RE Minister's Note:
Random Kindess
(April 2008)
“If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together
to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and
work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity
of the sea.”
-- Antoine de Saint Exupery
We are looking for some people who want to sail into
that immensity. The ship is already built. All we lack
are sailors. All hands on deck as we outfit our ship for
next year’s Religious Education Program. It is an exciting
adventure to row along side others as we adults,
children and youth, explore the immense sea of our
spiritual lives together.
We need people of all skill levels and stations in life to
participate and fill the roles of Lead Teachers who keep
the classrooms staffed and organized for the year, as
well as crew in the classrooms for ten weeks at a time.
We also need a band of special event coordinators and
part-time substitutes. Sign-up in Fletcher Hall on April
6th, 13th and 20th. There will also be an open house
Coffee Hour in your child’s class hosted by this year’s
Lead Teacher. We need you to do three things: 1) sign
up so we have accurate contact information for you, 2)
volunteer, especially to teach, and 3) remit your registration
fee. We would like to have a full crew by the
end of April so we can whey anchor in the fall.
We have a beautiful building and lovely grounds thanks
to our volunteers Gary Sanderson and Elsa New and our
staff Bob Scheibe, Danny Guevara and Steve Sonye,
not to mention all the folks on the Capital Campaign.
I’m proud to bring visitors and guests here. We, in the
RE Program, think that Gary, Elsa, Bob, Danny and
Steve should share with us the joy they have in our facility
and so every year we get a chance to do that on
Blue Jean Sunday. This year it will be on April 6th.
Come to services in your blue jeans and put some elbow
grease into our spiritual home so that it reflects our
pride in stewardship. The tasks are divided up and
many hands make short work. The time frame is 1 ½
hours after each service and includes lunch at noon.
The Unitarian Universalist Association is transforming
the way we do youth ministry. For 25 years, Young Religious
Unitarian Universalists (YRUU) has been leading
the way youth ministry is done at the national and
continental levels. For 2 years that form of youth ministry
has been under analysis. A major issue with YRUU
is that its programs have not served the denomination at
the congregational level and so a change is in the
works. I was asked to join the Youth Ministry Working
Group in January as the Liberal Religious Educators
Association representative (the RE professional organization).
We had our first meeting in Boston in February
where we were asked to develop activities that would
succeed in accomplishing several goals. The major
goals of this Working Group are:
1) Meet the spiritual
needs of youth,
2) Welcome all youth in a multicultural
world,
3) Build a multigenerational faith,
4) Organize
youth ministry for success,
5) Move beyond a one-sizefits-
all ministry, and
6) Evaluate the current YRUU
structure.
This is a daunting and exciting challenge. We
have a two year timeline. I will be going to Boston
again the weekend of April 11th. I hope that my participation
in this process will contribute to a healthy and
vibrant national youth organization and that I will be
able to bring new ideas back to enrich our youth programming.
For more information on this, please see my
recent sermon on our website.
This month in Adult Religious Education:
- Contemporary Issues in Islam on April 7th. Join
panelists Mahmoud Sami, UUCM Friend, Mehdi
El-Effi, former Director of Community Relations at
the Islamic Center in Paterson and Aisha Houser, Director of Religious Education at Fourth Universalist in Manhattan for a lively discussion.
- Spirituality in Literature on April 15th is an ongoing
series. Newcomers welcome. Check the order of
service for this month’s topic.
- Faith and Ritual on April 10th & 17th. Join us as
we discuss the meaning of faith, share techniques for living up to our values and design personal or family rituals that will bring serenity to our lives.
- Inherit the Wind Science & Spirituality Film Series on April 13th.
- Women and Heart Health on April 29th. St. Joseph’s
Hospital nursing staff will present a one hour
program on women’s risk factors and strategies for
reducing that risk, the signs of a heart attack in
women (very different from a man’s symptoms) and the unique ways that heart disease in women is diagnosed and treated.
Please see the Adult RE brochure for more information and register at the RE table during Coffee Hour.
In the faith,
Judy Tomlinson
Minister of Religious Education
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