For the month of September, we will be exploring the theme of Welcome. You can join in the conversation on social media using #WESwelcome.

Our platforms this month will be:

Sunday, September 3

Platform Service, 10:30am. “The Limits of Authenticity,” Rev. John Crestwell. Join John Crestwell as he tackles the complicated relationship between individuality, authenticity, and embodying the sacred.

Sunday, September 10

Platform Service, 9:30 & 11:30am, Main Hall. “Welcome to WES!” Amanda Poppei, Melissa Sinclair, and friends. Imagine you were a traveler from a far-off land, or another time…or even just a different Ethical Society! When you arrived at WES for the first time, what would you find? Would you understand our language, our customs, our (humanist) rituals? Together we will imagine welcoming the stranger to our unique and ever-changing community. Music from the WES Chorus.

Sunday, September 17

Platform Service, 9:30 & 11:30am,  Main Hall. “Welcoming What Is: A Buddhist Invitation to Acceptance” Amanda Poppei, Senior Leader. What does it look like to welcome into our lives all that is…the good, bad, and ugly? How do we increase our capacity to accept the reality we live with, while still holding a sense of the possibility of change? Amanda will explore the Buddhist tradition in this experiential platform.

Sunday, September 24

Platform Service, 9:30 & 11:30am, Main Hall. “Learning to Welcome” Amanda Poppei, Senior Leader. As WES seeks to become a more intentionally anti-racist, multicultural community, what tools do we need to learn? How does it feel to be part of the majority culture at WES, and how does it feel to be part of the minority cultures also represented? With support from others in the community, Amanda will explore this important part of the anti-racist journey. Music from the WES Chorus.

Our 2017-2018 Theme Artist Donna Radner created this quilt and statement around Welcome:

The definition of Welcome includes taking in, receiving gladly, embracing, accommodating, accepting. This piece is part of my series of Dancing Houses, little whimsical huts dancing from side to side in a playful manner.  The houses represent welcoming to me, as I welcome people into my home and into my world. This month I will be welcoming family and friends to my home in celebration of a new season as WES will be welcoming new members and families to our home.

Monthly Theme Packet can be found here.