This weekend represented the best of our NoVES community, I think.  On Saturday, we had a fun gathering for spaghetti dinner at Blueberry Hill, thanks to Amy Anderson, her crew of cooks and setup and cleanup volunteers, and everyone who attended.  I saw lots of people in pleasant conversation with each other, talking ethics, politics, life, the universe, and everything.

Then on Sunday, Julius Coles of Africare spoke to us about the project that this Society has been supporting, and the rest of the work of Africare.  I was reminded of Michael Harrington's statement: "That the poor are invisible is one of the most important things about them."  I'm grateful to Mr. Coles for letting us see the faces and the numbers -- in the movie and slides he showed, and for helping the poor of Africa become less invisible.

For the past three years, NoVES has supported two volunteers in Africare's HIV/AIDS project.  If you weren't at Platform Sunday, and still want to send some designated funds for that project, just send them to our NoVES mailbox this week (address is in the footer of the pages on this website).

The spaghetti dinner is one of our events that represents the inner community at our best: volunteers helping, members old and new getting to know one another, some time to talk without specific goals in mind -- do-it-yourself community.

And, I believe, our Africare project represents the outward reaching of our community at its best: a consistent commitment over time, one that is concrete and not just money thrown at a general cause but given for specific purposes, and a project that gets to some of the deepest of human problems in our world today.

If you're a visitor to this website,  and are interested in joining a group of interesting, thoughtful, people who care for each other and the wider world -- come help us build a more humane world.  Check us out on a Sunday morning at 11 a.m.  If you have children, bring them along and try out our Sunday School for Ethics.  We'd love to have you as part of the community!