The first generation of Ethical Culture envisioned the Ethical Society as a place where people meet to consider important and relevant issues, and where the interchange among people in small groups would add “more light” to ethical issues and to how to practice ethical living the other six days of the week. Commitment Circles at the Northern Virginia Ethical Society are designed to bring about such ethical interchanges.

Think of these groups as Ethical Societies in miniature, but without all the committees and Board meetings, and with the benefit of really getting to know the people in the Circle over the course of the year, and more people in subsequent years.

New and old NoVES members are welcome, as are those who are not members but want to be part of creating and experiencing this deeper ethical practice.

Felix Adler: “In the groups the general ethical philosophy of life is to be applied, tested and enriched.”

Rollo May:  “Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing.”

Harriet Goldhor Lerner: “Only through our connectedness to others can we really know and enhance the self. And only through working on the self can we begin to enhance our connectedness to others.”