Wednesday, 17 December, 5:45-6:45 PM
Kathryn Linnemann Library, 2323 Elm St (at Duchesne)

"Church Not 4 U? Try ES"

A single-session one-hour introductory class. Meet Bob Greenwell, Leader of the Ethical Society, and learn the core principles of this loving, inspiring, and exciting way of life.  In this small setting, you will have plenty of chance to ask questions and make comments, as you desire.  Learn the meaning of this approach for yourself, your children, all children, and your relationships with all people and life.  For some, it's "spiritual, not religious." Others say with passion, "Ethics IS my religion!"

December 14, Sunday, 10:30 AM – Noon
Kathryn Linnemann Library, 2323 Elm St (at Duchesne)

"Raising Children Ethically:  Getting Your Kids to Talk with You"

View the Emmy-winning video "Parenting Puzzle", and enjoy live discussion designed for you to master the simple skills presented in the video.  Bob Greenwell will moderate.  Bring your children to enjoy a lesson on "respect" led by Sunday School Director Patti Martin in an adjacent room.  No cost to attend. Please call or email to register.>

December 7, Sunday, 1-2 PM

"American Liberties Slipping Away"

ACLU Speaker, Matthew LeMieux, Executive Director of ACLU of Eastern Missouri, will present the latest happenings in the current maelstrom of "liberty" versus "security."  How much should the threat of terrorists lessen our American civil rights?  No cost to attend.

Sundays, October 26 – December 21, 7:00-7:15 PM

"Voluntary Simplicity"

An eight-week deepening and enriching course on making your life into a satisfying work of art without encumbrance.  This course has been tested by many thousands of individuals for over ten years now, and they acclaim its power, and are grateful for the new friends they’ve made, the people who went through the materials with them.  The workbook is the key, along with the self-facilitating process which will be taught in the first two sessions by Dave Ressner, alumnus of this and similar courses, and member of the St. Louis Ethical Society.  Cost is $12.50 per person, which entirely goes to Northwest Earth Institute for the workbook.  Contact info is at bottom of page.

Four Sundays, September 28 – October 19, 4-6 PM

"Cooperation: The Game of Wealth of Nations"

Co-creator of this game, sociologist Bob Blain, will come in person to explain and play the game with us.  Learn how four economic systems actually work by playing them.  Ideal for families (age 12 and up).  Ideal for would-be social activists who need to actually understand economies.  No cost to attend.  Please call or email to register.

Sunday, Oct. 5, 2003, 1-2 PM

"Ethics, Environment, and Your Personal Voice"

A talk by Bea Covington, Executive Director of Missouri Coalition for the Environment.  Does ethics have anything to do with how humans treat the environment?  Is there a moral obligation, like "reverence" for the environment?  Ethics would take us beyond simple self-interest or simple hygiene like recycling.  What would this ethics mean for individual persons?

We will open this program with a folksong singer. Ms. Covington will speak, and then take questions and comments.  We will have cookies and coffee.  Free.

The following week, same time, we will have an open followup discussion on ethics and the environment, and all who have developed positions on this topic are invited to attend and present your ideas.  Please confer with Leader Bob Greenwell about what you would like to present, if longer than a minute or so: 636-284-0280 or leader@ethicallife.org (link at bottom of page)

First Sunday each month for Fall 2003, 1:00-2:00 PM

"First Sunday Adult Issues Series"

October 5: Ethics, Environment, and Your Personal Voice — Bea Covington, Executive Director of Missouri Coalition for the Environment.  Time for Q and A and discussion.
November 2: Faiths and Choice: Religions of the World and Morality of Abortion; — Rebecca Turner, Executive Director of Missouri Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.  Time for Q and A and discussion.
December 7: American Freedoms Slipping Away — Matt LeMieux, Executive Director of American Civil Liberties Union.  Time for Q and A and discussion.

Second Sunday Adult Followup Series
Second Sunday each month, 1:00-2:00 PM  Having been stimulated by the presentation on the first Sunday, we will come together on the second with materials we’ve researched to carry insights deeper and add alternate perspectives.  When I say “we” I mean all of us—a collective effort.

Third Sunday Ethical Society Founders
Bob Greenwell, Leader, will present the words of Founding Leaders of the Movement, in toto or in part, with spare but judicious commentary.  Hear the very words of the powerful Founding Address and the Inaugural Address of Felix Adler.  Hear the ideas of David Muzzey's incisive work, Ethics as a Religion.

Fourth Sunday Inventions
We will create as we go—from festivals of music and poetry to drama skits to book readings to special events and special discussions that we can't foretell.

Coming in January, 2004:
The full, formal start of the Mid Rivers Ethical Society, with Worth Service every Sunday morning.

Aug 17, Sunday, 1:30 - 2:30 PM

"PUBLIC PROCLAMATION ON RELIGION"

A Public Lecture Setting Forth the Non-Dogma Basis of an Ethical Society
Childcare provided in adjacent room.
No charge to attend.
[Watch for large, quarter-page, high-content newspaper ads on August 6 and 13.]
Leader Bob Greenwell will proclaim the good news of a religious framework true to the range of human reason, appreciative of ethical insights of all religions, reverent of the unique worth of each person, and calling each to develop his or her full potential.
Get the inside scoop, and then after the lecture you have the option of staying on to meet others interested in this new form of religious association and to find out more about followup activities.
At St. Peters City Hall, just off Mexico Road, east of Mid Rivers Mall Drive. (Just west of the RecPlex)

August 7, Thursday, 7-8 PM
Spencer Road Library, 427 Spencer Road

"Church Not 4 U? Try ES"

A single-session one-hour introductory class.  In these small settings, there will be a lot of chance for you to ask questions and make comments, as you desire.  Learn the meaning of this approach to religion for you, your children, all children, and your relationships with all people and life.  Taught by Bob Greenwell, Leader.

August 5, Tuesday, 7-8 PM
McClay Library, 2760 McClay Road

"Church Not 4 U? Try ES"

A single-session one-hour introductory class.  In these small settings, there will be a lot of chance for you to ask questions and make comments, as you desire.  Learn the meaning of this approach to religion for you, your children, all children, and your relationships with all people and life.  Taught by Bob Greenwell, Leader.

July 28, Monday, 7-8 PM
Spencer Road Library, 427 Spencer Road

"Church Not 4 U? Try ES"

A single-session one-hour introductory class.  In these small settings, there will be a lot of chance for you to ask questions and make comments, as you desire.  Learn the meaning of this approach to religion for you, your children, all children, and your relationships with all people and life.  Taught by Bob Greenwell, Leader.

July 24, Thursday, 7-8 PM
Middendorf-Kredell Library, 2750 Hwy K

"Church Not 4 U? Try ES"

A single-session one-hour introductory class.  In these small settings, there will be a lot of chance for you to ask questions and make comments, as you desire.  Learn the meaning of this approach to religion for you, your children, all children, and your relationships with all people and life.  Taught by Bob Greenwell, Leader.

July 13, Sunday, Noon-2 p.m.
CLASS: FOUR CORE PRINCIPLES OF ES
A two-hour session going into the central commitments of the Ethical Societies. How these commitments translate into attitudes toward other religions, God, and politics, will also be explained. Taught by Bob Greenwell, Leader.

July 12, Saturday, 2:30 p.m.
PATIO PARTY

Bring an edible.  Enjoy meats from the grill provided by Margaret and Joseph.
Bring toes to dip in the pool. Bring kids to dip in the pool.  (Bring swimsuit if you wish to dip yourself in the pool! ) BYOB.

June 29, Sunday, 9:15 a.m.
BREAKFAST AND CARAVAN TO ETHICAL SOCIETY OF ST LOUIS
Meet at Gingham's in St. Charles for breakfast (great food!) (great company!). Then caravan/carpool to the Ethical Society of St. Louis on Clayton Road to take in their 11 a.m. program. At noon we'll share reactions and meet some members of the St. Louis Society. Scheduled music: Unity Ensemble Drummers and Dancers. Speaker scheduled: journalist and author Darrell Ward presenting his first-hand observations of a hospital for the rural poor in Zimbabwe run by four women.

June 22, Sunday, 9:15 a.m.
BREAKFAST AND CARAVAN TO ETHICAL SOCIETY OF ST LOUIS
Meet at Gingham's in St. Charles for breakfast (great food!) (great company!). Then caravan/carpool to the Ethical Society of St. Louis on Clayton Road to take in their 11 a.m. program. At noon we'll share reactions and meet some members of the St. Louis Society. Scheduled music: recordings of Native South American flutes and drums during live rituals. Speaker scheduled: Jonathan Hill, chair of anthropology department at SIU-Carbondale and chief editor of the social sciences journal Identies, on the topic "Rituals and Political Freedom."

June 10, Tuesday, 6:45-8:45 p.m.
CLASS: YOUR SPIRITUAL SELF

The founder of the Ethical Society movement wrote, Ethically, spiritually, every human being is called, and chosen to be great. For whatever the inconceivable relations between the perfect and the imperfect may be, this at least is borne in upon us—that the infinite presses upon us to be expressed in our finite experience.” Come and explore the deeper side of life, the inner side of experience, which teaches how we shall live that life may be worthwhile. Free. Taught by Bob Greenwell, Leader.

June 4 - June 25, Wednesdays, 7-8:45 p.m.
May 31 - June 21, Saturdays, 9:30-11:15 a.m.
FOUR-WEEK COURSE: LIVING ETHICS

Must we always tell the truth? Are promises forever? Is it ever okay to spy on your child? How do you decide?

Through a brief introduction to ethical theory (using the book Being Good: An Introduction to Ethics, 2001, by Simon Blackburn, Professor of Philosophy at the U. of Cambridge, England) and case studies of ethical problems (using the book Ethics for Everyone: How to Increase Your Moral Intelligence, 2002, by Arthur Dobrin, Leader Emeritus of the Long Island Ethical Society), you can become more alive to the ethical dimension and to its promise for personal development. Gain strategies for thinking more clearly about the ethical choices you face in your everyday life. $20. Taught by Bob Greenwell, Leader.

May 28, Wednesday, 6:45-8:30 p.m.
May 27, Tuesday, 6:45-8:30 p.m.
May 19, Monday, 6:45-8:30 p.m.
May 8, Thursday, 6:45-8:30 p.m.

INTRODUCTORY CLASS: WHAT IS AN ETHICAL SOCIETY?

In this one-evening introduction, explore:

• Can a religion be based purely on ethics, on the moral sense?
• How can we raise children on a purely ethical basis?
• Learn the core values, principles, and history of the Ethical Society movement.
• How can this be said to be the religion of love?
• What is the attitude toward God?  What if you don't believe in the father-figure God?
• How do we relate to Christian believers or to other religions?

Free. Taught by Bob Greenwell, Leader.

May 17, Saturday, 10-11 a.m.
KIDS AND PARENTS WALK FOR ETHICAL PRACTICE

How do you get to Carnegie Hall?
Practice, practice, practice.
How do kids grow up to be ethical humans?
Same way.

When kids see and hear their parents do something that stretches them a little beyond their comfort zone, for an ethical value, kids get it. They absorb. And the parents get better too.

We are planning a simple walkathon. Walk two miles. Gather sponsors to donate $1 for each tenth of a mile. Each walker who collects $10 or more receives a T-shirt. We will have an uplifting and simple ethical ceremony with song to begin and end the walk. The joining and walking together creates bonds that transcend verbal or intellectual agreements. Kids will remember this day. Adults too.

We will walk on Saturday, May 17, 10-11 a.m., in Fort Zumwalt Park (O’Fallon). Walk together once around the lake, or twice, 1 or 2 miles. Enter Jessup Road from Veterans Memorial Pkwy, travel one-way around lake till you come to kids’ playground nearly back to beginning. Park, join with others, turn in forms, sing, walk, enjoy. Arrive 10-15 minutes early so we can organize.

Let your children know that the money will be donated to Beyond Housing, because there are more than 50,000 children and their families living in poverty across the metropolitan region, and because St. Charles County people care. Beyond Housing has gained much public recognition for the quality of its nonprofit programs to help people gain skills and lift themselves and their children to a better life. The Executive Director, Chris Krehmeyer, was honored with this year's "Ethical Humanist of the Year" award by the Ethical Society of St. Louis. You may visit Beyond Housing's website by typing in www.beyondhousing.org.

Come and join us!

April 23
ETHICS AND WAR DISCUSSION (3 weeks)
An evening discussion group to allow individuals to express their concerns regarding the ethical implications of the U.S. military intervention in Iraq.

April 17
RAISING CHILDREN ETHICALLY DISCUSSION (3 weeks)
An evening discussion group to allow individuals to share their experiences and questions regarding the moral upbringing of children.

April 2
WORKSHOP "RAISING CHILDREN ETHICALLY"

Free Presentation for Parents and Others
Learn 5 Keys for Gifting Your Children with Courage, Compassion, Reason, Resourcefulness, and Moral Character

? Workshop for Adults, Fun for Children
This is a double event: A simultaneous program for parents (or other interested adults) and a program for children.
For Parents, we are bringing in Curt Collier from New York to present “Raising Children Ethically—Five Keys.”
For Children, we are bringing in the independent education-entertainment group, Mad Science, and they will perform a show about physical science titled “Fire, Wind, and Ice.” The entertainment is particularly suited to approximately ages 4-12. We will have adults on hand from the St. Louis Ethical Society who have experience in managing children.
Your Teens may be surprised to find they enjoy the adult presentation. One thing your teens might look forward to is meeting other teens whose homes provide them an intellectually open climate.

Presenter
Curt Collier, M.S., is Leader of the NY Riverdale Ethical Society (www.ethicsny.org), innovator of the Family Service and programs and curricula for the moral development of children, graduate and Mentor of the Humanist Institute (NY), graduate of the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health, and author of a book-in-progress on ethical social action.  Mr. Collier is also a playwright, director, actor, and producer, well-known for his engaging and entertaining style.

Date, Time, Cost, Place
April 2, Wednesday, 7-8:30 p.m.
Free
St. Peters City Hall (next to the RecPlex), 1 St. Peters Centre Blvd, west door.

Reception
A variety of refreshments will be served, and you will have a chance to talk with Curt Collier, Bob Greenwell (Leader of the new Society), and others who will be coming over from the St. Louis Society to host. Just as important, you will meet people from your own community who are like you in their outlook and hope for a good life, for themselves and for their children.  Given the large influence of peers in children's lives, this event will also give your children a chance to meet new friends and peers with similar outlook.