The 2012 Renaissance Module Training has two separate tracks:
---One workshop is the RENAISSANCE Unit titled "UU Identity," designed for program specialists in RE, Adult RE, Membership, Worship, Music, Committees on Ministry and Social Justice. It will be led by Rev. Ruth Gibson and Kathleen Carpenter. How does your congregation foster Unitarian Universalist identity? This Renaissance Module consists of 15 hours of training with the goal of creating an understanding of identity as a process. Participants will become aware of how the process unfolds and identify ways to foster the process, specifically among Religious Education participants and among their congregations. The Module will also help participants identify their own growth as Unitarian Universalists while creating an interactive environment for discussion and sharing of ideas.
---The second track is a retreat for exploration of UU identity. How do you know that you're a Unitarian Universalist when you're not at church? What does it mean to live the values and tradition of Unitarian Universalism every day? How do UUs and UU-sympathetic people create community, support, and accountability to live their values? Through popular education style workshops, worship, writing, reflection, and discussion, this participatory retreat will include time for exploring what it means to create UU Community and honor desires for deeper connections to one's religion and community. This is for anyone who is part of a UU Community within or outside a congregation, wants to imagine how to start a community or is curious about alternative ways to live in UU Community. Age is no barrier. Young adults, singles, families, retirees are all encouraged to attend and join in the conversation and creation of this retreat.
The retreat will be led by Rowan Van Ness and Heather Concannon from the Lucy Stone Coop in Boston. The coop is an intentional community living the values and tradition of Unitarian Universalism through cooperative home ownership. Members of the coop seek to grow a diverse community centered in justice. Through shared resources and faithful action, they align their daily lives with their core values of sustainability, spiritual practice, and social change.
Rowan Van Ness : Though a lifelong Unitarian Universalist, Rowan "converted" to UUism after participating in an incredibly welcoming congregation as a young adult. Since then, she did a two-year social justice internship focused on environmental justice, through a partnership between the UUA and the UU Ministry for Earth. She currently is the Coming of Age Coordinator at First Parish Cambridge and is a Youth and Young Adult Consultant in the College of Social Justice at UUSC. Living at the Lucy Stone Cooperative, a new housing cooperative based in UU values and tradition, brings Rowan to life, and she has been an active member of the planning team and board since its inception.
Heather Concannon: Heather grew up in central Massachusetts and is a lifelong Unitarian Universalist. She is in her second year of a Masters in Divinity program at Andover Newton Theological School. She is currently loving doing a Chaplaincy unit at Brigham & Women's Hospital. As an undergraduate, Heather studied Women & Gender Studies, Social Justice and Economics at Simmons College. During the summers, Heather has the great fortune to hang out with amazing youth at Rowe Camp & Conference Center. Heather lives with her cat Eliot at the Lucy Stone Cooperative, a cooperative house in Boston based in UU values and tradition. She is a founding member of Lucy Stone and serves on the board.
When and where? The weekend will begin with dinner at 6:00, Friday evening, March 16, 2012 and continue through lunch on Sunday, March 18, 2011. It will be held at The Summit Conference Center, Haw River State Park, Browns Summit, NC (near Greensboro).
Registration fee: If paid before 1/30/12, the fee is $250. If paid on or after 1/31, the fee is $300. Single room occupancy is available for $50 additional. Scholarships are available (clickhereto apply).
Cancellation Policy: If cancellation is received 21 days prior to the event, there will be a refund of 1/2 of the registration fee. Cancellations received 20 or fewer days prior to the event will not be eligible for a refund.
