1/19 Bohm Dialogue — The Need For Community
Bohm Dialogue is a freely-flowing group conversation in which participants attempt to reach a common understanding, experiencing everyone’s point of view fully, equally and nonjudgementally. This can lead to new and deeper understanding.
For January our topic-phrase is “The need for community”.
Join us to listen to what others think and to share what you think. The Religious Exploration Salon is a group that meets 3rd Sundays to discuss various topics in the format called Bohm Dialogue which emphasizes respectful listening and balanced, synergistic sharing. For more details about how Dialogue works, please see this intro.
Everyone is welcome. You are welcome to think about the topic beforehand but no preparation is required or expected — come as you are with whatever thoughts/intuitions you have, ready to listen, learn and contribute. We next meet Sunday January 19 at 7pm in the Brackett Room.
Contact Paul Reising, Tom Yelton or Jan Hardenbergh for more information.
Read MoreSpirituality Book Group Saturday Feb 15, 10am – A Significant Life
All who are interested are welcome to come on 
Saturday, February 15 at 10am when the Spirituality Book Group is meeting to discuss A Significant Life by Todd May, suggested to Tom by Oliver WIllett.
“In A Significant Life, May has produced a tour de force. It is a thoughtful, subtle, beautifully written discussion of what it takes to live a meaningful life. A careful study of this book will tell you what it takes to make life worth living. It is refreshing to encounter someone worrying about such a big question in the small-minded times we live in, and an absolute joy to discover that he may actually have provided an answer.”
(Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less)
On 12/21 Leslie, Bridget, Fran and Tom had a good discussion of Walden by Henry David Thoreau. We then chose A Significant Life as our next book and decided to switch the group from an every month schedule to a two month schedule to give people more time to obtain and read the book. So we will skip January and hope to see you Saturday Feb 15, at 10am, in the Brackett room.
For more information, contact Tom Yelton or Leslie Lowe.
To see some of our past readings click here.
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Yule – Winter Solstice Ritual and Feast – Sat. 12/21, 6:00pm
Please join us for the Earth Centered traditions group’s annual Winter Solstice Ritual. We will celebrate the Shortest Day of the year on Sat, Dec 21 at 6:00pm. We turn the wheel of the year and bring back the sun, a chance to leave things in the old year and gather others for the new. The ritual will be followed by a pot luck feast and carols in the Parish Hall.
The ceremony is appropriate for those approximately 12 years and up – use your own judgment. Childcare is available if requested by Thursday before the event (12/19). The children are welcome to join the adults for the feast.
If you are interested in helping in any way ( reading, singing, drumming, setting up, clean up), see Leslie Lowe.
Read MoreSpirituality Book Group Saturday Dec 21, 10am – Walden
All who are interested are welcome to come on 
Saturday, Dec 21 at 10am when the Spirituality Book Group is meeting to discuss Walden by Henry David Thoreau. From Wikipedia:
There has been much guessing as to why Thoreau went to the pond. E. B. White stated on this note, “Henry went forth to battle when he took to the woods, and Walden is the report of a man torn by two powerful and opposing drives—the desire to enjoy the world and the urge to set the world straight”, while Leo Marx noted that Thoreau’s stay at Walden Pond was an experiment based on his teacher Emerson’s “method of nature” and that it was a “report of an experiment in transcendental pastorialism”.
Likewise others have assumed Thoreau’s intentions during his time at Walden Pond was “to conduct an experiment: Could he survive, possibly even thrive, by stripping away all superfluous luxuries, living a plain, simple life in radically reduced conditions?” He thought of it as an experiment in “home economics”. Although Thoreau went to Walden to escape what he considered, “over-civilization”, and in search of the “raw” and “savage delight” of the wilderness, he also spent considerable amounts of his time reading and writing. …
After Walden’s publication, Thoreau saw his time at Walden as nothing more than an experiment. He never took seriously “the idea that he could truly isolate himself from others”. Without resolution, Thoreau used “his retreat to the woods as a way of framing a reflection on both what ails men and women in their contemporary condition and what might provide relief”.
We hope to see you Saturday Dec 21, at 10am, in the Brackett room.
For more information, contact Tom Yelton or Leslie Lowe.
To see some of our past readings click here.
Read More
12/15 Bohm Dialogue — Ritual and Tradition
Bohm Dialogue is a freely-flowing group conversation in which participants attempt to reach a common understanding, experiencing everyone’s point of view fully, equally and nonjudgementally. This can lead to new and deeper understanding.
For December our topic-phrase is “Ritual and Tradition”.
Join us to listen to what others think and to share what you think. The Religious Exploration Salon is a group that meets 3rd Sundays to discuss various topics in the format called Bohm Dialogue which emphasizes respectful listening and balanced, synergistic sharing. For more details about how Dialogue works, please see this intro.
Everyone is welcome. You are welcome to think about the topic beforehand but no preparation is required or expected — come as you are with whatever thoughts/intuitions you have, ready to listen, learn and contribute. We next meet Sunday December 15 at 7pm in the Brackett Room.
Contact Paul Reising, Tom Yelton or Jan Hardenbergh for more information.
Read More