December, 2007

From Our DRE

As the holidays approach each year, I think more and more about what makes a place home. California has been my home for a dozen years now, but still I “go home” to Georgia to visit my family for the holidays. My home at the church has been the little office upstairs for the past four years, but now I’m moving out, into the new space in our newly finished cottage. How long will it be before it feels like home?

This month we’re thinking hard about our building plans as well as how we’ll live in the space that we have for the time being. Everything’s in flux, and as we gradually move our RE program over to the cottage I’m mindful of the importance of creating a welcoming home for the children and youth of our community. This move is a big step in the right direction, and we want to make sure that from the moment our young people step into their new classrooms they know that this is a home that we’ve created just for them. As we get the rooms ready, some of the older classes will begin meeting in the cottage right away, but our preschool and elementary programs will wait to start the new year in their new space, so we have time to get it just right. So this month we’ll be moving furniture, putting up bulletin boards, filling shelves with books and supplies, and decorating the walls in anticipation of our official launch of RE in the cottage at the beginning of January.

We may have some hard decisions to make about our facility in the future, but I know that whatever we decide, this church will continue to be a safe and nurturing home for all of us as we live our liberal religious values both within our own community and out in the larger world. I look forward to the next year, and many more, at home here at UUCCSM with all of you.

 

Holiday Toy Drive

On Sundays, December 2 and 9, we’ll be collecting toys for the Santa Monica Head Start program’s holiday party. This year we need approximately 35 unisex gifts that are new, unopened, and unwrapped for three- to five-year-olds. This year we’re taking signups so we know how many gifts to expect. Please sign up on November 25 or December 2 at the Head Start table in Forbes Hall during coffee hour, or contact Catherine.

-- Catherine Farmer

 

December RE Star - Zac Geoffray

Did you know that December RE Shining Star Zac Geoffray represented the Boy Scouts soap-box derby contest on the Jay Leno Show? Well, his car wasn’t the fastest, but it was the most creative. He used a bird theme incorporating a beak and feathers. Because of this creativity his car was chosen above all others. The producers were so impressed by Zac that they invited him back again the following year. WOW! He can now be found cavorting with the youngsters in the kindergarten through second grade class at 9 a.m. His positive disposition, creativity, confidence, and sense of humor serve him well in working with his young students.

Zac is “giving back” to our community in the very class he first attended when his family joined our community 11 years ago. He had enjoyed his experience as an RE student so much that during his Coming of Age year he started assisting in the preschool class. He assisted almost every week for two years. Then Zac taught a wonderful lesson to the K through 2nd grade class on one of the Five Senses last summer. During his class on taste his young charges had a great time touching a plastic tongue and tasting a variety of foods which were sweet, bitter, or salty. The kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Zac is a sophomore at Santa Monica High School where he enjoys Latin and Choir classes. He also loves acting and will be performing in SAMOHI’s upcoming production of “Bye Bye Birdie.” He has also performed with the Santa Monica Shakespeare’s productions of “A Comedy of Errors” and “Richard III.” Next summer he will move from volunteering with kids to a paid gig as a teaching assistant at Rustic Canyon Performing Arts Camp, combining two of his loves — kids and theater.

We are grateful for Zac’s work with our children and hope that he will continue. He is a shining star in so many ways.

 

Friendly Beasts Pageant Update

The Friendly Beasts, preschoolers through 5th graders, will continue their rehearsals of “The Friendly Beasts Song” for the holiday pageant, which occurs December 23 at both services.

Below is the rehearsal schedule:

Dec. 2 and 9 — Preschoolers and K–5 in their classrooms (10 minutes each)

Dec. 16 — Group rehearsal for all at start of RE

Dec. 22 — Saturday dress rehearsal in sanctuary (9:30 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.)

Dec. 23 — Pageant! (both services — please arrive at 8:15 a.m.)

We realize that the pageant day is a long one for the children, so please contact me if you can help by: supervising the children and providing crafts and games for between the services and during most of the second service, when they’ll be in the RE cottage until they sing, bringing food for between the services (small sandwiches, bagels, cream cheese, muffins, crackers, cheese, cut vegetables and fruit, juice, water, etc.), or compiling paper activities (we have packets from previous years that you could build upon) and bagged crayon sets for during the first service.

Ideally, we would like all children to sing at both services on pageant Sunday, but if your child can sing at only one service, please let me know.

Here’s to another great pageant!

-- Kris Langabeer

 

---

July, 2007

RE Shining Star: Tom Ahern

Tucked away on the side of our campus, the nursery program is easy to overlook if you’re not the parent of a young child. This month we’re making a bit of a departure from our usual pool of Shining Stars in order to recognize a staff member who has been instrumental in our program for the very youngest members of our community for a very long time: Tom Ahern. Tom, on staff first as an assistant and now a lead nursery caregiver, spends every single Sunday morning with the babies and toddlers in our nursery program, and has done so for many years. He makes sure that the younglings are safe and lovingly cared for in the none-too-ideal office area that makes up our nursery space while we wait for our new building to be constructed. The children respond right away to Tom’s calm, easy-going presence, and it’s clear that he enjoys his time with them, too. For all that you’ve brought to our nursery kids, Tom, thank you!

---

June, 2007

Summer is almost upon us, believe it or not, and the RE Council and I have been busy planning our program for next fall. And we have a question for all of you: How have you engaged the UU principles lately?

There is no better way to learn and live your UU principles than by learning and teaching with our youth and children. Presenting stories to them and listening to their efforts to interpret and understand can be a wonderful way to explore these issues and concepts for yourself. Without teachers, interesting curriculum is of no value. Over the next few weeks, we will be searching for more “RE Shining Stars” to help us create a vibrant RE program next year with our children and youth.

In our elementary program next year we’ll embark on an exciting new program called “Spirit Play,” grounded in the sharing of core stories of our faith in order to help children make meaning through wondering and art, create a spiritual community, support multiple learning styles and challenges, and create a strong Unitarian Universalist identity. We also will continue to offer the very successful “Neighboring Faiths” comparative religions curriculum for 6th and 7th grades, “Coming of Age” for 8th grade, and our senior high YRUU youth groups at each service.

Think about how sad a place UUCCSM would be without our enthusiastic kids. Consider the wonderful energy there is in an intergenerational community (a model that is increasingly rare). And we need you. To fully staff our fabulous programs, we’re looking for more than 50 members of our congregation to volunteer to teach for one to two Sundays per month.

Think about it. Think about teaching RE. Then visit the RE table in Forbes Hall during coffee hour on Sundays this month to hear about our program in more detail and let us know how you’d like to be involved. Help us bring our vision for RE to life.

— Catherine Farmer

 

YRUU is looking good for 2008–2009

Can you believe we are already getting excited about next year? Well, we have a lot of reasons to feel that way about next year’s program for our high school youth group, YRUU.

Our beloved advisors Liza Cranis and Chris Brown have been awarded Advisors of the Year for the Pacific Southwest District. Bravo!

We have recruited additional advisors for next year to bring the team up to seven. Welcome aboard to Tom Kafka, Cindee Hallinan, Gretchen Goetz, Karen Patch, and Sarah Gaillot.

District-wide YRUU Advisor Training took place on May 19. This all-day workshop was facilitated by two specially trained leaders (adult and teen) and was open to all congregations in the district. It was a great day to really look at what makes a successful youth program.

We have a great group of teens — full of energy and wonderful ideas. Have a great summer and we’ll see you in September.

— Catherine Farmer

 

Summer RE at UUCCSM -

The Senses - Preschool–Kindergarten 
Join us for a different “sense-sational” celebration each week: sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell, intuition, and humor.

UU World Travelers - First Grade and Up 
Members of the congregation with experience in or an affinity for a particular culture or country are invited to lead our kids in exploring the world with us. We’ll have music, food, games, dances, crafts, languages, costumes, art . . . what would you most enjoy sharing?

Both classes will be staffed by volunteers who will sign up to lead or assist for one Sunday. Grownups, we need your help. Please consider volunteering for one or more Sundays this summer. Signup sheets will be available at the RE table in Forbes Hall. For more information or to sign up, you can also contact DRE Catherine Farmer.

 

Summer Adult Religious Exploration Offerings

“Building Your Own Theology 3: Ethics,” led by Bernie Silvers, begins June 5 and continues for eight consecutive Tuesdays. Time is 7 to 9 p.m. For more information, contact Bernie

“Soul Work,” a reading and discussion group cosponsored by the Adult Religious Exploration Committee and the Committee on Multiracial Development. “Soul Work” is a compilation of nine papers presented at a three-day meeting on racism and theology sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Association in 2001. Read the book (available from our bookstore) and join Leon and Nicole Henderson- MacLennan on three Monday evenings, July 2, 16, and 30 in room 4 from 7 to 9 p.m. To sign up, contact Leon or Nicole

“Soul Food: Writing as a Tool to Stir the Spiritual Soup,” a group exploring writing as a spiritual activity. From 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, June 24, July 8, July 22, August 5, and August 19. Emmy Cresciman, convenor, with shared leadership. Contact Emmy to sign up or ask questions.

 

RE Shining Star - Jennifer Westbay

That star you see rising in the west over 17th Street is our RE Shining Star of the month for June, Jennifer Westbay. Jennifer is often found across the alley from Forbes Hall, upstairs, acting as an adult advisor to the Coming of Age (CoA) group. Last month Jennifer and her two partners saw the culmination of nine months of work as the six young Coming of Agers hosted the Sunday service on May 20 — presenting their personal credos to the UUCCSM congregation and being welcomed into the larger church community.

This is Jennifer’s second year volunteering as a CoA advisor. One of last year’s CoA participants described Jennifer as the glue that held the advisor team together. She juggles an amazing array of organizational details: keeping track of the calendar, making sure notices get e-mailed to everybody, collecting the credos for the CoA service, and putting together their script and the order of service so the girls don’t get lost halfway through. Her real strength is her sense of Unitarian tradition, and she shares her appreciation of Unitarian lore with the youth in CoA. All the while she does this with her indomitable humor and aplomb. Oh, and she’s also been known to bring hot, fresh, homemade banana bread for the snack, a major component of the CoA curriculum.

So this month, look to the west about 8:50 on Sunday mornings to see a shining star rising up the steps to the CoA classroom. That would be this month’s RE Shining Star, Jennifer Westbay.