Click here to register for your choice of Workshops
Click here for EUU how-to videos on using Zoom during the retreat
Because we want your retreat experience to be as excellent online as it would be at an in-person retreat, we are proposing live online practice sessions for using Zoom and other online tools, before the retreat, for those who are interested.
A list of video, written, and live help resources are at your disposal here
Looking Inward – A Review of the EUU ‘Dismantling White Supremacy’ Workshop
Caitlin McGinn
“Over the summer 16 EUU members participated in a workshop taking a hard look at White Supremacy in our society. We followed the program laid out in “Me and White Supremacy” by Layla Saad. This workshop will be a review of how that went, insights made, and advice for anyone wanting to create their own workshop.”
Caitlin McGinn is a freelance writer, and the Fellowship Rep for the Rhein-Main Fellowship.
What’s the State of Diversity Equity and Inclusion Where YOU Are?
Wendy Schwartz
An informal discussion about the state of DEI and Black Lives Matter in the US vs. in Europe.
I will share a couple of my experiences here in the Boston area, ranging from at my place of employment to a bicycle club, where a group of us are trying to actively promote a more diverse membership. Participants will share their experiences in the locations where they are based. We will discuss what efforts seem to work and which have not; the roles of governments and civic organizations, the parts ordinary citizens play, and any related experiences in immediate families, organizations and communities. We will also consider hopes and outlooks for the future.
Wendy Schwartz has had a decades-long career in broadcast journalism. She is a former President of EUU.
Science and Uncertainty
John Hertz
Karen Kyker
Science is not really about facts; Even well-educated non-scientists get this wrong.
Scientists work where the facts are not known; there are only hypotheses or beliefs with uncertainties about them, and science is a method for reducing these uncertainties.
How, then, should scientific findings guide us in society, especially in politics? Come join us to discuss these questions.
Watch this excerpt from a talk by Richard Feynman before the workshop
John is a theoretical physicist and neuroscientist working on many problems involving the interplay between order and disorder. Since 1980 he has been a professor at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen and the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics in Stockholm.
Karen has a degree in molecular biology & chemistry but at a young age, quickly realized that communicating about what she was doing in the lab was a LOT more interesting than doing it. Her passion for creating learning experiences and helping others understand ‘how science works’ endures, as she continues in her 33rd year of teaching, currently at a bilingual school in Paris.
Raising awareness among women AND men to eliminate domestic violence
Beth O’Connell
Can we in the West learn from our fellow UUs in Asia? UU communities in India and the Philippines have awareness training on domestic violence that includes both women and men. In the Philippines,for example, one of the specific workshops addresses the “personal perception of men by men” and in India, men were asked to wear white ribbons as a symbol of their opposition to violence against women, and their pledge to report incidences, be vigilant, and commit to ending violence. A special guest from India will join us via Zoom.
November 25 is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, being marked this year amid the global Covid-pandemic. A report by the UN Secretary General raises the alarm: “Accompanying the crisis has been a spike in domestic violence reporting, at exactly the time that services, including rule of law, health and shelters, are being diverted to address the pandemic.”
And Nov. 25 kicks off 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence which runs til December 10, Human Rights Day. Let’s discuss how our UU communities in Europe can raise awareness and join this international campaign to eliminate violence against women and girls, perhaps the most pervasive breach of human rights worldwide.
Beth O’Connell is a member of the Paris fellowship and Vice-President of the International Convocation of Unitarian Universalist Women, which supports programs on women’s rights and empowerment around the world.
Climate Justice/Injustice
Gail Rosecrance
Participative workshop on the breadth of climate justice/injustice. As a YouTuber said recently “Fish are dying because of global warming, right” ? If you run a fish business, one of the easiest ways to save money is to pay the fishermen less and make them work in dangerous conditions. Since all the fishing happens at sea, it’s hard for anyone to check. But if the crew tells anybody you’re gonna have a lawsuit on your hands, so what do you do ? You gotta hire undocumented migrants to go on the boats who can’t complain and can’t unionise …so when it comes to fish, climate change, border controls, and labour rights aren’t three separate issues. It’s one big problem !”
We will finish with an abbreviated ceremony based on Joana Macy’s Council for All Beings. Participants should have paper, scissors, pens, stapler and string to make an instant mask.
Gail Rosecrance is a Coach and Facilitator at ImpaQt Paris and is a former Vice President of EUU.
Tame vs. Wild
Carolyn Burlingame-Goff
Whether on the high seas or deep space, wilderness and civilization meet at a frontier, a marginalized area on the edges of the developed world. Frederick Jackson Turner defined the frontier in 1893 as a place where “the inherited ways of doing things” contended with “a new field of opportunity, a gate of escape from the bondage of the past.” Humans have always loved the wilderness, but whenever Northern Europeans have encountered it, they have not been able to resist the temptation to tame it. In this workshop, we will be looking at French and English gardens, watching scenes from several Westerns, discussing historical events, and sharing personal stories about our own struggles with the tensions between wild and tame.
We ask you to watch the movies Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) and Rose Marie (1954) before the workshop.
Carolyn Burlingame-Goff is a Lecturer in English at Heidelberg University and a former EUU President.
The Anthropocene Era
Darrel Moellendorf
Our religious tradition has been informed by experiences of the sublime and the holy in nature, which moved the Transcendentalists, and reverence for the interconnected web of life, which informs neo-paganism. How does the news that humans have left a signature on the entire planet affect our religious orientation? And how should this news inform our commitment to social justice and global responsibility? A short introductory video of the Anthropocene
Darrel Moellendorf lives with his son Marino Friedmann and their dog Rex in Frankfurt, Germany and is a professor of Political Theory and Philosophy at Goethe University, Frankfurt. He is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Rhein-Main.
Nature, the Ultimate Designer
Mathias Baumann
How do you clean walls without any chemical product ? How do you design planes that consume less fuel ? How do you cool-down an entire building without an AC system ? All of these questions (and many others) have been solved by observing nature, an approach known as : Biomimicry (Bio = the living and mimicry = imitate).
Biomimicry is an approach that relies on the observation and emulation of natural forms or process to generate sustainable innovation. Applicable to many different fields, from aeronautics to management, biomimicry also aims to bring people back in contact with nature.
During this workshop you will have to opportunity to dive into the ingenuity of biological organisms and be amazed by the unique solutions developed by nature.
Watch this 7 minute Vox video about biomimicry
Mathias Baumann, a Biologist and Bio-inspired Innovator, is an Associate at Biomimicry Switzerland, a national organization working to bring the biomimicry approach to innovation and human problem solving. His passion for technology and innovation is only eclipsed by his deep concern for the environment and sustainability.
The Sweatlodge Fire
Dagmar Falarzik
We are one with Nature. We usually don’t experience this, because it is generally part of our identity as human beings to see ourselves as different from everything else. This sense of separateness can be diminished if we start a dialogue with nature. When we build the sweatlodge fire, we talk to the rocks, talk to the fire, in preparation for the sweatlodge, where we undergo a kind of purification, and open our awareness of our connection to Nature.
In advance, we ask you to watch a short film made before a recent Sweatlodge where Dagmar explains the process and context as she works to build the fire. Dagmar will then lead Q&A session and discussion about the Lakota way, and what Western Culture can learn from this indigenous tradition.
Dagmar Falarzik lived for over seven years on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in the 1980s, as an anthropologist representing an ethnological museum in Germany. She attended Sinte Glešká College where she learned the Lakota language, and was adopted into a tribal family as she underwent years of training to lead Sweatlodge. She is the author of “Wem die Amsel ein Lied schenkt” a German language book about Shamanism.
You must be logged in to post a comment.