The Spiritual Life & Learning Center

Women Living the Questions
2025-06-11 09:30 - 11:00, 2025-06-18 09:30 - 11:00, 2025-06-25 09:30 - 11:00, 2025-07-02 09:30 - 11:00, 2025-07-09 09:30 - 11:00, 2025-07-16 09:30 - 11:00, 2025-07-23 09:30 - 11:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom
“Perhaps the secret of living well is not in having all the answers, but in pursuing unanswerable questions in good company.” ~Rachel Naomi Remen
Women Living the Questions welcomes any woman who wishes to pursue difficult questions about what really matters in life in a safe and supportive environment. Books, videos, and the occasional guest speaker support discussions.
Meetings are Wednesdays at 9:30 – 11 am. We meet in person, at First Community North, Room 101, and also on Zoom if you’d prefer.
Email Linda Baldeck for more information, or click HERE to register.

Writing as a Spiritual Experience
2025-06-11 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-06-18 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-06-25 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-07-02 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-07-09 18:00 - 19:30 | First Community South, 1320 Cambridge Blvd, Columbus, OH 43212, Columbus, OH, 43212, United States
Wednesdays
June 4 – July 9
6-7:30 pm
First Community South
Library
Space is limited!

Writing helps us move from living on the surface to exploring our experiences more deeply. Like meditation, nature, and prayer, writing helps us get in touch with our spiritual nature.
Join author Trudy Krisher as she helps us understand how writing can become a spiritual practice.
Register HERE

Centering Prayer
2025-06-12 17:00 - 18:00, 2025-06-19 17:00 - 18:00, 2025-06-26 17:00 - 18:00, 2025-07-03 17:00 - 18:00, 2025-07-10 17:00 - 18:00, 2025-07-17 17:00 - 18:00, 2025-07-24 17:00 - 18:00 | First Community South, 1320 Cambridge Blvd, Columbus, OH 43212, Columbus, OH, 43212, United States
Thursdays
5-6 pm
First Community South
Burkhart Chapel
Register HERE.
“Centering Prayer is a receptive method of Christian silent prayer which deepens our relationship with God, the Indwelling Presence … a prayer in which we can experience God’s presence within us, closer than breathing, closer than thinking, closer than consciousness itself .”
-Excerpt from ContemplativeOutreach.org
During our time with Centering Prayer, we will explore the guidelines of Centering Prayer, some practical points, and ways to deepen our relationship with God. We will learn it’s theological background, the root of centering prayer and how it is based on the wisdom saying of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.
Questions?
Please email Jen Bratka, Program Administrator, at JBratka@FCchurch.com.

Summer Solstice Labyrinth Walk
2025-06-20 21:00 - 22:30 | First Community Labyrinth, 3777 Dublin Rd., COLUMBUS, OH, 43221, United States
Friday, June 20
9-10:30 pm
Labyrinth Garden
FC North

Let’s start off this summer by integrating the body with the mind and spirit.
Arrive at 9 pm to hear information about the history and importance of labyrinths and our connection to them and to the summer solstice, or anytime after 9:30 pm to walk the labyrinth independently.
Labyrinths are used world-wide as a way to quiet the mind, calm anxieties, recover balance in life, enhance creativity, and encourage meditation, insight, self-reflection, and stress reduction.
There is bench seating around the labyrinth to enjoy the ambiance, or feel free to bring your own chair to enjoy the beauty of the evening.
We also have finger labyrinths for anyone with limited mobility who would also like to join us and experience the peaceful evening.
This is a weather-depending event and will be cancelled if it rains.
The summer solstice for 2025 will occur at 10:41 pm EST on Friday, June 20.
Any questions, please reach out to Jen Bratka – JBratka@FCchurch.com.

Monthly Ministries 4 Movement Marches
2025-07-06 15:00 | Family Missionary Baptist Church, 996 Oakwood Ave, Columbus, OH, United States
Several members of the Racial Equity and Gun Violence Prevention (GVPMT) Ministry Teams participate monthly in a march and worship/information session with members of the Family Missionary Baptist Church and Ministries 4 Movement partners in the South End of Columbus the first Sunday of each month. First Community is recognized as an official partner of Ministries 4 Movement. We continue to work with this community and other partners for sustainment and new opportunities to contribute to justice causes. These marches occur the first Sunday of each month (rain or shine) at 3pm.
If interest in attending these events, please contact: John Girardor for more information, click HERE.

Meet Me on God's Dance Floor
2025-07-12 09:00 - 11:00 | Zoom
Saturdays
July 12 9-11 am on Zoom
July 19 9:30-12:30 In Person
and
July 26 9-11 am on Zoom
First Community South

If God invited you to a party and said, “Everyone in the ballroom will be my special guest…” How would you treat them when you arrived?
This is the question posed by Hafiz in a famous poem.
With Avery Solomon, a good friend of First Community Church, we will explore this question in a three-part inquiry into experience this July.
We will use pointers from various wise beings to help us explore more deeply:

What is a human being—what is a conscious living being?
What is God’s cosmic dance floor?
What is real, what is appearance, and how do we know?
What is this dance-journey about?

Dr. Solomon is a teacher and researcher at Wisdom’s Goldenrod Center for Philosophic Studies in Hector, NY. He gives seminars and classes around the world on spiritual philosophy, ancient wisdom and modern cosmology, science and non-duality. He brings a wide background of experience from many spiritual traditions and teachers and a sense of humor to serious matters and minds.
Dr. Solomon has been involved since 2001 in the Mind-Life conferences of science and Buddhism started by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He is the editor of Astronoesis: on the interrelation of Plotinus and cosmology. He has been a student of Anthony Damiani, Paul Brunton, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and His Holiness the Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram, among others.
He is a long-time friend of First Community Church and works closely with students of spiritual philosophy around the world.
Register HERE

American Democracy, Culture, and Music in Changing Times
2025-07-17 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-07-24 18:00 - 19:30 | First Community South, 1320 Cambridge Blvd, Columbus, OH 43212, Columbus, OH, 43212, United States
Thursdays
July 17, 24, 31, and Aug 7
6-7:30 pm
FC South Library

Join us on Thursday evenings this summer to explore anthems of hope, grace, passion, and courage, that not only entertained us, but also helped to inspire the civil rights movement, and further, laid down a foundation for the changes that followed.
To hear, discuss, and comprehend this music, and its artists, is important to fully understand what these songs meant for our American Democracy and for all our citizens. Striving for Freedom and Justice for all.
REGISTER HERE

Meet Me on God's Dance Floor
2025-07-19 09:30 - 12:30 | First Community South, 1320 Cambridge Blvd, Columbus, OH 43212, Columbus, OH, 43212, United States
