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«October 27, 2008 - February 24, 2009»
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Are You Addicted to Stress? -- Faith Halter
Start: 11:00 am
End: 12:15 pm

We all love to complain about stress, but it seems to have become a valued part of our lives. If you’re not stressed then you must be out of the main flow of things, right?

Faith Halter, leadership coach, yoga teacher and NoVES member, will invite us to consider the ways that stress does and does not serve us well. We will learn some simple tools for reducing stress – and explore how they can help us put our ethical principles into practice.

If you’d like a preview, check out the stress reduction haiku on Faith’s website, Insightful Transitions.
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Ethical Culture and the Future of American Democracy - Hugh Taft-Morales
Start: 11:00 am
End: 12:15 pm

In the wake of the election storm of 2008, democracy is challenged in many ways.  It must respond to international terrorism, disintegration of the wall separating religion from government, superficiality of sound-bite staged media coverage, the substitution of consumerist preference for wise leadership, and a selfish individualism corrosive of the common good.  On top of this, the election has stirred up a culture war wounding and disillusioning many.   
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[R]NoVES Board Meeting
Start: 9:00 am
End: 12:30 pm

Regular board meeting of the Society. Members of the Society are welcome to attend or to make proposals. Please email the President to propose an item for the agenda or to indicate you'll attend (we would like to make sure there are enough seats for everyone).
11 / 16
Cultivating Inner and Outer Peace - Jone Johnson Lewis
Start: 10:00 am

Cultivating Inner and Outer Peace:  What's the relationship of inner and outer peace -- do we seek inner peace first in order to be more effective in working for outer peace, or do we need to work first for a more peaceful world in order to be able to find personal peace?  What are some ways that we can, as individuals and as a community, work towards a more peaceful world, while working as well to embody peace ourselves?  Jone Johnson Lewis will share some ideas and practices that may help work for both inner and outer peace more effectively.
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Stone Salad -- Ethical Culture Celebrates the Season by Sharing and Giving
Start: 11:10 am
End: 1:30 pm

The Northern Virginia Ethical Society (NoVES) celebrates the Thanksgiving season today with "Stone Salad," sharing food with members, guests, and the needy.  All are welcome!

The festival started over twenty years ago with the birth of NoVES, and is based upon an old tale.  No one in a village would offer hospitality to three hungry soldiers; the "stone soup" they prepared taught the villagers valuable lessons in sharing and cooperation. During Stone Salad, NoVES members contribute salad ingredients, breads, desserts, and other delicious items to create a feast they share with the congregation and visitors.

The festival encompasses the needy as well:  NoVES Sunday School children make meals for the homeless, and the congregation contributes nonperishable food and personal items to help the homeless.

Join us in our celebration of life and community!

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No Meeting November 30
Start: 11:00 am

The Northern Virginia Ethical Society wishes you a happy holiday season!

A couple of thoughts:

Thornton Wilder: "We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures."

P. J. O'Rourke: "Thanksgiving is so called because we are all so thankful that it only comes once a year."
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Spiritual but not Religious? -- Jone Johnson Lewis
Start: 11:00 am

When couples schedule weddings with our Society's officiants, they often describe what they want as "spiritual but not religious." NoVES Leader Jone Johnson Lewis will explore what they might be asking for, and what both "spiritual" and "religious" can mean to members of an Ethical Society.
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Moral Heroes and Feet of Clay - Hugh Taft-Morales
Start: 11:00 am

Great moral leaders, such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., are often placed on a pedestal by human society, yet we are inevitably disappointed by their human limitations and frailties. Some people idealize such leaders because, in a world darkened by violence and greed, we seek moral heroes that can balance evil with their unblemished goodness. At the other extreme, some take a certain pleasure in tearing down these icons of moral purity, either to expose hypocrisy or to relieve themselves of the burden of living up to such a high standard.

Platform question: From and Ethical Culture perspective, how can we acknowledge the goodness expressed by our moral leaders, while admitting their limitations, in a way that brings out our best as moral leaders? Can we, for example, avoid setting up President Elect Obama as so much a hero that he will, in time, disappoint us?

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Join Us For Winter Festival!
Start: 11:00 am

The Northern Virginia Ethical Society celebrates Winter Festival, borrowing from many traditions willingly and lovingly. As the cold weather drapes our shoulders, we nevertheless feel the warmth of the holiday season.

Ours is a festival of festivals -- a sharing of traditions and joy. All are welcome!

We join with the many faiths and cultures who hold this time sacred.  Hanukkah begins at sundown on December 21, and western Christmas is celebrated on the 25th.  As the world turns again towards the sun at the winter solstice, most cultures celebrate holidays dedicated to hope and renewal.   Our Buddhist neighbors will celebrate Bodhi Day on December 8 -- the date, according to Mahayana tradition, of Siddhartha Gautama’s presentation of the Four Noble Truths, the foundation of Buddhism.  Northern European cultures celebrate Yule with bonfires and feasting.  This holiday period belongs to many cultures and many voices.  We welcome them all.
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No Meeting December 28
Start: 11:00 am

The Northern Virginia Ethical Society wishes you a happy holiday season!
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Cultivating Empathy – Jone Johnson Lewis, NoVES Leader
Start: 11:00 am

Empathy is a critical attitude and skill for developing more ethical relationships in personal life, in politics, at work, in every venue of life – how do we learn empathy as a skill and nurture empathy as an attitude?
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Multicultural Modeling: Growing Anti-Racist Activism in Ethical Culture - Hugh Taft Morales
Start: 11:00 am

In 1922, Langston Hughes wrote that, “Tomorrow, I'll be at the table, when company comes nobody'll dare say to me, ‘Eat in the kitchen,’ then. Besides, they'll see how beautiful I am and be ashamed.”

Eighty-five years later, while diversity in the White House holds promise for America, there are still few African Americans at the table. Corporate leadership is still predominantly white, a disproportionately high rate of black men are in prison, and people of color suffer disproportionately from poverty and unemployment.  As an inheritor of invisible racial privilege and liberal guilt, Hugh Taft-Morales will share his insights about moving towards an empowering multicultural perspective.

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Growing Humanism in a Faith-Based Society -- Roy Speckhardt, American Humanist Association
Start: 11:00 am

Religion in American is a sensitive topic.  Some people demand that it be part of the public square and even preferred by the government over secular or rational views. In such a culture, practically any declaration by Humanists can be construed as offensive by someone.   But if we believe our philosophy benefits humanity, isn't it important for others to hear our views? Roy Speckhardt, Executive Director of the American Humanist Association, will discuss how to grow Humanism in our faith-based society. 

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Torture and the New Administration -- Linda Gustitus
Start: 10:00 am
End: 11:15 am

The outgoing Administration's treatment of terror suspects caused national and international dismay.  The American Ethical Union and other religious and secular groups condemned torture and so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" as immoral, debasing, and ineffective for gathering intelligence.  During his campaign, the President-elect condemned torture as a betrayal of American values.

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Watermarks - The Movie
Start: 7:00 pm
End: 9:30 pm

Time: January 31, 2009 7:00 pm

Place: Home of the Stanton's (directions upon request)

Join a viewing and discussion of the award-winning movie "Watermarks" which tells the story of a reunion of a Jewish girls' swim team separated by the Holocaust. After 60 years the group reunites for an inspiring team swim. Greta Stanton, mother of NoVES member Andy Stanton, was a member of the team. Greta will be participating in a speakerphone discussion.

Suggested donation: $5.00
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The Birds and the Bees, Ethically Speaking -- Melissa Sinclair, NoVES Member
Start: 11:00 am

A recent study showed that teens pledging to remain virgins were as likely to have sexual encounters as those who made no pledge.  Children pledging to remain celibate not only were as likely to have sex as other children, they were less likely to take the necessary precautions to prevent pregnancy and sexually-transmitted diseases.  Despite these sobering facts, some parents continue to oppose comprehensive sex education, and instead insist on "abstinence only" sex education.

Melissa Sinclair will discuss how sex education is taught in schools now, describe our society's attitudes to sex education, and suggest what we ALL can do (if you have children or not, if they are grown or not) to improve how we view and talk about sex in society.
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White Anti-racist Activism and Multicultural Fluency
Start: 9:00 am
End: 3:00 pm

Date: February 7, 2009 9:00 am to 3:00 pm (Snow date February 21)

Place: Green Hedges Arts Building

This engaging interactive workshop led by Leader-in-training Hugh Taft-Morales, promotes white anti-racist activism and multicultural fluency in the lives of participants, their families, and their friends. Anyone, of any racial and ethnic background, is welcome to attend. Within an environment of safety and integrity, the class explores how to transform roadblocks to multicultural agency and anti-racist activism in ways that bring out the best. The values and ideas of Ethical Culture will inform our discussions. As we learn how to become more multiculturally fluent, we will have some fun and do some real work.

Suggested donation: $25
02 / 8
Ethical Concerns of Darwin and Lincoln - Jone Johnson Lewis, NoVES Leader
Start: 11:00 am

One led our nation in a Civil War so that we could fulfill the words in our founding documents.  The other explained how nature changed and developed.  Each understood the risk of his actions but bravely pushed forward.  In honor of the bicentennial of the birth of both Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln on February 12, NoVES Leader Jone Johnson Lewis will highlight the ethical concerns of these two individuals who, each in his own way, had enormous impact on the world we live in today.
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Raising Moral Children -- Arthur Dobrin
Start: 11:00 am
End: 12:15 pm

Many parents hope that their children will learn to make the right moral decisions.  But our children are bombarded with conflicting messages from the internet, friends, family, and society.  How should they respond to peer pressure, to violence, to dishonesty and to material temptation?  They get different answers from all sides. 

In response, some parents end up taking their children to church or temple -- even when they don't believe the dogma -- in hopes that their children will learn, somehow, how to be good. But religious doctrine often is rule and punishment-based.  Rules help when the issues are simple and clear. But in our complex world, children need tools that can help them decide on the right course even in the most confusing situation.  

Arthur Dobrin will also be leading a workshop related to this topic, at 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. at the nearby Vienna Community Center.  (About the workshop)

How to Raise a Moral Child: Workshop
Start: 1:30 pm
End: 3:30 pm

Jerry Ziskind Memorial Workshop

You're invited to join Arthur Dobrin, author and teacher, at the Vienna Community Center on February 15, 2009, at 1:30 p.m. for an interactive workshop on How to Raise a Moral Child. The presenter offers hope that raising moral and caring children is something that can be achieved with the right attention and reinforcement.

As parents, do we have a successful plan for teaching right from wrong all worked out? Or do we still struggle with the challenges of raising honest, thoughtful, and compassionate children?
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More Than a Presidential Shout-out -- Sasha Bartolf, Secular Coalition for America
Start: 11:00 am
End: 12:15 pm

"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus..."

Our new president hesitated for just a moment.

"...and nonbelievers."

In the first minutes of his presidency, Barack Obama acknowledged that there are Americans who do not believe in a higher being. He included them in "our patchwork heritage."
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