FreeThinkers Book Club
A compassionate community of free religious thought, inviting all people to rest, grow, and serve the world.
Why Free Thinker?
In 2016, Westwood Unitarian Congregation embarked upon a journey to be more welcoming, inclusive and respectful of those Humanists, Atheists, Agnostics and FreeThinkers. This effort was guided by the criteria for FreeThinker Friendly designation from the Unitarian Universalist Humanist Association.
Members of our Unitarian Universalist (UU) Humanist Association wrote:
We are “religious” in that we share with most Unitarian Universalists the natural human desires for a beloved and accepting community; a purpose greater than ourselves; rituals and practices that resonate with our common humanity and shared mortality; and opportunities to work with other tough-minded, warm-hearted people to do good in the world and to help one another attain the greatest possible fulfillment in life.
We are proud to have been designated as Canada’s first Free Thinker Friendly Congregation.
The program challenges us, as a Congregation to:
- 1. Be explicit in our welcoming statements and other language that atheists, agnostics, Humanists and Free Thinker are both welcomed and respected for their beliefs.
- 2. Discuss within our Congregation ways we both support and discourage those with these religious and non-religious outlooks.
- 3. Offer time and place for alternate religious or non religious groups to socialize, network and learn from each other.
- 4. Reach out to the Atheist and Humanist communities in the city and the province.
To meet these goals we have been examining our language (and this website) and are sponsoring a FreeThinker Friendly Book Club.
We welcome comments and suggestions for ways that we can expand our inclusiveness towards these individual and communities.
FreeThinker Book Club Goes Online
Westwood Free Thinker book club will be meeting online for the foreseeable future.
The meetings will be held at regular time and date (see below).
The book club is designed to:
- Provide participants with a broad and balanced look at the major ideas of atheism, humanism, ‘free thinking’, environmentalism and other social movements
- Provide a critical response to atheism and
- Examine issues related to parenting secular children
The book club meets online on the last Wednesday evening of the month 7:00-8:30 PM. In true Unitarian tradition theists, atheists, post-theists, agnostics and the unclassified are all invited to participate in one or all book club meetings.
The Meeting Times & Selections
Current & Past Book ReadingsLatest Post for Free Thinkers
Below you will find the latest posts relevant to our FreeThinker Friendly program.
