Friday, January 31, 2014

Great Love: Stories of Buddha and Jesus

Rev. Priscilla Richter and I have planned together Sunday's multigenerational worship service. We are excited to share teachings of Buddha and teachings of Jesus that can inform our Unitarian Universalist faith!  In the same way we say we "stand on the side of love." Jesus and Buddha stories offer practices and expressions of great love even in the face of hardship and suffering. Our stories will span all ages.

And we will be paying tribute to Pete Seeger. So come Sunday prepared to sing "If I Had a Hammer." and "We Shall Overcome."

Saturday, January 25, 2014

The Warmth of Community: Church Fair and Camping too!

Tomorrow it will still be cold outside, but join us in building warmth in community in Religious Education at Unitarian Universalist Society Schenectady (UUSS.)

All RE classes meet this Sunday. Come check out the RE table during the Church Fair this Sunday too!

Children in Grades 1-5 will finish a three-week focus on Peacemakers and Peacemaking.  They played games to build community. They enacted a local story of the Peacemaker of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois.) They learned about Martin Luther King Jr and his great contribution to the Civil Rights movement of the practices of non-violence. They learned a personal practice, "SA-TA-NA-MA,"  to help when feeling overcome emotionally.

Grades 6/7 are busy writing and filming their next movie a UU version of  The Lorax. They will also be out exploring our community with the Neighboring Faiths, late-winter/early spring.

Coming of Age meets in their classroom and finishes at the Church Life Fair with a scavenger hunt. Everyone will have an opportunity to participate in a scavenger hunt!

Senior youth, grades 10-12, meets. Senior youth planning to participate in the mission trip to NOLA meet after worship.

Hope you can join us at our RE/APC Winter Outing and Indoor Camping next Sat/Sun,  Feb 1-2, 2014! Play outside during the day, join together for a dinner, games, music, conversation, Vespers and sleep overnight in the Great Hall! Finish with breakfast early Sunday morning. Join us for all or part!


Transitions

By now, people know that Rev. Priscilla Richter is leaving UUSS and moving on this coming summer. We will miss her! As the Director of Religious Education, I will miss her. We have worked well and grown so much together these past 6 years! But I understand her leaving. And in her leaving she is also giving us a gift. Our programs and our leadership are in a good place right now. There is work to be done and lots of willing hands to participate.

We have the gift of creating a transition with Priscilla's leave- taking that affirms all of us on towards the next steps in our journey. We will be creating a ceremony this spring, bringing our best intentions together and seeing Priscilla off!