The Harry Potter series by JK Rowing is a cultural touchstone for people of all ages. This discussion group hopes to help people find and build community around a shared text, offer space for close reading and reflection in a group setting, and create a thoughtful atmosphere for the discussion of values. We will be following the model of the Harry Potter and the Sacred Text podcast. This group is not a religious group, but is sponsored by Southern Utah Community of Christ and is explicitly anti-racist and LGBTQ+ inclusive.

What will we do during our time together?
We will introduce ourselves and get to know each other.
We will give a quick summary of the day's reading.
We will discuss the theme of the day and where we saw that theme in the text.
We will try and understand that theme better in our own lives.
We will walk through a layered reading of the text, where we read the text through several layers of meaning: What is happening in this passage literally? What is happening in this passage allegorically? How does this passage apply to our lives? What does this passage call us to do? (Lectio divina)
We will pick a passage of text and close our eyes while someone reads it. We will use our imaginations to better understand what is happening in the text. (Ignatian sacred imagination)
We will each pick a character that we empathized with to "bless."
If you are interested in understanding this process in more detail, click here.