Although not as well known as the January Series, the Noontime Series at Calvin College also annually offers a provocative mix of speakers to the West Michigan community.

And the fall 2006 series, to be held from noon to 1 pm on six Thursdays in September, October and November, will be no different.

Leading off the six-speaker fall lineup on September 7 will be Rev. David G. May, founding director of the GRACE Racial Justice Institute. He will speak on "Moving Toward a Racism-Free Community" and will share the progress of the Summit on Racism over the past seven years. That talk will be from 12 to 1 pm in the Calvin College Chapel.

On September 21 a talk titled "Serving Life Sentences" will feature Rich and Carol Rienstra, parents of a Christian inmate, who will present the impact of crime and punishment on the families of victims and offenders as well as on a larger constituency. That talk will be held in the Chapel Undercroft, again from 12 to 1 pm.

The series continue on October 5 at noon with "The History of the Calvin College Campus," a presentation by Jim Muller, a retired science educator and local historian, who will dig deep beneath the surface of the current Knollcrest campus at Calvin, which celebrated its 50-year anniversary this past summer. That event will be in the Commons Lecture Hall at Calvin.

The final three talks in the series are October 19 ("Faith in West Michigan: A Working Concern," by Charles Honey, religion editor of The Grand Rapids Press), November 2 ("Elections, Politics, and Faith: Perspectives on Local, State and National Issues" with James Penning, Corwin Smidt and Simona Goi, members of the Calvin Political Science department) and November 16 ("Songs for the Season," music by the Calvin Men's Chorale and the Calvin College Lyric Singers).

The Series is sponsored by the Calvin Academy for Lifelong Learning, a program for retired and semi-retired persons that offers courses for men and women who wish to learn from each other and from experts about subjects of intellectual and practical interests, and also organizes trips to museums, opera rehearsals, drama at Stratford, local concerts and more. All CALL programs are for members of the organization (membership is open to older learners who pay a $30 a year membership). CALL also sponsors Passport to Adventure, a travel film series.