RE Weekly Updates - November 11, 2011
Date:
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Calendar of upcoming events:
Saturday, 11/12
COA/YRUU Bowling Night at Mar Vista Lanes, 6:30-9:30
Sunday, 11/13
Children’s Choir rehearses, 9:00-9:15
Tree Planting at UUCCSM (see announcement below)
Sunday, 11/20
Thanksgiving Multigenerational Service
Children’s Choir performs during service
Sunday, 11/27
Faith in Action Sunday in RE – Donation drive for homeless youth served by Common Ground
Sunday, 12/18
Winter Holiday Pageant - Las Posadas
This Week in RE:
9:00
Preschool: “We Must Care for Trees” This week our preschool class will explore trees as a wonderful part of the natural world around us. Meets in the NW room of the cottage.
Kindergarten-1st Grade: “The Hunter and His Dog” This Sunday we’ll explore our sixth UU principle – in Spirit Play referred to as the “Indigo Promise”: Insist on Freedom, Justice and Peace for All People – with a story about hunter whose dog teaches him a lesson about being kind to others. Meets in the SE room of the cottage.
2nd-3rd Grade: “Service Workshop” This week we’ll continue our exploration of November’s theme of SERVICE with special stories and activities that help children think about the losses as well as the gains that come as they grow and change. Meets in the NE room of the cottage (formerly known as “the couch room”).
4th-5th Grade: “Bead Me Your DNA” This week in the UUniverse Story program, we’ll learn what DNA is and about the structure of DNA as the common building block for all life on earth and to see how it can be used to trace our common ancestry with all humanity and, indeed, all life forms. Meets in the mural room at the end of the hallway upstairs above Forbes Hall.
6th-7th Grade: “Hinduism Integration” This week our Neighboring Faiths classes will wrap up their study of Hinduism by reflecting on what they’ve learned from their visits to the Malibu Hindu Temple and the Hare Krishna Temple, as well as our Hindu visitor Smitha Chancrabose. Meets in Room 3 upstairs above Forbes Hall.
8th Grade: This Sunday in Coming of Age we’ll make life-size representation of our “spiritual selves.” Meets in Room 2, the second room down the hallway upstairs above Forbes Hall.
9th-12th Grade: This week we’ll brainstorm possible service projects for the YRUU group to do together. Make sure to come so you can take part in the decision-making process! Meets upstairs to Room 1, the first room at the top of the stairs above Forbes Hall.
11:00
Preschool: “We Must Care for Trees” This week our preschool class will explore trees as a wonderful part of the natural world around us. Meets in the NW room of the cottage.
Kindergarten-2nd Grade: “Wanda’s Roses” This week we’ll explore our fifth UU principle – in Spirit Play referred to as the “Blue Promise”: Believe in our Ideals and Act on Them” – with a story about a little girl who made her dream of a rose garden come true. Meets in the SE room of the cottage.
3rd-5th Grade: This week in the UUniverse Story program, we’ll learn what DNA is and about the structure of DNA as the common building block for all life on earth and to see how it can be used to trace our common ancestry with all humanity and, indeed, all life forms. Meets in the mural room at the end of the hallway upstairs above Forbes Hall.
6th-7th Grade: “Hinduism Integration” This week our Neighboring Faiths classes will wrap up their study of Hinduism by reflecting on what they’ve learned from their visits to the Malibu Hindu Temple and the Hare Krishna Temple, as well as our Hindu visitor Smitha Chancrabose. Meets in Room 3 upstairs above Forbes Hall.
8th grade meets at 9:00 only.
9th-12th Grade: Meets at 9:00 only this week.
Announcements:
· THIS SUNDAY Tree Planting at UUCCSM, November 13, Sunday, 10:15am-2pm: Come and help us make our Sanctuary Green! Let's get our carbon-offsets firmly rooted (Trees)! The Green Living Committee and the Facilities Development Committee join together to make this event a reality. All RE families are invited to take part following your children’s RE classes – join in with the group when you’re ready! Wear your old grubby clothes to church and get dirty after the service planting trees in the Upper Courtyard Area. We need your help (and sweat) to get our landscape plans going. Invest in our Sanctuary and make it Green! We are going to start digging holes right after the first service, 10:15am. We will continue through the second service (being very quiet, maybe taking a break) then continue with putting in the Trees after the Second Service at 12:30pm. We are putting in 15 trees and assorted plants along the planter at Forbes Hall, South Planter. Please come join us and get dirty! Be Green! Let's Green this Sanctuary!
· NEW Faith in Action Project - Donation Drive to Benefit Common Ground’s Homeless Teen Program: On November 27th, children and youth in RE will be putting together “hygiene kits” and organizing other donated items for our November Social Justice Project. Common Ground is a nonprofit organization that provides services to people living with HIV-AIDS, and one arm of their program is a drop-in center for homeless youth in Santa Monica. (To learn more about Common Ground, visit http://www.
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Personal Care items needed for “hygiene kits”:
- Travel- or hotel-sized shampoo, conditioner, lotion, body wash, toothpaste, deodorant, mouthwash, soap
- Toothbrushes
- Shaving razors
- Feminine hygiene products
- Common Ground’s homeless youth always have a more difficult time living on the streets during the colder, wetter months. They will greatly appreciate any items- I had a youth tell me last year when we were handing out socks that it is “nice to feel like someone cares”. The kids need warm things for the winter. Often socks and clothes get wet and they show up at our place soaked to the bone with no other clothes to change into. They are always in need of the following specifically:
- Sweatshirts/Hoodies (L, XL, XXL) (In the winter they generally wear as many layers as possible to try to stay warm and dry so they need the bigger sizes of sweatshirts)
- Socks
- Warm hats/ beanies
- Underwear- (boxers, women’s underwear)- most youth only have one pair to their name
- Bras
- Sleeping bags
- Blankets
- Backpacks
- Although the Westside has a cold weather shelter for adults that opens for a few months each year in early December, many of the youth will not access it. Often, this is due to fear. Many of the youth have told me about horrible experiences at various LA shelters. There is no “youth” shelter on the Westside. In the cold months ahead, many of the kids will need other non clothing items to support them on the street including:
- I just provided a long list! Sorry for that! This time of year is always so hard. I wonder how we can let any of our young people sleep out on the cold streets for months on end. It is so difficult to have to shut our doors at the end of a night and send those kids back out to the cold and wet. Any help that you can provide is wonderful and much appreciated!
· The Return of the Friendly Beasts! Once again, our pre-K through 5th-grade children will sing “The Friendly Beasts” song at our holiday pageant on Sunday, Dec. 18, at both services. Kris Langabeer will begin rehearsing the kids Nov. 6 for about 10 minutes in each classroom. She’ll begin with the preschoolers and then move from classroom to classroom rehearsing the older kids. There will not be a rehearsal Nov. 20 because the kids will remain in the sanctuary for an intergenerational service. Please mark your calendars: a dress rehearsal for all Beasts will occur Saturday, Dec. 17, from 9:30-10:30 a.m. in the sanctuary. We’ll need parent/teacher help in supervising/entertaining/
· De Benneville Pines Winter Youth Camps: Week-long and week-end camps throughout the year provide opportunities for rest, recreation, exploration and making new UU friends from around the Pacific Southwest District (Southern California, Arizona and Las Vegas) at our beautiful mountain retreat. Located at 6800 feet in the San Bernardino National Forest, de Benneville is surrounded by towering pondersa pines, oaks and cedars. Barton Creek is nearby and Jenks Lake within walking distance. It is the perfect location to enjoy the natural beauty of the forest. Delicious meals are served in Homet Lodge, with vegetarian/vegan entrees offered if requested with registrations. Cabins are comfortable if rustic, with shared bathrooms and showers. Dorms sleep six, cabin rooms sleep four and deluxe accommodations include a shared kitchen and sitting area. The registration fliers and forms for the Elementary, Jr. High and Sr. High Winter YoUUth Camps are now available on the deBenneville web page. Go to www.uucamp.org and click on the Calendar link. Under the date for each camp is a link to the flier and registration form. Direct links are at:
Middle School– Coming of Age – Food & Faith (Grades 6-8) 12/2-12/4 http://www.debenneville.org/
Not just for Coming of Age groups, any youth in Jr. High or Middle School is welcome to attend this weekend. Join us for a weekend of sharing and discovery as we explore the magic of community up at de Benneville Pines! Come with an empty stomach and an open mind, leave with new friends and recipes for fun! This year’s theme is inspired by the classic story “Stone Soup”, with an added dash of prayer, a pinch of cooking, a sprinkle of baking and a HUGE scoop of fun! Don’t let the only missing ingredient be you!
Senior High Winter Camp - Fight Cluub! (Grades 9-12) 12/27-1/1 http://www.debenneville.org/
Ring in the New Year with amazing Unitarian Universalist youth from the Pacific Southwest District! What could possibly rule more than a Senior High camp inspired, created, and led by youth for youth? Nothing, that’s what! Fight Cluub is all about fighting for what you believe in and standing up for what’s right! Make awesome new friends while finding your strength in the safety of our all-inclusive community.
Family and Elementary Camp – Treasure Hunting! (Grades K-6) 2/18-2/20 http://www.debenneville.org/
Families with elementary age campers (or just the campers themselves) are invited for a weekend of treasure hunting with us up here in the snow. We’ll work on an actual pictorial treasure hunt while discovering what fantastic gifts we all carry, regardless of age or ability. Join us for tons of snow play, hot cocoa by the fire, games, crafts and community worship. Campers grades 3-6 may attend without parents and will be supervised by trained cabin counselors. For the campers who want to come on their own, we have trained cabin counselors who supervise them throughout the weekend. Come to camp and find your own treasures!
Register early! These camps usually fill up.
· RE Wish List: I am currently developing a “master wish list” for the RE program, which includes general and lesson-specific RE supply needs for this year’s classes. While the RE operating budget does have some money for supplies, this year’s budget is very tight and donations are happily accepted. The list so far includes:
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RE Furniture
- Kid-size bean bag chair (we’d like to install a reading corner in the Spirit Play classroom)
- Roll-up-able rug, medium-sized
- General Supplies:
- Drawing paper
- Large foam board
- Candle lighters
- Chart markers
- Flip chart paper (post-it or standard)
- Pipe cleaners
- Colored poster board pieces
- Sheet protectors for use in binders
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Backup snack supply
- Cheddar Bunnies (like goldfish crackers but with fewer preservatives, additives)
- Graham crackers, goldfish crackers okay as alternative
- Granola bars, rice cakes, other non-sugary dry good snacks
- Dried fruit (apricots, raisins, apple rings, banana chips, etc.)
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RE Books Wish List on Amazon: Another arm of the “master wish list” for the RE program, is an Amazon Wishlist of books that will be used in RE lessons for this year’s program or that will be valuable resources for teachers & families in our church. We do have some money budgeted for book purchases, but we are running on a tight RE budget since the congregation’s budget cutback a couple of years ago, and donations are happily accepted. If you’d like to help out by donating a book or two to the program, check out the Amazon list at http://tinyurl.com/rewishlist.
(Used books in “good” condition are just fine!) THANK YOU to the members who have already sent books our way – they are so appreciated!
UU Everyday (resources and ideas for practicing your UU values at home):
Chalice Lighting Words of the Week (November’s Theme – SERVICE):
November 13:
Where hate rules, let us bring love; where sorrow, joy.
Let us strive more to comfort others than to be comforted,
to understand others, more than to be understood,
to love others more than to be loved.
For it is in giving that we receive,
and in pardoning that we are pardoned.
--Attributed to St. Francis of Assisi
For the 2011-12 church year we’re trying out a new way of living as one lifespan religious community: congregation-wide ministry themes. Each month we’ll explore a new theme, and in September our theme is LOVE. The chalice lighting shared here will be used on Sunday in all of our RE classes, and I hope that your family will also share it at home during the following week. I’m tickled by the idea of all of our UUCCSM families sharing a reflection in common each week as we go about our daily lives.
At-Home Activities to Explore our Congregational Theme for November - SERVICE
“Taking it Home – Let’s Talk about Time/Money Balance”: (by Jacqueline Clement)
The document linked below is a resource designed to help UU families explore how we live our lives as religious people in a busy and complex world. It will help us to think about and discuss the concept of balance and how the choices we make with our resources of time and money affect our spirit. The booklet begins with a discussion of how the resources of time, money, and spirit are linked in our lives and how we prioritize one over the others, intentionally or unintentionally. It then suggests ways for families to consider how we accumulate and spend resources based on the everyday and extraordinary events of life.
This Week in UU History: (From This Day in Unitarian Universalist History, by Frank Schulman)
November 10, 1801: Samuel Gridley Howe was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1824 and served as a combat officer and surgeon in the Greek Revolution (1824-1830). Howe founded the New England Asylum for the Blind in 1832 (renamed the Perkins Institution) and the Massachusetts Asylum in 1839, where he remained as head until his death in 1876. He also wrote textbooks for teaching the blind, and the principles he drew up for the Massachusetts Board of State Charities became a national model. Charles Dickens wrote of Howe’s experiments with blind, deaf and mute Laura Bridgman. Howe also worked for prison reform and aid to discharged convicts, was an active abolitionist, and founded the abolitionist journal Commonwealth with his wife, Julie Ward Howe. Howe serves in the Massachusetts Legislature in 1846. He admired William Ellery Channing and was a member of the Church of the Disciples, a free church in Boston founded by Unitarian minister James Freeman Clarke. Known as “the Massachusetts philanthropist,” Howe died on January 9, 1876.
November 10, 1914: Carolina Seymour Severance died at the age of 94. She was a champion of women’s rights and a co-founder of Unity Church (now First Church LA), the first Unitarian congregation in Los Angeles.
November 11, 1620: Having landed in Massachusetts after their failed attempt to reach the English colony at Virginia, Pilgrim leaders on the ship Mayflower signed a covenant for self-government known as the Mayflower Compact. They established a church in Plymouth, Massachusetts, now Unitarian Universalist.
November 11, 1744: Abigail Smith Adams was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts. She was the wife of John Adams, second president of the United States, and mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth president. She was the chief figure in the social life of her husband’s administration and one of the most distinguished and influential first ladies in U.S. history. A lively, intelligent woman who enjoyed the challenge of domestic organization and skills, Adams advised her husband on many issues and her letters are a vivid source of social history. She worked for social justice and abolition of slavery. A devoted Unitarian, Adams was noted for a serene religiosity, which sustained her good nature during both adventures and adversities. She died on October 28, 1818.
November 11, 1893: Lewis Allen McGee was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The son of a slave, he held several pastorates in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He served as chaplain in the infantry in both World War I and World War II. Late in life, McGee announced that he had become Unitarian and received encouragement and help from the American Unitarian Association and Wallace Robbins, the president of Meadville Theological School, to found the interracial Free Religious Fellowship of Chicago. He later worked with Edwin Wilson at the American Humanist Association headquarters in Yellow Springs, Ohio. McGee died on November 10, 1979.
November 13, 1599: John Saieninius, the ruler of Krakow, Poland, converted from Calvinism to Socinianism during debate at Rakow and became a patron of Socinian churches and an important benefactor of the movement. A wealthy Polish nobleman, he established a Unitarian congregation. His son James established a Unitarian seminary and printing office to aid the growth of Unitarianism. Rakow became the center of the Polish Unitarian community, and its members became known as Rakovians.
November 13, 1618: The Diet of Dort (Socinian) opened in Holland. It was convened to discuss major issues relating to the Unitarian belief about the nature of Jesus, whether he was to be worshipped, and his relation to God.
November 15, 1579: Francis David, a Unitarian leader in Transylvania, died in prison for his Unitarian beliefs. Transylvanian Unitarians consider him the founder of their religion. He was first Lutheran, then Calvinist, before George Blandrata converted him to Unitarianism. After his conversion, David began to dispute the nature of Christ and rejected the Trinity. The Calvinists challenged him and a diet was held at Torda in 1568, at which Prince John Sigismund presided over a debate between David and the Calvinist bishop Peter Melius. Sigismund declared David the victor and issued the Edict of Torda, providing tolerance for other religions. Sigismund also converted to Unitarianism and appointed David his advisor. After Sigismund’s death in 1571, his successor preferred Jesuit advisors. David’s standing at court ended, and he was arrested and thrown in prison, where he died. The place of his burial is unknown, and the date is not certain. This is the date assigned by tradition and celebrated by the Transylvanians. The year of his birth is also now known, though generally 1510 or 1520 is assigned.
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Catherine Farmer Loya
Director of Religious Education
Unitarian Universalist Community Church
Santa Monica, California
310-829-5436 x105
Director of Religious Education
Unitarian Universalist Community Church
Santa Monica, California
310-829-5436 x105
Office hours are Tuesday-Thursday, 10:30-4 & by appointment. Monday is my day off; expect email & phone responses on Tuesday.