First
Parish Unitarian UniversalistReligious Education Program
Winter 2012
January and February are the times during our church year that we focus on Children’s worship and social action. It is a time for children of all ages to get to know one another and share in a common experience.
During our times of children’s worship we share readings and joys and sorrows. We talk about the importance of the chalice, moments of silence, and of sharing sacred space together. We talk about different styles of prayer and about different ways to be together to create community.
Each winter trimester we pick a different focus for our social action efforts. Our stories, activities and projects circle around this one concept. This year we are picking up the theme from Religious Education Sunday of “peace.” How do we create peace within ourselves so that we are able to create peace in our families and communities? We will focus on self-esteem, character building, and practicing our seven principles. We will talk about bullying and we will role play to develop conflict resolution skills. We will talk about how inequality creates tension and conflict and explore how it would feel to not have the basic necessities in life – food, a home, healthcare. To this end, we will be working to support the Canton Food Pantry and Habitat for Humanity.
The children and youth will begin as one large group in Chapel for worship. We will then break into two groups, according to age. The youth will help lead the older children in their discussions and activities and the younger ones will participate in separate, but related, activities with another adult. The members of the Religious Education Committee have agreed to help run this program, one member helping each week, along with a helper volunteer from the congregation. Please consider helping with this important multi-age, multifaceted trimester!
Angela Konzal,
Director of Religious Education