Saturday, July 8, 2017

Summer Sundays at Gimli Unitarian Church – 2017

Gimli Unitarian Church will open for the summer season on Sunday, July 16, 2017, and continue with services on August 6, August 20, and September 3. Services are at 11:00 a.m. in the congregation’s landmark building at 76 Second Avenue. Dress is casual — after all, it’s cottage season! 

July 16 How Much False Witness Can We Bear? – According to author Damian Thompson, counterknowledge is “misinformation packaged to look like fact – packaged so effectively, indeed, that the twenty-first century is facing a pandemic of credulous thinking.” As barefaced lies have been rebranded as “alternative facts,” we may have reached a tipping point in the spread of misinformation and willful disinformation. Rev. Stefan Jonasson

August 6 Thought and Memory – In old Nordic mythology, the two ravens who perch of Óðinn’s shoulders are called Huginn and Muninn – “Thought and Memory” – and they fly over the world daily. According to an ancient verse, Óðinn says, “I fear for Thought, that he may not return / But I fear more for Memory.” On Íslendingadagurinn weekend, we will consider the wisdom of the ancients. Rev. Stefan Jonasson 

August 20 The Longer View – “Whatever discouragement, pessimism, and despair there may be today is often a result of too great absorption in the present,” wrote George R. Dodson in the early 20th century. “The gloom due to the short sight is dissipated by the courage, hope, and faith that come with the long view.” At this critical time in history, only a longer view will save us from despair. Rev. Stefan Jonasson

September 3 Incomplete But Astonishing Journeys – In his book, The Immense Journey, anthropologist Loren Eiseley wrote, “We will travel as far as we can, but we cannot in one lifetime see all that we would like to see or to learn all that we hunger to know.” This unquenchable thirst lies behind both the spiritual quest and the pursuit of scientific discovery, yet still we undertake the journey. Rev. Stefan Jonasson


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