The Adult Spiritual Development Team is offering an opportunity for a shared experience to our UU church community. After discussion and consultation with the Healthy Congregations Team and our Social Justice Team, we have decided upon a book, Compassionate Conversations.

We invite you to read the book over the summer and then join in discussions we will offer in September about the book and to discuss how we might embrace deeper, harder conversations about important topics that can help us move forward together.

As we grow and learn together as a UU community, we often discover that our different life experiences have led us to different world views and different opinions at times. How do we hold our own truths while also opening ourselves to greater understanding and connection? We all know that it takes work. The book offers some practical suggestions and can help us engage in those difficult conversations, which we might otherwise choose to avoid. Some leaders tell us that change and growth will necessarily involve conflict. How can we be better at conflict? How can we engage in healthy conflict? This book offers some practical suggestions that can serve as a starting point.

The book is available at the UUA bookstore. It is also available on Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and in Audible. Kindle apps are available on most mobile devices and your computer if you’d prefer to read the book in that format. Currently the book is offered at a cheaper price on Amazon, equivalent to a bulk order at the UUA bookstore. That might change. We would like for everyone to be able to read this book regardless of cost. We will make some books available for free or reduced cost.

If you want ASD to order a book for you, please email us at asd@uumarin.org by June 2 at the Congregational Meeting. Please put Common Read in the title of the email.