Feb. 2025 Saturday Worship with JD Stillwater

NAUA 3rd Saturday Worship Service – Nature’s Scripture: the Interfaith Promise of Science.

Underlying the human world of strife and separation is an oft-neglected landscape of commonality between faiths: the natural world. At precisely the time when our religious and political divisions threaten the existence of life on Earth, science offers a sweeping interfaith vista filled with revelations and insights as spiritually meaningful as ancient scriptures. Read as “scripture,” science offers a common text for all the world’s faiths.

Feb. 11, 2025 – AI Boom or Doom?

Ken has created a PDF with “Points to Ponder”  – thought questions and references for further review.

Click to download PDF

For decades, Artificial Intelligence was one of those “maybe someday” dreams. Seemingly out of nowhere, ChatGPT exploded on the scene in early 2023. The clock is now ticking – the capabilities of A.I. are going to improve exponentially, and very quickly. As with almost every technological advancement in our lifetime, we find it easy to imagine the beneficial uses, but have distressingly little imagination about what the unintended consequences could be. This talk will mostly be based on a collection of newspaper and magazine articles that give us glimpses of reasons that we could very well regret ever opening up this Pandora’s box.

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Bio: In September of 2023 Ken Ing presented “Left versus Left: What’s Happening Here Ain’t Exactly Clear”, then in March of 2024 he presented “I Before We Except Overseas: Tracing The Roots Of Our Multi-Century Identity Crisis”.

Ken retired in 2019 from a career in IT and lives in the Puget Sound area in Washington State.

January 2025 Service – Enlightment Values

Enlightenment Values of Freedom, Reason and Tolerance. January’s monthly worship service focused on the Enlightenment Values of Freedom, Reason and Tolerance, the very same values that were adopted by the NAUA and that stand at the core of Western liberal tradition. The full service title is: “The Enlightenment Values of Freedom, Reason, Tolerance; Advancing the Human Condition Materially and Spiritually; Our Core Strengths.” The worship team will make this a group effort. Join in exploring and honoring the primary core values and Principles of our liberal faith.

Join Our New NAUA Conversation/Discussion Circle!

We’re excited to announce the launch of a new monthly space for connection and community building – The NAUA Conversation/Discussion Circle! This circle is designed for NAUA members and friends to gather, share ideas, spark meaningful conversations, and deepen our connections.
 
Our first gathering will take place on January 15th, the third Wednesday of each month, from 4:00 – 5:30 pm Pacific Time / 7:00 pm Eastern Time. Everyone is welcome. We invite you to join us in creating a vibrant, supportive space for dialogue and reflection. The zoom link is:   https://tinyurlcom/naua-circle
 
For questions or to register for reminders, email us at circles@naunitarians.org. The circle will be facilitated by a member of the NAUA Board of Trustees. We hope to see you there!

January Worship Service: “The Enlightenment Values of Freedom, Reason, Tolerance”

January’s monthly worship service will focus on the Enlightenment Values of Freedom, Reason and Tolerance, the very same values that were adopted by the NAUA and that stand at the core of Western liberal tradition. The full service title is: “The Enlightenment Values of Freedom, Reason, Tolerance; Advancing the Human Condition Materially and Spiritually; Our Core Strengths.” The worship team will make this a group effort. Join in exploring and honoring the primary core values of our faith tradition.

The service will take place on Saturday, January 18th at 10 AM Pacific Time, 11 AM MT, 12 noon CT and 1 PM ET. We always have a lively breakout room discussion after the service, where you can meet both new and long time friends.  

“North American Unitarian Association is a member service organization dedicated to supporting and promoting the practice of liberal religion by embracing freedom, reason, and tolerance—rooted in our commitment to the inherent worth and dignity of every person and all peoples.”

Solstice Service, 2024

I’ve been attending Unitarian Solstice services for as long as I can remember, but I have never enjoyed one as much as this Solstice. Maybe it was the music, the poems, Rev Manning’s talk or just being (virtually) with 50 old and new friends.

From all of us at NAUA, warmest wishes for a thoughtful, rejuvenating and joyful holiday season!