Jone Johnson Lewis, NoVES Senior Leader, kicks off the 2010-2011 program year with an opening address: Individualism? Relationships? Community?  Are these in conflict, inherently, or do they work together?  Come consider what it might be to live in relationships and build community where every individual matters.  

Lisel Burns, Leader Emeritus of the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture (BSEC) invites us to consider our nation’s historic responsibility for distorted development in Haiti. She proposes ways that members and local Ethical Societies can assist Haitians and Haitian Americans in developing local partnership projects with earthquake-affected Haitian communities. These partnerships can transform communities both here and there.  Lisel has been visiting Haiti as a community development organizer since the mid-1990s and BSEC has ongoing support programs in Leogane, at the epicenter of Haiti’s January 2010 earthquake.

Ethical Culture Leader Lisle Burns will lead a workshop on September 19 following platform. The workshop will be held at Blueberry Hill, home of member Helene Shore. The space is limited. Please see Marianne Moerman for details.

In honor of International Peace Day on September 26, NoVES celebrates peace building.

Whether you're able to attend the Saturday Parenting Beyond Belief Workshop or not, on Sunday you'll be able to hear Dale McGowan on the promises and challenges of "Raising Free Thinkers." More on Dale McGowan, his books, and his work: Parenting Beyond Belief

The term “social justice” provokes a wide variety of reactions these days.  How should Ethical Humanists view it - as an uncontroversial effort to make our political and economic relationships more  fair or as a politically charged coercive redistribution of resources?  How should we envision and actualize social justice? How radical should we get? Hugh Taft-Morales, Leader, Baltimore Ethical Society and former Leader-Intern at NoVES, explores these questions, guided by Ethical Culture history and his own yearnings to do it justice.  

Jone Johnson Lewis, NoVES Leader, will address the tendency in our modern society to look for the "quick fix" to solutions, often at the cost of finding a solution that will actually work. Whether we're talking about personal or interpersonal life, work or politics and social change work, Jone looks at alternatives to jumping in to fix something right away.

Lisa Kemper, interfaith chaplain at York Hospital in York, PA., discusses the complexity of making ethical choices. With so many environmental and social causes and competing issues, it can be overwhelming to decide what is "right". We can't do everything, but we all can do something.

Ethical Culture Societies and many other religious groups have a mission of working for social justice. Sometimes the term is defined broadly to include justice for future generations and non-human species—but even then, does it cover everything worth striving for? In this platform, Perry Beider,  president of the Washington Ethical Society, will argue that the ideal society envisioned in Ethical Culture depends critically on social justice, but encompasses other ethical goals as well. Our work for justice may be more coherent, and perhaps even more effective, if we recognize the broader whole of which it is a part.

Every religion has something at its center. For most it is something supernatural. But what is at the center of a naturally-based religion like Ethical Culture? To say that its founder, Dr Felix Adler, plucked out the supernatural and substituted ethics in its place is accurate but not satisfying. How does that inform and animate our daily lives? How does it lend meaning to our existence? Drawing from one of Dr. Adler’s few books, The Religion of Duty, Ethical Culture Leader Tony Hileman approaches these and other questions through the lens of ethical responsibility.

One of the requests made at a focus group last year was that NoVES have membership meetings more than once a year.  On November 14 we will hold our first semi-annual meeting.  Come to discuss the state of the society, Jone Johnson Lewis’s upcoming sabbatical and additional ideas from the focus groups.

Come celebrate Stone Salad, a festival for all our members, friends and visitors where we hear a story, share a potluck meal, donate canned goods, and indulge in good, old-fashioned friendship. (For those of you who know the children's story -- we make Stone Salad because we can't make Stone Soup without a kitchen or stove.)  Members, friends and visitors are welcome.  We hope to see you.

Enjoy this day with your families and friends.  We will see you next week.

Jone Johnson Lewis, NoVES Leader, speaks on "transitions" -- those times in our lives and in the culture when something new begins and something old ends. We often feel discomfort, even if the change is something we sought. How do we navigate transitions successfully?

Paulette Goodman will speak about her experience as a young Jewish child in Paris during the Nazi occupation. and her subsequent passion for Social Justice. Mrs. Goodman has served for four years as president of National PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) and has received various public and community service awards from organizations including The Bar Association for Human Rights of Greater New York.

Memories of holidays past continue to inform our lives.  Society members Amy Anderson, Howie Kallem, Marv Friedlander and Betty-Chia Karro will share stories of past holidays and how these stories continue to shape our lives.

Winter Festival is a beloved NoVES tradition where we celebrate cherished memories and contemplate our profound wishes for the World.  This year our themes will be Light and Darkness, Health, Joy and Family.

If you have a song, dance, poem or other short presentation that represents these themes, you are invited to share it with the group. Send your name and presentation idea to Amy Anderson at ALAnderson@aya.yale.edu or 703.876.9054.