Latest Adult RE

Understanding Grief

Are you facing the difficult process of grieving?  Is the sense of loss overwhelming?  Mourning is the outward expression of many thoughts and feelings about loss.  It is important to engage with our unique grief and hold ourselves with care.  Using the book, Understanding Grief by Dr. Alan Wolfelt the group will be guided by Rev. Rahnema through talking, telling stories, listening, and reading to help process the feelings that come with loss.
Tuesday evenings, 7:00pm, 5 sessions, February 23rd through March 23rd, in the church library. $10.00 fee, includes a copy of the book. Sign up sheet is in the church foyer.

Movie Night: A Special Welcoming Congregation Event

WHAT: A special GPUC Movie Night coordinated with
the Welcoming Congregation Program Series.

WHEN: Friday, Feb. 26, 2010

WHERE: Olympia Brown Center for optional dinner: 6:00pm.
Church Gallery for PBS video: 7:00pm
Discussion led by Karen Webb: 8:15pm
Click headline to read full story...

We are showing and discussing a one-hour documentary, Anyone and Everyone, which originated as a PBS broadcast in San Diego and has since been broadcast nationally.
Filmmaker Susan Polis Schutz depicts parents from diverse religious and ethnic backgrounds as they share their accounts of how they reacted and responded when their children revealed their sexual orientations. The children are also interviewed, allowing both perspectives to be fairly portrayed.

"Anyone and Everyone is a moving and beautiful portrayal of the love between parents and children, and the work some parents are willing to do for the sake of that love."
--Bent Lens Cinema

"... a moving depiction of American families' most heart-wrenching and heartwarming moments."
--Keith York, KPBS Director of TV Programming

Sign up sheet for the optional dinner is in the church foyer. $8.00, cash only please.
 
Child care is offered at no cost ...Please see Julie Artis in the RE Wing.

Adult Religious Enrichment News and Updates

ARTICULATING YOUR FAITH
Just a reminder to the people signed up for this seminar that the meetings are as follows: Thursday, Dec. 3rd, and 10th, Thursday, Jan. 21st from 7-9pm. in the church library.

 
MEN'S BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP
Monday, Dec. 7th at 7:30pm. in the church library. The men will discuss The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Murial Barbery. The book follows events in the life of concierge, Renee Michel, whose deliberately concealed intelligence is uncovered by the unstable but intellectually precocious girl named Paloma Josse.  Paloma is the daughter of an upper-class family living in the upscale Parisian apartment building where Renee works.  The book is full of allusions to literary works, music, films and paintings.  It incorporates themes relating to philosophy, class-consciousness, and personal conflict.
The men are always looking for new members...please join them. No sign up necessary.

MEN'S AND WOMEN’S BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP
On Thursday, Jan. 21st at 5:30pm the men and women will have a combined discussion on Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman.  Friedman brings his unique point of view to the red hot topic of global climate change.  Here he proposes a national plan for going green that will not only benefit the earth, but also make America's economy stronger and its borders more secure.
Discussion Leader:  Susie Boynton Refreshments:  Hanne Nielsen and Vicky Keating
$2 per person refreshment donation on the night of the meeting.
Please sign up in foyer or with Jill Crane at Jill@gpuc.us
 
Book lists are in the foyer and on the GPUC website.

Childcare is available at no cost for all Adult Religious Enrichment programs.  See Julie Artis in the Religious Education Wing.

-Jill Crane, Director, Adult Religious Enrichment

Adult Religious Enrichment News

Articulating Your Faith
A Theological Chat with Reverend Mitra Rahnema
Women's Book Discussion Group
Men's Book Discussion Group

ARTICULATING YOUR FAITH
Starting Thursday Nov. 12th, from 7:00pm to 9:00pm at the church, Jim Moir will lead a short course that will help you to better explain to others what Unitarian Universalism is, not to mention, helping you to understand it yourself. Additional dates include Nov. 19, Dec. 3, 10 and Jan.
21. The January meeting will be a planning session to share the results at a
Sunday service. $15 course material fee. Sign up with Jill Crane at jill@gpuc.us

A Theological Chat with Reverend Mitra Rahnema
Join us on Friday, Nov. 20th from 7:30 until 9pm in the church for an informal chat with
Rev. Mitra on What it Means to be Human. To be human, must we know pain, joy, love, or loss? Does humanity mean acknowledging helplessness or understanding compassion? Are we more than the sum of our parts? What DOES it mean to be human? Summary available in church foyer. $3 refreshment donation. Sign up in foyer on Sunday mornings.

Women's Book Discussion Group

Please join the women on Thursday November 19th at 5:30 PM in the church gallery for a discussion, lead by Hanne Nielsen, on The Yacoubian Building, by Alaa Al Aswany. Refreshments will be provided by Doris Cook and Caroline Griffith. A donation of $2 per person will be collected on the discussion night to defray the cost of refreshments. Please sign up in church foyer.

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GPUC Womens' Book Club reading selections 2009-10
All meetings are held at 5:30pm in the GPUC Gallery

NOV 19
The Yacoubian Building, by Alaa Al Aswany

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Aswany offers a colorful picture of contemporary Egypt. Built in the 1930’s, the building was an “architectural gem” that housed
“the cream of society.” But it underwent considerable change over the decades that followed. Beside the large, fancy apartments, a second separate community developed on the roof, where what had originally been rooms for storage and laundry were eventually converted into tiny and Spartan residential units. These, along with the store on the ground floor, made the Yacoubian a place where many levels of society crossed paths.
Leader, Hanne Nielsen
Refreshments, Doris Cook and Caroline Griffith

JAN 21 (We will join with the men this month)
Hot, Flat, and Crowded, by Thomas Friedman

Friedman brings his unique point of view to the red hot topic of global climate change. Here he proposes a national plan for going green that will not only benefit the earth, but also make America’s economy stronger and its borders more secure.

Leader, Susan Boynton
Refreshments, Hanne Nielsen and Vicky Keating

FEB 18
Cezanne’s Quarry by Barbara Corrado Pope

Reverend Corrado’s sister wrote this novel and skillfully explores the subjugation and abuse of women in the 19th century; the injustices of the French legal system; the conflict between Darwinian philosophy and established religious belief; and Cezanne’s art, love of life, and depressed personality.

Leader, Barbara Moran Corrado
Refreshments, Ann Parker and Audrey Brosowski

MAR. 18
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

In 1996 Hanna Heath, a young Australian book conservator is called to analyze the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a priceless six-hundred-year –old Jewish prayer book that has been salvaged from a destroyed Bosnian library. When Hanna discovers a series of artifacts , she unwittingly exposes and international cover up.

Leader, Christy Winder
Refreshments, Alice Laitner and Barbara Moran

APRIL 15
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

The novel begins after WWII, as a writer seeks to make sense of the turmoil and suffering she’s witnessed. But when she starts receiving letters from various people from all walks of life-with a multitude of viewpoints on what they too have been through-she begins to see the world in a new light.

Leader, Kelly Boll
Refreshments, Erika Baer and Evelyn Badzyk

MAY 20
Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl

Reichl was the restaurant critic for the NY Times in the 90’s. She used disguises to be unnoticed in the restaurants and she goes into how she assumed the personae of the characters she impersonated and how it changed how she viewed the world. She talks about food snobs, cuisine and the powerful connection between the enjoyment of food and people, and the power people assume because they re in a specific role.
A perfect book for our Pot Luck dinner!

Leader, Ann Lipsitz
Meeting and pot luck at the home of Jill Crane

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Past Book Discussion Meetings

OCT 22
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, by Michael Chabon
The novel follows the lives of the title characters, a Czech artist and a Brooklyn born writer, both Jewish-before, during and after WWII. Kavalier and Clay become major figures in the nascent comics industry during its “Golden Age.”
Leader, Evelyn Badzyk
Refreshments, Jane Hoey and Beth
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Men's Book Discussion Group

On Monday, November 2nd at 7:30 PM, in the church library, the group will discuss The Mother Tongue, English and How it Go That Way by Bill Bryson. The book, wittily compiles the history and origins of the English language and the language's various quirks. It discusses the Indo-European origins of English, the growing status of English as a global language, the complex etymology of English words, the dialects, etc. New members are always welcome. No sign up is necessary.

GPUC Men's Book Club reading selections for 2009-10
 
 January 21st - The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin
(combined meeting with Women's Book Group)
February - Eleanor and Franklin by Joseph Lash
March - The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
April - The Secret River by Kate Grenville
May - A Distant Mirror by Barbara W. Tuchman
June - Autobiography of Mark Twain
July - The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
August - The Lost by Daniel Mendelsohn
September - Cultural Amnesia by Clive James

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Jill Crane, Director of Adult Religious Enrichment, jill@gpuc.us

Adult Religious Enrichment

We are enjoying a new church year with fresh programming and activities. Adult Religious Enrichment includes Adult Forums, the Men's and Women's Book Discussion Groups, Movie Nights, and other programs that are added as the church year progresses.

Upcoming Events

Women's Book Discussion Group
The Women’s Book Discussion Group will meet on Thursday, October 22nd, and Evelyn Badzik will lead a discussion on The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon. The novel follows the lives of the titles characters, a Czech artist and a Brooklyn born writer, both Jewish, before, during and after WWII. Kavalier and Clay become major figures in the nascent comics industry during its "Golden Age." Refreshments will be provided by Jane Hoey and Beth Whitney.

Men's Book Discussion Group
The Men’s Book Discussion Group will meet Monday, November 2, at 7:30 PM in the church library. This month's selection is The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson. The author wittily compiled the history and origins of the English language and its many quirks; subtitled, English and How it got That Way.

Jill Crane, Director, Adult Religious Enrichment