First
Parish Unitarian UniversalistFrom our Director of Religious Education, Angela Konzal
May 2012
Our church school year is beginning to wind down for the year and I started taking inventory of some of the intangible things that really made me happy this year (I will talk about some of our tangible accomplishments in my annual report that will come out in June.) These are experiences I think about often during my week, and I smile. The first thing that makes me smile are thinking about all of the energetic and happy voices that I hear in the halls during class time at First Parish. After all of the kids file out of the sanctuary on Sunday morning and settle into their classrooms, I make the rounds to check on attendance, to make sure the kids are where they are supposed to be, to make sure that the teachers have all of the supplies they need, etc. The energy is palpable. There is laughter and conversation, story telling and singing, prop making and crazy crafting. When I visit each classroom, every single child is engaged and eager to participate. They have inside jokes and favorite chairs to sit in and weekly rituals that only they know about. You can’t help but feel the enthusiasm and warmth.
Another experience that brought me great joy was a project that we worked on during our children’s worship semester. We spent our time in the Chapel together talking about the concept of peace, reading poems about peace, playing games that explored justice and fairness and reflecting on how we can promote peace in our lives and in the communities in which we live. When we first started our peace journey many of the children defined “peace” as “not fighting” or “quietness.” At the end of our weeks together, we worked on a project called “What is in Peace soup?” I made a poster with a big, black cauldron drawn on it and I asked the children to brainstorm about what they thought the ingredients should be for peace soup. What do we need to create “peace?” Their answers were beautiful: compassion, courage, empathy, kindness, respect, fairness, justice, equality, caring, love, sharing, friendship, freedom, security, safety, happiness, peace of mind, acceptance, tolerance, understanding, serenity, compromise, negotiation, diplomacy, communication and listening. Wow! They really got it. Peace was not living without conflict. Peace was learning how to take conflict and differences and resolve them in compassionate and respectful ways. For me, it was a real joy to see our children tackle such a complex and important issue and really embrace it to its core.
Planning for the middle school skit was another highlight. Lori Fanara and I invited the kids in the middle school to join us in the youth room during coffee hour for pizza and a brainstorming session for the middle school skit. The number of kids who showed up to actively participate (not just eat the pizza) was awesome. We all barely fit in the room. Kids were in the couches and in the chairs and on the floor and standing against the wall. Lori could barely scribble fast enough to keep up with all of their ideas. It was energetic and productive and so well-attended. Who could ask for anything more?
My visit to our second, third and fourth grade class a few weeks ago brought me another joy and I think of it often with gladness in my heart. The children were exploring the concept of welcoming and radical hospitality. Lou Cote had just read the children a Middle Eastern folk tale about a man, who, not wanting to be rude and late to a dinner party, arrives in farming clothes. He is ignored and shunned by the other guests. After changing into fancy clothes, he is greeted warmly and welcomed wholeheartedly. The children talked about what had happened to the man and how they felt about it. I still remember Daniel Stark with his serious face, looking concerned and saying “That just wasn’t right. We [at First Parish] would not have treated the man that way. It’s like the song that we sang earlier in church…”come, come, whoever you are.” It doesn’t matter what you are wearing or what you look like. You are welcome here.” He was incorporating the messages he was getting in class with the words of the hymn we had sung earlier in the sanctuary, with the actions that he sees on a weekly basis at First Parish. I saw such an important concept come together for him in such a profound way that to this day it makes me smile.
I encourage you to take a few moments today and think about the things that happen at First Parish (and elsewhere) that make you smile.
Angela Konzal,
Director of Religious Education