What We Believe: The Credo Class for Adults –– Melissa Vandergriff and David Kantor

(Capped at 8 students, and takes place over two sessions!)

This year we are offering you the opportunity to explore your fundamental concerns in a small group facilitated by your fellow congregants, Melissa Vandergriff and David Kantor. Some of the questions we explore are: How do you describe your "ultimate concerns?" How do you view God...or not view God? Heaven and Hell? Good and evil? Regardless of your perspective - humanist, theist, atheist, or something else - you'll have the opportunity to explore and share your perspective with a small group of fellow searchers. At the close of this seven session workshop, you'll have the opportunity, at your option, to share your credo during a Sunday service. Whether or not you share publicly, you can expect to increase your awareness of your own beliefs and get better acquainted with fellow congregants doing the same thing.

The Heritage of Grey and the Teal: Unitarian Universalist Hymns –– Mike Carney

Mike Carney has brought the depth and richness of the UU hymnals in worship services over the past few years. In their spirit, this class will allow him to jump into these extraordinary parts of the UU tradition. Join in with our amazing music director to dive into the soundtrack for the journey of being and becoming a Unitarian Universalist!

A UU Introduction to Hip Hop and Rap Music –– Dr. Allan Georgia

This course comes from a specific congregational request. And while everything in this course will be too cool for its instructor, a sideline interest of Dr. Georgia’s throughout seminary and graduate school is hip hop music and culture. Since this has become an increasingly large part of contemporary discourses of justice and because American society has for so long marginalized this music, this course will attempt to bring together things that are very far apart: progressive religious thinking and the socially-conscious dimensions of hip hop and popular rap music from the last 30 years.

How Religions Create The World –– Molly Watkins

Molly Watkins will lead a deep, but brisk, dive into the ways that different religious and mythological traditions describe how the world came to be. This turn to creation stories will allow participants to reflect on and engage the wisdom of the religious traditions of the world––including the ancient Akkadians, the Norse, the Zoroastrians and the perspective of science––when it comes to thinking about what the world is and what it means.

Religious Resources for Lamentation –– Dr. Allan Georgia

One of the most rich dimensions of religious expression has to do with lamentation––a form that is about expressing grief, calling God out, or “raging against the dying of the light.” This is a dynamic part of many religious traditions, including from the Abrahamic traditions, but also in humanistic traditions. It grants important language and important ideas to how we think about religion and how it functions––this class will be a chance to explore and contend with what these traditions can teach us.