Religious Education All- Church CAMPOUT!

Join us this weekend at Glimmerglass State Park for our first all -church camp out! They weekend is yours to enjoy the facilities. We'll gather at 5 PM Saturday evening for games and refreshments and have an RE -sponsored dinner. Afterwards will enjoy a fire with s'mores, songs and stories.

Reimagining the garden: paradise found

I have been reading a new book called, A House for Hope: The Promise of Progressive Religion for the Twenty-first Century. It very much informs how we will be together in religious education this year. You can read an except, and one of my favorite parts of the book at uuworld.org : we are already in paradise

Summer RE

Summer religious education for ages 4-10 every Sunday 10:30 AM - end of church service.

"And forget not that the Earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair." -- Kahlil Gibran

Rain, sigh

I am really, really happy it's raining, mostly. We need rain.

It looks like RE Games Day will be scaled back because of it. We'll still be in Waters House, we'll still have games and Circus Yoga and snacks, just inside.

The Spiritual Practice of Play: RE Games Day!

This Sunday marks the end of our regular year in religious education. We'll celebrate with the spiritual practice of PLAY! The deep spiritual value of play is often over looked in our very overextended, time- deficient lives. (There is too, the even more spiritually profound experience of unstructured time- we'll consider that at another point.)

RE Games Day will involve open- ended activities: hula hoops, scarves, jump ropes, balls, bubbles, all valuable tools in our spiritual exploration of play. Christine Carpenter will return to offer an even bigger Circus Yoga experience that will include flying demonstrations and a flying station.

RE Games Day also includes the very profound "snack communion." We will break bread together as we play and celebrate this paradise we are lucky enough to call home: a beautiful place, our blessed and sacred lives.

RE Games Day is for all ages.

Social justice work and children: CROP walk SUNDAY

In April I visited the Chicago area with my family. We spent 1/2 a day in the city visiting a few of the sites. There were a lot of homeless people asking for money and I gave away all the spare cash I had. I didn't really talk about it with my family.

What I didn't realize was how my eight -year- old was paying attention. The Sunday after we returned from Chicago, FUSS member Nancy Peterson came to Children's Chapel to talk with the kids about the upcoming CROP walk. My daughter made a connection at that moment. Seeing all the homeless people disturbed her and the CROP walk was a way she could do something about it. She asked me about participating in the walk, and so, we picked up the forms and I helped her make an online contribution site for out- of- town family to donate.

I have to say honestly that if I had tried to get my daughter to participate, she probably would have been less interested. I am not even sure I could have had a conversation about what we experienced in Chicago at the time either. But, allowing her the experience to walk a city street and confront a troubling reality in our society and then having a church community that offers concrete ways to make a difference, opened up the possibility of her making a connection. Things are not always fair and she can make a difference in that. I think this is one of the best parts of what we do together that I, certainly, can not do alone.

We'll be walking in the Schenectady CROP walk this Sunday. Maybe we'll see you there.

Hot off the Press!!! U.U. Spirituality and Parenting

Many parents ask me about books on Unitarian Universalism and parenting. There's a new book out on Unitarian Universalist parenting by professional religious educator Michelle Richards. It's called Tending the Flame: The Art of Unitarian Universalist Parenting. There is also a blog that Michelle writes that you can find here. Her latest post is on spiritual practices with children. It touches on some of the practices children are introduced to in our religious education classes.