Religious Exploration for Adults
Membership Classes: Explore the UU history and principles in a series of three to four classes led by Rev. Barnaby Feder every Fall and Spring for those exploring membership at CVUUS. The Fall 2023 ones were held onsite while the ones during COVID were held online.
Small Group Ministry provides another opportunity. http://www.cvuus.org/connection/small-group-ministry/
The Five Questions: Rev. Barnaby taught a six-class course a year ago via snail-mail to UU’s incarcerated in prisons around the US via the UU Church of the Larger Fellowship. Every two weeks the prisoners will be getting a packet dealing with one of five great questions:
What does it mean to be human?
How do I know what I know?
Who or what is in charge?
What is my purpose in life?
What is the meaning of death?
There was written homework. For the last class, each prisoner wrote a “Credo” statement of what they believed about these and other spiritual issues, much the way our young people do for their Coming of Age Program.
Exploring Prayer
Rev. Barnaby will lead an Adult Zoom Class on Prayer on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month at 7 PM in January, February, and March. The class will meet for an hour and 15 minutes. We will look at the varieties of prayer, loosely following the structure of Rev. Kate Braestrup’s book Beginner’s Grace: Bringing Prayer into Your Life (Free Press Division, Simon & Schuster, 2010). But a large part of it will be devoted to looking closely at some of the world’s most famous prayers, writing our own versions of them, and sharing those personalized prayers among those of you who are willing to do so. The class will be divided once we are started into groups of two or three to provide writing buddies between classes. Please contact Rev. Barnaby (revbarnaby@cvuus.org) to sign up!
Breathe Book Group
Jean Terwilliger and Mike Greenwood will lead a group reading of this year’s UUA Common Read, Breathe by Imani Perry on the third Wed of the month at 7:30 pm for four months starting Jan 27th and concluding April 28th. Please let Jean at jtwigvt@gmail.com or Mike at mike802vt@comcast.net know if you are interested. You can order a copy from www.uuabookstore.org or from www.vermontbookshop.com. “In Breathe, Perry offers a lyrical meditation that connects a painful, proud history of African American struggle with a clarion call for present-day action to protect, defend, and celebrate the promise of the next generation.”—Stacey Abrams
Intro to Meditation
If you’re interested in developing a meditation practice, you’re warmly invited to join us Sunday mornings 9:15 to 9:45 AM lead by Colleen Brown & Dinah Smith. It’s open to folks of all ages and all levels of experience with meditation. Each session includes instruction and three 5-minute guided meditations. It’s aimed especially at those who are just beginning a meditation practice. During these trying times, it seems we all benefit from connecting with the place of silence and peace within, and this program is intended to help us locate and occupy that space with greater ease. Please feel free to contact either Colleen or Dinah with any questions. Zoom link here
Reading about Unitarian Universalism
Reading Lists include books about UUism, Transcendentalism, and other spiritual topics. Many books are available from the CVUUS Library.