9/12/10 - Faith and Suffering
9/12/10 - Faith and Suffering (2nd Service)
9/19/10 - Gather the Spirit, Harvest the Power
9/19/10 - Gather the Spirit, Harvest the Power (2nd Service)
9/26/10 - The Subversive, the Artistic, the Sublime
9/26/10 - The Subversive, the Artistic, the Sublime (2nd Service)
10/3/10 - Always Use Your Best China
10/3/10 - Always Use Your Best China (2nd Service)
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Mission of the RE Council: We strive to create a place where children, youth & families feel welcome as part of our dynamic religious community, offering quality programs that teach UU principles, sources, and heritage and using sound stewardship of resources.
At all grade levels, we accept and teach diversity of race, religion, class, sexual orientation and gender identity. All people have inherent dignity and worth.
Children and youth meet at 9:30 and 11:15 each Sunday morning for age-appropriate classes to facilitate their exploration of Unitarian Universalist principles and sources through hands-on experiences. Once a month we offer interactive, community-wide worship services instead of classes for ages 9 and up. Our three youth groups will attend the Community Worship together and then meet briefly to discuss the topic. Younger children will attend their normal classes on Community Sundays. Our classes run an hour and 15 minutes (till 10:45 and 12:30) regardless of when the service ends. We also sponsor special events for all ages.
More info about our programs can be found at the bottom of this page.
Flickers - Nursery and Early Preschool – 9:30 & 11:15 – Our youngest UUs will have some activities each week connecting to the spirit and mission of this church, offered by our paid childcare staff.
Sparks – Preschool/Kindergarten - This class offers a combination of free play time and structured activity for our preschool and kindergarten kids. During circle time they will explore basic promises and holiday stories with activities.
The following elementary classes will be working in a rotation, with the same stories in alternate weeks with specialists leading related activities:
We will be continuing use of the Spirit Play model with these classes, a Unitarian Universalist adaptation of a Montessori-method Sunday School. As in Montessori, the key elements are the classroom environment and the teachers. These elements free the children to work at their own pace on their own issues after an initial lesson. You can find out more about Spirit Play in general at http://spiritplay.net/
Our Spirit Play stories this year focus on Unitarian Universalist identity and the seven UU promises (principles).
Our Youth Programs begin with 5th grade and continue through High School:
Questioners – Early Middle Youth (Grades 5th-7th or Ages 10-12) – Amazing Grace, a Tapestry of Faith curriculum, intends to help tweens understand right and wrong and act on their new understanding. Its purpose is to equip them for moving safely and productively through the middle- and high school years, when they will be continually tugged toward both ends of the ethics continuum. Through their involvement in Amazing Grace, youth will come to recognize and depend on their UU identity and resources as essential to their movement toward understanding, independence, and fulfillment of personal promise.
Seekers - Ages 13-18 – Compass Points - Compass Points will lead its adolescent participants on a year-long spiritual journey during which they will have opportunities to sort out their feelings about themselves and their world as they do the difficult work of starting to create their adult selves; to discover what they believe about life’s big questions; to acquire background in Unitarian Universalist history, polity and theology that they can know and express what UUism stands for.
Our Whole Lives This year we will also offer Our Whole Lives to a closed group of youth on Sunday mornings:
Explorers - 7th-9th (Approx ages 12-14) - Our Whole Lives (OWL). Our Whole Lives helps participants make informed and responsible decisions about their sexual health and behavior. It equips participants with accurate, age-appropriate information in six subject areas: human development, relationships, personal skills, sexual behavior, sexual health, and society and culture. Grounded in a holistic view of sexuality, Our Whole Lives not only provides facts about anatomy and human development, but also helps participants clarify their values, build interpersonal skills, and understand the spiritual, emotional, and social aspects of sexuality.
More information about OWL can be found online at http://www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/ourwhole/
Parent Orientation/Information Sessions will be offered on Wednesday, August 11 from 6:30-8:30 pm, Sunday, August 15 from 1-3 pm, and Wednesday, August 18 from 6:30-8:30 pm. Parents must attend one of these sessions for their youth to participate in OWL. This is a closed group, so no visitors or newcomers are allowed. Visitors in these age groups will be welcomed into the other two youth classes.
