Washington Ethical Society

We hope you have the courage to tune into a Sunday Service without a title and speaker listed! We invite you to show up as your true self and be open.

"Sexuality Through a UU Lens" Melanie Davis Phd Sunday, September 25, 2022 Explore the UUA’s commitment to sexual justice and the Our Whole Lives program values of Self-Worth, Responsibility, Sexual Health, Justice and Inclusivity.

"We Belong Together" Rev. KC Slack

"The Ins & Outs of Inside" Rev. KC Slack Join us as we continue in September’s theme series of Belonging. We request you make reservations in advance, however, we do often have space for walk-ins! Just don’t forget to bring your COVID vaccine card or a negative covid test.

Sunday, September 4, 2022 Tell a Better Story Rev. KC Slack Join us as we dive into September’s theme of Belonging. We request you make reservations in advance, however, we do often have space for walk-ins! Just don’t forget to bring your COVID vaccine card or a negative covid test.

Labor Without Love Rev. Dr. Gregory C. Carrow-Boyd In an audio clip that has now become memefied, mid-20th century scholar James Baldwin, offers “Darling, I have told you several times, I have no dream job, I do not dream of labor.” As we enter the week that precedes the hardwon observance of Labor Day, let us imagine a world without labor. Gather for a service of reflecting and creating a world so bold.

Sunday, August 21, 2022 "Beginning in the Middle" Rev. KC Slack Our experience of linear time means that each time we begin we begin in the middle. As we begin together, we acknowledge where we have been and root ourselves in shared histories of both tradition and place in order to move forward together.

“All Of Who You Are” Rev. KC Slack In Rev. KC’s first platform as WES’s Senior Leader, they will explore mythmaking, identity development, and wholeness.

Decolonizing Healthcare Sunday, August 7, 2022 John Daken & Rachel Kallum Whitman Seeking assistance for mental and physical distress can be a fraught experience. Healthcare settings feature problematic power relationship shaped by professional roles, variable access to information and money, stigma, impairments, and of course the respective social identities of the individuals involved. Communication breaks down; mistakes are made; people are harmed. Is it possible to deconstruct this system and from its building blocks reconstruct a more just, equitable, and truly healing environment? “Recovering physician” and therapist John Daken will be joined by mental health advocate Rachel Kallum Whitman to explore this challenging topic.

Protecting Trans Kids–It Takes A Village Ellen Kahn, WES Member Ellen Kahn from the Human Rights Campaign will update us about legislative attacks against Transgender youth, what we can do to help keep Trans kids safe, and share compelling stories to move us to action.

Vulnerability: Together in Exploration Maceo Thomas & TIE Group Leaders Leaders from WES’s Together In Exploration (TIE) groups will share their experience of vulnerability and growth through regular small group meetings over the 2021-2022 year. New groups are opening up for 2022-2023.

Hidden in Plain Bite Jesse Tandler is the managing director of the Factory Farming Awareness Coalition, a nationwide nonprofit that educates people on factory farming’s devastating impact on people, animals, and the planet, and empowers them to advocate for systemic change in their communities. He will challenge us to imagine a just and sustainable food system, and discuss personal as well as public policy choices that bring ethics, compassion, and ecological consciousness to the ways food gets from farm to table.

Environmental Justice and Public Health Dr. Sacoby Wilson Dr. Sacoby Wilson is an Associate Professor with the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the University of Maryland, College Park School of Public Health where directs the Center for Community Engagement, Environmental Justice and Health (CEEJH). Dr. Wilson has over 20 years of experience as environmental health scientist in the areas of exposure science, environmental justice, environmental health disparities, community-based participatory research, water quality analysis, air pollution studies, built environment, industrial animal production, climate change, community resiliency, and sustainability. He works primarily in partnership with community-based organizations to study and address environmental justice and health issues and translate research to action.

The Same River Sunday, June 5, 10:30am Lyn Cox, Interim Leader. Some changes are obvious in the external world, some changes originate within. There’s a saying that you can’t step in the same river twice. As we amble toward recovery, how is the world different, how is WES different, and how are we different?

Ethical Culture, the Atom Bomb, and Big Moral Questions Sunday, May 29, 10:30am Mike Kravitz Memorial Day Weekend. Current world events have re-ignited the debate over nuclear weapons, left largely dormant after the end of the Cold War. This platform explores some of the history of nuclear weapons, the paradox of their existence and use, Ethical Culture’s influence on nuclear policy, and moral questions surrounding our responsibilities with America’s nuclear forces.

You Are a Miracle Lyn Cox As we celebrate people of many genders who nurture and cherish the next generation, let us honor that which is nurtured and needs nurturing in each human.

"Your Next Favorite Self" KC Slack Join us for a replay of the second platform of Candidating Week with KC Slack. Here KC talks about "Your Next Favorite Self."

The Gender Multiverse Lyn Cox, Interim Leader. Attacks on Transgender, Nonbinary, and Gender Non-Conforming people are attacks on the very essence of the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Our core ethics and morals call us to honor the many ways that people understand themselves, and to rise up for dignity and worth in legislation, community design, and our personal relationships. (Please note we have significant internet issues in the building on this day. So this video is from a cell phone. We were making lemonade from lemons -- just grateful to be able to gather together in some way!)

Your Well-Being is My Well- Being: Pandemic Lessons of Resilience from El Rodeo Sunday, March 27, 2022 WES' Global Connections Team For 13 years WES has partnered with a rural, subsistence farming village in El Salvador. Through annual visits, our relationship has deepened and grown. With recent video messages from community members, hear how they’ve drawn upon their community’s history of resilience to survive and thrive during the pandemic. What do their stories of resilience tell us about ours? What can we learn from their stories to develop our own resilience?

Sharing Power Post-Covid Sunday, March 13, 2022 -- 10:30am Maceo Thomas, Membership Coordinator Two years ago, the world went to connecting with each other virtually. As the word begins to open up in person more fully, we will begin to examine how we have changed across history and challenge us on how we may continue to change in order to share power and be ethical in our community together.