An Enrichment Program at the Intersection of Faith and Life
No matter your age, discovery can be a life-long delight. Xplore offers courses that investigate dimensions of the Christian faith, our world, and life in it. All without any assignments or examinations!
The Xplore program will come to you in person and online, making courses available broadly across Canada and beyond. All in-person classes will be held on the CMU campus on Wednesdays.
Xplore happens in a six-week block in Fall 2024 and Winter 2025.
Regardless of where you live, anyone with access to a computer and the internet will be able to benefit from these courses.
View course, tuition, and registration information below.
All who delight in a stimulating exploration of faith and life are invited to register.
Tuition and Registration
Single in-person registration offered at CMU on Wednesdays is $60 per person/course.
Single online registration for courses offered is $60 per person/course.
Small group (2-4 people) for any online course in a home is $80.
Larrge group (5 or more people) in a church or other community for any online course is $175.
Tuesdays: February 18 – March 25, 2025
10:00–11:00 AM CT | Hybrid Class
2SLGBTQ+ in Church: Further Stories and Perspectives
How can we in the church learn to accept and include queer people in more loving ways? Can we bridge the gap between heart and theology when our hearts signal compassion but theology signals rejection? This class continues on from the 2024 Xplore course with an expanded planning team and presenters. Session topics will be more related to pastoral care questions and the practical realities of being queer, or being an ally, in a congregation that might be “all over the map” on this topic. Throughout the course there will be relevant scientific data presented to provide context to the discussions.
Planning Team: Janessa Nayler-Giesbrecht, Pastor at Jubilee MC; David Wiebe, retired MB Conference Executive and Educator; John Unger, retired Pastor and Past President of Concord College; Mal Fast, retired Neurologist; Gerald Loewen, Retired Clinical Psychologist.
10:00–11:00 AM CT | Hybrid Class
Six Wings and Full of Eyes: Angels in the World of Early Christianity
Is there anything more to angels than Christmas cards, chubby babies, or fair maidens with wings and white robes, soft-focused and gently glowing? Are we really to believe there are invisible people flying around working miracles? The conviction of early Christians that angels exist was not, in fact, some credulous, pre-scientific assertion that there are beings "out there" that you cannot perceive, but rather part of a coherent account of how the world is formed as a union of heaven and earth. Throughout our classes, we’ll think together about the spirits God makes to be his angels, the flaming fire God makes to be his ministers; about the hosts of heaven and the divine council; about what it means for the Archangel Michael to be the "prince" of Israel and how God "set the boundaries of the nations / By the number of God's angels"; about seraphim and cherubim standing eternally before the throne of God, crying out to one another, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts"; and about what all this has to do with humanity’s vocation and destiny to be “Sons of God” (including bonus insights for eco-theology!).
Gregory Wiebe (PhD, McMaster University) is a Deacon in the Orthodox Church of America, a scholar of Augustine and the theology of the early Church, and an Adjunct Professor of Theology at CMU. He published Fallen Angels in the Theology of St Augustine with Oxford University Press, and has published articles with the Oxford Classical Dictionary, Studia Patristica, and Brill Publishers. He serves at St Nicholas Orthodox Church in Narol, MB, where he leads the Bible study. He is also the co-host of the podcast Men Among Demons.
11:30 AM – 12:30 PM (central time) | Hybrid Class
Talking about what no one talks about: Loneliness
Social isolation is an ever increasing problem in our world. With 1 in 3 experiencing loneliness at any given time, it is pervasive. As we discuss the global epidemic of loneliness, we lack the ability to discuss and move through loneliness on a personal level. Loneliness impacts physical and emotional health in profound ways. This course will seek to provide an understanding of the mechanisms of loneliness, the neuroscience of the brain in loneliness, current societal impacts on loneliness and introduce the UBUNTU model of addressing loneliness. Course format will involve small group discussion every week.
Carolyn Klassen is a therapist in Winnipeg, and speaker at Wired for Connection. Her many years of providing therapy provide her with a wealth of knowledge about people—including topics like grief, pain, anxiety, depression, joy and grace—and loneliness that are not easily or often spoken about in polite company. She has a Master’s Degree in therapy and frequently appears on news programs as an expert on relationships and mental health. She taught for many years at the University of Manitoba, is an author, and attends The Meeting Place in Winnipeg, where she is a member of the teaching team and past elder. She is the course creator for TheLonelinessCourse.com
11:30 AM – 12:30 PM (central time) | Hybrid Class
Indigenous Spirituality and Christian Faith
How does Indigenous spirituality and the Christian faith relate biblically? That is the main question we will discuss as we explore the history of what the Christian church has said about Indigenous peoples and the historical relations between Indigenous peoples and Christians. This will lead us to consider what could have been and explore how the relationship between Indigenous spirituality and Christian faith relationship can develop going forward.
The Rev. Vincent Solomon, a Cree from Norway House First Nation in Manitoba, serves as the urban Indigenous ministry developer for the Diocese of Rupert’s Land (Anglican Church of Canada). Based in Winnipeg, Rev. Solomon is dedicated to bridging Indigenous spiritual practices and Anglican traditions, fostering healing and reconciliation within urban Indigenous communities. His work emphasizes culturally rooted ministry, relationship-building, and addressing spiritual and social needs. Passionate about Indigenous identity and faith, he advocates for justice, reconciliation, and understanding between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. Through his leadership, Rev. Solomon brings wisdom, compassion, and a vision for inclusivity to his ministry, creating spaces where healing and spiritual growth can flourish. Rev. Solomon is also the Elder in Residence at CMU.
Wednesdays: February 19 – March 26, 2025
9:30–10:30 AM CT | Zoom Class
Luke’s Quest Stories
(this class starts one week later and runs February 26–April 2)
The quest stories in Luke belong to a cycle of seven stories in which someone approaches Jesus in quest of something vital for human well-being. Some of these quests are for physical healing, other kinds of healing, for release from alienation, social ostracism or other common human plights. Three of them take place early in Jesus’s Galilean ministry, three take place as he nears Jerusalem on his journey toward the cross. The last one, and the most poignant, takes place on the cross.
The motif of the quest, with its patterns of sifting priorities and overcoming obstacles along the way, can be a powerful prompt for our own spiritual reflection and growth as we move through the seasons of Lent and Easter. Join us as we study these Bible stories confessionally—or as though our lives depended on it.
Mary Schertz is Professor Emerita of New Testament at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, happily living and worshipping in Elkhart, Indiana. Mary recently completed the Believers Church Bible Commentary on Luke which is available from Herald Press at MennoMedia or in Winnipeg at CommonWord.
11:00–12:00 AM CT | Zoom Class
Re-membering Faith: Lessons from a Spiritual Health Practitioner in Long Term Care with People with Dementia
As dementia becomes more prevalent among older adults, so do the questions as family and friends try to navigate changing relationships with loved ones with dementia. Many care partners with people with dementia struggle to find meaning, purpose, and hope amidst an often-devastating brain disease. Research shows that spiritual and religious practices increase well-being and improve quality of life, adding a sense of meaning and connection to our lives. Drawing on best-practices in dementia care, story-telling, and personal experiences, this course will challenge commonly held myths about spiritual care with people with dementia; discuss themes of memory, faith, identity, and the role of the church; and teach skills for practicing spiritual reminiscence with loved ones with dementia. This course will focus on spiritual care practices within the Christian faith tradition.
Dr. Melanie Kampen works as a Spiritual Health Practitioner at Middlechurch Home of Winnipeg. She holds a PhD in Theology from the University of Toronto (2019) and is a CMU alumnus (2012). Dr. Kampen uses her expertise at the intersections of theology, ethics, and trauma theory to develop spiritual health programs and practices that are person-centered to promote well-being and connection between residents, family and friends, and community partners. In her free time, she enjoys playing tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, and Warhammer, and thinking about how these settings can offer a microcosm of the world to facilitate moral imagination for practicing justice and liberation.
Thursdays: February 20 – March 27, 2025
9:30 AM – 10:30 PM CT | Zoom Class
Theological Resistance in Troubled Times: The Compelling Witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer's compelling Christian witness in the face of the atrocities of the Nazi regime is a source of inspiration for many. People of all convictions, who can agree on little else, often agree that the name Bonhoeffer is worth claiming for one's cause. The result is that Bonhoeffer's legacy has often been hijacked for a variety of divergent causes with little regard for what he actually said and did. This course will delve into the intersection of Bonhoeffer's biography and writings in order to bring to the surface his profound vision for what it means to follow Christ in confusing times.
Robert Dean serves as Associate Professor of Theology and Ethics at Providence Theological Seminary in Otterburne, Manitoba. He has previously taught courses at Tyndale Seminary, Wycliffe College, and in the Xplore program at CMU. His work is motivated by the question of exploring what it means for the church to be a faithful community of disciples in our contemporary post-Christendom Canadian context. As a result, his writing and interests have traversed the fields of systematic theology, theological ethics, pastoral theology, homiletics, worship and liturgy, and missional leadership – all in the interest of seeing theological reflection brought to bear on the concrete realities facing the church. Robert was a seminary student at the time of the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001. Watching how Christianity, in the days that followed, was coopted in the United States to provide support for unjust wars in the Middle East led him to explore in his doctoral dissertation how the profoundly Christ-centered theologies of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Stanley Hauerwas provided an antidote to Christian nationalism. While an Anabaptist sympathizer, Robert is an Ordained Minister in the Presbyterian Church in Canada.
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM CT | Zoom Class
Radical Roots, Diverse Branches
In 2025, Mennonites, Brethren, and other groups with Anabaptist roots are celebrating and reflecting on the 500th anniversary of Anabaptist origins. What better way to celebrate and reflect than by taking this short course exploring some of the events, people, writings, and theology of the original movement in Europe in the 16th century.
Radical comes from the Latin word for “root” and has also come to mean “unusual” and “extreme.” The Anabaptist movement was an attempt to recover the roots of early Christianity. In doing this, Anabaptism broke from the usual way of being church, sometimes going to extreme lengths to do so.
How might the diversity of people, places, and theology of Anabaptist origins inspire our varied expressions of faith 500 years later?
Gareth Brandt recently published Radical Roots, a coffee table book of paintings, stories, and poems celebrating the 500th Anniversary of Anabaptist origins after teaching Anabaptist History and Theology to college students for 17 years. He is passionate about bringing the stories and people of 16th century Anabaptism to life for inspiration in our own time.
Gareth was born in Steinbach, Manitoba and has served Mennonite churches in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia as a congregational and denominational youth pastor and most recently as a college professor. He lives with his partner Cynthia in Abbotsford, BC and together they enjoy four adult children, three daughters-in-law, and one grandchild. You can follow his blog at www.garethbrandt.wordpress.com and listen to some of his poetry at https://www.youtube.com/@GarethBrandt.
If you have any questions, or would like more information, please email xplore
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