate.
January 11, 2026
Frankenstein, Guillermo Del Toro (November 2025, Netflix)
Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is a dark, emotional, and intimate adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic novel that emphasizes tragedy, identity, and the relationship between creator and creation, with a stunning Gothic aesthetic and a star-studded cast. He approaches Frankenstein not as a conventional horror movie but as a “Miltonian tragedy” focusing on human flaws, the burden of rejection, and the moral and existential dilemmas facing Dr. Frankenstein and his creation.
January 18, 2026
The Poetry of Emily Dickinson
Lele Barkhausen will lead us some of the works of one of most important figures in American poetry.
January 25, 2026
Local Journalism’s Ability to Heal Communities
Join us as Ryan Osburn of The Record shares why local journalism matters now more than ever. He will speak about the role of neighborhood reporting in fostering connection, providing honest and reliable news, and strengthening the fabric of our community. This is a timely conversation about how we can support and sustain local journalism together.
February 1, 2026
Krista Tippett's Guest on Prayer
“When words bring you closer to the prisoner in his cell, to the patient who is dying on his bed alone, to the starving child, then it’s a prayer.” Elie Wiesel, the beloved writer known for his memoir of the Holocaust, “Night,” speaks of the power of prayer and forgiveness in the wake of profound suffering.
February 8, 2026
Community Update: Wilmette Human Relations Committee
In the fall of 2020, the village of Wilmette voted to reinvigorate its dormant, 60's era Human Relations Commission following the racial unrest across the nation. We will hear some updates on their work from a member of the commission, whose mission is to foster and promote an inclusive community where all racial, ethnic, gender, religious, sexual orientation and cultural backgrounds feel safe and welcomed.
February 15, 2026
The Power of Neurodiversity
Tara May will share her TEDxWilmette talk, All Brains Are Beautiful, along with personal stories from her lived experience as a neurodiverse individual and mother of an autistic child. As CEO of Aspiritech, she brings powerful insight into how embracing neurodiversity can strengthen emotional intelligence, deepen community, and create more inclusive and innovative workplaces.
Theologies for Lent
Over the 6 Sunday of Lent, Pastor Jessica has curated a series of recordings from theologians you might want to know. These discussions touch on sin, grace, redemption, transformation, faith, doubt, hope, crucifixion and Christian history. Each week will present hearty theological nuggets for attendees to 'chew on' and discuss, hopefully helping the season of lent become more robust.
**All of these recordings are available online but, due to copyright constraints, none will be broadcast through the WCC Youtube channel. You are encouraged to attend in person or on Zoom to enjoy our discussion, or to listen to later on your own.
February 22, 2026
Lent 1 - A Different approach to Sin; Rita Nakashimi Brock, on Moral Injury & Conscience (75 mins)
Rita Nakashima Brock is an American feminist scholar, Protestant theologian, activist, and Founding Co-Director of Faith Voices for the Common Good. Growing up in a military family, Brock became an expert on moral injury and its relationship to other traumas, especially in military veterans. She is a commissioned minister in the Disciples of Christ church.
March 1, 2026
Lent 2 - Walter Brueggemann's lecture on Restorative Grace (44 mins)
Walter Brueggemann is surely one of the most influential Bible interpreters of our time, authoring over one hundred books and numerous scholarly articles. Words matter to Brueggemann, and one can tell that by listening to him speak as he hangs on to particularly theologically significant words. We will benefit from his textual analysis with this biblical study and lecture about the evidence of God's grace in scripture.
March 8, 2026
Lent 3 - Rachel Held Evans, author of Searching for Sunday - discusses doubt, biblical femininity, and not giving up on faith (46 mins)
Rachel Held Evans was a best-selling author, journalist, and speaker known for her progressive Christian views, challenging conservative evangelicalism on issues like gender, sexuality, and science. Raised in an evangelical home in Dayton, Tennessee, her books, including A Year of Biblical Womanhood and Searching for Sunday, explored complex spiritual questions, often rooted in her own journey of faith.
March 15, 2026
Lent 4 - Miguel De La Torre - Proposing a Latinx Political Ethics that Embraces Hopelessness (57:23)
Rev. Dr. Miguel A. De La Torre is a Professor of Social Ethics and Latinx Studies at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, who explores the church's power structures and what the dominant European American culture could learn from the Latino margins. A distinguished Fulbright scholar, international lecturer, and social commentator, he is renowned for his advocacy on the ethics of place, Latinx religiosity, LGBTQI+ civil rights, and immigration rights. We will engage his lecture on hope.
March 22, 2026
Lent 5 - Nadia Bolz Weber, Spirituality for Sinners on “How to be a Better Human” Podcast (36 mins)
“God, please help me not be an asshole, is about as common a prayer as I pray in my life.” Nadia Bolz-Weber is known for her irreverant and authentic witness to everybody's need for God and for grace. Ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, she is the author of three books and the founder of A House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, Colorado. She is a frequent speaker at theological conferences, giving a new lease on faith to many. We will listen to an interview with her and discuss.
March 29, 2026
Lent 6 - John Dominic Crossan, The Vision & Execution of the Historical Jesus (47 mins)
John Dominic Crossan is an Irish-American theologian, historian, and former Catholic priest known for his involvement in the Jesus Seminar and his work in liberal theology. He is a leading figure in contemporary historical Jesus research and is widely regarded as the foremost historical Jesus scholar of our time. As we approach Holy Week, we will listen to a lecture of Crossan's on the symbolism and significance of the death of Jesus.
April 12, 2026
Earth Day Film : Youth V. Gov (70 minutes in full)
Youth V. Gov; YOUTH v GOV is the story of America’s youth taking on the world’s most powerful government. Armed with a wealth of evidence, twenty-one courageous leaders file a ground-breaking lawsuit against the U.S. government, asserting it has willfully acted over six decades to create the climate crisis, thus endangering their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property. If these young people are successful, they will not only make history, they will change the future. 107 minutes with curriculum guide
April 19, 2026
Earth Day Film: Youth V. Gov (conclusion)
April 26, 2026
Presentation on Lake Michigan by Freshwater Scientists Liz Sutton
Elizabeth Sutton spent her career working to engage and inspire young people through STEM and environmental science education. In 2008 she became the assistant director and STEM Specialist for UWM College for Kids before developing a formal outreach department within the School of Freshwater Sciences with her at the helm. The School of Freshwater Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is the largest water-focused academic research institute on the Great Lakes and the only North American school of higher education solely dedicated to freshwater issues. Liz seeks every opportunity to experience the natural world and enjoys sharing this passion with students and the community through her outreach work.
May 3, 2026
Bonhoeffer (2003) 90 minutes
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and anti-Nazi dissident who was a key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world have become widely influential; his 1937 book The Cost of Discipleship is described as a modern classic. In such times when religion is being manipulated for political aims, his life and witness are particularly relevant.
May 10, 2026
Bonhoeffer (2003) 90 minutes
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and anti-Nazi dissident who was a key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world have become widely influential; his 1937 book The Cost of Discipleship is described as a modern classic. In such times when religion is being manipulated for political aims, his life and witness are particularly relevant.
May 17, 2026
Poetry of T.S. Eliot
Alan and Greg will lead us through some of the work of this St. Louis native.
May 24, 2026
NYT Belief, Belonging, Behaviors Essay Discussion
The New York Times has been running a series on Belief, Belonging, and Behaviors, centering on how these things intertwine. Attendees will read an essay and discuss how that's relevant in their life.
