Sunday, June 3, 2012
Date:
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Urgent Need: Lori Pitts, a senior theatre major from Davidson College in North Carolina, is interning with the Fringe Benefits Theatre Company here in LA this summer, and will be leading our UUCCSM summer RE program in June and July, as well as co-facilitating the June 9th Social Justice Theater Training. The Fringe Benefits "Cootie Shots" program has its roots in anti-homophobia/anti-
Calendar of upcoming events:
Sunday, 6/3
RE Sunday Service – see below for each class’ role
K-1st O.W.L. class meets, 10:30-1:00
Saturday, 6/9
Social Justice Theater Training – all are invited! (see announcement below)
Sunday, 6/10
LAST Sunday with two services
Final day of RE classes
K-1st O.W.L. class meets, 10:30-1:00 (final class)
Sunday, 6/17
Summer Schedule Begins - ONE SERVICE ONLY AT 10:00
Summer program kickoff in RE!
Preschool & Rising Kindergarteners: Summer of Seuss
Elementary and Up: Mystery Social Justice Theater
This Week in RE:
RE Sunday Intergenerational Service!!
This Sunday is our annual service in celebration of this year’s RE program and the wonderful volunteers and staff who make it happen. Each RE class will be leading one element of the service, so check below to see what your child’s class will be doing! There will be a set of pews in the front of the sanctuary reserved for the members (& families for younger children) of each class to sit together. Please plan to arrive at least 15 minutes before the service to meet up with you class’ teachers and do any last minute rehearsing for the service.
Kindergarten – 1st(9:00)/2nd(11:00) grades will be offering the morning’s meditation, leading the congregation in a body prayer called the “Gandhi Peace Greeting” and/or sharing the “Love Surrounds Me” song they sing as part of their class opening each week.
2nd-3rd grades (9:00) will help lead the offertory in the service.
3rd(11:00)/4th(9:00)-5th grades will be sharing an RE Reflection about a famous Unitarian scientist – Charles Darwin – and the courage it takes us to stand up for our ideas.
6th-7th grades at 9:00 will share a chalice lighting reflection about their experiences visiting various houses of worship this year. The 11:00 class will help lead the offertory in the service. Please come at least 15 minutes early for the service to meet with the group for coordination of the presentation.
8th grade has now officially joined the high school group, since their Coming of Age program has culminated, and they get a little break, since their big service was just three weeks ago!!
9th-12th grades will be on hand to support our graduating seniors in their bridging ceremony and will be invited to participate in various elements of the service (no-rehearsal, on-the-spot volunteer-style).
Volunteer Opportunities:
We need you! Please consider volunteering in RE: Have you ever wondered about the nature of reality? Have you ever wanted to explore new ways of putting our UU principles into practice? Do you feel that you're still a learner yourself, and always will be? The Lifespan RE Committee is currently recruiting volunteers for the 2012-13 RE program starting in September. We're looking for teachers to lead 1-2 Sundays per month, as well as volunteers for many other parts of our large and vibrant program for children and youth.
Do you love spending time with young children as they learn about the world and make friends? Then assisting in our Nursery or Preschool class is the right place for you!
Are you passionate about sharing the core stories of our faith with children as they make meaning of their lives, grow a strong UU identity, and create a spiritual community together that honors multiple learning styles and celebrates beauty in diversity? Then join our Spirit Play team, for 1st-2nd graders.
Do science and nature fill you with mystery and wonder? Then help our 3rd-5th graders consider “How Do We Know What We Know?” as they explore the Big Bang and the origins of the Universe, the chemistry of life, the ideas of evolution and change over time, and the interconnectedness of all people from our shared ancestry with each other and every other life form on the planet in our UUniverse Story program.
Does your heart go pitter-patter when you think about helping young people explore their identities, their beliefs, their Unitarian Universalist faith, their relationships with others and their connections to the world? In that case, you'll love being a leader for our 6th-7th grade Compass Points class.
Is deep exploration of your personal theology, and engaging others in articulating who they are & what their beliefs are within the context of our UU faith most exciting to you? Then join our 8th grade Coming of Age team (9:00 only).
Are you a creative, loving, flexible adult who gets a kick out of teens and wants to support them as they grow and develop into young adults? If that sounds like you, consider joining our 9th-12th grade Young Religious Unitarian Universalists (YRUU) advisor team!
If you’re interested in learning more about volunteer opportunities in RE, visit the Lifespan RE table in Forbes Hall during coffee hours this month, or talk with Catherine (310-829-5436 x105) or catherinedre@yahoo.com).
Announcements:
· NEW Summer RE Plans and Social Justice Skills Training June 9th: Summer’s on the horizon, believe it or not, and we’re trying something new in our children’s RE program this year, so make sure to check it out! Kids in elementary and middle school who come to church this summer will be taking part in a program called “Mystery Social Justice Theater,” which will be led by members of the Fringe Benefits Theater Company as well as our very own UUCCSM volunteers. Fringe Benefits is a groundbreaking theater company which has worked for more than twenty years with schools and community groups to create plays that promote constructive dialogue about diversity and discrimination issues. We’ll spend the summer engaging young people in theater with a Social Justice theme, and the program will culminate in early September with a special UUCCSM RE Talent Show! We are so lucky to have Fringe Benefits as our partners, and we have a wealth of resources to share with UUCCSM members (adults or high school youth) who would like to help lead this exciting summer program. All are invited to take part in a day-long workshop on Saturday June 9th from 10-5, to be trained to lead “Theater for Social Justice,” as well as skills for constructively tackling name-calling, bullying, harassment and other discriminatory behavior when working with children in any setting.This training is a great opportunity for anyone who works with children or volunteers in RE, whether or not you’re planning to volunteer in the summer theater program! To sign up to attend, contact catherinedre@yahoo.com or visit the Lifespan RE table during coffee hour this Sunday.
· 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:
-
RE Furniture
- Roll-up-able rug, medium-sized
- General Supplies:
- Drawing paper
- Candle lighters
- Chart markers
- Flip chart paper (post-it or standard)
- Pipe cleaners
-
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.)
- 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 (June’s Theme – COURAGE):
June 3:
Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers,
But to be fearless in facing them.
Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain,
But for the heart to conquer it.
Let me not look for allies in life’s battle-field,
But to my own strength.
Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved,
But hope for the patience to win my freedom.
Grant me that I may not be a coward, feeling your mercy in my success alone;
But let me find the grasp of your hand in my failure.
--Rabindranath Tagore
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. 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 Ideas to Explore our Congregational Theme for June - COURAGE
Resource for Families:
- When researching courage resources I discovered a fantastic blog co-written by a children’s book author (Jennifer Armstrong) and a parenting coach (Dr. Lisa Dungate) about skills and tools for raising kids to have courage for the challenges on the path ahead. They identify six kinds of courage: physical, emotional, moral, intellectual, social and spiritual. Visit their blog for a wealth of resources including stories, discussion suggestions, “courage challenges” and much more: http://www.lionswhiskers.com/
A sample “courage challenge” from the blog:
Dr. Lisa’s Courage Challenge
Move out of your comfort zone—Give yourself and your child a courage challenge.
What is something you’ve been afraid to try?
It need not be unsafe, which would be more like a dare. A dare is more of a bold action, one for the thrill and/or fear it evokes (like hijacking a jigger)—whether or not you actually complete the dare. A dare is often posed as a challenge to prove one’s courage. A courage challenge, on the other hand, is an opportunity to learn something new, try something you haven’t yet, or stretch yourself in ways that have scared you, even a little, in the past. Courage challenges are also meant to be fun!
Tailor-making courage challenges for our children, with their input, can help you strengthen aspects of who they are that may need strengthening. Activities everyone can be involved in planning and completing…and a chance for our kids to see us being silly, adventurous, and even downright brave.
As a primer for this activity, start with your five primary senses: touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing.
Taste:
| (Is there a restaurant you haven’t tried yet? An ethnic food that you’d like to introduce to your child’s palate—the human palate is developed primarily in the first three years of life, so there is no time like the present!) |
Touch:
(Gather together a handful of different textured household items into a bag. Allow your children to explore and guess the different items in the bag, whilst blindfolded or with their eyes squeezed shut.)
Smell:
(Maybe, like me, you are the one person in your family that everyone gets to smell if the milk is past due or if the sewage pipe is leaking again in the basement. If so, you can skip this one and have a blast getting even! Or better yet, take a trip to the local florist—especially in winter—and smell all the different kinds of flowers, see if you and your child can even name a few.)
Sight:
(Get up early, earlier than you’ve maybe been up in awhile—before the coffee is even made— and witness a morning sunrise. Go on a night walk, with or without a flashlight, and feast your eyes on the moon.)
Hearing:
(Swap your iPod for the day with your teenager. Ask for some feedback from someone you trust about one thing that they might consider you could improve about yourself, e.g. being more punctual or becoming a better listener.)
This Week in UU History: (From This Day in Unitarian Universalist History, by Frank Schulman)
June 3, 1870: Norbert Capek was born in Bohemia (now the Czech Republic). After a Roman Catholic childhood and early career as a Baptist minister, he converted to Unitarianism and became one of its leaders. During World War II, he was imprisoned by the Germans in 1942 and murdered at Dachau for speaking out against the Nazis. Capek devised the Flower Communion, now widely used in Unitarian Universalist churches, saying it showed that even in the worst times, we can still share beauty.
June 4, 1901: Joseph H. Jordan died of an unknown disease at the age of 59. He was born a black free man in West Norfolk, Virginia, in June of 1842. After trying his hand as a laborer and grocer, he achieved financial success as a carpenter. Jordan was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1880 but he became a Universalist after reading The Plain Guide to Universalism by Thomas Whittemore. He met with Edwin Chapin Sweetser in Philadelphia and studied under him. Jordan began preaching Universalism and the Universalist Ordaining Council voted to ordain him as the first African-American Universalist minister. A small group of Jordan’s followers became the First Universalist Church of Norfolk, which was admitted into fellowship by the Universalist General Convention. Some white Universalists who had no church of their own attended Jordan’s church. Jordan named a son Richard Sweetser Jordan in honor of his Universalist mentor.
June 6, 1563: Firty-two ministers who did not believe in the divinity of Christ met at the Synod of Podlachia in Poland. The synod convened under the sponsorship of the Unitarian Prince Nicholas Radzivil, Palatine of Vilna, Lithuania.
June 6, 1832: The famous Unitarian philosopher and political economist Jeremy Bentham died at age 84. Bentham had instructed that his body was to be embalmed, dressed, and placed in a chair. It now resides in a glass cabinet in a corridor of the main building of University College in England. At meetings of the governing body, he is recorded as “present but not voting.”
June 7, 1852: Hosea Ballou, a leader of Universalism, died at age 81.
June 8, 1867: Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin. He began his practice of architecture in Oak Park, Illinois, and developed a devoted following. He lectured and wrote extensively, published An Autobiographyin 1932, and mentored many students. Wright is considered by many to be America’s foremost architect, championing what is known as the Prairie Style. He built 532 homes and other buildings, including Unity Temple (Universalist) in Oak Park, Illinois; the First Unitarian Society of Madison, Wisconsin; the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo; and the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. He believed that people should not have to be rich to live in beautiful homes, and he tried to design artistic, affordable housing that complemented its natural surroundings. Wright was an active member of the First Unitarian Society of Madison, Wisconsin. He died on April 9, 1959.