For millennia mystics and poets have told us that “All is one” and yet we feel ourselves surrounded by separation, antagonism, and isolation! With help from some intrepid dung beetles, science ambassador JD Stillwater takes us on a tour of findings from mainstream science that reveal an underlying wholism in everything, from human bodies to ecosystems to the very fabric of space-time. In short, science agrees: “All is one.”
I hope you are looking forward to participating in 2025 NAUA Summit- this year hosted on the new Zoom Events portal. This post is meant to help you navigate through this environment – using a Bee analogy.
I used to keep a few colonies of bees and have just finished a delightful book “Bees” by Laline Paull. Thus, in Bee mode, I hope to help you navigate the Summit Events platform.
Clicking on the “register and access sessions button” directs you to the landing pad. Here you can scrutinize the sessions, schedule, speakers and get a sense of what awaits you in the hive. Like all hives, this hive is protected and only allows entrance to those who have been invited. Unlike Bees, it is not a familiar smell that is the key to entry – humans use a credit card for entry the first time and thereafter their zoom login and password.
Past the Landing Pad you enter the Lobby. Here forager bees dance a map to successful food sources. Here, they catch up on the latest hive smells, while worker bees unload their supplies of pollen and nectar. Like bees, humans in the lobby can meet and chat with friends. They can also see upcoming sessions, and even watch sessions they have missed.
Bees use pheromones to identify each other and the roles they perform. For humans, the Events platform provides a profile in which you can list your location, favourite activities, super powers and other data that helps you find and connect with like souls. You can also toggle on or off your interest in being social and chatting with others in the lobby.
Beyond the Lobby in a bee colony are the food stores, nurseries and sleeping quarters. Beyond the Summit Lobby are the session rooms where humans gather to listen and participate, vote on resolutions and otherwise work and learn together.
Terry Anderson, Edmonton, Alberta Canada
One of the key priorities of the NAUA Board of Trustees this year has been the creation of a Three-Year Strategic Plan for our fledgling organization. The now completed plan outlines goals and objectives, along with tentative deadlines, for ensuring long-term growth, meaningful community outreach and mission fulfillment:
Mission: NAUA 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.
The Strategic Plan will be reviewed and discussed during a special session of the upcoming NAUA 2nd Annual Summit. All NAUA members and friends are encouraged to register and attend the Summit. The Strategic Plan will also be shared with all NAUA committees, who will be charged with designing and carrying out action plans to achieve relevant goals and objectives. This will ensure that by the Summit 2028 we will have increased our membership, resources and outreach in ways that position us to better fulfill our ambitious mission of advancing liberal religion.
If you have comments or suggestions related to the strategic plan or would like to play a key role in achieving any of the outlined objectives, please email secretary@naunitarians.org.
“As the Yin and Yang symbol illustrates, there is a piece of each in the other, teaching us the importance of empathy and understanding.” The July Service will be conducted by NAUA’s worship team. The theme will be “Yin and Yang: How is it possible to have opposites come together, and if they are together, are they that much different?”
On June 15th the North American Unitarian Association (NAUA) became a member of the International Association for Religious Freedom (IARF). This is an important milestone for NAUA as membership in IARF represents recognition of NAUA as a member of the world-wide community of liberal religious organizations.
The International Association for Religious Freedom (IARF), founded in 1900, is the oldest interfaith organization in the world, uniting members across five continents and over 20 countries. Its spiritual diversity includes Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists, Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Shintoists, Zoroastrians, and Indigenous practitioners—people who value open inquiry, spiritual growth, and action for justice. Through its Free-Religion Institute and other global programs, IARF engages in thoughtful study, interfaith dialogue, spiritual practice, and advocacy for human rights. Its consultative status at the United Nations enables IARF to give voice to liberal religion in the defense of marginalized communities and the promotion of liberative religion worldwide.
Through NAUA’s membership in IARF, NAUA members will be able to participate in IARF programs and initiatives. NAUA and IARF will collaborate not only with respect to interfaith educational programs but NAUA will also support IARF at the UN to strengthen the voice of liberal religion. NAUA’s admission to membership in IARF was accomplished through the efforts of our International Alliances Committee in collaboration with Professor George Williams, President of IARF. More information about IARF programs and our collaboration with IARF will be provided in future editions of the Compass Newsletter, on the NAUA website and in the Liberal Beacon.
The June Sunday Service brings together the scientific view of nature, along with the mystical and spiritual view, with a sermon by Dr. Gary Nelson. Dr. Nelson’s training in electrical engineering and applied mathematics encouraged views of the cosmos as mindless, meaningless matter in motion. However, his great-grandmother was Native American, and he grew up with a grandmother who was a trance medium who introduced him to a spirit guide that was a helper.
His path to a PhD was unconventional. He built and operated two “beatnik “ coffee houses, did a stint in the USAF as a computer repairman and then attended college. He has been a student of spirituality since childhood. This presentation incorporates his interests in Vipassana Buddhism and the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead.