As we cruise into winter I thought you should know what is happening in the Children's Religious Education Program at the Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship as well as a few other tidbits that may be of interest!
Read on to learn more about:
- Community Pages for RE Families!
- Meditation Practices for Children
- Crystal at Faith Formation Conference in February!
- Middle School Update
- High School Youth Group Update
- Parent Chalice Circle and Kid Movie Night-- 2/1
- Children's Worship-- 2/3
- RE Teacher Meeting-- 2/3
- RE Committee Meeting-- 2/10
- Coming of Age Workshop-- 2/10
- Social Action Sunday-- 2/17
- Cirque de Sole Auction (service opportunity for youth)-- 2/23
Community Pages for RE Families!
Be sure to check out our new RE Community Binder! It has interesting information about BUF families and is located on the little green table under the bulletin board just outside of the flex room (by the Childspace door and bathrooms). The Religious Education Committee would love to have every registered family fill out a community page with a photo of your family attached so that it is easy for us to see who each other are, what neighborhoods we live in, what activities we enjoy,.... Basically, we want to make it easy for families to find each other and connect with each other once they have made initial contact at church! Please stop by the table the next time you are at BUF to see the book and fill out a form if you haven't yet. And PLEASE bring a photo of your family so we can attach it to your "profile!"
Meditation Practice for Children
This winter Clare Evans, RE Committee member and meditation enthusiast, will be offering special workshops during the regular Sunday religious education times for children in Spirit Play, Primary, and Intermediate classes. The workshop will include the story, Moody Cow Learns to Meditate, the creation of a personal meditation jar, and practice with a couple of meditation styles. The schedule for these special workshops is still being defined. I will send more information as I have it so your child is sure to come when the workshop takes place in her/his class!
Faith Formation Conference
I will be out of town the last week of February, in order to attend a Faith Formation conference. I look forward to sharing great new things about it with you when I return. Here are the things I will be learning:
- Understand the new context of faith formation and the diverse religious and spiritual needs of all generations
- Understand the emerging vision of 21st century learning and faith formation in a connected, networked, digital world
- Discover a variety of 21st century approaches and resources for faith formation in the congregation, at home, and online
- Learn how to design faith formation that addresses the religious and spiritual needs of all ages and generations, and uses the new digital media and web technologies
- Develop the skills for becoming a learning architect and faith formation curator.
Middle School Update
Middle school youth advisors are working with me on the calendar of events for the winter and early spring. We are wanting to schedule an overnight at BUF as well as several field-trips to local (and maybe some not so local) houses of worship. Some of these events will take place during the regular RE time on Sunday mornings and some will be scheduled for other times. If you have any input while we are in the planing stages-- please direct your comments to me as soon as possible. We will publish our calendar as soon as we have it!
High School Youth Group Update
The high school youth group will be meeting on February 10 and February 24 this month. The first meeting will be held at the Sobel's house. Please contact Alicia Alford at alialf4@gmail.com. The other meeting will be at BUF beginning at 3:00 p.m. the group will watch a movie, have a discussion, and play some games. The youth have been asking about specific R-rated movies (please feel free to give me feedback) and are also planning a Lock-In (sleepover) at BUF on March 9....
I have new permission slips for middle school and high school youth to participate in the things outlined above-- please contact me if you need one!
Friday, February 1, 5:00-- dinner, 5:30-- formal discussion (and movie).
New and returning families are invited to attend this monthly event. Due to the popularity of this activity, there is now a closed-group chalice circle as well as a "drop in" kind of group that meet concurrently after dinner. Dinner is a do it yourself taco bar-- you are encouraged to bring ingredients to share if you are able. If you haven't participated before, please contact Roz Reynolds at mama@mamafoo.net or Kathleen Malnor at malnorfamily@gmail.com for more information! Childcare is available-- please reserve your spot by informing Kathleen, Roz, or the office 3 days in advance of the event so we are sure to have enough childcare providers.
Children's Worship
Sunday, February 3, 10:30 a.m.
Children in grades K-8 begin upstairs in the Flex Room for a special children's worship service. These services include a theme (story or topic), music, sharing, and a social justice collection. In the spring we will decide on a charitable recipient for our collections. Please send your son/daughter with a bit of money to add to the collection. It is especially meaningful if the money is theirs-- or they find it between couch cushions, or you save change or penny's together for this purpose....
Religious Education Teacher Meeting
Sunday, February 3, 12:00 noon (lunch provided)
This is a chance for our volunteer teachers and childcare providers to come together to discuss how things are going in religious education this year. We always do a bit of fine tuning in our winter meeting. Parents are invited to share joys and concerns with me prior to the meeting if you think it might be helpful for me to pass them along to the teachers who work with your children.
Religious Education Committee Meeting
Sunday, February 10, 12:00 noon (brown bag lunch?)
The Children's Religious Education Program at BUF is facilitated by me, your friendly Director of Lifelong Learning, and also a group of committed volunteers who help steer the program and define our priorities. We currently have a robust committee that, in addition to looking at programming for the rest of this year and next, is in the process of defining formal terms and requirements for participation in the committee itself. If you feel called toward this kind of leadership, or have feedback about our program, you are welcome to address your inquiries or thoughts to me or to the committee chair, Barbara Lehman, at barbara.lehman@gmail.com.
Coming of Age Workshop
Sunday, February 10, 6:30-8:00 p.m.
In this workshop we will discuss our concept of God. Many UUs are able to identify a God they don't believe in but are also able to identify the thing/s that make us feel connected and give life meaning-- maybe being the God they do believe in. We invite our coming of age youth and mentors to explore this topic at our February workshop.
Social Justice Sunday
Sunday, February 17, 10:30 a.m.
Children in grades 2-5 (in conjunction with the adults in the sanctuary) will share stories and activities that focus on this year's justice topic-- food justice. BUF is proud to partner with the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) to make sure that people are aware of food justice issues that face us all. There will be a story for all ages in the service.
Cirque Du BUF-- Auction
Saturday, February 23, 6:00 p.m.
This is a great event of fun, frivolity and needed funds! Childcare will be available! Also, this is a really great opportunity for our Middle School and High School youth to participate in a meaningful but totally fun way to help BUF. The auction planners need youth for serving food, providing childcare, working with silent auction items, and more! If your son or daughter is interested in helping out please let me or someone on the auction committee know-- we will be happy to put them to work!
That's it for now, happy February!
Crystal
