Adult Religious Exploration News-December 2011

TUUC is currently without an Adult Religious Exploration committee. We are looking for people interested in making TUUC a vibrant community that offers religious exploration classes to its diverse adult community. We need a chair and a committee to:

·         solicit ideas for classes from the congregation,

·         coordinate class offerings,

·         and help advertise classes to the congregation.

Please contact Robin Sinn, rnslib@yahoo.com, Chair of the Religious Education Ministry Council, if you would like to participate in this aspect of the TUUC community. You can also contact Robin if you are interested in offering an adult class.

We currently offer Chalice Circles  and two ongoing classes:

Philosophy Bites (PB)

Philosophy Bites is a discussion group based on a web page with the same name (http://www.philosophybites.com/). It is the project of two Britishers named David Edmonds, and Nigel Warburton. Edmonds writes books about philosophy and Warburton teaches it at the Open University. It's followed by people all over the world. It's not doctrinaire as far as I can tell but it explores, "bites sized" topics such as: the meaning of life, the problem of evil, multiculturalism, atheism, moral relativism, consequentialism, neuroscience to name a few.
We've recently moved to Michael Sandel's book on Justice. Sandel is a Harvard professor of philosophy. He teaches to a packed audience of Harvard students and is exploring the various philosophical approaches to Justice: utilitarianism (consequentialism), Kant's categorical imperative, and Aristotle's virtue ethics. It sounds boring but he has these students very involved. A good deal of current libertarian thinking is taken from Kant's views and that's what we're exploring now.

Please contact Pete Talley, tallyho@comcast.net for more information.

Lectio Divina:Explore spiritual direction through the ancient practice of lectio divina which means “sacred reading.”

Benedict described this practice as “listening with the ear of the heart” The group reads aloud a short spiritual text four times. The goal is not information; the goal is spiritual formation. The first time we read the passage we ask, “What does this passage say?” The second time we hear the passage is for Meditatio: meditation. We listen for the "still, small voice" of a particular word or phrase that says, "I am for you today." The third time we read through the passage, is for Oratio: prayer. We notice what feelings arise in us. Finally, the last time we read through the text is for Contemplatio: contemplation. Where is the spirit leading us?

Lectio Divina meets once a month on a Saturday morning, 10 AM – 12 PM. At the end of each session the group chooses a theme and date for the next month. Please contact Mickie Grover, churchoffice@towsonuuc.org, for meeting dates.