Unitarians to discuss role rituals play
Julie Loar will present “Saying Grace and Breaking Bread” at 10 a.m. Sunday at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Durango, 419 San Juan Drive.
Loar will discuss why food is a perfect vehicle for ritual and how these rituals become a focus in most religions and take the form of a “sacred meal” or eucharist, such as Holy Communion, or the Jewish Seder.
For more information, visit www.durangouu.org.
Dharma center to host five-day retreat
Registration is open for the five-day retreat “Entering the New Year with Love and Wisdom” with teachers Erin Treat and Brian Lesage.
The retreat will be presented by the Durango Dharma Center and will be held from Dec. 28 to Jan. 1 at Kelly Place Bed & Breakfast, west of Cortez.
The retreat will focus on practices that cultivate acceptance and wisdom in daily lives. Insight meditation practice will be supported by daily meditation instruction, dharma talks and meetings with the teachers.
Erin Treat is a community dharma leader at the Durango Dharma Center and a co-guiding teacher at Vallecitos Mountain Ranch, a retreat center in New Mexico. She gives talks, leads classes and teaches retreats around the country.
During Brian Lesage’s 25 years of meditation practice, he has taught meditation in prisons, schools, universities, and for various sitting groups throughout the U.S. He now spends most of his time serving local groups and leading retreats.
Scholarships are available. Discounts are available if paid by Dec. 1.
To register, visit www.DurangoDharmaCenter.org. For more information, email Joanie Trussel at joaniepatricia@gmail.com or call 759-6606.
Pastor addresses Vatican conference
VATICAN CITY – An American evangelical leader has urged his fellow clerics at a Vatican conference to be true to the Bible’s teachings on sex and marriage.
The Rev. Rick Warren is among representatives of 14 religions at the conference on the “complementarity” of men and women in marriage and the family.
Participants at the gathering believe men and women have different God-given roles in marriage and the family.
Warren, who pastors one of America’s largest Protestant churches, said the Bible defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman.
He added, “When God’s word is clear, we must not, we cannot, back up, back down, back off, backslide or just give in.”
Warren encouraged religious leaders to celebrate traditional marriage and its benefits to men, women and children.
Pope Francis opened the three-day conference Monday, declaring that children have the right to grow up with a mother and father.
Herald Staff & Associated Press
