Religious Exploration (RE) with Elizabeth Ann
From Sunday, April 21 — |
THEME OF THE MONTH: THE GIFT OF INTERDEPENDENCE
Last week we began to explore the concept of Interdependence. The story of "The Grumpy Gecko" helped us to better understand how living and non-living entities are dependent on each other to thrive.
Another way of thinking about Interdependence is shown by considering
the intersection of these three concepts:
COMMUNITY
CREATIONS
CREATURES
Your Religious Exploration Team is eager to share how the weaving
together of these concepts reflect and support the Living Traditions of our Unitarian Universalist faith.
Our Communities
Our Creative Spirits and all that has been created
The creatures that we live beside.
Something key to communities, creations, and creatures is communication.
The last time that we were in our classroom, we were sharing what we knew of American Sign Language. Each of us knew at least one word. If you would like to know more, here are some resources.
From Sunday, April 14 — |
Hello from Loiza. Puerto Rico!
I am at Finding Our Way Home, an annual retreat for UU Religious professionals of color. Ordained and lay ministers, religious Educators, administrators, musicians, and UUA are gathered in Puerto Rico for 6 days ll.
The retreat is rich with worship services, including a Borican service with Bomba drummers and dancers.
The lovely folks in Loiza, a historic African community welcomed us with open arms, a tutorial about Bomba, and more dancing! Their welcome reminded me of this month's theme: The Gift of Interdependence. This close-knit
To show our appreciation, we danced we sang, we shopped, and made a "love offering".
This week as we explore The Gift of Interdependence in the classroom, we will learn how we connected to one another, with Love at the center. We are ONE and interdependent.
All of this reminded me of a Jon Batiste song, "Worship". See you on Sunday!
From Sunday, April 7 — |
Many thanks to all who participated in our intergenerational service last week. In addition to celebrating Easter, Trans Day of Visibility, and the Hindu holiday of Holi. Here is the video that was shared during the service.
The Easter Egg Hunt was a smashing success. We had big fun on our playground and we were able to welcome a new family!
From Sunday, March 31 — |
During March, the theme of "The Gifts of Transformation", has us considering various ways in which we and the world around us is transformed. Thank you for your participation in our adaptation of the Palm Sunday story. The participation by you in the congregation was delightful.
This Sunday our observance of Easter will be multifaceted. The multi-generational service in the sanctuary will include beautiful music, celebration of Women's History Month, and the Hindu holiday Holi. AND there will be a fun Easter egg hunt on the lawn.
Many thanks to our wonderful RE volunteers that help make the Magic happen on the second floor.
Day of Service (in part) by marching around the sanctuary and
learning about the weekly vigils hosted by our congregation.
Jyl S. continues to provide exceptional care in our nursery (Jyl even assists in our classroom when she can!). Our students are still sung out every Sunday after the Story for All Ages. And we continue to explore themes in tandem with adult worship.
You might have noticed, though, one difference in particular: our program has grown ever so slightly. This is true in both our nursery as well as our classroom. It’s exciting and the energy in the room is catching! Together, we’ve explored how we are a people of vision through guided meditation; reimagined our classroom as a sanctuary by making craft stained glass; delved into our own memories to write poems; immersed |
ourselves in UU history and investigated the mystery within scientific discovery by learning the story of Lewis Latimer and making circuit boards; considered the possibilities of our own futures in the light of multicultural stories of miraculous births; and most recently, practiced our trust in each other with a blindfolded partner walk in our outdoor play area.
We’ve also been lucky enough to have some tremendous volunteers helping both during and outside of class time. Big thanks to Chrissy E., Karen S., Darlene S., Linda P., Fern C., Len R., Emlen S., Leslie F., and Kaiyon F. If you are interested in volunteer opportunities, talk to Elizabeth Ann T. |
Bridging Ceremony for Our Graduating Youth: 2018
All Souls Day Celebration
Bridging Ceremony for Our Graduating Youth: 2010