Resonant Reading (Saturday)-Power of thee State-Judt
2025-10-11 16:00 - 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
Resonant Reading (Saturday)-Power of thee State-Judt An exploration of ideas, feelings, and our life experiences, using a different short reading as our springboard each time. The sessions are on Saturdays, 4-5, and on Wednesdays, 12-1. All are wide open and you are welcome to come twice a week or once in a while.

The participants over the years have found that the approach we take, and the respectful, affectionate community of inquirers in which we read and converse, are as important as the reading itself. While many small groups begin with a check-in, with a session only an hour long, Resonant Reading jumps right in to the conversation. Those who are frequently in the group get to know each other very well this way, and those who are new will soon find they are among friends.

Facilitators use a light hand, posting the reading in the chat and calling on whoever's Zoom hand is up. Suggestions for readings* come from group members, who also take turns facilitating, if they want to try that role.

The reading for this session: Saturday, October 11th

“[The Christian Democratic Parties (e.g., in Germany and Italy)]avoided class-based appeals and emphasized instead social and moral reforms. In particular, [Christian] insisted upon the importance of the family, a properly Christian theme with significant policy implications at a time when the needs of single-parent, homeless and destitute families had never been greater. Thus Christian Democratic parties were ideally placed to capitalize on virtually every aspect of the post-war condition: the desire for stability and security, the expectation of renewal, the absence of traditional right-wing alternatives and the expectations vested in the state—for in contrast to conventional Catholic politicians of an earlier generation, the leaders of Christian Democratic parties and their more radical younger followers had no inhibitions about enrolling the power of the state in pursuit of their goals.”
—Tony Judt, Postwar

“No state can be strong unless it is sustained by the conviction of its citizens that the state must be respected and strengthened in the interest of all.”
—Konrad Adenauer, Christmas Day Radio Address, 1962

How to join:

Join this class from your Web browser: https://zoom.us/j/91019857324, passcode [REDACTED]
Join this class using the Zoom app: Meeting ID: 910 1985 7324
Join this class by phone: 669 900 9128 US (San Jose), Meeting ID: 910 1985 7324
Join this class by on-tap on mobile phones: +16699009128,,91019857324# US (San Jose)
Phoning in, but not in the bay area? Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/abL8clvIYT

This is the Zoom link for Saturdays. For the Wednesday Zoom link, go to the Calendar and click on a Wednesday session.

Questions? Drop an e-mail to resonant-reading+owner@uucpa.org.

*This activity was formerly called "Sacred Text Reading." That proved misleading--for one thing, more often than not our sources are secular--but it's worth describing the qualities of a sacred text, which we still look for in the readings we choose. It is any reading that helps us to:

connect to something of supreme importance to us
feel more connected to other beings or to the universe
feel more intensely alive
align our lives with our values,
perceive or feel more deeply
be more fully and authentically ourselves.
