Service as Our Prayer

Many committees and councils have been working together to create a special worship service January 30th. There are six projects you can read brief descriptions of and sign up at mysignup.com/fussinaction. Welcoming Congregations will have a card writing station for you to write your legislators in support of marriage equality.

The Religious Education Council is collecting items to make welcome bags on January 30th for adults and children coming into Sojourn House, a homeless shelter for women with children, and Bethesda House, a drop-in center for homeless people. See the column on the right for supplies we are collecting.

There are many ways you can participate. You can bring donations for the welcome bags. This Sunday there will be box in the back of the Great Hall to collect any donations. You can simply come for the worship service on the 30th and be part of the energy and charge to practice service as our prayer. You can stay a few minutes after the service and write a postcard with Welcoming Congregations. You can stay for a luncheon to benefit our Soup Kitchen work. You can stay through all of this and then go choose a project to do with other FUSS congregants.

MLK JR /Non-Violence/Non-Violent Communication

This weekend is Martin Luther King Jr weekend. It is a time to celebrate his life and reflect on the meaning of his words and wisdom.

Both Children's Chapel and our adult worship service will explore his wisdom. We'll start together in the Great Hall. Everyone will hear the story of The Good Samaritan and we'll consider, "who is our neighbor?"

In Children's Chapel will explore MLK Jr's legacy of non- violent resistance. One approach I'll take is to ask, Have you ever wondered why people fight? Have you been in a fight yourself? How did you feel? Were you angry?

We'll explore ways to practice being peaceful and how what we say matters: the power of words as a way to peace.

A first, important step that we can all do is to learn to communicate in a way that is non-violent. Marshall B. Rosenberg PhD has a lot to offer in his work on non-violent communication. For children, here is an excellent site with free e-books that are inspired by the work Rosenberg has done and are geared for children.

Happy New Year! Adult RE in January!

The Art of Unitarian Universalist Parenting.

January 9 and 23, 2011. 5- 7:00 PM. Potluck with childcare.

Sharing our personal religious and spiritual beliefs with our children is not indoctrination. It is offering the wisdom and insight that they eagerly seek from us-just as they look to us for guidance when choosing between right and wrong courses of action. If we are vague and ambiguous when our children ask us theological questions, we lose our opportunity to have a positive influence on them in this area. Eventually, they'll stop asking us religious questions and look for answers elsewhere.-from Tending the Flame

Please join our discussion on raising Unitarian Universalist children and supporting both our children and ourselves in deepening our own understanding of Unitarian Universalism as we live out our faith. We'll start from the book of the same name: Tending the Flame: The Art of Unitarian Universalist Parenting, by Michelle Richards.

For both sessions, children in childcare will be provided with opportunities to create some of our UU symbols with various art projects. Please register for this so we have enough material on hand.

Copies of the book are available for $12.70 from Melissa MacKinnon, Director of Religious Education. To request a book or register for childcare, contact Melissa at melissa.dre@gmail.com or 387-9373.