Asked what I think about the Forum, my response is an unequivocal “The Forum is a great place to spend part of a Sunday morning!.” Attending will get you out of the doldrums and send you home with new perspectives on old conclusions.
I first attended the Forum on joining the church in 1999. At that time it met in what is now the Nursery. The speaker sat with the rest of us in a large circle, sort of like a fairy circle, where we could discuss the topic of the day facing one another. In those days Helen Solomon arranged the programs, 52 Sunday mornings a year, except for a brief hiatus in summer. For nigh on fifty years she did so. A few years ago as she began to age, she suggested we take turns.
During the years I’ve attended we’ve discussed many memorable topics: pantheism with Bruce Hollingsworth; Karl Hunt suggesting we are all part of a common energy (as I clumsily recall); book reviews by such as Blake Moore and Frank Caperton; a review of the Mormons led by Colbert Whitaker; the challenge and emotional pain in surgically becoming one’s true sex; Martin Rice, specialist on Dostoevsky; Bill Wynot with excerpts from the Great Courses’ Roots of Religion; a series on comparative religions by a McCallie School professor; Sandy Kurtz with all things energy and climate change; mentoring of recently discharged felons with nowhere to turn; politics, both sides. And many, many more, with more to come in the future. Speakers both from the church and from the community.
The Forum aims to broaden our perspectives. One Sunday morning I spoke in haste. “Claire!” responded tom kunesh in mock horror. I repaired to my thinking corner, emerging determined to try to better understand the other person’s frame of reference. I’ll be forever grateful.
Today Helen is gone, the Forum meets in the Tregaskis Room, we are too many to form a circle, but we continue to listen, to discuss, and hopefully to grow in understanding and wisdom. The Forum is one of the church’s many treasures.
Submitted by UUCC member Claire Hale