Calendar

April 2006
Current Events
Upcoming Events
Past Events

April 2006

Sundays

April 2:

Letting Go
By Fritz Williams, Leader

We say it often. Wistfully. Regretfully. "If only I knew how to let go." We realize that we're trying to exercise control over our lives and circumstances in ways that are futile and counter-productive. Yet, we speak of letting go without giving much thought to what it is we're proposing to let go of. Or how we are going to reconcile letting go with having strong personal values, standards, and aspirations. Fritz Williams tries to get a grip on letting go.

Fritz Williams is Leader of the Baltimore Ethical Society and serves as primary speaker, teacher, pastor, and organizational leader. Fritz also performs weddings and commitment ceremonies. He has worked as a parish priest in the Episcopal church, and as a writer and producer at public TV stations in Harrisburg, PA, and Detroit, MI.

April 9:

What I Learned About Women at the UN
By Phyllis Ehrenfeld, AEU UN Representative

Historical and religious images of women are explored and connected to the struggle for human rights that began at the UN with Eleanor Roosevelt and continued with Mary Robinson, former High Commissioner For Human Rights.

Phyllis wrote: I have done postgraduate work at McGill University School of Social Work, Montreal, Canada, and Dept of Contemporary Literature at Columbia University. I have received the Arnold Gingrich Award for the most highly recommended Fellowship in Prose from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Five of my plays have been presented in Bergen County. I am Contributing Editor to the Ethical Culture Review of Books. As Representative to the UN from the AEU's National Service Conference I report, with my husband Dr. Sylvain Ehrenfeld, on the UN in monthly articles which appear in a number of newsletters and websites. I am currently President of the Bergen County Chapter of UNA-USA.

April 16:

Spring Festival of Hope & Peace
Facilitated by Karen Elliott, President

"Hope springs eternal to the human breast" so it makes sense that each spring we at BES celebrate spring with a Festival of Hope and Peace. Come with hopeful thoughts, and be prepared for poetry, posies, and possibly other spring-like, peace-inducing practices. (Alliteration not required.)

April 23:

Common Sense for the Healing Arts
By Robert M. Duggan, President, Tai Sophia Institute

The solution to the medical system crisis in America is not in fixing the system. The only hope for future generations is for most of us to join in creating a rapidly expanding Wellness System so that the medical system can be appropriately used for the services it does very well. Our bodies are very wise teachers from which we can learn to live well with very minimal medicalization.

Robert M. Duggan, M.A., M.Ac., a practitioner of acupuncture for more than 30 years, is President of Tai Sophia Institute, an accredited graduate school of the healing arts located in Laurel, MD. He received his Master's in Education from New York University in 1970, and holds degrees in Philosophy, Theology, Human Relations, and Community Organization. He has a special interest in the unique contribution that practitioners of complementary medicine bring to the emerging wellness system in the United States. He is the author of Common Sense for the Healing Arts.

April 30:

The Eight Commitments
By Phyllis Duncan, President of the Northern Virginia Ethical Society

I grew up with the Ten Commandments, the Seven Deadly Sins, and the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Why is it, then, I find the Eight Commitments of Ethical Culture more appealing and more relevant to my life? Because I can use them to "fall back on" every day.

Phyllis Anne Duncan is a Native Virginian and first generation American of Irish and Scots lineage. A graduate of James Madison University with degrees in History and Political Science, she is a Manager in the Federal Aviation Administration and a proud public servant for almost 27 years. A commercial pilot with instrument and seaplane ratings and a certificated flight instructor, she has been a charter and corporate pilot, an aviation writer, reporter, and editor, and currently publishes standardized guidance used by FAA safety inspectors for their oversight of airlines, pilots, and mechanics. Ms. Duncan has been a member of the NoVES for 6 years and now serves as President of the Board of Trustees for NoVES. She is also in the NoVES Chorus, and an Ethical Culture Officiant. She is the author of a collection of short stories entitled Rarely Well-Behaved, and is currently at work on a novel about the political intrigues in the Balkans and a three-part series on the Oklahoma City bombing.

May 7:

The Meaning Of Freedom
by Fritz Williams, Leader

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Current Events

Saturday, April 1, 7 pm Coffee House (see notes below)

April 2, 9:30 am Poetry Group

April 2, 10:30 am MOVABLE TREATS for Movable Feast (see notes below)

April 2, 12:30 pm Board Meeting (Members)

Saturday, April 8, 6 pm Potluck Dinner at the Solomons' featuring Phyllis and Sylvain Ehrenfeld from the Bergen County Society who are two of the AEU representatives to the United Nations. Gather at 6, dinner at 6:30. Call 410.363.3140 for directions and information

April 9, 12:15 pm Ethical Action

April 16, 9:30 am Poetry Group

April 30, 12:15 pm Newcomers

MOVABLE FEAST prepares and delivers meals to AIDS patients, others with life-challenging conditions, and their families. The extra calories are a pleasurable part of their life support system. If you're interested, there are other opportunities to serve this wonderful organization. They're looking for volunteers to serve as delivery drivers, bakers, kitchen assistants, and events assistants. For more information log on to www.mfeast.org or contact Tom Patrick, volunteer manager, at 410-327-3420, ext. 31. MOVABLE FEAST has provided the following dessert guidelines: 1) No nuts. 2) No alcohol. 3) Avoid heavy icing. 4) If possible, prepare desserts in small individual portion sizes-cupcakes, cookies, separately packaged slices, etc. 5) Label what's in your package. (Not ingredients but type of dessert: cookie, cupcake, etc.) Our next Moveable Treats Sunday will April 2. Keep up the good work! Contact Fritz, chair of the Ethical Action Group, if you have any questions.

Ron Solomon writes: Movable Feast desperately needs delivery drivers. I will offer to make deliveries on Monday, April 3 when I deliver the BES desserts. It requires about an hour of time to deliver about 5 meals. Movable Feast provides the meals and the route. Any one who is available about noon and might be interested should call me at 410.363.3140. Afterwards, we could have lunch.

COFFEE HOUSE ~ Saturday, April 1, 7 pm
Our April Fool's Day host will be the always amusing Walter Massey, with featured performers poet Rosemary Klein and flautist Jan Seiden. Rosemary is Exec. Dir. of Maryland State Poetry and Literary Society, the author of the award-winning chapbook "The Absolute Heart" and a member of BES. Jan has performed in concert and at numerous powwows and cultural gatherings throughout the United States, as well as on television. She has also conducted successful programs of healing music for hospital patients recovering from traumatic brain injury, in non-responsive deep coma, with neuromuscular diseases, and for seniors' centers rheumatoid arthritis groups. Her solo CD "Woodland Winds" will be available for purchase. An open mic will follow the featured artists sign-up at 7 pm. Coffee, tea, and snacks will be available.

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Upcoming Events

No upcoming events at this time.

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Past Events

Calendar Archive (through 2005)

January 2006

Sundays

January 1

New Year's Brunch: pancakes and drinks provided. Bring something to share and canned goods for Viva House.

January 8

Islands of Goodness
Fritz Williams

January 15

End of Faith-Based Violence
Walter Ehrhardt

January 22

After the Flood: Tales of a Volunteer
Gordon Stills

January 29

Politics of Racial Inequality
Professor Joe Pettit

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February 2006

Sundays

February 5

Sexual Sanity
By Fritz Williams, Leader of the Baltimore Ethical Society

A female school teacher is arrested for having sex with adolescent boys. A clergyman who's been preaching that Christ can heal homosexuals is picked up for soliciting sex from a male undercover cop. The president of NOW calls for the resignation of a major college coach because of his remarks about "girls" knocking on the doors of poor helpless football players. Young women show up at the mall with thongs protruding from their low rise jeans while young mothers are supposed to go to a rest room to breast feed their babies. Young people are encouraged to sign pledges of sexual abstinence, and one of the results turns out to be an increase in unprotected sex. Caught between moralizers and marketers, how can we achieve sexual sanity? And what in the world is it anyhow?

Fritz Williams is Leader of the Baltimore Ethical Society and, in that capacity, serves as primary speaker, teacher, pastor, and organizational leader. To these duties, Fritz brings extensive ministerial and communications experience. He has worked as a parish priest in the Episcopal Church, and also as a writer and producer at public television stations in Harrisburg, PA, and Detroit, MI. He is especially loved for his down-to-earth narrative style of speaking and his "When I Was Kid" stories, based on his own childhood.

February 12

Religion's Impact on Society: A Scientific Analysis
By Greg Paul, Paleontologist

Large-scale surveys show dramatic declines in religiosity in favor of secularization and popular acceptance of evolutionary science in the developed democracies, with the USA being the only major exception. Does rejection of the existence of a creator led, as many predict, to societal disintegration, or the opposite? Cross-national comparisons of differing rates of religiosity and societal conditions show that in almost all regards the highly secular, pro-evolution democracies consistently enjoy low rates of societal dysfunction, while pro-religious and anti-evolution America performs poorly.

Gregory Paul is an independent researcher with interests in paleontology, evolutionary science and more recently the interactions between science, religion, politics and society. Paul edited the Scientific American Book of the Dinosaur, and wrote Dinosaurs of the Air (Johns Hopkins University Press). His societal research is intended to provide the public with the information they need to better chart to future course of society, and to challenge long standing myths held by all sides of the culture war.

February 19

Alternatives to Military Enlistment
By Tia Steele, Gold Star Mother

A description of the economic, social, and emotional issues faced by young people, their vulnerability to military recruitment, and alternatives available to them: what there is and what is needed.

Tia Steele is a member of the Baltimore Area Coalition for Truth in Recruiting, a group of concerned veterans, citizens, parents, and teachers, dedicated to providing information and assistance to young people. She is also a member of Gold Star Families Speak Out (a chapter of Military Families Speak Out). GSFSO is comprised of family members of US service people killed in the war on Iraq and Afghanistan. David Michael Branning, Tia's stepson, was killed in Fallujah on November 12, 2004. Tia Steele also serves as Exhibit Coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee Eyes Wide Open exhibit.

February 26

Second Annual BESpeakoff
with Gordon Stills, Master of Ceremonies

Enthusiasm is running high this year for the second annual Speak-Off at the Society. First presented in February of last year to great audience and participant acclaim, the Speak-Off is an outreach project of the Society to middle school students of Baltimore City. Students at 4 schools are practicing now for the big event that will culminate in the Grand Speak-Off at the Society on the 26th.

Gordon Stills, Ethical Humanist Officiant for BES, and retired principal from the Baltimore City School System, coordinates the event that includes students, teachers, family and friends. If you were present last year, you will want to return to hear the young people "speak their pieces." If not, you will want to see for yourself what the raves were about.

Other Activities

February 4, "THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES", Saturday at 7 pm. A V-Day Benefit Performance "Until the Violence Stops" $7 admission donation A special V-Day Baltimore Ethical Society 2006 performance of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues will knock your socks off with its humor, anguish and everything in between. 2006 performers are BES members Karen Elliott, Judith Katz, Rosemary Klein, Karla Mancero, and Helena Wright. This is a benefit performance, supporting local organizations House of Ruth and TurnAround, Inc. as well as the V-Day organization, which works to create awareness of violence against women and support organizations that act to fight such violence. For more information, go to www.vday.org.

February 5, POETRY GROUP, Sunday at 9:30 am. Facilitated by Karla Mancero. Bring poems that move you or that you have written to share and discuss. A general theme is picked for each meeting - contact Karla at poet at BaltimoreEthicalSociety.org to be added to the e-mail list and receive notification of topics.

February 5, BOARD MEETING, Sunday at 12:30 pm. All members are welcome to attend.

February 12, COLLOQUY ON LOVING, Sunday at 9:30 am. The colloquy is a formal program consisting of guided meditation on a particular topic, with responses on a personal level as well as time for silent reflection. It was developed by Arthur Dobrin, Ethical Culture Leader, author, and teacher.

February 12, ETHICAL ACTION, Sunday at 12:15 pm

February 19, POETRY GROUP, Sunday at 9:30am.
Facilitated by Karla Mancero. Bring poems that move you or that you have written to share and discuss. A general theme is picked for each meeting - contact Karla at poet@baltimoreethicalsociety.org to be added to the e-mail list and receive notification of topics.

February 26, NEWCOMERS' MEETING, Sunday at 12:15 pm. Learn about the history and organization of the Baltimore Ethical Society and the Ethical Culture movement.

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March 2006

Sundays

March 5

Difficult People
By Fritz Williams, Leader

An interesting term, isn't it? Difficult people. When we speak of difficult people, we're not talking about murderers or madmen. We don't mean Attila the Hun, Adolf Hitler, or Jack the Ripper. We're referring to people like you and me, people who are mostly sane, moral, and intelligent, but sometimes behave in ways that make life difficult for all of us. Fritz Williams takes a hard look at the difficult people who live in us and around us and the challenge of learning to work, play and live with them.

March 12

Patriotism and Pride: Affirmations of a Grateful American
By Michael Franch, Leader at Large (AEU)

I am not a proud American. Indeed, I view some manifestations of pride as dangerous to our future, and sometimes I am ashamed to be an American. Shame, I believe, is essential to patriotism. Above all, I am deeply grateful that I am an American. Gratitude, with its responsibilities, rather than pride, with its arrogance, is the emotion of patriotism.

March 19

Letting Go of Reason
By Will Englund, Associate Editorial Page Editor, The Baltimore Sun

Logic is so 20th century. And look what the 20th century gave us. Why bother figuring things out for yourself anymore?

Will Englund has been Associate Editorial Page Editor of the Baltimore Sun since January 2003. He is responsible for editorials on an array of subjects, including Russia, Europe, Iraq, Central Asia and Afghanistan, and national security. From 1991 to 1995, and again from 1997 to 2001, he was a Moscow correspondent for The Sun, covering politics, wars, environmental disasters and human triumphs in the former Soviet Union. He also reported from Kosovo in 1999 and Afghanistan in 2001. From 1995 to 1997, between Moscow stints, he was an investigative reporter based in Baltimore. In partnership with another reporter, he wrote a project on abuses in ship scrapping, in the US and in India. That series won a George Polk award for environmental reporting, an Overseas Press Club award, and the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. Mr. Englund joined The Sun in 1977.

March 26

Poetry as Companion Side by Side in the Ethical Quest
By Michael Glaser, Poet Laureate of Maryland

Michael wrote: I am getting excited about this presentation and looking forward to some lively discourse with your group. I'm planning a presentation of poetry and reflection on making sense of our world/our lives (living meaningfully and fully in this society/age) and then opening up for exchange --- closing with a few poems.

Michael S. Glaser was named Poet Laureate of Maryland in August, 2004. Dr. Glaser is a professor of English at St. Mary's College of Maryland, where he co-founded and directs the biannual Literary Festival and the annual Voices reading series. He is a recipient of the Homer Dodge Endowed Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Columbia Merit Award from the Poetry Committee of the Greater Washington, D.C. area for his service to poetry. Over 300 of Glaser's poems have been published in literary journals, newspaper and anthologies. His works include A Lover's Eye (The Bunny and Crocodile Press) and In the Men's Room and Other Poems, which was the winner of the 1996 Painted Bride Quarterly chapbook competition and Being a Father, which was published in July 2004. Glaser has also edited two anthologies of Maryland poets, The Cooke Book (1989) and Weavings 2000: The Maryland Millennial Anthology.

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