Hope Church Adult Ed 03/02/2025

Adult Education opportunities are intended for spiritual formation through biblical study and critical examination of cultural, social, and moral issues from a Christian perspective. Join us in the Commons at 9:40 a.m. on Sundays for these opportunities: Recordings of past adult ed sessions can be found here: Hope Church YouTube Channel New Netherland and Beyond: The Dutch Reformed Church and American Slavery in 1609 - 1870. The Dutch Reformed Church arrived in America in 1608 when the Dutch West India Company brought slave labor to its colony, New Netherland. These two sessions, presented by Linda Walvoord de Velder and Ron Mulder, will consider the relationship between the church and slavery, including how, when, and why slavery came to be questioned during different periods of time. The Dutch Reformed Church (clergy, elders, faraway bosses, and on-scene laity) planted in 1628 a cradle of both liberty and slavery. Linda Walvoord will describe up close and from primary sources this church's cradle in two middle colonies, (NY and NJ). Ron Mulder will provide a national history outline as if on a college level (not school bookish sweeping generalities), as the thirteen colonies threw off British rule, and after the Revolutionary War, formed states under the Constitution, and wrote the Northwest Ordinance, by 1790.