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Program Circles – Introducing a Fresh Approach to Interact with Fellow NAUA Members

CIRCLES were created to provide NAUA members with a platform for getting to know each other better and to explore shared interests. They are the NAUA version of a Coffee hour –  virtual. The advantage over the in-person coffee hour is that you get to talk to and listen to everyone in the room, instead of focusing on the people you already know. The CIRCLES are very flexible, individualized and decentralized.  As such, they rely on the membership to provide ideas and inspiration for ongoing success.

• The first CIRCLES met twice a month for a period of 10 weeks.  They are primarily conversational, unstructured events, similar to a dinner party, that generally last about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. 
• We have recently added FORUM CIRCLES. The first one  meets weekly. Each session focuses on a specific topical or controversial issue or problem society faces. Readings are sent 3 or 4 days prior and after a brief introduction and overview of the topic, each participant is encouraged to share their views.  The first 4 or 5 topics have been selected in advance. Then members will decide on the topics and lead the discussion.
• The latest CIRCLE is called Nurturing Your Spiritual Life CIRCLE that will be open to 12 participants and will meet every other Thursday beginning at 4:00 PM PDT (7:00 EDT) for 10 to 12 sessions. The purpose of the CIRCLE is to discuss ideas and practices about how to nurture and facilitate one’s interior spiritual life. The meeting involve participants sharing their internal personal experiences as well their use of external resources. The intent is to provide an opportunity for participants to learn from each other’s experiences. It is hoped that participants will benefit by learning more about practices that nourish their spiritual life and the spiritual life of others.This CIRCLE will be led by David G. Markham, who is a Licensed Clinical Social Work Psychotherapist in New York State with over 54 years of experience in the mental health and substance abuse field as a clinician and manager. He has had an interest in Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy for several years. He was raised as a Roman Catholic and in his adult life explored all the major religious traditions and for twenty years was affiliated with three different Unitarian Universalist congregations. If you are interested in participating in this CIRCLE, kindly send an email to circles@naunitarians.org and put “Spiritual CIRCLE”  in the subject line, and we will respond quickly. Please include your phone number. We plan on beginning as soon as we have an adequate amount of participants.

There is nothing that limits what we can set up. For instance, if you are interested in the more traditional small group ministry format or something more spiritually focused, that could also fit under the CIRCLES umbrella.

If you wish to take part in a CIRCLE or want to talk to someone about forming a new CIRCLE, kindly express your interest by emailing circles@naunitarians.org, sharing a brief note about your interest in joining the next new CIRCLE or any other ideas you may have, and we will promptly respond.  Please put “NAUA CIRCLES” in the subject line of your email.