ADULT SPIRITUAL GROWTH PROGRAM
Welcome to the Adult Spiritual Growth page! Below you will find a listing of our current offerings. All programs are open to everyone. Make sure to check if the class requires registration
If you have questions, or would like to offer a class for our community, please contact Rev. Laura Shennum, Minister of Congregational Life
Email - lshennum@uusf.org
Phone - (415) 776-4580
HEBREW BIBLE: AN INTRODUCTION FOR SKEPTICS, SEEKERS, AND PROGRESSIVES
Led by Rev. John Buehrens
Nine sessions, Monday evenings 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm PT, on Zoom beginning Monday, October 2nd. Open to UUs and friends throughout the Bay Area. The first session is free and open to all, although prior registration is necessary to receive the Zoom link. Like the following eight sessions, it is based on the book Understanding the Bible: An Introduction for Skeptics, Seekers, and Religious Liberals, by Buehrens (Beacon, 2002). Copies are available online from Beacon, UUA or Amazon.
A donation of $40 for the course is requested, with no one turned away for lack of funds.
Reading for each session will be one brief chapter and one brief text for closer examination. Sessions will be recorded and made available to those who find they must miss one or more.
MINISTER'S BOOK GROUP
Led by Senior Minister Vanessa Rush Southern
All are welcome to join the Minister’s Book Group, an online gathering in which we read a book our Senior Minister, Vanessa Southern, chooses (often before she has read it!). Designed to provoke conversation about our lives and values, enter into the voice and experience of writers and thinkers we can learn from, and chew on both fiction and non-fiction, gathering wisdom from among us!
Register below, and you will receive a confirmation email with a Zoom link one week before the book group meets.
Wednesday, September 27, 6:30-8 pm
Midnight Library
by Matt Haig
This is a book about regret, a chance to go back and see “what if” and where the journey of doing just that takes the protagonist, Nora Seed. As interesting, I think, is that it is a chance to reflect on our own wondering about our own lives.
Content Warning: The book begins with an attempted suicide.
Wednesday, October 25, 6:30-8 PM
Solito: A Memoir Paperback
by Javier Zamora
Javier Zamora is a Salvadoran poet and activist. In Solito he tells the story of his migration from El Salvador to the United States at the age of nine. The story captures both the dangerous and almost impossible journey so many make but also those who meet him in the journey with miraculous love and kindness.
Wednesday, November 15, 6:30-8 PM
Gender Queer: A Memoir
by Maia Kobabe
Maia Kobabe, graphic artist and author, wrote this very honest autobiography that charts Kobabe’s journey to self-understanding about her sexual identity, gender and gender expression and the journey of others — of family and friends — with her. Kobabe lives in NoNorthernrther California.
Three-Part “White Fragility” Discussion Group
A classic for beginning to see frameworks for how to step into the work of seeing and undoing patterns that perpetuate white supremacy, the book “White Fragility” looks at both structures, but more so ways of thinking and behaving that reinforce the structures and culture of white supremacy. Robin DiAngelo’s book is one that we recommend all members of UUSF not only read but participate in a discussion group around. Despite being less than 200 pages, the book is so rich with complicated and important ideas that we have broken it up into three sessions, all of which we think happen best in person. We repeat the offering this Fall, once a month, meeting in person at the church.
Thursday, September 28th, 6:30-8 PM;
Thursday, October 26th, 6:30-8 PM;
Thursday, November 30th, 6:30-8 PM
Participants are asked to prepare for each session by reading the assigned chapters. Please RSVP to Vanessa if you want to be part of the three-part discussion. Vanessa’s email is: VRSouthern@uusf.org.
Coming up in the Spring:
Three sessions on UUA Common Read, On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg in March; and
Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization in April!
NEW UU!
New UU will be back in the fall.
Join Revs. Vanessa Rush Southern and Laura Shennum for our New UU class! Held in-person at UUSF, this interactive class will introduce you to Unitarian Universalism and our congregation.
MORNING METTA MEDITATION
Tuesdays & Thursdays
8:00-8:30 am
Leader: Elena Perez, Member of UUSF
Online Class. Click button to join Zoom call. ZOOM Password: metta
Watch a Sample Recording Morning Metta Mediation
You are warmly welcomed to join this "Morning Metta Meditation" group, which meets Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, 8-8:30 am. Elena leads a simple, centering loving kindness meditation practice which is appropriate for all religious backgrounds and levels of meditation experience. Attendees can choose to leave their microphone and camera off and just follow along.
About the Leader: Elena Perez is a member of UUSF. She is a Licensed Acupuncturist who practices in SF at Dance With Life Chiropractic in the Inner Sunset, and in Fresno at Benessere Fresno.
Questions? email elena@communityneedles.com
EQUANIMITY PRACTICE
Fridays
8:00-8:30 am
Leader: Elena Perez, Member of UUSF
Online Class. Click button to join Zoom call. ZOOM Password: metta
Watch a Sample Recording Equanimity Practice
You are warmly welcomed to join our "Equanimity Practice" group, which meets on Fridays, 8-8:30 am. Elena Hanyo leads a simple meditation practice on cultivating equanimity- that is accepting the reality of life's highs and lows, and developing an attitude of peaceful calm abiding throughout the inevitable changes. This practice balances the heart-centered approach of our other group, lovingkindness- as it is common to get attached to positive outcomes for those we spend time wishing well. Equanimity allows us to develop mental stability and even-minded loving awareness. Appropriate for all religious backgrounds and levels of meditation experience. Attendees can choose to leave their microphone and camera off and just follow along.
About the Leader: Elena Hanyo Perez is a member of UUSF. She is a Licensed Acupuncturist who practices in SF at Dance With Life Chiropractic in the Inner Sunset, and in Fresno at Benessere Fresno, as well as a lay minister with Bright Dawn Center for Oneness Buddhism.
Questions? Email elena@communityneedles.com
