The new season of the Northern Virginia Ethical Society begins September 7. We'll be meeting at Green Hedges, with the formal part of our meeting beginning at 11 a.m. We welcome visitors, including families who want to try out our Sunday School for their children. Come as you are: people tend to dress comfortably and casually.

If you're new, you can talk to one of our volunteers or staff members before and after the meeting to find out more about us. We hope you'll plan to stay for our social time, usually 12:15 to 1 p.m.

If you're exploring Sunday School, please arrive between 10:30-10:45 your first Sunday so you can meet with one of our staff members or volunteers and find out more about the Sunday School. In good weather, kids can usually play outside after Sunday School is over at 12:15; we ask that parents take turns supervising the kids who are playing outside.

Ellen Dinerman and Jim Perdue are hosting the annual Labor Day picnic for members and friends of the Ethical Society.

On Sunday, July 17, I spoke at the Washington Ethical Society (WES), giving a slightly-updated version of an address I gave at NoVES in 2005. The audio version of that is available at the Washington Society's website. Here's the description as WES announced it, and following that, links to their platform address archive and to this particular audio file:

Shall We Pray?
Jone Johnson Lewis, Leader Northern Virginia Ethical Society
From the early years of the Ethical Movement, community prayer was rejected. Why was that? What has science found about the power of prayer? What needs of a community and of individuals are served by prayer in religious groups? If we reject community prayer, what serves those needs in an Ethical community?

A joint effort of the Ethical Society of Northern Virginia and five other area religious congregations resulted in scholarship awards to 10 high school seniors, six from South Lakes H.S. and four from Herndon H.S., at their honors assemblies in June.  This was the first year the Ethical Society participated in the Jennifer Mitchell Memorial Fund, but the19th year students have benefited from gifts from the fund.  The fund was established to recognize graduating seniors who have attained a solid record of achievement despite economic, family, linguistic, or other difficulties that would have impeded less dedicated and determined students.

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.

The NoVES Spaghetti Dinner will be held on March 8, 2008 at the Common House of the Blueberry Hill Cohousing community. The doors will open at 5:30 with dinner served at 6:00. (Those who've volunteered to help, please arrive at 4:00.) The dinner costs $8.00 per person with $24.00 maximum per family. Come for some great food and even better conversation!

NoVES' annual retreat is June 13-June 15.  For more information, stop at our Welcome Table on a Sunday.