Friday, October 26, 2012

All Hallow's Eve Party Sunday 10:30 -11:30 AM


It's that time again! Dangerous Dangling Doughnuts returns at our annual All Hallow's Eve party this Sunday. The children in grades preK-6 will be at Waters House and rotate thru party stations. They are welcome to come in costume. There will be snacks and crafts, stories and education. At the end, the children will parade over to the Great Hall and meet parents there.

As I have already written about here, as a liberal religion, we are very deliberate about how we celebrate and share together in celebration. Halloween is a cultural holiday in the United States. As part of RE and our party, children will have the opportunity to learn about trick or treating for UNICEF. They'll also learn about fair trade chocolate.

As I've written around this holiday.........

In pagan celebrations going back many, many years, Halloween, Samhain to the Celts, is an agricultural festival. It is a time when the veil between the living and dead is the thinnest. It is a time to honor our ancestors. Making an Ancestor Altar would be both appropriate to this holiday and important in acknowledging and discussing these big questions about life and death. We are all here only because of those who have come before us. An excellent resource on this holiday and other that I have found is Waverly Fitzgerald's, e-magazine, Living in Season.

Enjoy your special celebrations!

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Religious Education October 14 and 21

SEVENTH PRINCIPLE PROJECT: COMPOSTING: Religious Education can be a messy endeavor! Sunday October 14 and October 21,  preK thru grade 4 will help build a composting system for FUSS! We will be outside, so please have children dressed for the weather. They will be building and learning about composting as well. They are being led in this project by Gary Feinland and FUSS Master Composters: Nancy Benz, Nancy Peterson and Robin Schnell. This is a combined effort on the part of RE, Buildings  and Grounds, and Green Sanctuary.

RIDDLE and MYSTERY: Grades 5/6 will continue their exploration of "big" questions while they begin filming in their newly created "news studio."

POPCORN THEOLOGY: 10:30 -11:45 AM. Over the next two Sundays Grades 7/8 will watch the movie, Bruce, the Almighty, and have a chance to think about and discus prayer and "Who has the power?"

SENIOR YOUTH: Grades 9 -12 meet in the senior youth lounge.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Sacred Land at Cohoes Falls Returned to Iroquois

Today's local paper, the Times Union, has  piece on the sacred land at Cohoes Falls where the world's oldest united nations began. This is a story some of our children at FUSS learned in RE and a site they visited last June. It is part of the story of the Peacemaker.

THIS SATURDAY, October 6, you can be part of the RETURN of this sacred land to the Iroquois by Brookfield Renewable Energy Company!
  • At 10 AM you can hear a traditional Thanksgiving Address
  • At 10:15AM hear the story of the Mohawks in Cohoes by Akwesasne Mohawk Doug George Kanentiio.
And more!

Its all at Cohoes Music Hall, 58 Remsen St, Cohoes, NY 12047

Check out the Hiawatha Institute for Indigenous Knowledge for more info.