Celebrating May!

Sometimes, gathering together with all ages just to celebrate our community and the space we occupy can be an invaluable religious education experience. 

Last time we gathered for RE.. .

 Together we raked and weeded our space.

We prepared a yummy feast. While we ate we shared some of our memories from the past year in RE.

 We cleaned up our labyrinth and offered a bubble blessing!

If you were not there, we missed you! Hope to see you at RE Games day this Sunday our traditional all-ages extra fun celebration!

Religious Education this Sunday and beyond

We are coming to a close on this part of our RE year. Here's what's left:

May 29: Combined RE: Includes PreK thru Senior Youth
It's been a long, cold spring so we will celebrate our RE community together OUTSIDE!!! We'll be outside cleaning up and preparing for our celebration.  We'll celebrate our achievements in RE this past year. We'll dance and feast! We'll rededicate our walking labyrinth. Come and participate if you are in town.

June 5: A Holy Urgency: A Combined Multigenerational Worship in Round Lake.
Five UU congregations come together in worship. Five choirs sing together! Rev. Scott Alexander will travel up  from Florida to preach. Should be wonderful! Lunch afterwards by Brooks Barbeque. There is a vegetarian option. Please purchase tickets by 5/29. Yes, you can bring your own lunch.

June 12: RE Games Day: An all ages FUN RE tradition!! 
Christine Carpenter returns with Circus Yoga! New this year we a have a 24' parachute. Hula hoops, jump ropes and MORE! FUSS Picnic after the party and worship service.

THEN........
June 19: Summer RE starts!
These are stand alone classes for ages 5-10 every Sunday all summer.

RE Art Show

Mirrors in which they can see themselves,

windows in which they can see the world.

• Lucille Clifton, African American poet, writer and educator

This artwork was created by First Unitarian Society Schenectady fourth-graders during their 2010-2011 religious education class: Windows and Mirrors.

The program, Windows and Mirrors, nurtures children's ability to identify their own experiences and perspectives and to seek out, care about and respect those of others. In their sessions the children unpacked topics that lent themselves to diverse experiences and perspectives—for example, faith heritage, public service, anti-racism and prayer. Windows and Mirrors teaches that there are always multiple viewpoints and everyone's viewpoint matters.

The children did guided work on individual Window/Mirror Panels in each session to explore looking inward and looking outward in terms of the session's topic. As a mirror, the panel reflects the individual child. As a window, it represents their view and connections beyond themselves to the congregation, other communities to which they belong and the world.

This artwork is hanging in the church sanctuary.  Turn right after entering the building. Go through the doors and you'll see the art on the wall on your right. Many, many thanks to our custodian, Helen, and RE teacher Dan Bernard who saw to its' display.

Reflections on candy and compromise

Ah traditions! Springtime, like fall is a season of contemplating change. Instead of life around us dying, we see new life again. We have many stories and rituals around these changes: daffodils, Easter bunnies, eggs and the story of the death of Jesus are a few. These are all powerful stories and at FUSS we work hard to honor traditions even as our awareness of what they might mean grows and changes. So too we sometimes let go of traditions that don't really serve our Unitarian Universalist values.

And, as is often the case change, does not come without some amount of debate and discussion.   It is an opportunity for deeper reflection around shared values and a chance to find common ground. This is definately the case with our Easter egg hunt. The RE Council made a decision to eliminate candy with the egg hunt and published this in Circuits and the OOS so that people would know about the change. There were lots of good reasons for this. Most parents try to limit the amount of highly processed foods like candy that their children eat. Most children receive an Easter basket with plenty of candy. For many children candy is particularly bad for them and their bodies react negatively to the excessive sugar, chemical additives and colorings. And, in terms of living out our values there are serious ethical considerations with much of the candy that is sold, namely it's connection to child slavery.

Our senior youth responded that they felt this was an important traditions that they were a part of. Each year it is the senior youth who hide the eggs.  After much discussion the compromise was this: children will hunt for eggs. We all agreed that along with hiding the eggs, searching for them was the most fun. Some of the eggs will have seeds in them. Once the children finds the eggs they will return them to the senior youth. When they do the senior youth will give the children a small bag of candy. The rabbit and egg candy is made by a local company. The earth balls are fair trade.

It is in all these ways: discussion, education, reflection, compromise, respect for each others opinions that we live out our values. I think this was a pretty good chance to travel that path.

Adult RE

We have four adult RE opportunities in March, besides the opportunities  to learn from leading classes and helping with children's chapel : )

Last A People So Bold discussion series meets Sunday, March 6 in the Emerson room from 12 noon – 1:15.

A World of Health: Connecting People, Place and Planet. A six-session brown-bag lunch series that explores "good health," the connections between human health and the environment, and how we can sustain both. March 13 – April 17, 12 noon – 1 PM. If you ordered a book they're in!  If you have not ordered a book, there will be some extras available at the first meeting.

UU Parent Discussion Group! Barb Norton will run an ongoing, monthly group. We'll continue using Tending the Flame: The Art of Unitarian Universalist Parenting, as a starting point and move from there. The next meeting is Sunday, March 20, 6:30 PM @ FUSS. Childcare is available. To sign up please contact Barb at bnorton46@nycap.rr.com or call 377-0205.

Living the Love: Exploring a Practice-Based Unitarian Universalist Faith. Lisa Temoshok will run an experiential UU class using movement, art, deep listening and discussion. Class will meet every other Saturday for four Saturdays: March 19, April 2, 16 and 30, from 9AM -12 noon at FUSS. Sign up with Melissa at fussdre@nycap.rr.com or call 387-9373.

 

JUUnior Youth Overnight

JUUNIOR YOUTH OVERNIGHT!!

for 6^th, 7^th and 8^th graders

@ First Unitarian Universalist Society Albany

405 Washington Ave, Albany NY 12206

From 12 noon Thursday, April 21-

10AM Friday, April 22

Includes: youth service project, games, duct tape workshop, evening youth worship.

Cost: $20

Sign up required by March 15.

Contact Melissa @ 387-9373 or FUSSDRE@nycap.rr.com

with questions or to sign up.

A People So Bold: Theological Roots, Part One

This Sunday, following Sundae Sunday, we'll begin an Adult RE discussion of Unitarian Universalist theology with respect to social justice work. We will work from the book, A People So Bold. There are copies available to purchase and we'll discus from the book beginning with the third session. The video clips are great and provacative, the book is even better.

For the first two session all you need to do is show up, watch and discuss. If you can't attend, or if you want a sneak peak, start with the You Tube link above. We'll watch and discus "Theological Roots" and "Theological Wings." In the posted You Tube videos they are broken up into parts, so you need to scroll through to click on and watch all of them. But, really, I hope you'll join Priscilla and I and our FUSS community in a powerful and important discussion about social justice work and Unitarian Universalist theology.