Upcoming Adult Faith Development Courses
Why Evil Exists
Each one of us struggles with the concept of “evil” in our lives, in our community and in the larger world. Together, through video-lectures and discussion, we’ll explore our understandings of evil and try to make sense of this challenging and powerful topic. Highly respected University of Virginia Religious Studies Professor Charles Matthewes provides the lectures via video. Discussions following each lecture.
Leader: The Rev.Tony Perrino
Dates: Tuesdays, October 11–January 31, 2012
Times: 1–3 PM
Fee: $20 for series or $2/class
Number of participants: 4 minimum, 21 maximum
Leader: Ruth Douglas
Location: Meet in the parking lot at Ivy Creek Natural Area, about 10 minutes from TJMC
Dates: Sunday, October 16
Times: 1:30-3 PM Fee: free of charge
Faith Like a River: Themes in Unitarian Universalist History
Our history is a narrative peopled with prophets, doers, and shapers of the faith we seek to live today. The workshops, organized thematically, offer many ways for participants to explore our history and connect it with their own lives. Themes include orthodoxy and heresy, reason, reform, martyrs, tolerance, freedom, polity, idealism, multiculturalism, globalization, evangelism, and Unitarianism, Universalism, and Unitarian Universalism.
Leader: Erik Walker Wikstrom
Erik Walker Wikstrom is the newly settled minister of TJMC. Before this he has served two other UU congregations for a combined total of approximately thirteen years, and served for three years on the UUA staff in Boston. He brings a passion for our faith and its history, and a certainty that knowing where we’ve come from is an essential foundation for building our future.
Location: Parlor
Dates: Thursdays, October 13, 20, 27 & November 3, 10, 17
Times: 7-9 PM
Fee: free of charge
Number of participants: 8 minimum, 21 maximum
Leader: Alexandra McGee
Alex has a Masters of Divinity from the UU seminary Starr King School for Ministry with an emphasis in pastoral care, Sanskrit, and Hindu theology. She serves as our quarter-time Ministry Associate.
Location: Sanctuary
Dates: Saturdays, October 22, 29 & November 5, 12 Times: 12:30-1:45 PM Fee: free of charge
Number of participants: minimum 4, 50 maximum
If this course does not have four registrants by October 12 it will be canceled.
Belief and Reason: Readings & Discussion in Psychology and Philosophy
Calling All Philosophers! Does reason really get us anywhere closer to the truth or is it basically point scoring in favor of our personal preferences? Can belief and reason co-exist? How about belief in God(s) and reason? or does one trump the other? The search for god or meaning, and to connect deeply with others, is a very basic emotion we all share and have feelings about. Bring your favorite philosophical questions to our discussion of 36 Arguments for the Existence of God, a so-so novel with a great appendix. Also on the reading list are excerpts from: Robert Wright’s The Evolution of God; Karen Armstrong’s The History of God; psychologist Jonathan Haidt, and neuroscientists Antonio D’Amasio and Andrew Newberg.
This will be a joyous sharing of ideas, and I know we have some very smart people eager to share their passionate and informed views on these subjects. Diverse opinions are very much welcomed. We gather in covenant with each other.
Leader: Barbara Shenefield
Barbara has studied many of the world’s faiths after questioning the religion she was brought up in, and ever since has been intrigued by what people believe and why they believe it. During recent chronic unemployment, she gorged on books about science, the human brain, psychology and philosophy and enjoys discussion about any one of these subjects.
Location: Social Hall for first class, then Summit House Room 2
Dates: Tuesdays, October 18-December 13
Times: 7-8:30 PM
Fee: $18 or $2/session; come for one or come for all-drop-ins welcome
Number of participants: 5 minimum, 15 maximum
Caring Correspondence & Cards: A Spiritual Practice
Remember what it’s like to receive handwritten letters and cards? Share a pleasant hour with other caring folks, have a cup of tea, choose a card or two or three (or sheet of stationery or two or three) and let’s write! We’ll share opening words, share ideas and addresses of those we might write to - other UU members? People special in each of our lives? Strangers we think might appreciate a word of encouragement, inspiration and/or cheer? All of the above? Anyone (whether or not you are able or choose to join us) is welcome to donate blank stationery and cards that we might use.
Leader: Holly Dilatush
Location: Summit House Room 1
Dates: Ongoing Tuesday afternoons
Times: 3:15-4:15 PM
Fee: free of charge
Number of participants: 2 minimum
Poetry: Reading, Writing, Sharing, Caring
Our gatherings open with readings of favored, pondered or newly discovered lines of our own or others’ work (we each read a line, stanza or short poem or paragraph of our choice). Some weeks we share detailed info about various poets’ inspirations, lives and publishing and presenting history. Some weeks we focus on a particular form of poetry. Most weeks we spend 30 to 45 minutes reading aloud, sharing and discussing, followed by 30 to 45 minutes of quiet independent writing, followed by a few minutes of sharing excerpts of what we’ve written as / if we wish.
Leader: Holly Dilatush
Holly has led writing workshops for TJMC in the past, currently teaches English to adult speakers of other languages. As a lover of words, a published poet, an avid reader, an active communicator in many venues, Holly welcomes all aspiring and active writers to join for this weekly discipline.
Location: Summit House Room 1
Dates: Weekly, Tuesday afternoons
Times: 1-2:30 PM
Fee: free of charge
Number of participants: 2 minimum, 7 maximum