Religious Education for Adults
UUFG's Adult Religious Education is a highlight of the Adult Ministry Program. Visitors and members alike are welcone to come to one of our classes or discussions. Contact information is included or call the UUFG office (352) 377-1669 for more information.
Current Adult Education Class:
September/October 2008: "Our Story, Our Faith" (6 Wednesdays, 11 AM or 7 PM)
To be a Unitarian Universalist is to be the inheritor of a long and rich and deep tradition of free and thoughtful people wrestling with the questions of life and coming together to for fellowship and community. Every phase of the Unitarian and Universalist history raised questions that are still with us.
This six-session adult course is for grappling with our story and articulating our identity as Unitarian Universalists. Suggested (not required) reading for the course: David Bumbaugh: Unitarian Universalism A Narrative History (available at our book cart).
The course begins Wednesday September 3 and will be offered at both 11:00 AM and 7:00 PM in the Common Room. Call our Office Administrator Cam at 377-1669 or e-mail him at for more information or to register for the class.
Adult Religious Education Program Members:
- Bev Asbury
- Bob Kendall
- Paul Hargrave
Previous Adult Education Classes:
- July/August 2008: "Healthy Children — Healthy Planet" Discussion Course (8 Saturdays, 1 to 2:30 PM)
The discussion course will allow participants an opportunity to discover ways to create meaningful family times and healthful environments for children. Identifying cultural pressures and finding antidotes to strengthen our relationships with children are key themes. The course is not just for parents but for anyone who is involved in the life of a child. The readings and discussions will cover the kinds of pressures that are on parents today: pressures to conform and over-consume, the effects of pervasive advertising on children, how to live more simply and create meaningful family rituals and celebrations, activities, and how to reconnect with nature. This course is about how we adults might help children navigate their way through our very mobile, consumer culture. Parental and adult influence has waned as commercial and cultural pressures have intensified in a child's life. A network of extended family, neighbors, and church members is often not present to reinforce parental values. If a child's worldview is being shaped by commercal messages, if electronic devices are replacing personal relationships with people and nature, if the pace of life is so fast and so goal-oriented that a child doesn''t have time to be a child, how might we, as adults, respond?
Participants will meet weekly for an hour to an hour and a half to discuss readings from Northwest Earth Institute's "Healthy Children, Healthy Planet" study guide. The guide, roughly 100 pages in length, contains a diverse collection of short essays, articles, and book excerpts organized around weekly themes to create lively discussion. Sponsorship: UUF's Earth Ministry, now called "Earthkeepers" and Sustainable Alachua County - June 2008: Medical Ethics Discussions (4 Wednesdays)
Issues in Medical Ethics will be discussed in four Wednesday evening Adult Religious Education sessions at UUFG in June. Physician members of UUFG will each present a topic on an ethical issue and lead a discussion from 7:00 to 8:30 PM in the Common Room. Members and guests of UUFG are invited to participate.
Topics and dates will be:- June 4: Dr. Robert Bertcher — "An Introduction to Medical Ethics"
- June 11: Dr. William Slayton — "Withdrawal of Treatment"
- June 18: Dr Marcie Slayton — "Medical Errors"
- June 25: Dr. Alan March — "Economic Bias in Medical Care"
- Apr/May 2008: Globalization and Its Critics (8 Wednesdays)
"Motivating individuals to examine and transform personal values and habits, to accept responsibility for the earth, and to act on that commitment". This is the mission statement of the Northwest Earth Institute which has prepared the discussion course readings for several topics we've already covered: "Global Warming", "Exploring Deep Ecology", "Discovering a Sense of Place", etc. On Wednesday, April 2nd, we are partnering with Sustainable Alachua County to start a series of discussions on "Globalization and its Critics". We'll use the Northwest Earth Institute selected readings. The booklet is available in Cam's office or you can pick it up at the first meeting of your group, for $20. Here is an excerpt from the Introduction:"This course attempts to address broader implications of globalization since it is a force shaping our world, our society, and our local communities. The curriculum is divided into eight sessions, each designed for a weekly discussion. The first three sessions address the structural aspects of globalization; the next five explore how globalization impacts food production, the environment, social equity, public opinion, and cultures. Most readings in this course book raise concerns about globalization. .. since essentially all public policy supports economic globalization, the readings were selected to highlight concerns and to provide the views of critics." The goal of NWEI is to promote discussion, not to have the group reach consensus on any issue."
- Feb/Mar 2008: Building Your Own Theology (8 Wednesdays)
Building Your Own Theology is back, by popular demand, with a host of new topics.
What do we know for sure? What holds us together? What is holy? Are we saved? How do we account for evil? How do we live out our values? What is the role of the church? Why do bad things happen? How do we celebrate life?
These things and more will be discussed with our ministers; the reading materials are free and are being assembled by our Office Administrator. - Jan 2008: Nature, Religion, and Spirituality (4 Wednesdays)
Starting on Wednesday, January 9, we’ll be looking at the intersections of nature, religion, and spirituality. We’ll emphasize Unitarian Universalism and World Religions as well as every day spiritual practices we can use to grow our sense of interconnection, compassion, and justice making lifestyles. There will be readings, exercises, discussions, and a field trip on January 5 – all leading to a Sunday morning service on January 27.
Please RSVP so we know how many copies to make of the readings. Facilitator: Rev. LoraKim Joyner. - Nov/Dec 2007: GLTBQI Welcoming Congregation (6 Wednesdays)
We will be looking at how we can become a more welcoming congregation.
We are already a Welcoming Congregation. However, it is time to look again how we as a organization may not be affirming of the rainbow diversity of human expression. A Welcoming Congregation is one that goes through discussions, study, and discernment to become affirming, accepting, and welcoming of people, regardless of their sexual and gender orientations (GLBTQI = Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, Intersex). It is time again to ask ourselves how we can be welcoming of all people by taking a refresher course.
During the months of November and December the ministers will be part of a team that holds discussions and learning opportunities for members of our congregation as we struggle with what it means to lift oppression from stereotyping of all kinds. - Oct 2007: Course on Global Warming: Changing CO2urse (4 Wednesdays) A Northwest Earth
Institute 4 Week Course
“We are no longer passive victims of the climate system’s slow oscillations; We are now, as collective, atmospheric engineers.” -- Alan Atkisson
This class is presented by the UUFG Ministry for Earth Task Force in partnership with Sustainable Alachua County, and is open to the community
GOALS: To explore personal values and habits as they relate to climate change; To understand the history and science of global warming; To empower individuals to take action to curb global warming
- SESSION 1...OFF COURSE: Communities around the world are experiencing the effects of global warming. This session explores personal responses to climate change and why society has been slow to respond.
- SESSION 2...COLLISION COURSE: To better understand the complexities of global warming, this session breaks down the history and science of global climate change, and identifies our participation in this ecological crisis.
- SESSION 3...CHANGING COURSE: Although global warming is a daunting issue, there are accessible and significant actions we can all take. This session explores new strategies for addressing climate change and considers personal action to mitigate the effects of global warming.
- SESSION 4...SETTING A NEW COURSE: What will it take to create a sustainable future? Explore our individual and collective power to shape an effective response to climate change, enabling future generations to meet their needs.
- Sept 2007: Course on Surviving the End of the World and Cormac McCarthy's The Road (4 Wednesdays)
Cormac McCarthy's best-selling, award-winning novel The Road will be the centerpiece for reflections and discussions in a class led by Bev Asbury, member of UUFG and long-time reader of McCarthy's several novels. The focus will be on the meaning of a world without people—on the depths of human loneliness, what daily life would be like, how the “ending” would come, and what survival would entail. - Aug 2007: Our Unitarian Roots (4 Wednesdays)
We know who we are by learning who we’ve been. We see where we are by seeing where we came from.
This four-session course will be on three crucial Unitarian forebears: William Ellery Channing, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Theodore Parker. Please order the slim volume by Conrad Wright, Three Prophets of Religious Liberalism - May/June 2007: Building Your Own Theology (9 Wednesdays)
This course is a classic of the Unitarian Universalist experience – and it’s different every time you take it (different co-participants, different you).
As Angus MacLean wrote: “It has been said that liberal religion is a ‘do-it-yourself kit.’ But there is a danger that we would make it a kit not only without blue-print but without tools and material.” The BYOT class provides some tools for building a theology based on the materials of individual life experience.
Topics will include: A Model for Doing Liberal Religious Theology; Spiritual Autobiography; Varieties of Religious Experience; Human Nature; Ultimate Reality; History: The Liberal Religious Heritage; Ethics; The Drive to Make Meaning; Where Will our Theologies Take Us?
Facilitated by Bev Asbury and Rev. Meredith Garmon - Apr 2007: Thriving Communities Circles: Working Together to Move from Poverty to Prosperity for All (4 Wednesdays)
Come join Rev. Joyner and others as we learn from each other about this important topic. The goal of our Thriving Communities project is to talk about and reduce poverty in Gainesville and Alachua County.
Thriving Communities Circles are groups of 10-15 people who choose to meet for a series of informal discussions guided by a facilitator. Through four sessions of about 1 1/2 hours each, people in the group share personal experiences, stories, and perspectives about poverty and how we are affected in our community; talk about the nature of the problem and what a thriving community would look like; explore causes of poverty; and finish by sharing ideas of how we might move from words to action. Issues of poverty are critical in our country and our community. Thriving Communities Circles are designed to help people engage in the kind of dialog about poverty that can make a difference in Gainesville.
The public is invited; there is no charge for this program and no materials to purchase. We will use a guide from the Study Circles Resource Center (www.studycircles.org) which is based on research and experience, both in understanding poverty and in knowing how people work together in communities. We hope this will help bring us closer to one another and to understanding the social issues surrounding poverty. - Feb 2007: Compassionate Conversation: Building Peace in Your Life and the World (8 Wednesdays)
Speaking with one another compassionately brings peace into the world. Would you like to develop your awareness and literacy and give this gift of peace to yourself, to your family, friends, and coworkers, to this congregation, and to the peoples of this earth? Come learn more about how you might be able to do this with a language of life based upon Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication.
Learning compassionate conservation works wonderfully in a group that grows together in trust and understanding. If possible purchase the book: Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life. We will cover the first two chapters on the first night, so please read them before hand.
Facilitators: Rev. LoraKim Joyner, Mary Zukowski, Dottie Burnham, Rev.Meredith Garmon - Jan 2007: The Great Turning (5 Wednesdays)
The course is based on the book by David Korten, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community (2006). Please read the first four chapters before the first class.
Korten argues that global corporate consolidation of power is but one manifestation of what he calls “Empire” – the organization of society by hierarchies of dominance that have held sway for the past 5,000 years. Empire has always resulted in misery for the many and fortune for the few. Now it threatens the very future of humanity. The Great Turning traces the ancient roots of Empire and charts its long evolution from monarchies to the transnational institutions of the global economy. Empire is neither inevitable nor the natural order of things. Korten draws on evolutionary theory, developmental psychology, and religious teachings to make the case that “Earth Community” – a life-centered, egalitarian, sustainable way of ordering human society based on democratic principles of partnership – is indeed possible.
Facilitators: Dottie Burnham, Mary Bahr, Rev. Meredith Garmon - September - December 2006: World Religions (14 Wednesdays)
This 14-session course surveys Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shinto, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Primal Religions. Unitarians and Universalists have, for over 150 years, studied the world religions for wisdom, insight, guidance, and inspiration -- and for better understanding our neighbors. We'll be following the book by Huston Smith, World Religions.
Facilitated by Revv. Meredith Garmon, LoraKim Joyner, and various guest speakers.
We will gather in the Phillips Social Hall to eat delicious, wholesome, vegetarian meals prepared with local produce by local artisans. Dinner starts at 5:30 PM and will end before the 7:00 RE class. Dinner is $8 for adults, $4 for children under 10. There is no charge for the class, and childcare is available.
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