2025 May 14 | News
Enjoy the latest issue of The Liberal Beacon, which includes the following insightful articles and book reviews:
- “What Universities Owe the Liberal Project” by Emilie Chamlee-Wright
- “Dumbfounded: The Need for Laughter in the Face of Adversity” by Todd Eklof
- “An Invitation to a Reading Life” by Lynn Jinishian
- Book Review: “The Are of Loving” by Erich Fromm, reviewed by Candace Schmidt
- Book Review: “Reclaiming Prophetic Witness” by Paul Rasor, reviewed by Lauriston King
- Book Review: “Love Your Enemies” by Arthur C. Brooks, reviewed by Kevin McCulloch
2025 May 8 | NAUA Academy, News
Discussions about nuclear weapons are often framed as security, legal, political or military issues. Yet equally important are moral and ethical perspectives, and faith communities play a critical role in bringing in such dimensions to discourses about nuclear weapons, which poses existential threats to humanity and our planet. In this talk,
Anna Ikeda of Soka Gakkai International will discuss efforts of the people of faith in advancing nuclear disarmament and abolition, both at the United Nations and grassroots levels.
2025 May 6 | NAUA Academy, News
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.
Ken has a lso provided “points to ponder” document with links to some of the issues raised in his talk
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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.
2025 Apr 22 | News, Worship Service, Worship Services
Bob Simoni was the featured speaker for the April 19th service. The title was “Life After Death.”
“Life After Death.” At its heart, religion must try to provide answers to the questions surrounding our existence. Perhaps the biggest questions of all, and ones we have all asked ourselves is “What happened before and what happens next?”. Bob Simoni explored those questions in the April service as we transitioned from Winter to Spring and experienced nature’s rebirth.
Bob Simoni is our NAUA Treasurer, board member, a long time Unitarian, and a member of the Hayward Fellowship. Bob and his wife, Sandy, live in Paso Robles, California.
2025 Apr 1 | News
The newly established NAUA Member Services Committee presented their Action Plan to the NAUA Board of Trustees on March 12th. Many who participated in last year’s Summit will find their ideas expressed below. The Committee has a threefold purpose: 1. To recruit new members; 2. To ensure that current members are and remain engaged; 3. To Identify and reach out to Fellowships and Congregations about the advantages of joining NAUA.
Our first focus will be on enhancing member engagement. Out of the over 1,000 contacts on our list, only a small percentage are actively engaged. We are aware that unless folks are actively engaged, they are likely to drift away. We are also aware that enhancing member engagement is a two-way process that incudes providing wanted/needed programs and services, while also asking members what they need and want. Equally important is communicating what we are doing. Our current plan to is to:
- Revise the NAUA Welcome letter sent to all new members that is more descriptive of who we are, as well as NAUA’s many services and programs,
- Increase communication by initiating a “Member Services Corner” in the Liberal Beacon and/or Compass.
- Create a Member Services web page with links to other programs of NAUA; Add all new Member Services programs/services as they are developed; Include a link or process where members can communicate with us, offer suggestions, etc.
- Provide assistance to new congregations or fellowships in formation, as well as assistance in leaving UUA, if that is their desire. Such assistance might include developing governance, congregational communications, minister-board relationships, personnel policies, etc. [New committee member, Rev. Terry Cummings has volunteered to provide these services. If you would like to discuss this more, please send your request to info@nauaitarians.org, and clearly direct it to the Member Services Committee with your specific request.]
- Development of virtual regional NAUA Groups. Such groups might lead to in-person connections, a way to reach out to new members and fellowships, as well as provide members with an opportunity to increase interaction, feel a sense of community, and experience greater connection to NAUA and other members. (If you would be willing to provide leadership in one of these groups, please reach out to judi.durham@gmail.com and please include your location.)
This second list of items are no less important, but will likely take more time to develop. It was also decided that the committee will solicit new members with skills in these areas to assist in the development. Included are:
- Video describing what NAUA is. Video would be placed on NAUA home webpage, as well as be used in describing NAUA to potential members/fellowships/etc.
- Develop programs, discussions, activities, etc., that discuss, explore, investigate a philosophical or spiritual orientation.
- Create classes for children & adults in ethical, moral, and civic responsibility.
- Development of RE materials, e.g., Stories for All Ages, etc.
- Development of training materials for lay leaders including worship services, pastoral care, memorial services, marriage ceremonies.
We’d love to hear your thoughts, reactions and new ideas. Feel free to communicate with this committee: judi.durham@gmail.com
2025 Mar 27 | News, Worship Service, Worship Services
“Yours, Mine and Ours: The NAUA Going Forward”
March 15th, 2025 from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM PST |
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This month’s worship service explores various perspectives (“Yours, Mine and Ours”) on the future of the NAUA. Join on the 3rd Saturday of the month to take a closer look at our purpose and direction, what the NAUA is, and where we would like to see it going.
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