Adult Education Programs

Winter and Spring 2010

Social Justice through Microlending
Sandra Thaxter
Wednesday, Jan. 27, 7:30-9:00pm
Lower Meeting House
This presentation starts with the story of how Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi economist, came up with the idea of microlending to help the poorest of the poor. He eventually developed the Grameen Bank for which he won the Nobel Prize in 2006. We will learn about some of the microlending groups and their impact on the poorest women in Bangladesh and in other countries. Microlending led to the growth of women's enterprises such as small home-based businesses, health clinics, nutrition programs, and schools. We will discuss how the success of microlending has changed attitudes towards poverty and social change. Sandra Thaxter will share her recent experience working with local organizations in rural Kenya and Tanzania.

Garden of My Life: Discover, Cultivate and Preserve Life's Gifts
Charlene Dolan
Wednesdays, Feb. 10, 17, 24, 7:30-9:00pm
Lower Meeting House
The Garden of My Life™ is a unique program and methodology intended to support interpersonal growth and self-realization. Using the metaphor of a garden, we will embark on a process designed to help you create a tactical roadmap for the future, guiding you as you revisit memories and life experiences. You will explore how you have come to be who you are and how to reshape your tomorrows. You will walk away with renewed appreciation for the people and experiences that have had an impact on who you are today. You will also gain a new perspective on the core elements and relationships in your life.

Varieties of Religious Experience
Harold Babcock
Thursdays, Feb. 18, 25, Mar. 11-25, Apr. 1, 5:30-7:00pm
"Varieties of Religious Experience," by William James
Lower Meeting House
Class size is limited to 15.
We will read and discuss William James's famous and groundbreaking work on the typology of religious experience, The Varieties of Religious Experience. This amazing book was compiled from lectures that James gave at the very beginning of the 20th century. In his lectures and the book that followed James covered such topics as mysticism, saintliness, conversion, "the reality of the unseen," and the experience of being "born again," among many others. The book should be readily available in many editions, new or used, or from the library. Please come to the first session having read Lectures 1-3. There will be about 75 to 100 pages of reading for each session, but the book is extremely readable and surprisingly contemporary.

William James was a professor at Harvard who is considered to be one of the founders of the modern study of psychology. He was the brother of the novelist Henry James. An excellent recent biography of James is William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism, by Robert D. Richardson, who has also written outstanding biographies of Emerson and Thoreau. Oh, and by the way, James was a Unitarian.

Goals: Knowing Them - Reaching Them
Peter McNamee
Tuesdays, February 23 - April 6 (skipping March 16)
Lower Meeting House
This six-part course will teach you how to identify and accomplish your goals and make an immediate impact on your life. Because large portions of this course will draw on the ideas outlined in The Success Principles by Jack Canfield, owning (or borrowing) a copy is recommended. Contact Peter McNamee for more information.

Tibetan Buddhism for Dharma Dummies
Monday, March 15, 7:30-8:30pm
Rob Fitzgibbon, FRSUU member & Information Architect
Lower Meeting House
Rob’s slide show will cover the “Three Yanas” approaches to Buddhist practice; the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism; holy deities in Tibetan Buddhism including Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Darmapalas, Herukas, and Yidams; Mahayana Buddhist leaders such as Nagarjuna, the Panchen Lama, and Dalai Lama; scriptures and practices. Rob will focus on the meaning of iconographic details, for example, why does a mandala have four sides? All are welcome.

Cakes for the Queen of Heaven, On The Threshold
Tuesdays, May 4-June 8, 6:30-9:00pm
Anne Dodge
Lower Meeting House
Class size is limited to 16.
ON THE THRESHOLD, the six-session continuation of the course, continues our journey into the past to reclaim the stories of powerful women to be found in ancient Judaism and in early Christianity. We will also look at the global silencing and brutalization of women that accompanied the rise of patriarchal religion and society. Finally we will celebrate the exciting new world-view and theology that has emerged in our time, and explore the resulting personal and social changes. Sessions are titled, "The Hebrew Goddess," "Sarah the Priestess," "The Apostle Mary," "The Virgin Mary," "Witchcraft," and "Future Fantasies."