Our event starts at 11 am on the 2nd floor of the Koffler House (569 Spadina Avenue)
Our speakers this week, Rex Burks and Owen Younger, are coming all the way from Dallas Texas! They are members of the Fellowship of Freethought (FOF) in Dallas and have presented at Houston Oasis and Kansas City. You can check out their website at: https://skepticaltexans.org/.
Rex Burks and Owen Younger were both raised as devout fundamentalist Christians until reason and evidence eventually took over. Since leaving religion, they have both become enthusiastic students of the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the early Christian church. For more than a year, Bible in hand, they have been visiting a wide range of Christian denominations and joining Sunday school class discussions with believers. Come hear their fascinating and sometimes humorous stories about the astonishing variety of belief among Christians and learn how an understanding and appreciation of this diversity can help make us all more effective advocates for freethought. SPOILER: Episcopalians and Pentecostals are not the same! Owen and Rex will also share their insights on effective ways to relate to different types of Christians and highlight the most common objections to non-belief they’ve repeatedly heard.
Our featured musicians will be CITIZEN JANE, a Toronto-based folk-pop duo that evocatively weaves powerful vocal harmonies with innovative string textures to create an emotionally charged soundscape.
The duo consists of married couple Reenie Perkovic (vocals, guitar, mandolin) and Lea Kirstein (viola, fiddle, cello, vocals), who met while studying classical music on the west coast of Canada. The ladies have since made a home in Toronto’s vibrant music scene.
Reenie grew up in the Toronto area, after her family escaped the civil war in her birthplace, Sarajevo, Bosnia. Reenie was a semi-finalist in the 2016 UK Songwriting Contest, and has released 3 solo albums. She has opened for Juno-nominated Alysha Brilla, and Annabelle Chvostek (Wailin’ Jennys).
Lea is an acclaimed violist and fiddler, who grew up in Victoria, BC, where she studied viola and music education at UVic. Classical musician by day and fiddler by night, Lea discovered new ways of melding the two styles into one. Her passion for these genres took her across Canada & the U.S. with the Folk Arts Quartet. She has recorded with Juno-nominated artists Oliver Schroer and Teresa Doyle.
To RSVP to this event, please visit our Meetup page.