Participants meet once a month for an hour and a half. Each meeting focuses on a particular theme, selected by group members. While the topics have implications for our wider community, the emphasis is personal – our own life experience.

The format is simple. The group opens with a reading and chalice lighting, followed by a reading of the covenant (more on this below), and time for a brief check in by participants. Most of the time is given over to the theme for the meeting, which is introduced by a longer reading and some questions to spark reflection and conversation. As the time comes to a close, the group has a few minutes for housekeeping items, checking out, and a closing.

There are always two facilitators, so that the work is shared and facilitators get a chance to participate, too. (Group members are welcome – though not obliged – to volunteer to facilitate.)
Sometimes these small groups are called chalice circles, because they begin with a chalice lighting. In other places they are called covenant groups, because of the emphasis on covenanting. Participants covenant with each other – they create a list of ‘ground rules’ and agree to hold each other to them – and they covenant to give something back to the congregation. During the year, the group commits to one act of service to benefit the Fellowship. The offering of service doesn’t need to be big, but it is meant to be chosen, planned and carried out by the members of the group.

The first two small group ministry meetings (September and October) will be drop in, open to anyone who is interested. At the close of the second meeting, participants will be asked to make a six-month commitment and the group will be closed for those six months, so that relationships can deepen.

The Adult Religious Exploration Committee offers programs which explore ways to create, criticize and grow in one’s personal understanding of religion while also considering and exploring alternative understandings of religion. 

The Committee is currently refining a core curriculum of programs based on the development of one’s own credo (what I believe) as opposed to explaining a creed (what we believe).  Emphasizing the exercise of one’s own individual conscience in religious life, the core curriculum consists of four programs: 

Build Your Own Credo I – Reality and Change.  Explores alternative views of the nature of reality (Does a deity exist?, Do human beings have souls?  Are souls immortal?) and the nature of change (Is everything governed by immutable laws?  Is the future fixed? Do human beings have free will?).

Build Your Own Credo II – Truth, Knowledge and Rationality.  Explores alternative views of the nature of truth, knowledge and rationality  (What is knowledge? Is anything certain?  What is required to rationally believe something?).

Build Your Own Credo III – Goodness and Morality.  Explores alternatives view of the nature of goodness and morality?  (What is good? Pleasure, Duty, Service, Self-Development?, What is moral?  How do we know when a given action or course of action is moral?  Is it rational to be moral?).

 Build Your Own Credo IV – Sources of Religious Knowledge.  Explores the six sources of religious knowledge accepted by the member congregations of Unitarian-Universalist movement as well as alternative sources you may find personally significant.

Throughout the programs, participants are asked to build their own credo, which they may or may not choose to share, and at each step, consider how and whether their credo provides a motivation for accepting the seven principles and six sources and whether the principles and sources require interpretation, modification or extension.

In addition to the core curriculum, the committee offers additional courses based on the six sources.  Two programs were offered recently concerning World Religions, one on Islam and one on Buddhism.

Last fall, a course was offered on Science and Religion.  

These additional sources are offered based on member and friend interest where suitable facilitators can be found.  Please feel free to express an interest in any topic related to the six sources to any committee member.  Where there is sufficient interest, we will try to address it.

 Questions or interest may be directed to the committee chair, Gil Fargen, at gil.fargen@gbfargen.com or 250.740.2512.

Changing the world can begin with something as simple as discussion over a slow meal of potluck dishes – and a salmon caught by a local fisherman.  

That was the idea behind the first in a series of Potlucks for Progressives held at the First Unitarian Fellowship of Nanaimo. Tasha Sutcliffe of Thisfish and Eddy Carmack, organizer of the Bottle Drop and Mosquito Fleet, joined potluck participants in roundtable discussions of their projects at the event.

Thisfish is a tracking system that lets you trace the fish you buy back to who caught it and where, where it was processed, and the restaurants and retailers who stock these fish. The Mosquito Fleet is a team of small fishing boats that will monitor the changes in the ocean ecosystems as global warming occurs, while the bottle drop will show where oil spills could flow. 

These projects are designed to connect fishermen, urban dwellers and scientists who study climate and the ocean waters off the B.C. coast, said renowned ecologist Buzz Holling, one of the potluck organizers. For more information, please contact Holling at holling@me.com

Canadian Unitarian Council Youth Info: www.cuc.ca/youth
Deep Fun: A Compendium of Games compiled by UU Youth www.cuc.ca/youth/deepfun.pdf