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Annual Conference 2011

Annual Conference 2011 Archive

It Matters What We Believe

View video recordings of the Keynote Speaker, Judy Lecture, and Business Meeting.

2011 PSD Conference Logo

Prairie Star District
Annual Conference 2011
Des Moines, Iowa
April 8–10, 2011

Airport Holiday Inn
6111 Fleur Drive
Des Moines, Iowa  50321
Phone:  800-248-4013 or 515-287-240

Use the   Pointing hand
2011 Conference Menu
to navigate these pages!

Welcome to the Annual Conference

The PSD Annual Conference is a weekend of lectures, workshops, worship, networking, and fellowship. The conference begins at 7:00 PM on Friday, but there are pre-conference activities earlier on Friday. The Conference concludes at 10:30 AM Sunday.

Our conference theme comes from a favorite reading in our hymnal, “It Matters What We Believe” (#657) by a beloved UU religious educator, Sophia Lyon Fahs. It begins, “Some beliefs are like walled gardens. They encourage exclusiveness and the feeling of being especially privileged. Other beliefs are expansive and lead the way into wider and deeper sympathies.”

What kind of believers are we? We are our best selves when we achieve understanding and empathy. We are at our worst when we can only proclaim what we are against. How do we challenge ourselves to be our best, while avoiding the trap of being exclusive ourselves?

Come and explore this theme with us. How do we articulate our individual beliefs? How do we help our children form their own moral compass? And how do we, as a church, take a public stand on ethical issues?

More Information

Explore the menu at the right to learn about all the conference activities, how to register, and where to stay.

Rev. Brian Eslinger will present the Keynote Address: Telling Our Stories
Friday, April 8, 2011

Before there were religions, before there were politics, there were stories.  Human beings shape their lives and communities with the stories we tell. We’ll explore the unique story that is our Unitarian Universalist narrative and the larger human story that is part of all our lives.

See more at Opening Celebration.

Rev. Kendyl Gibbons will present the Judy Lecture: Spiritual Maturity as the Goal of Faith Development
Saturday, April 9, 2011

Religious educators in the liberal tradition have proposed that the process of faith development is a life-long endeavor. Just as we expect ourselves and others to change over time in physical, intellectual, and emotional ways, so we should be anticipating growth in our religious lives. With or without the concept of a self-conscious, personal god, each of us is challenged to become wiser and more compassionate throughout our lives.  Even for highly rational humanists – like the presenter herself! – it is possible to understand the community of religious institutions as part of a path toward a deeper, more grounded spiritual life that makes us each more whole.  It matters what we believe about the purpose of religion, and the potential for spiritual maturity in each of us.

See more at Saturday Events.

Kendyl Gibbons

Workshops

The Conference will include a choice of 24 workshops in three sessions. See more at Workshop A, Workshop B, Workshop C.

Printable fliers

Please download and print these two fliers to post on your congregation's bulletin boards.

  • flier (PDF, 370 KB) for the Annual Conference
  • flier (PDF, 280 KB) for the associated youth conference

It Matters What We Believe

Some beliefs are like walled gardens. They encourage exclusiveness, and the feeling of being especially privileged.

Other beliefs are expansive and lead the way into wider and deeper sympathies.

Some beliefs are like shadows, clouding children’s days with fears of unknown calamities.

Other beliefs are like sunshine, blessing children with the warmth of happiness.

Some beliefs are divisive, separating the saved from the unsaved, friends from enemies.

Other beliefs are bonds in a world community, where sincere differences beautify the pattern.

Some beliefs are like blinders, shutting off the power to choose one’s own direction.

Other beliefs are like gateways opening wide vistas for exploration.

Some beliefs weaken a person’s selfhood. They blight the growth of resourcefulness.

Other beliefs nurture self-confidence and enrich the feeling of personal worth.

Some beliefs are rigid, like the body of death, impotent in a changing world.

Other beliefs are pliable, like the young sapling, ever growing with the upward thrust of life.

—Sophia Lyon Fahs
 From “Singing the Living Tradition”