RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES
Rhinebeck Reformed Church hosts seminar
A seminar titled “Holiness of the Earth” will take place Saturday, Sept. 23, from 1 to 3 p.m. at Rhinebeck Reformed Church, 6368 Mill St.
A noon lunch will be provided.
Conducting the seminar will be Steven Bouma-Prediger, a professor of religion at Hope College in Holland, Mich. His lecture will emphasize what the Bible really says about us and the Earth: Its creatures, plants, air, water and beauty. What does Christian tradition say about caring for creation and for what reason should we care?
Bouma-Prediger is an active outdoorsman, leading hikes and kayaking with his students in the Adirondacks, as well as teaching in Belize and New Zealand. His most recent book, “For the Beauty of the Earth” will be available for purchase at the event.
Call the church at (845) 876-3727 for more information.
Movies with Spirit series will show ‘Becoming Bulletproof’
The documentary “Becoming Bulletproof,” about a group of young adults with disabilities who, in making a Hollywood-style Western, realize their dreams of being screen actors, will be show Saturday, Aug. 17, at 7 p.m. at the Reformed Church of Port Ewen, 160 Salem St., as part of the monthly Movies with Spirit series.
Friendship and creativity are exhibited when the actors team up with an ablebodied cast and crew in Los Angeles to film the Western, complete with scheming villains and saloon brawls. The film’s stars, on an actual Old West movie set, experience the usual ordeals of moviemaking — missed lines, bad cues, lighting woes.
The troupe also creates a beautifully inclusive community that builds genuine friendships that transcend stigma and stereotypes. The actors with disabilities — Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and other disorders — speak frankly, and with plenty of humor, about sexuality, relationships and anxieties.
One of them, A.J. Murray, a charismatic young man with severe cerebral palsy, is the film’s heart and soul. He flies to Los Angeles from his Atlanta home to be in the movie, despite constant pain from his condition. He needs to be fed and bathed by others.
The 2014 film, which won seven critic and filmfestival awards, including the Cleveland International Film Festival’s Audience Choice Award, runs 80 minutes and is not rated by the Motional Picture Association of America. The film’s trailer can be found on YouTube at tinyurl.com/Becoming-Bulletproof.
The screening will be followed by a facilitated discussion. Refreshments will be served. Attendees over age 12 are asked to contribute $5 a person.
The monthly Movies With Spirit series, organized by Gerry Harrington of Kingston, seeks to stimulate people’s sense of joy and wonder, inspire love and compassion, evoke a deepened understanding of people’s integral connection with others and with life itself, and support individual cultures, faith paths and beliefs while simultaneously transcending them.
The films are screened in diverse houses of worship and reverence across Ulster and Dutchess counties at 7 p.m. on the third Saturday every month. The series has no religious affiliation.
For more information about “Becoming Bulletproof” and the rest of the series, contact Harrington at (845) 389-9201 or at gerryharrington@mindspring. com. Details are also available at movieswithspirit. com and facebook.com/ MoviesWithSpirit.