Hello dear RNA folk –
Three items this month.
First, a new offering on our website is called Related Groups, where we’ve assembled short descriptions and links to 11 associations that are science-based and have an RN flavor but place emphasis on particular RN facets and often don’t use the R-word at all. One, for example, focuses on meditative practice, another on pagan ritual, another on educational interfaces, another on art. We encourage you to check out any descriptors that resonate, join groups that overlap with your interests, and let us know of any that we’ve missed. RNA is an umbrella/big-tent organization, and it’s important that we nurture and celebrate many RN-related trajectories.
Second, one of the items on the list is called Unitarian Universalist Religious Naturalists, so this paragraph is a heads up for our many UU-based members. UU-RN was established in 2004 under the leadership of a remarkable woman, Joan Goodwin, and dissipated following her death in 2007, but the RN orientation persists in many Unitarians. Several of us (Ursula Goodenough, John Hooper, and JD Stillwater) are now exploring its revival as a group affiliated with but separate from RNA. If you are an active or lapsed UU, it would be wonderful if you would respond to this very short survey so we can ascertain levels of interest in moving forward with this trajectory. You might also want to check out a Facebook page, Religious Naturalists of Unitarian Universalism, and activate conversation there. If you’d like to be added to a UU-RN e-list and haven’t already heard from us via that route, please send your address to goodenough@wustl.edu.
Third, we have an additional new offering on our website called RN Voices, where I’ve posted short biographies and quotes/poetry from 34 persons who, to my mind, harbor an RN orientation even though most don’t use the term, plus a link to voices from traditional and indigenous religions. I set this up for the Deep Transformation Network but now it’s all in one place on our site. I had a wonderful time pulling this together, and hope you’re able to partake in some of the rich and joyous wisdom therein. It might also be a link that you share with persons who ask you what RN entails. Please let me know of Voices that I’ve missed.
Love,
Ursula
President, RNA
This month’s music selection is “Spirit of Life” by Carolyn McDade
