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RE Happenings
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February,
2004
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Religious Education for Children and Youth at
the UUCNH
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Preschool &
Kindergarten
We Are Many, We Are
One
Feb. 1 – We
need our families
Feb. 8 – Love
means sharing and caring
Feb. 15 – We
all belong to the family of Earth
Feb. 22 –
Cooperation means sharing and caring
Feb. 29 –
Winter brings changes to our earth
Grades
1-2
UU Super Heroes
Feb. 1
– Olympia Brown
Feb. 8 –
P.T. Barnum
Feb. 15 –
Malvina Reynolds
Feb. 22 –
Abigail Adams
Feb. 29 –
John Adams
Grade 3-4
Timeless Themes
Feb. 1 –
Samson and Delilah
Feb. 8 –
David and Goliath
Feb. 15 –
Wise King Solomon
Feb. 22 –
Jonah and the Whale
Feb. 29 – Job
Grades 5-6
Traditions With A
Wink
Feb. 1 –
Verbal Self Defense
Feb. 8 –
Verbal Self Defense
Feb. 15 –
Islamic New Year, Visit Islamic Center
Feb. 22 –
Hosea Ballou (Unitarianism and Universalism)
Feb. 29 –
Clara Barton (Red Cross)
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Grades 7-8
Neighboring Faiths
Feb. 1 – Trip
to a Protestant Church
Feb. 8 – How
Culture Shapes a Religious Community
Feb. 15 –
Trip to Baptist of African Methodist Episcopal Church
Feb. 21-22 –
Sleepover, Monotheism debriefing, Planning for RE Service
Feb. 29
–Religions of the Goddess, Native American Traditions, Creation
Spirituality
Youth Group
Heresy Apparent
Feb. 1 –
Cooking for Pleasant Valley Men’s Shelter
Feb. 3, Tuesday, 7-9
p.m. – Fun Night
Feb 8 -
Liberal Christianity, Heresy of questioning, part two.
Feb. 11, Wednesday,
7-9 p.m. – Fun Night
Feb. 15 -
Liberal Christianity, Heresy of faith in action.
Feb. 17, Tuesday,
7-9 p.m. – Fun Night
Feb. 22 – TBA
Feb. 25, Wednesday,
7-9 p.m. –Fun Night
February 27, Friday – Games Night for The Congregation
Feb. 29 –
Free Thought and New Ideas
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RE Activities
 Greta’s Column:
“This is The Church of the Warm Hug.”
I have been thinking a lot lately about our church, and what the
ideal experience should be for our children and youth. It
is so easy to get caught up in the details, to become anxious. Do
we have enough supplies, the right curriculum, plenty of snacks?
Will we have enough volunteers next year? Enough money.
Sometimes I think we get so bogged down in the logistics and details,
we forget the big picture.
Then it occurred to me. Church should be a warm hug. From
the moment our children and youth enter the doors they should feel
enveloped in a warm cocoon of love. And it is from this
perspective that I imagine the ideal church. “This is the church
of the warm hug.”
Children should be warmly greeted at the door, in the service, in their
classrooms. Adults should take an interest in what is happening
in our young peoples’ lives, just as they do with other adults.
Children should be given plenty of opportunity to share what is
happening in their lives.
Children and youth should be surrounded by caring adults, adults
committed to making their church experience positive and
important. Adults should mentor teens.
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Youth
should be given an opportunity to explore their beliefs, change their
beliefs, and still be warmly accepted. Children and youth
should be given opportunities to develop their talents, to put their
religion into action with community service and social action
projects. Our children and youth should have opportunities at
church to just have fun.
I imagine this ideal church and think about what would need to change
to make our church meet this exacting criteria. Our children are
warmly greeted in our church. Their concerns are taken
seriously. Our children are surrounded by caring and dedicated
volunteers who work very hard to make their church experience positive
and important. Our youth are mentored in our Coming of Age
Program. They are given the opportunity to explore and change
their beliefs and still be accepted. Our children and youth are
given opportunities to serve the community with social action
projects. Our children and youth do have opportunities at church
to just have fun.
As I imagine the ideal church, I realize it is not the church with a
big building, a vast number of volunteers or an unlimited budget.
Those things wouldn’t hurt. But the ideal church is a church with
heart, “the church of the warm hug.” I believe we are that
church.
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Greta’s Column: