Build Your Own Theology, Part 2

This week Sandy Westin will continue leading us on the course, Build You Own Theology. Please join us. Superb Childcare is provided.

Build Your Own Theology

For the next three Sundays (March 25, April 2 and 9), Sandy Westin will be leading us in an exploration of our individual religious and spiritual belief systems and how we arrived at our personal credo. Loosely drawn from the Unitarian course titled "Building Your Own Theology", the series will be both interactive and optionally confidential. Participants are invited to bring a tablet or personal journal to use in the course of the workshop series, both on Sundays and between the sessions.

Sandy's Bio:

"Sandy Westin has had an active interest in interreligious studies her entire adult life, both personally and professionally. As the North American Regional Coordinator of United Religions Initiative from 2009 through 2011, she had personal encounters with people of a variety of faiths both in the US and abroad. When not providing commercial writing services as The Village Wordsmith (www.VillageWordsmith.net), Sandy attends graduate courses at East Tennessee State University."

Please be warmly welcome. Loving childcare is provided.

A Garden of Restorative Justice at the Carter County Jail

This Sunday, Brenda Warner will talk with us about how the Carter County jail is onto something progressive that falls in line with restorative, as opposed to punitive, justice. The project is a vegetable garden, maintained, and harvested by inmates for use by the prison system. The project is the brainchild of the combined efforts of the Carter County Commissioners, the City of Elizabethton, the Waste Water Treatment Department, UT Extension Office, State of TN Rehabilitative Services, State of TN Health Department, Carter County Tomorrow, and volunteers.

Three-quarters of an acre was planted in 2011 with a resounding success, yielding approximately $15,000.00 worth of vegetables. 2012 looks to be even bigger. Approximately 3 acres will be planted. Although the prison system is indeed saving money there are a lot of additional benefits to this project. The inmates learn new marketable skills, gain a sense of self-confidence in themselves, contribute to the betterment of the County.

Brenda was born and raised in rural Northeast Ohio on a farm. She graduated from Kent State University with a Bachelors in Natural resources - an interdisciplinary degree in Matural Resources. She spent two years in Tunisia as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and she's worked numerous public agencies in several states on projects related to environment, enforcement and justice. Brenda says that "A lot of this project is personal, and as is so often, events play themselves out and only later do we realize why things happened as they did."

Please join us. We'll be happy to see you. Loving childcare is provided.

What does being a mystic mean?

Rebecca Nunley will lead the discussion on what it means to be a mystic. Please join us. Loving childcare is provided.