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

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

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

Regular board meeting of the Society. Members of the Society are welcome to attend or to make proposals. Please email the President to propose an item for the agenda or to indicate you'll attend (we would like to make sure there are enough seats for everyone).

We'll be meeting at the Stanton's.

Monthly practice of connection-building communication. Held in Alexandria. Open to members of NoVES and others who've attended meetings at the Society. We're using the book Nonviolent Communication Workbook available on Sundays at the book table or at http://www.noves.org/nvc/

Please use the contact form to indicate interest if you'd like to join this group.

Mary Ellen Stanton, chair -- please contact Mary Ellen if you'd like to participate or if you have ideas to offer.

NoVES provides officiants for weddings, commitment ceremonies, and other life passage ceremonies. This session is for NoVES members -- with a few invited guests from other Societies -- to explore and learn about the process and commitment of being an Ethical Culture Officiant.

Contact Jone Lewis, Leader, if you have questions, are interested in attending, or are planning to attend.

Monthly practice of connection-building communication. Held in Alexandria. Open to members of NoVES and others who've attended meetings at the Society. We're using the book Nonviolent Communication Workbook available on Sundays at the book table or at http://www.noves.org/nvc/

Please use the contact form to indicate interest if you'd like to join this group.

Regular board meeting of the Society. Members of the Society are welcome to attend or to make proposals. Please email the President to propose an item for the agenda or to indicate you'll attend (we would like to make sure there are enough seats for everyone).

NoVES provides officiants for weddings, commitment ceremonies, and other life passage ceremonies. This session is for NoVES members -- with a few invited guests from other Societies -- to explore and learn about the process and commitment of being an Ethical Culture Officiant.

Contact Jone Lewis, Leader, if you have questions, are interested in attending, or are planning to attend.

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

Welcome back after time off from Sunday meetings -- and, for others, welcome for the first time!

As is usual, our Leader, Jone Johnson Lewis, begins the year with the opening address. This year's opening topic: "Listening to Your Life."

Monthly practice of connection-building communication. Held in Alexandria. Open to members of NoVES and others who've attended meetings at the Society. We're using the book Nonviolent Communication Workbook available on Sundays at the book table or at http://www.noves.org/nvc/

Please use the contact form to indicate interest if you'd like to join this group.

Standing on the bluff overlooking the largest landfill in Latin America evoked to Hugh Taft-Morales an image crafted by Felix Adler, founder of Ethical Culture:

We stand, as it were, on the shore, and see multitudes of our fellow beings struggling in the water, stretching forth their arms, sinking, drowning, and we are powerless to assist them. 

This describes spiritual pains that Adler insisted we must overcome in order to be more effective agents of change.  To save a few, we must understand the suffering of many.  

Regular board meeting of the Society. Members of the Society are welcome to attend or to make proposals. Please email the President to propose an item for the agenda or to indicate you'll attend (we would like to make sure there are enough seats for everyone).

Jay Keller of the Interfaith Alliance will describe our his organization is working to ensure faith and government do not become too entagled, endangering both. The Interfaith Alliance is a national organization founded in 1994 to protect faith and freedom by respecting individual rights, protecting the boundaries between religion and government, and uniting diverse voices to challenge extremism and build common ground. The Interfaith Alliance has 185,000 members across the country representing 75 faith traditions a well as those of no faith tradition. It is supported by 47 local activist groups and a cyber-network of 45,000 people.

Humanists, and others thoughful about their faith, often find it difficult to explain their religious views in a few words. Ask an Ethical Society member or Unitarian to describe their religious views, and you might be in for a long night. But being concise can help clarify what is essential to a subject. Adam McNaughton, a songwriter from Glasgow, Scotland, has distilled Hamlet into a wonderful song lasting three minutes. It doesn't have the richness of the full five acts, but the outline is there. The Golden Rule is the result of a similar demand for concision. Michael Franch will explain his religion in three sentences, while avoiding its reduction to mere aphorisms. Your sentences might not be quite the same, but they would probably be similar. (Disclosure: This platform address will be longer than three sentences.)