Beliefs into Practice: Workshops for Adult Religious Education in 2010-2011
Joy Martin and Jessica Basile invite you to join them for Adult Religious Education offerings. The focus for 2010-2011 will be on the ways in which our beliefs are reflected in our everyday lives and practices. Each workshop theme will stretch over two months to allow time for both discussion and a group project or activity that reflects our discussion. As we work on the various social justice acts that have meaning to us, we want to encourage support for each other and find more ways to perform these acts in community.
Please check the projected schedule below and let us know your interests so you can be included in the date-planning process for each of those events. Contact Joy or Jessica for more information.
September/October (meetings 1 & 2): Are we what we eat?
The first in our series of workshops will center on our beliefs and practices surrounding food. What does food mean to you? Do you think about where your food comes from? Is food spiritual? If so, how? What can you do to honor these beliefs?
Autumn is the time of harvest here in the Northeast; and with the Equinox, it is also time to reflect on balance. What are the social justice issues with food? Who gets to eat/grow/buy what, and where? Why? What can we do about it?
Books and The Food Project
November/December (meetings 3 & 4): Thanks/Giving: Giving/Thanks
The second in our series will focus on the art of giving and receiving. How do you give? What do you give? There are many ways of giving, some concrete, some not. What does giving mean to you? What does receiving mean to you? Do either make you feel uncomfortable? Why?
Book/film and Yankee Swap
January/February (meetings 5 & 6): Giving Birth to Thoughts and Bodies
The third in our series will examine our beliefs and practices around New Year's Resolutions and the Winter Solstice: the movements toward change and light, the planting of the seeds towards becoming a more whole person, whatever that may mean for you. What do we believe about change in the world, change in ourselves? How do we harness those beliefs in ways that bring us closer to the change we envision in sustainable ways? How do we envision the transformation of reality into dreams and dreams into reality?
Book & Activity
March/April (meetings 7 & 8): Building Houses, Building Communities, Building Relationships, Building Hope
In the fourh offering in our series, we will look at our beliefs around houses and homes. What does "home" mean to you? How does a house become a home? Is it a particular location? Does it have to be a space, or can it be a feeling? What can we do to help ensure that everyone has the home they have a right to?
Film/Habitat for Humanity (or "The Kids Are All Right")
May/June (meetings 9 & 10): Gay Parenting/Sperm Donor
The final offering in our workshop series will look at some of the issues involved in gay parenting and sperm donation. This will be done in partnership with the Theodore Parker Church Welcoming Congregation initiative.
Discussion/Film: "The Kids Are All Right"
(or Habitat for Humanity)
